Yet another project

This morning we had intended to go to Moses Rocks.  During the drive, as Andrew and I were chatting it was however obvious that a rethink might be a good idea.  It was not so much that we needed a place with more relaxed grades, but maybe a place that had routes that felt more secure.  Moses is a great place if you don’t mind rounded smeary friction holds and a “more than fair share” of shallow flared cracks.  So we instead headed down to Wilyabrup and on arrival, as predicted, there was a strong seaward wind.  That meant we would be sheltered from it on the crag and the spray that the 4m swell would no doubt send into the air would be blown back out to sea:

We toyed with the main area but Andrew had been on most of the easier lines there and so for something different we went to the Organ Pipes.  It had also been a little while since I’d been here myself, close to seven months in fact.  It’s one of the lesser visited crags but I never get bored of it myself and think it is underrated, as it has a fine range of good old-school lines.  Unsure of where his head was to start with I set things off up a fine arête.  Feeling quite good I ambled up the second half forgetting to place any gear, before setting up and allowing Andrew to come up looking like batman with his cape being blown in the wind:

The air hung a little on the heavy side this morning and with the slightly raised humidity the rock was not quite perfect.  This did mean that after first route the jackets came off and we soaked in the comfortable temperature.  If we had known that we were coming here we would have brought a second rap rope, as the walk down isn’t that pleasant and is quite long.  Fortunately a large boulder sat atop the main face and that allowed us to set up a system that wasn’t too much fuss, and one that also benefited us in other ways later on:

Me running it out on my line had not put Andrew of giving leading a go.  So off he set up the steep wall on a great crack and shallow corner, his line (purposely chosen) had more options for gear and he seemed to be making adequate use of the opportunities.  As he approached the last third he moved quickly without placing anything and then stopped at the top looking about as if he’d hit a road block.  For a while I had to focus my attention, rather than my camera on him.  At least until I realised that he was only checking out the best place to set up a belay:

The base of the route was on a bit of a slab, so I padded across this and pulled the rope after me placing it into a neat pile ready for him to take it up.  I thought I had better not start climbing and leant back on the face to watch the waves, hoping to see a pod of dolphins.  It was a perfect day to see surfing dolphins, with crisp clean and sizable waves.  It was unfortunately not to be and despite both of us keeping an eye out we didn’t see any.  Just as Andrew started to pull the rope up I looked down and saw something.  Wiggins you may recall what went missing in August last year, and seven months on there is was rested on the little plant next to the rope:

So my lost black tricam was found once more.  The pin wasn’t showing any signs of corrosion and the print on the label was less faded than the tricams that I had on my rack.  However, the sling was looking a little furry.  After inspecting it Andrew just laughed as I put it back on my rack.  In my mind it can stay on there as an emergency piece for when there is nothing else left or that will fit, at least until I replace it.  So if anyone is out climbing we me and needs to use a black tricam you may want to inspect the sling, it’s pretty obvious which one is less trustworthy:

The next route is a lovely corner with a sickle shaped roof.  Very pleasant climbing up the corner that never gets tricky until you near the roof, which is where it starts to curve over your head to the left.  The hand holds become more “interesting” and as you step away from the corner the feet become more slabby, it’s a great position and seems quite improbably.  A few short moves later the arête is gained so it is not too bad, but as you can see by the concentration on Andrew’s face, it requires a degree of focus:

He then decided for his next lead it was time for a bit of fun, and plumped for one of the chimneys that Mikey had led approx. a year back during the sprint finish of his challenge to lead 10km of routes without any repeats.  I didn’t mention it to Andrew but I did think that his sport climbing rope work (i.e. rope over the shoulder until the first piece) on this lead was a bit misplaced!  It was while Andrew was mucking about on this climb, thoroughly enjoying himself I might add, that I spied another potential new route:

So next up I attempted a ground up FA of a yet to be named climb, which probably tells you that I didn’t manage a clean ascent.  This steep little number seems to have been overlooked by anyone to date.  The wall was wide enough and provided just enough holds to make it independent of the cracks and chimneys on either side.  I managed to get to the final headwall but was thwarted after that, the smeary holds to get established on a high undercling were just too greasy for my liking.  Especially seeing if I full committed the gear started to get further away from my feet and there was still a way to go:

We played on the line a few times and it definitely goes but will need a dry day and level head.  After that bit of top roping it felt like we had already slipped into bad habits, and so what would it matter if we finished off the morning with a few more top ropes.  In truth both of our arms were starting to feel the morning (or more to the point that last route) and the intention had after all been to just have a bit of fun.  The rap anchor was perfectly placed to allow us to finish off on three lines.  The crag classic up the crack and flake, my creation from my trip with Wiggins up the left wall and also another one of my projects up the right wall:

The humidity hadn’t left us and really showed on my old project up the right wall, the seemingly featureless face that provides the crux sequence was far more problematic for me than on my last trip here.  So after my one lap on it today, interspersed with me spinning off it a few times with increasingly more painful finger tips, I had no desire to try and lead it.  I showed Andrew the last piece of gear on the line, which if I failed to nail the crux would need to withstand not just a good length fall but also the pendulum that would result from the piece being off to one side.  If it didn’t hold I’d hit the deck that was 10m below:

Considering Andrew was after relaxed lines today, by the time we were done the day had proven to be quite a workout and he had done really well.  He even suggested to me that he needs a trad route to focus on and project.  The idea being to hopefully encourage him to get to that bit more.  I now have three trad projects at the Organ Pipes, two are sensible’ish and one may be a little silly.  I did suggest he took one of them but he didn’t seem too keen.  One thing is for sure I won’t be attempting a lead on any of them until we have a proper dry day and the rock feels good, either that or I need to learn to hang on like some of the wildlife: