Dan’s thoughts about me

I met Krish down at the PCYC, right after I’d come back from some travels overseas. I was very new to trad, I think I owned half a rack of cams that I’d bought at a flea market. Actually I was pretty new to life itself, I was only 22.

Luckily for me Krish and the rest of the south west crew were incredibly welcoming. He did this great thing where he’d tell me to wander along the base of the crag and pick lines just based on the look of them, without thinking about the grade. That really helped my climbing along, learning to pick a line for the aesthetics of it. He has this great attitude of just going for something if it looks cool. Even more so if it’s wet and there’s no gear and twenty carpet pythons are hiding behind every hold (jokes!).

I have distinct memories of watching Krish totally calm on routes that would have completely freaked me out. I think at the time I tried to push through fear, but climbing with Krish taught me to be calm, evaluate what’s in front of me, approach the climb objectively. And to not give up so easily.

I remember sitting in the bluff knoll carpark, the wind howling, it looking like the most miserably wet day. And thinking that there’s no reason to even walk up the trail. But Krish said we should go anyway, cos maybe the rain will clear in an hour (for the record, it didn’t).

Ever since then, if I arrive at the crag and it’s raining, I still make the walk to the cliff. Just in case. And amazingly, he’s right it usually does clear up.