Craig’s thoughts about me

When I first met Krish back in January 2006 the climbing scene in the South West was pretty dismal. There were only a few climbers and even less were regular. I had resorted to solo lead climbing. It was on one of these occasions, I had just got set up on Hitching a few meters off the ground, when a man I had never met walk round the corner and said “you must be Craig”.

Now as we all know Krish has a way of locating people to climb with. He had arranged to meet Mick down there as he was probably the only climber in the area at the time with an online presence. But Mick is a bit of a late starter and even with Krish’s uncharacteristic late arrival that morning he was still a couple hours earlier than Mick. Mick had let Krish know that I was likely to be down there, hence him knowing who I was. I down climbed despite Krish being happy for me to finish off the climb first.

There was a time when I recorded all my climbs done in my guide books and I could go back and see all the climbs we ticked off on a given day and even the actual dates. But Krish is so much better at recalling details like that so I’ll leave that to him.

I quickly became part of the family stopping in for a cuppa at the end of each days climbing. And Lisa would invite me for pasta disaster on more than a regular basis. I still get confused when I hear Elseya’s name as I only ever knew her as Moo for such a long time.

Krish and I started to visit all of the known climbing areas in the South West, getting out every couple of weeks. Even the few obscure little spots that gets an occasional mention but rarely climbed, there was generally a good reason for the lack of climbing of these spots.

On our trips out we would sometimes meet fellow climbers and occasionally climb with them. One of our most memorable Willyabrup trips was a morning when we arrived down at the cliffs at our usual time, as the sun was coming up. Yes Glen the sun does rise each morning, not just magically reappear high in the sky the next day. At the base of the cliff beyond Steel Wall a tent was set up with a single occupant inside. We got our first climb in and when we got back down again the occupant a German lady (sorry I’m useless with remembering names) was up scoping the walls. We ended up climbing with her for the day and decided to finish off with her tackling Dolphins Smiles direct. To Krish and my surprise she went the most direct line immediately to the left of the bolt, which neither of us had pulled off by that point on lead. We thought it had her beat as she hung on her finger tips on the smallest of crimps for what seemed like an eternity, moving up and down several times trying different ways but never returning to the rest stance a few meters below. Finally she moved on past the crux with a flash of movement, being too short to reach she had to dyno. Amazed I followed her up. With Krish coming up the rear, as he climbed the skies opened up and the rain came pouring down soaking Krish to the bone. We still reminisce about that day regularly.

Unfortunately Krish and I never really hit our climbing peaks at the same time, one of us seemed to be having an off day. Like our trip to West Cape Howe. Every moved seemed to be impossible for me on the Saturday while Krish walked up the glistening rock. At the end of the day as we racked up to walk back to the car Krish slipped and tore the skin off the back of his heel. So we headed off to Mt Franklin for a bit less steepness. I climbed well and I must admit Krish climbed remarkably with one climbing shoe and his sandals on his injured foot.

Then of course the Peak Charles trip where I woke up at 2am and said shit I forgot my shoes. We climbed anyway me in my hiking boots packing myself the whole way up every climb. We missed out on the one climb Krish really wanted to do that trip, as we deemed it a tad bit technical to do without sticky rubber.

I disappeared for bit while I lived in Mongolia. On my return I was in need of a best man and Krish was the obvious choice. He organised for my bachelor party to be down at Yeagarup Beach, where he ended up cooking the BBQ with my brother the only 2 non-meat eaters of the group while I was helping my boss recover his car which had almost rolled down the dunes. At the wedding he entertained the guest with a very well thought of and funny speech, of course climbing was mentioned.

Krish, Lisa and Elseya have been there for me supporting Oyukha and I when we had Henry and Charley. And help out when we just need that little bit of a break.

Since our first meeting back in 2006 I’ve always enjoyed climbing with Krish, even when he is in that pushy mode wanting to crack on and just keep climbing. Hence why I always take a thermos down with me, slows him down for a minute or 2. I no longer get out as often as I once did, but the regular updates of Krish’s exploits keeps the dreams of rock alive until Henry and Charley start to drag their old man up routes that I struggled on in the past. Hopefully I can get their uncle Krish to help keep up with them.