Kym’s thoughts about me

I think it was around 2010 that I got a tip off from a friend who was looking for surf breaks and spotted a small cliff at Smiths Beach in the South West. I put a post up on the Climbing Association of Western Australia website, asking if anyone had done any climbs there. Shortly after I received an email from Krish who was keen to put some time into developing it. I hadn’t met him yet and only heard of him through a local climbing instructor, Mick, who told me that he was a bit of a trad climbing beast.

I hadn’t been rock climbing all that long and I could tell straight away from the email that he had the sickness for putting up new routes. Before I knew it he had snaked all of my projects at Smiths and uploaded a mini-guide of the area. It was obvious this bloke didn’t muck around.

The first time we actually climbed together was at Moses Rock. He took the first lead on a brand new route and I could tell he was fairly experienced. Unfortunately I did notice tri-cams on his rack which had me a little concerned, was this a sure sign of boldness? It seems that it was. He survived all those scary English crags as well as outback Australia and isn’t scared of flaring cracks, choss or runouts. We topped out on “Rude Awakening” and established a handful of new lines that day. Over the next few years we climbed loads of South West classics and sniffed out new routes around Smiths Beach, Welly Dam and of course Willyabrup including establishing a whole crag.

Krish has no problem taking the lead if you aren’t up for it and is always in high spirits. His psyche is infectious and it’s hard to find anyone more stoked on climbing than he is. I feel privileged to have met him, his friends and his family. Krish is one of the most genuine people I’ve known and he’s taught me many things about climbing (and life).

Since I live in Albany now we don’t climb together as often as we once did but when we do it’s usually pretty exciting, especially when we rack up at the base of a new route on the South Coast to try for some on-sight glory. Sometimes we get it and other times we get our arses kicked, but every time we try hard.  Here’s to many more great days out on the rock mate stay psyched!