With the thought of a hot day an early start was on the cards for this morning. I had in mind where I wanted to go, but it did depended on who was keen to get out. As it was no one was available so for the first time in a long time I went out by myself. Seeing it was going to be just me I guessed I’d be moving pretty quickly, so I didn’t leave super early. By 6:30 I was all set up and at the base of the first route of the day, looking out to ocean a broken wire hung from Peaches, an aid route I’ve never been on, but maybe next time:
Going back in time to April 2012, I did the first ascent of Trust Your Instincts an alternate, and to me more logical, finish to Power Your Mind. In my last email I mentioned that the top of this route had changed, with the final blocky finish having disappeared. Eagle-eyed Steve had also noticed in the images I provided that the block sat back from the edge of the belay ledge was also gone. It is possible that this block had been pushed off taking with it the top of my route. The question I wanted to be able to answer however was how would my route climb now:
This was the reason I had decided to head back to the Northern Blocks of Wilyabrup, plus it has been a long time since I have climbed this route and the many fine adjacent lines. So I rigged up a positional anchor for the top rope, a lesson was well learnt on this very line and not forgotten. Wiggins will know what I am talking about! I chose to start on this route, as it was the easier of the two lines I had in mind on the east face. Facing east the sun would hit this wall as soon as it rose above the horizon, and I was keen to climb it when it was still shady:
It was harder than I remembered, so much so that I took a rest part way up to figure out the moves. I could blame it on the flash pump but won’t do that. After topping out, with just the one rest, I decided that I should climb each line today twice. So I went back down and climbed it cleanly second time round. I’m glad to say the grade stays the same despite the change to the top out, the climbing just ends a little bit sooner but that does not detract from the quality of the route. I then moved just one route to the right:
This required a slight adjustment to the rope lengths off each anchor, and then I went back down again. Green Stone was to be the hardest route of the day, and I remembered it being a very nervous lead. A fingery and reachy start leads to some good hand holds on steep ground, i.e. don’t hang about too long or you’ll pump out. From here you need to simply trust the rounded flake (shown above) and layback to glory without barn-dooring off. When Kym led this in late 2017 he didn’t place gear in the flake, making for a long 3m plus runout and a very nervous belayer:
After my two laps it was time to head round to the west facing wall, which would remain shady for much longer. This required me to move the entire anchor setup, which gave my arms the chance of a well-deserved rest. The northern Blocks don’t get heaps of traffic but judging by the chalk that was on the next set of lines I’m guessing there were some recent visitors. Every potential hold was chalked up, so much so that following the chalked holds would have taken me off route in some situations. Today the rock was in perfect condition so while I dipped my fingers into the magic white powder a few times, I really didn’t need much at all:
In case you were wondering what I was using to top rope, I had my trusty ascender that I had bought along with some tinsey-tiny micro wires way back in the mid-90s during a trip to Italy. I’m not sure what possessed me to buy the ascender, as it hardly got any use in the UK or indeed Alice Springs. The ridiculously small wires have however been used plenty of times. The ascender finally started to get used here in WA, and was getting a big workout today. The next line to fall was Corpus Delecti (above), again climbing it twice, which may seem strange. However, I have to say every line was quality so I really enjoyed doing them twice:
Next on the list was Digital Delecti, a feisty and fingery face climb. Different from the others in that it is mostly bolted so doesn’t follow any continuous crack lines or flakes. For this reason it feels more desperate and I noticed my forearms starting to slightly ache from today’s workout. With each climb on this face there was a need for some refinement of the anchors, which allowed me short rests between routes. Then before I jumped on the next line of Use No SLCDs (below) I had a longer rest, as I stopped to watch a huge pod of dolphins lazily swimming past:
It was then time to move the entire anchor setup onto the final and easiest line of the day. The classic Banana Split simply had to be climbed. Not being a direct line up the wall I placed gear in this one to keep the rope directional. By this time I’d had my shoes on for two and half hours and my feet, more specifically my big toes, were starting to complain with still two laps on this route to go. The first lap wasn’t too bad, as I was once again absorbed by the very fine climbing and I even jammed the entire way along the top curving crack, avoiding the other available holds just for the sake of it:
Then back down and one final lap, for those keeping track that makes six routes and twelve laps. Now my feet really were ready to escape the confines of the shoes and despite being the easiest line of the day, by the time I got to the top curving crack my forearms were also starting to properly complain. About half way up I found a good stance to rest up and looking into a crack noticed this little fella. As I got closer to get a better look I could see him try to shrink further back into the crack. A sign to move on and stop stressing him out, and finally top out and take my shoes off:
A leisurely pack up was followed by the luxury that the Northern Blocks provides, a walkout without needing to scale the height of the cliffs. It was certainly warming up and by the time I got back to the car I was ready for some air-conditioning. There were a few other cars parked up and one crew was only just getting ready to walk in, with probably less than an hour before all walls would have full sun. I drove out and the thermometer indicated it was just a tad below 30, and I muttered to myself mad fools:
Sandbagged 