Rongy – the analyst

If you are keen click on this link to find out what Rongy said about me.  While not essential reading to find out about Rongy, there may be some cross referencing in my words about him.

Rongy is the person that I have probably had some of my more my epic adventures.  For example, it was with Rongy that we got to climb in the zawn at Moses rocks with a beach at our feet as shown above.  The only time in fifteen years of going there that I have seen that.  He is the first person to build a boulder wall to keep fit, it was insanely steep and felt punishing to most of us.  Not surprisingly he became and still is very strong and climbs in an extremely solid and confident manner.  While he will at times need to assess what lies ahead, usually once he starts moving you know he has a plan.  He’s analysed the situation and figured out what he needs to do to break through:

While I have been to Bluff Knoll on several occasions it is only with him that I have actually succeeded in getting up it.  Although admittedly on other occasions the weather had beaten us back.  With such confidence on rock and an ability to work things out relatively quickly and safely he became unafraid of pushing limits.  Both in difficulty of climbing and also exposure, he has a mantra that you only give up when you fall off, there is no sitting back in the harness if you haven’t tried.  Not surprisingly by the time we went on our South Coast trip, unlike Andrew, he already had a load of leading experience under his belt and it showed in some of the leads he pulled off:

Being single at the time and with a lust for big adventures it was easy for him to focus on climbing and pursued that with a relentless passion.  He planned to travel and climb, it took a number of false starts but he eventually fulfilled his dreams and visited epic spots in Australia, China and Europe.  His diversity of climbing skills were boosted and he clocked up impressive numbers.  All this worldly travel gave him a new perspective on life, as all true travel should, he was however still single and very focused.  During this time we hatched a plan to head to the Blue Mountains:

This trip was jam packed with climbing, we scoured numerous locations and climbed and climbed and climbed.  Quite literally until my fingers bleed.  Rongy however hardily showed a scratch!  Compared to me he has these thick fingers with pads that hardly sweat and never wear out.  I’ve yet to find out his secret.  Hardly ever using chalk he is still able to stick small smeary holds on sweaty days.  You might now be surprised to hear that Rongy does have a couple of other passions. One being marine life, he’s always had aquariums both through work and personally.  Every so often a tank would need a shake up and he would have us collect rocks to create new underwater habitats and haul them out with tired legs after a trips out:

His other passion was rally driving, not something that I’ve personally witnessed although he did show off a few skills on some of the dirt roads we have had to use.  However, life changes and Rongy found Alana, Katie and Ben.  Since these days the trips out still occur only less frequently.  He’s finding a balance that works, but like me climbing is important to maintaining a healthy mind and outlook on life.  As such Alana has come to realise that if Rongy doesn’t get out climbing a shadow starts to creep over his general mood.  For Rongy he’s got it bad, climbing is in his blood and once it gets in there it is near impossible to shake: