This morning I groggily woke up at 3am and my head and body felt weird. I wondered if it was due to what felt like a long week at work, the impending damp weather coming or maybe the single stubby of beer I had succumbed to the night before? I wasn’t sure if I’d get back to sleep but within what seemed a few moments the alarm woke me again, it was 5am. Time to get up if we were going to snatch another session on rock before the wintery weather closed in again. The compulsory sippy cups of tea were made, one placed on Lisa’s bedside table as I hoped she would get back to sleep and the other followed me as I quietly crept out of the house:
The night before our arrangements had changed. Instead of needing to go via Bunbury to pick Rongy and Howsie up I was heading straight to the crag, which cuts 30min off my travel time. It wasn’t until I turned the car on and looked at the clock that I wondered why I had set the alarm for when I did, I could have had an extra half an hour of sleep! So I drove a bit slower than normal , also stopping to capture the lights of Bunbury from on high before the world woke up. Even then I still got to the crag 20min before the others drove in, as the sky turned pink:
Once first light hits here it doesn’t take long for things to brighten up, so by the time we had donned our harnesses there was plenty of light to start climbing. Neither Howsie nor Rongy seemed to be raring to go, um maybe it wasn’t just me that seemed out of kilter. So we decided to start sensibly, with me racking the quick draws for the first lead. As we pondered which route, wasting even more time than usual, we eventually started to make our way along the base of the crag and for some daft reason I plumped for BBQ:
The rock was in pretty good condition but felt cold to touch. That along with heart not having been revved up to get the blood circulating at a quicker rate meant the finger tips soon went numb. BBQ starts with a very fingery slab and after a couple of false starts I finally got going properly. Rongy jumped on next, deciding today was not a day to lead every route and a top rope would suit just fine. Then as Howsie was getting ready to jump on Andrew and Steve rocked up. Steve came across and eyed up the line and was keen to jump on next:
It took Steve a bit longer than us to get ready before he touched rock. He did his usual running around and throwing of arms about to get the blood going. While he was running and flapping like a headless chook, Howsie had come down and was most of the way up the second line of the day… Savage Sausage Sniffer. Unlike, what felt like, my clumsy and slightly out of body experience on the first line, Howsie was going strong. He even hung on thin and sharp crux holds for ages before committing to the next moves:
We shifted like a herd from one side of the crag to the next, making use of safety in numbers. Not that there was anyone else about, but seeing it was a very relaxed and slow placed morning, we didn’t fancy shouting between the groups to keep up the, what seemed like continuous, gas bagging that was going on. Before I blinked Rongy had run up Ebony. While Steve was going up second I eyed up Murky Corner, not having felt that strong on the last line it seemed the sensible option. But then somehow I got distracted and found myself on Taj Vs the World:
There are not two more contrasting lines and while I went through the motions on Taj I was feeling a bit like a space cadet. I then followed up Ebony feeling weary and only partially listening to the cackling that was going on below me. I heard something about Howise wanting to try some Pommy granite, so I started to rant on about the spectacular granite cliffs of Cornwall in the south west of England. It wasn’t until later that I found out they were in fact talking about herbal teas and Howsie was keen to try the tea that Andrew was drinking… pomegranate:
Steve was keen to jump on the floppy end and Murky Corner was a sensible one for him, it was also a suitable line for Andrew to follow up. As he finished the line Howsie was again running up another route on lead with great ease, this time Gumby Goes Bolting. He only faltered at the ledge where you can choose the hard direct line or more sensible left hand variant. He choose the latter while Andrew was torn between more chitchat or climbing, he eventually plumped for climbing and battled up Murky Corner, which was the only wet route of the day:
It was a day of musical ropes, each line only getting one lead but multiple seconds. We swapped ropes, partners and even belayers while people were still climbing on the other end. In-between all of this it would not have been a social session without a cup of tea being made. With five of us there this was entirely possible and while I started of the tea ceremony Steve had to finish it while I was cleaning one of the routes, I forget which now. Eventually however, it was time for Howsie and Rongy to head off, while we decided on one more line:
Steve was keen to lead this cracking little crack on the carpark slabs, but he then discovered that for once he had not brought any trad gear. He usually brings hordes of gear everywhere, even when we are heading to a full sports crag. So seeing he was so keen to jump on this line we decided to go really traditional and lead it with pebbles. Much I liked his enthusiasm for this approach, I suggested that maybe it’d be better if I took the lead. After all he’s been through a fall would not be good. He saw sense so off I set with a pocketful of rocks:
I got three solid chock placements in, they looked and felt bomber and all three of us were tickled pink with them. Steve came up second and inspected them taking way too many images, and then leaving them in for Andrew to check them out on the last climb of the day. It got me to thinking that maybe it could become a theme of climbing more routes with just pebbles and slings? Steve and Andrew looked at me sideways, maybe I was still not thinking straight, but the idea is still rattling round in my head as I type this:
Now you may notice that Andrew is climbing in his sneakers above, reason being that he badly injured his ankles in poorly judged sky diving landing, it’s also why he didn’t climb too much today. He topped out as the clouds, that were forecast, started to roll up the valley towards us. We got a message from Howise who was already back in Bunbury telling us it was raining and as I drove back down the hill to the coastal plains it bucketed down. Once again we managed to bag a successful climbing session in-between the windows of wintery weather:
Sandbagged 