I finally, after just over twelve months of trying, managed to get down to Albany to visit Kym, Meg, Tessa and Claire. While it was wonderful to see them all the bulk of the time was of course spent heading out with Kym to sample some of the magnificent South Coast rock, which is mostly granite. The area is littered with small to towering walls and enormous granite monoliths that offer a wealth of opportunities, some still untapped:
I arrived Saturday afternoon, an hour or so before Meg finished work. Her last shift for the foreseeable future as they are expecting number three soon. Meg’s dad was also there when I arrived, which has relevance but I’ll get to that later. After Meg got home and had time to settle down Kym and I headed out to a crag that the local boys had recently established called Old Man’s Bluff. This crag is just about on their doorstep only being a short 15min drive/walk from their house. The ease of access reminded me of the great local crags in Alice Springs and joy of being able to nip out for a short few hours:
There are two granite domes that provide a variety of slabs, cracks and features. The routes range from 8 to 20m and grades 13 to 23. The strangest thing about this place is that it is in clear view from the walk track into one of the most iconic climbing areas of the South Coast, and yet has until recently never attracted any interest. Kym along with Jim, Ron and John (who I was going to meet on day two) have put up some 20 plus routes, and we managed to bag a good number of them in our short afternoon/evening visit:
There were some true slab routes here, feet smearing and friction pulling holds that make you feel like you could slip off at any time. Others had flakes and features and there were even a few that had crystal nodules as the only available holds, which reminded me of some gritstone classics such as Three Pebble Slab. I’m a self-confessed lover of slab climbing and relished the routes. Slab climbing can become repetitive but here that was not the case and each one had its own intriguing features and styles. While bolts are a given on the blank slabs there was a need for some trad where there were flakes and cracks:
That was the case on this rising rightwards traverse that crossed almost the entire length of this wall. It passed a few other lines that went straight up. This meant I could make use of two bolts along the way, but other than that is was micro-cams the whole way. Better still Kym and the others had graciously left this line untouched, so I was very lucky to have bagged a first ascent on this new crag. I called it Slap 1, and as all good names there is usually a story behind it this one being named after my niggly shoulder injury that I can’t seem to shake:
I’m still not sure about my shoulder, at times I can certainly feel it and I was a bit worried about whether it would hold up with three days climbing. Smiths Beach yesterday back in my old stomping ground, this place today and then a big day being planned for Sunday. Today however it was feeling fine and we were on fire jumping on lines up to 21, which was the grade we gave Slap 1. Next it was the crag classic, a line Kym had bagged and it looked awesome. A mixed slab and crack route that spat me off at the crux not once or twice but four or five times. This route would get 3 stars anywhere it was brilliant:
After thoroughly enjoying no less than eight fine climbs the sun was dipping down and it was time to head back to the house. When we got there Tessa and Claire were in bed and having story time. So Kym and I tucked into a scrumptious quiche followed by a pavlova desert. The latter surprised me as I knew how careful Meg and Kym were with the food they had in the house. I put it down to being Christmas time, as I spied a box of favourites on the fridge and other sweet delights dotted about. Meg managed to stay awake and come out for a bit, something Lisa and I didn’t always achieve with Elseya when she was that age. So we had a bit of a proper catch-up before we all hit the sack:
Sunday arrived and I was up at my usually early time, I needn’t have worried about being noisy as the two girls are early risers and soon the house was full of noise and clatter. Kym and I were not rushing out the door, we were going to be picked up at 8 by Ron and John. So we had plenty of time to all have breakfast together and then sort the gear for our big day out. Life with young kids results in adult play time being restricted. In addition Kym has started to study, which is eating into that precious time. So full day trips like today’s have been a rare occurrence for him this year, and what with number three soon to arrive it will be even rarer for some time to come. Needless to say he was excited, as was I:
I had timed my visit perfectly as the place we were heading too had only been discovered a week ago. It was off the beaten track and it felt like a magical mystery tour. We worked our way through vegetation that was at times above our heads, then needing to squeeze through boulders so tight we had to take our packs off before a long stretch of boulder hopping with the occasional scramble required. It was a good hour hike to get to this place. Being by the ocean it was mostly downhill which was in our favour for the outwards journey but coming back would be a different experience, one not to think about just yet:
Eventually we arrived at our destination. We passed huge great boulders and numerous good looking lines. A quick look and then we passed them and I could see why, at our destination there were epic 60m plus deep zawns littered with slabs, steep walls and overhangs. There were also single pitch 20m walls and slabs with perfect level rock platforms a safe distance above the waterline. This place has so much potential with enough new routing to keep this band of merry men happy for years. Today, being the first trip here, would not see us rap into the zawns that would could potentially chew up the whole day. Instead the first sampling would be on the more accessible walls such as these:
In view of not knowing what we would find we had come fully prepared with a big rack, lead and static ropes in addition to all the gear needed to place bolts. Our packs had been full and heavy water and food and we felt light and bouncy when the packs came off. There was so much to choose from and so Kym and I headed to another wall that just had to be explored. We left Jim, Ron and John to play on the buttresses shown above, while we had a bit to eat before sorting out the gear. Then it was time to work out way down to a very aesthetic wall that we either had to climb or prussic out of. It was time for full commitment:
As we rapped in the steepness of the wall hit us, we hadn’t realised just how steep it was and we were wondering if we had bitten off a bit more than we could chew. This wall was a mosaic of rock types that provided amazing patterns and features, which had made us want to sample it. Black dolerite provided strange flakes and rounded nodules, bands of quartz and in some places whole sections of quartz provided all manner of styles of holds and sticking it all together the granite was occasionally exposed. This did mean that we couldn’t be 100% sure of the rock quality but the big problem was whether the rock may be strong enough to hold the gear during a fall:
We found a few lines that we thought would be viable, they looked steep and on occasion it was hard to see if there was gear available the whole way up. We checked out the rock quality and it felt solid and good enough to hold gear. Two obvious cracks jumped out to us, the first splitter went the whole way up but it was really steep and the top overhung crack was wide. So we went for this line which didn’t go all the way up and while it was an unknown at the top it looked less intimidating to us. I assumed the crack was pumpy based on the way Kym was puffing his way up, the good news being that it offered great gear:
Exiting the crack proved to be the crux. After the overhanging crack and pumpy jamming, with no rest spots we had to transition to small crimpy holds to work out a sequence to top out. The gear also thinned out not that there was much chance of holding the positions to place more. Kym gave it a couple of goes but was too tired, so he sent me up. He’d brought two pairs of jamming gloves along and I was very pleased to have them. I’ve never climbed with them nor ever taped up for crack climbing but today it was very needed. Either that or I would have shredded the back of my hands. I finally work out a sequence that unlocked the puzzle and topped out, assisted with some self-emitted loud vocals to help me through the nervous moments:
After that epic route, which we reckon was a worthy 22, and knowing the other lines would be either just as hard or with less obvious gear we decided to join the others on the more sedate looking lines. We lugged all our gear across and when it was al together it looked like we were preparing for an assault on some alpine or Himalayan route. The boys we’re being very sensible in their approach and had top roped several lines to check them out, unlike Kym and my ground up method. It was probably more appropriate considering the isolated location and long hike out:
They worked three lines two of which needed a bolt or two to make them safe. Kym and I jumped on the lines they had worked using the top rope system. They were beautifully sustained and a worthy length. The rock was solid and clean, and the lines required delicate yet technical slab and crack climbing. While one line could have been led fully on trad we didn’t lead it today, the leading for these lines would happen on their next trip. Today they intended only to scope the lines and placing a few bolts were needed. That didn’t worry me as these days are about the whole adventure, plus we had already managed one epic lead:
After another snack break we jumped on another fine looking buttress and found two more lines. The one below could be partly protected with trad but would require RPs and they would need to be placed in the fingertip hand holds. So we were undecided as to whether they would place a bolt of two or not. It was a great line with delicate layback moves up the flake while smearing your feet on ripples and small crystals. Five lines down and my fingertips were starting to tingle and looked red. While it wasn’t a crazy hot day it was warm and we had been in the sun for a long time, and we were all conscious of needing to save some energy for the walk out:
So before we hiked out we decided to chuck a rope down one last route, it was the one that made everyone’s jaw drop the lowest when we saw it. Another top to bottom splitter for which I was very pleased to have Kym’s jamming gloves. This one was all granite so required feet and hands in the crack, I did try a few face features but it simply wasn’t the way to do the route. However, before that malarkey there was a bit of off-width chicken winging to be down just to get off the ground. My crack climbing technique definitely needs some finessing but I managed to grunt and fumble my way up. It was an amazing line and we all managed to take it on cleanly, I with the least amount of style:
We hiked back out taking a few rests along the way, both to take in the glorious scenery but also to rest the legs. Just like with crack climbing slow and steady wins the race, so we were not in a rush and inched our way up the hills. I was back at the carpark a bit before the others and plonked myself down. A woman, her pack had climbing gear hanging out, said hello and called me by name… I had to confess not remembering her and it seems that I gave her some advice at Welly Dam way back when I was climbing with Denis one time (as she recalled a Frenchie being there). WA is a big state but it seems the climbing community is not:
This time we got back to the house at a more reasonable time allowing us to all have dinner together. As I helped clear up afterwards and delved into more of the cupboards putting things away I found even more festive food hidden. This included a stack of twelve individual Christmas puddings, so I finally had to say that I was surprised to see all this in their pantry. Meg put it simply by saying “it’s my dad”. It seems that when he comes to stay the sugar loading goes up. So to help reduce the stock pile and ensure the kids didn’t overdose on all that unhealthy sweet stuff we had ice cream with flakes for desert, but only after the kids had gone to bed:
I drove home the next morning after a much needed good night’s sleep. As it always is, it was wonderful to go exploring but also so lovely to be back home. I had just told Lisa the food story and then started to unpack only to find a four Christmas puddings in my rucksack. All I can say is that I’m neither Patrick the possum or Watkin the possum (the Pudding Thieves in The Magic Pudding), these puddings were planted!
Sandbagged 