Two out of two

After bagging a few too many lines at Welly Dam last weekend my shoulder gave me the tell-tale signs that I had been pushing things a bit too far with recent trips out.  So I put the call out for anyone interested in a more relaxed session this weekend.  Mario was keen and we headed out to Lost Buttress for some lower grade trad fun.  It promised to be a warm day hitting the mid to high twenties, so we had a reasonable start to beat the heat.  We did however decide to walk in from the main crags at Wilyabrup, so rock hoped our way to arrive at just before 7:30:

We walked past the Northern Blocks, Bookshelf and lastly the Playground, the boulders were at times damp and slimy and I took a tumble taking some bark off.  Not the best start to the day but nothing too serious to stop us.  On arrival we decided to start from one end and work our way across picking off one line after another.  The first two lines fell pretty quickly especially when Marion led, as he didn’t place much gear at all.  To speed things up that bit more we had also brought a static and set it up on the ring bolts that Kym had kindly placed here: 

Despite the boulders on the walk in being damp the rock seemed to be in good nick.  The only thing that made us stop to think and take things a bit slower was the top-outs.  Lost Buttress is not a well frequently crag and the tops are littered with sand, friable rocks and vegetation; but while these top-outs can feel sketchy the routes themselves make it worth the effort and risk.  Soon we found ourselves tackling the next two lines, up both sides of the big imposing roof, the centre piece of the crag:

The waves today were crisp and clear, and with my untrained eye they looked big and perfect for surfing.  The occasional wave looked to form great barrels but today was not a day to sit around and watch the waves waiting for that perfect picture.  So I took some quick happy snaps  whenever I heard the ocean roar that little bit louder to signal a big set was in its way in.  The mist was trailing behind the waves, an easterly was kindly pushing the salt spray back out to sea saving our climbing gear from being coated and needing a rinse afterwards:

Mario took the best line of the day, the left side of the big roof has one of the most epic positions for exposure that you will find on any crag in the south west.  Stepping out on smeary footholds right out to the arête before needing to make committing move to get into the corner above, all on great rock with awesome gear.  After this line we skipped the next route, after all we were supposed to be taking it relatively easy today.  So in a way we didn’t hit every route, in fact there were two we missed out being Leap Frog (sorry Lou) and As the Crow Flies:

Sure enough the surfers were out, they were huddled out in the deep blue while the big sets seemed to pass them on either side.  That said I’m no surfer so I’m sure there was a reason for that.  While we were out the rescue helicopter flew over us several times, no doubt keeping an eye out for sharks in close vicinity to any surfers.  However, on at least two occasions it circled round and came back to where we were hovering just out to sea while we climbed.  No doubt they probably thought we were mad, but personally I think that of people who go surfing:

We kept trucking, and soon I was ambling up the second best route of the day, very direct and nicely sustained.  This route happened to be a Rob Crowder creation, he and Kym had invited me to get involved in establishing this place in 2013.  While Marion and I were chatting mentioned he had climbed with Rob a lot down at Bob’s Hollow.  Rob disappeared from the local crew and seemed to live at that crag for quite a few years meeting up with the Perth crew.  But it seems he has also disappeared from that crew, and we wondered where he is now:

Today was Mario’s first time at placing tri-cams, he had seen them before and taken them out on second but never placed them.  He fiddled about with them quite a few times, but just didn’t quite have the confidence with the placements he found. Often after mucking about for a while he simple shoved a cam in, but on the odd occasion he did trust them.  Another piece of gear that he was keen on trying to place on every route was the No.4 cam, so the biggest piece of hardware seemed to follow up every line only being used a couple of times:

This is one of the times it was used and thankfully so.  This is the piece that held after Mario managed to pull a (large) toaster sized block off, and promptly came off himself from a meter or more above this piece of gear.  In fact from here he is in the above image.  He bounced down, with the block hurtling to ground and crashing to my left where it spilt in two.  It was his biggest fall on trad and while he was a little shaken up, after a rest and some water he was back up there to finish the route off:

We kept moving leftward, and I got the most ordinary route after which we were both kinda wondering why.  But it was in the guide, so we ticked it off.  Then it was onto two more routes for which most of the climbing was a breeze, until you had to get up the top headwall.  While the lower sections were a ramble the upper wall was very worthwhile.  Mario’s had some great face climbing and mine required thugging up to get established in the crack on the arête with no feet.  I had no one to blame as I put the route up, and eventually I solved the puzzle again:

We hit the last route of the day at the left end of the crag just in time as the sun was starting to peel over the top of the crag.  This route was the scene of my worse climbing fall, when a large hand hold came off and spun me off the rock while I was soloing.  This time however Mario was using a rope and gear, which included a tri-cam that he was prepared to trust.  I think we may be able to convert him to the tri-cam way of thinking yet.  With ten fine routes in the bag we were happy to call it a day:

We packed our gear and pondered whether to carry the offending hand hold out as a memento, I had done that with the one that knocked me off but Marion decided a photo was enough for him.  I’m pleased to say that the boulders were dry as we rock hopped back, so there were no more mishaps.  As we passed the Northern Blocks we spied a climber yo-yoing up and down below the final runout headwall of Corpus Delecti in full sun.  We both agreed rather him than us, even more so when back at the car the thermometer indicated it was 26 degrees:

If you are keen to check out the lines we climbed check out the mini-guide: Lost Buttress.  The question I have is whether Marion will treat me to a spectacular fall every time we head out.  So far it’s been two out of two with a big whipper last weekend from the top of Welcome to Edges and today’s was even more impressive, I just hope they don’t get more spectacular each time…