It wasn’t me that said yes to heading out for a second day on the trot, it was Lisa. Although I might have hinted to Lisa that I was a little tempted, when she told me that Rongy had posted on out local WhatsApp group to see if anyone was keen. No complaints from me. And so I found myself back on the road, as the day was breaking, but not until I had made Lisa a cuppa while she was still snuggled up under the duvet on yet another brisk morning. The following image was kindly donated by Steve, as I didn’t stop to take any images on the way up:
The main reason for not stopping and admiring the view, was that I had an impromptu stop early on to help someone clear up the debris left after they had hit a big kangaroo. The roo was toast, and not a pretty sight. Bits of plastic and the occasional body part lay scattered across both lanes for some 20 to 30m of road. I still arrived at Welly Dam pretty well on time and was greeted by an empty carpark. As I waited for the others to roll in I wanders round the area taking in the beautiful colours that the non-native deciduous trees turn during autumn, as the shed all their leaves:
I purposely mentioned above about these trees being non-native. And while they may look pretty, when they are by a river all that leaf litter results in some less than desirable outcomes. It can result in a large build-up of organic matter, which as it decomposes sucks the oxygen out of the water and also raising the nutrient levels above normal resulting in fish kills. Our native tress do not shed their leaves in the same way. It wasn’t too long a wait and within a short period the carpark looked packed. Steve then Rongy and Alana and very soon afterwards Andrew and Lachy pulled in:
It has been a while since we have all caught up so there was the need for a bit more banter before any action began on rock. Also Andrew and Steve had not climbed a huge amount in recent months. In fact Steve is at the tail end of his recovery from his last operation, and he advised that it was going very well. That said I was insistent on, and he agreed to, a “no leading” rule for him during the first few times that we got him back on rock. Rongy got the itch first and was ready to start climbing when he realised he couldn’t find his climbing shoes:
Luckily Steve had brought, I think it was, three pairs of shoes and fortunately one of them seemed to fit Rongy pretty well. He plumped for Raging Torrent and to start with it all felt a bit new, resulting in the need to search about looking for the holds. The shoes did their job, but he wasn’t on the rock for long before he noted that his fingers were starting to go numb. Alana just looked on, and while I think she has heard of my approach of waiting till the first bolt is clipped to start belaying, she did look a little concerned to be witnessing it:
Andrew and I jumped on Welcome to Edges, and whether it was the cold rock, not having warmed up or just feeling a bit weary from yesterday’s day out I faltered on the first few moves. However, once I conquered them things flowed a bit better. Rongy and I switched lines so I could have a lead on Raging Torrent, and things started to flow even better. When I got there Steve was looking down, it is not that he was feeling blue even though he was looking very blue. I feel that he was just getting all muddled up with a choice of so many pairs of shoes:
I rattled off my line and we left the top rope set up for Andrew. Then Steve suggested that another relaxed climb might be A Walk In Central Park. I was however not so convinced the climb was named purposely as you never known when you might get into strife resulting in you falling off. I have been told it is a bit like real walk in Central Park! That and the cold rock would make it a tense lead. Now before I started and as Rongy was leading Welcome to Edges I took this image and you might notice that Andrew had been learning from my bad habits, and even taking things a step further. He is just now reaching for his belay device, after Rongy has clipped and is going past the first bolt:
As it was I needn’t have worried about being mugged in Central Park. I climbed it with relative ease and my fingers never felt cold. I reckon I had got my heart rate up a bit during the first two climbs, helping to keep the blood circulating, along with the internal warmth it brought to combat that cold rock. As is the normal we all had a bit of a giggle at the horrendous chain set up at the top of the route, and being Steve’s creation it is also something he has indicated he would rectify on numerous occasions. One day he might:
Andrew was keen for Lachy to have a bash at a climb, and it made sense to do this on Block and Tackle. So before that could happen the rope had to be put up and I handed the pointy end to Andrew. He did really well and when he committed to the crux moves he romped up it. Lachy was however hesitant and while he had a bash it seemed like his heart was never really in it. He had a couple of goes and got to the same height both times. With climbing it’s usually best not to force things with novices, instead wait till they want to try to push harder. As such Lachy didn’t jump on any other lines:
Every time I look round it seemed that Alana had moved her chair to a new location. It was a little like playing Where’s Wally, and due to Alana wearing autumn colours at times you had to look twice before you spotted her new location. Similar to Lisa yesterday she was quite happy being outside and reading her book. I’m sure that given the choice she would have liked a bit more sun, something that doesn’t hit this area until later in the day:
While Lachy was having a couple of bashes at Block and Tackle and Alana was reading her book, Rongy moved across to Rock Therapy. He launched up each of the steep and reachy moves, which the bottom three quarters of the climb throws at you, with seeming ease. Then he stood at the base of the final wall for a fair bit longer, mustering up encourage before he committed to pulling on the spaced, small sharp holds, which are in complete contrast to the rest of the route. It was not a route that Steve would be following up so I said I would, and before I got there the rope had been pulled so I too had to lead it:
There was just enough gas in the tank for one more route, and I could feel Rongy’s energy was at the same level. Now Howsie had suggested that I climb Taj, and the idea did cross my mind. But only very fleetingly. Instead, and sorry Howsie, we decided on BBQ. I’m pleased we did as it felt just hard enough but not so that I didn’t enjoy it. It also felt slightly greasy and it is possible, not that we checked it, that the murky corner in which Taj sits would have felt even damper:
I pulled the rope down for Rongy and while he led BBQ, Steve was belaying Andrew as he finally had a bash at the first route of the day. Andrew certainly battled his way up Raging Torrent, not being very climbing fit three Welly Dam climbs was enough to sap any last energy he had. Now while we technically didn’t hit any of grade 20 routes that Howsie has to climb this year, it could be argued that Raging Torrent is a grade 20. That is if you believe all the hype that is posted on The Crag about this route, something for Howsie to ponder on:
With that we started to pack away the gear, it seemed everyone had come prepared with ropes and gear. Not only that but I also noticed that others seemed to have cottoned onto my use of “the Crate” for Welly Dam climbing sessions. Today there were three crates on display. Once the BBQ had been was cleared of gear Andrew and Lachy set about cooking up a batch of sangs. Steve, Alana and Rongy wandered up to the café to get coffees. And I sloped off home leaving them to it, so while Lou is right in that I am more social than I used to be I still pick and choose how far my sociability extends on any given day:
Sandbagged 