The Electric Light Orchestra

The dawn of a long weekend was upon us and early Saturday morning I was at Smiths Beach, as the light was changing.  My aim was to grab a quick climb in before we had to head to Perth for Elseya’s dance competitions.  It was a bit of a surprise to see so many surfers already milling about both in and out of the water so early in the morning.  I realise they like (some) climbers are early risers but I always though cloudy, low light periods were when you were of higher risk of becoming shark bait as you pretend to be a seal in the ocean:

It was a cool morning, with darker clouds looming out to ocean and they looked like they might bring rain.  While the rock was dry I could feel the moisture hang heavy in the air as I rapped into the zawn for the first line of the day.  The rock here has plenty of friction and today it didn’t feel like it had that salty coating this place can get.  So while it was likely to be a bit sweaty due to the rising humidity, and with the possibility of a shower I was confident that should hopefully not stop me from cranking:

After a long break of having been to Smiths Beach, I recently climbed here with Howsie and since then I’d been keen to head back.  The lines aren’t that long but certainly feel intense on lead, so there are not many people who are keen to join me when I mention this place.  Today however I was flying solo (again) and that allowed me to eye up the steeper lines of the very photogenic Camelot Wall.  Named so due to the rock lending itself to those active and passive camming devices, I reckon it’d be hard to lead any of the routes without them:

The intention was to start from the right and work my way leftwards.  The main reason being the easiest line I had in mind was at the far right, allowing me a warm up route.  Another advantage was that if the swell started to pick up there was less likelihood of being hit by the waves.  They get channelled in through the narrowing rocks and at times can hide the pillar from view as white water is thrown deep into the zawn.  I hadn’t checked the ocean conditions so didn’t know what was to come, and to start with a few waves were getting pretty close:

I have to admit that despite having a rope above me I was nervous about the second line on my list.  King Arthur is the direct version of the first line I ever climbed here.  Craig and I came here and eyed up all the lines on this wall, plumping on what seemed most feasible.  As we climbed the rain set in, and that added to the shallow, flared vertical crack made it on that day just too scary a proposition.  We instead avoided the direct line and used the chimney to its right, so creating Lady Guinevere.  We didn’t complete King Arthur until about a month later:

I’ve recently watched a climbing video called Odyssey.  Climbers well above my lowly status were on-sighting epic traditional lines in England, typical of the British ground up climbing ethic.  Climbing the lines I had put up at Smiths Beach with that same attitude back in 2010, such as Lady of the Lake, made me realise that (as some have put it) I’m possibly starting to “go soft”.  Lady of the Lake in particular is a line of that former form, the shallow very flared crack with some dubious rock and no gear is pretty intimidating.  In fact I’ve never seen anyone climb it and since the first ascent that includes me:

The last line on the wall for the day was to be The Holy Grail, a very fine line but sparsely protected.  It felt nervous on the first lap but second time I started to wonder if it earns the grade I originally gave, from a technical perspective certainly not. However, from an on-sight perspective and taking into account the position, gear and risks it is probably reasonable.  Keeping in mind my “softening up”, the one line which I have been on numerous times that I do think is a bit of a sand bag relative to the other climbs here is King Arthur.  But damn it’s good:

While the sky was still cloudy there were patches of blue appearing.  Unlike last weekend I was spared any rain, but sweat was dripping down my face.  As I topped out on the second lap on this last route the sun started to light up the opposite wall.  This place heats up quickly when the sun hits the walls so it was time to pack up and head home.  Before packing the bag I scrambled across the other side to take a few snaps of Camelot Wall.  Of particular note and in stark contrast to my recent trips to Wilyabrup is the distinction lack of chalk, this place doesn’t get the attention it deserves:

Scrambling back to my pack I decided to solo up Child’s Play, which is by far the easiest recorded route here.  It was so much fun that I decided to impose my top-rope solo requirements of climbing it a second time.  This also allowed me to take a rare selfie.  The 12 second timer on my camera didn’t allow me enough time to get very high but now I’m immortalised in digital pixels you get the picture.  Then it was back home and time to get ready to drive to Perth and watch the dance troupes do their thing:

Last night the final few acts were hip hop, and a couple of the troupes provided us with what came across as a very aggressive, angry and almost intimidating routines.  This added to the screeching banshee fans who were sat right behind us made it was both Lisa and I agreed an unpleasant end to the dance competitions.  We drove home straight after with our ears ringing getting home just before midnight.  I woke up about 6:30 and made a brew, threw my gear into the pack and headed out to Castle rock.  As I walked to the crag my ears retuned to some sense of normality and were enjoying the sound of a big mob of short-billed black cockatoos, as they feasted on gumnuts:

Finally after a several weeks of wondering when it might happen again Mr Blue Sky came out to play.  Which I will qualify with “on a weekend when I wanted to climb”!  Castle Rock gets early sun so I ran the risk of sweating off the rock with a slightly later start.  However, there was a cool breeze and that helped keep it sane start to a day that was predicated to go above 30 degrees.  With dry rock and a warm but not too hot sun, and once again going solo, I managed to climb all the lines I had in mind bar one.  That one was just a bit to testy for me today.  Um maybe before I soften up anymore I think I need to get on the pointy end again: