New stuff

After this weekend I’ll not be out on rock until August, and it felt like way too long a time without one final trip out.  After our recent very enjoyable afternoon jaunt to Moses, a few weeks back, I suggested to Craig that a similarly timed trip would probably be good.  So with nothing too serious in mind we agreed on Moses.  Despite what some other people may think, we still regard as a very friendly crag that would offer us the opportunity for nothing too serious:

Our intention today was fun, and as we walked in there were a few lines that we always look at, but then as you approach them the angle looks a bit easy and the lines don’t look that sustained.  One of them we walked by but this one took Craig’s fancy.  He was also able to extend the route significantly by traversing in from where he was tying in in the first image.  It was fun and as intended nothing too serious, that said the final moves could make many people stop and think:

Most of what we did was pretty easy and we struggled with grading.  We kept other lines here in mind but our fitness on real rock and more importantly our general state of mind, which for some reason wasn’t quite as sharp as it usual is, did make it hard.  So we decided not to write up the new routes we discovered as first ascents on the WA climbers forum.  However, we decided that we would let you know about them… so Craig’s line above we called Elephants Arse (10).  BTW we didn’t discuss names for all the lines so I have taken the liberty to do that… sorry Craig.  Also all the routes were less than 10m so no lengths have been included.  Then it was onto my first lead, a line I have long looked at:

The right conditions were needed, being dry rock and water below your feet, or very close to being so.  A combination not that common at Moses.  It proved harder than I had anticipated, the slopey hand traverse offered great protection but then at the nose it was time to leave the gear behind and head up the slab.  It’s a pearler of a line, if only it was longer it may even gain a reputation.  We struggled with what grade we would give it, on lead it was a bit of a puzzle but Craig managed it with relative ease so we plumped for Nothing too Serious (14).  Sorry Craig this name seems more appropriate, than short and sweet.  I highly recommend the locals give it a go, but be warned it may be a sandbag:

We’ve had a run of some wild weather of late but the weather gods were smiling on us today, a blue sky, light seaward breeze and a nice mid/late-teens temperature.  The waves were barrelling in beautifully, with the trailing mist being blown behind them.  I’ve said it before and will no doubt say it countless times again, but this trip reaffirmed to us that Moses is one of the most atmospheric crags in our neck of the woods.  The swell was not too high and as the afternoon wore on the tide was heading out, which became a consideration for the last climb.  We were however a tad surprised at just how hot it felt and the sweat was certainly dripping off my brow as I topped out on my first lead:

In the spirit of doing new stuff we decided after two very fun lines to attempt to only climb unrecorded lines.  No doubt some if not all of the routes we climbed had been attempted or done by others but just not written up.  Regardless of that it did mean that every time we were climbing into unknown territory.  Craig’s next line may however have been our downfall, I couldn’t recall it being in the guide, which we didn’t bring with us.  However, looking at the guide it is possible that this was in fact Hungry Fish (10).  So digging a bit deeper… the topo in the old 96’ guide indicates that the recorded line may be the chimney to the right, but there is no description.  The next recorded climb to the left is Pathetic Shark (10) which goes up the wall to the left… so I think we can claim this one that tackles the arête and call it Fish Food (10):

Looking for new lines that would be worth playing on was surprisingly easy, keeping in mind we were looking for fun stuff and the grade was not a consideration.  So next up we went into the darkest recesses of Moses Rocks, from where I climbed up the initially damp rock out of the pit and into the sun.  I could have stopped at the ledge below but the next wall looked and was fun, as did the next wall so I strung three good walls together.  The longest route of the day and probably longer than 10m, at more like 15m.  So came to be The Pit (10):

Craig had spied his next challenge and it was again a line I had considered many times before.  Aesthetically the rock looks very cool, and we both agreed that this was a worthy photo opportunity.  So I sat on a platform off to the side, and with a solid directionally piece of gear at the base of the route Craig began.  The time between sets of swell was quite long and as such I asked him to climb slowly to get the best backdrop.  He didn’t mind and soaked up the great holds and moves smiling the whole way.  We have no doubt that someone must have bouldered this route as a sort of high ball problem so it seemed apt to call this No Balls (12):

I then scooted up a fun looking arête at the left end of Red Wall.  An obvious line that had gone unnoticed until now.  Nothing to serious, in keeping with the spirit of the day, but in a good position and sufficiently entertaining to keep me focused.  Read into that lacking in gear in the upper half, but why should that hold you back?  My imagination is letting me down so it is simply going to be called The Arête (11).  For those keeping count, this was route number 6 of the afternoon:

We had at the start of the day looked at a wall to the left of the first route listed in the guide.  There are a number of lines via cracks and flakes meaning this wall could be littered with a number of easy routes, if you considered it worthy of the time.  Craig decided to start at the left end and I half expected a similar approach to his first route, a long extended route maximising the entire crag.  Instead he went more direct stating that the holds simply looked too good not to be used. So with that Too Good to Miss (8) seems an apt, and possibly deceptive, name for the first recorded route on this wall:

Now I mentioned about the tide going out being a consideration, another being the timing between sets of swell.  We considered this carefully, and decided it was worth a pop.  This line, again one I have looked at before, is one where you are more than likely to get a little damp.  I had always envisaged starting lower down than I did, but todays conditions would not have permitted that.  Or was it that Craig would not have been happy belaying while being intermittently under water.  We were a bit sensible and Craig tied in before I set off, just after a big set had just smashed the base of the route:

It wasn’t timed completely perfectly, although I have to confess I really did take my time for no other reason than to experience the water lapping at my feet.  The rope in the following image belies where I climbed as I traversed into the blocks quite low down.  I got a wee bit wet but it wasn’t too bad, as I was only hit by the spray and not the full wave.  From the angle we had seen the route the arête could have thrown anything at us, so I was a little nervous to start with, but needn’t have been, after all didn’t I say Moses was a friendly place:

Craig came up and like me strolled along at a relaxed pace taking in the atmosphere of the waves crashing in below the line.  Before I started on the route we talk about whether the blocks in the bottom half of the route would be loose, I told you we had some sense.  In view of the pounding they were getting from the ocean we felt that any loose stuff would be long gone.  True enough everything was rock solid.  There are so many names we could give this line but I think I will plump for Timing is Everything (9), another one that people really should jump on (when the conditions are like yesterday):

As Craig topped out the sun was on the way down, and with 8 new lines under our belt we were very satisfied with our afternoons little jaunt.  The seaward breeze helped keep the rock in condition the whole time.  Although the gear and certainly rope had their fair share of salt spray, with part of the rope getting a drenching on the last line.  So for those who put their life in the hands of my gear, you will be very pleased to know the rope and gear has all being thoroughly rinsed (back at home not in some salty rock pool at Moses) and is currently drying outside in the shade:

Tradition has it that climbing with Craig includes a cuppa.  So with the sun going down, the moon already high in the sky, and the glowing colours that only the start or in this case end of the day can give us… the tea was poured.  The gear was then stuffed in the bags with less sorting than would normally occur, knowing that it would need a wash.  We then wandered down to find a good perch to watch the sun set with a very welcome cuppa:

A cloud bank stole from us the glory of seeing the sun dip below the horizon, no matter it was still a glorious sight.  Moses Rocks once again delivered in bucketfuls.  Eventually we did need to make a move so after the fun rock hop and a walk along the beach past a lonely fisherman we jumped in the car for a drive home in darkness, keeping a watchful eye out for any roo’s: