After a fun social day at home playing on the boulder wall in our shed, and watching Wiggins’ latest video, I organised with Rongy to head out on the Sunday afternoon for a quick dash up to Welly Dam. Saturday night the strong front had had been forecast for Saturday finally came through with Collie getting an inch of rain, but Sunday morning had seemed windy and dry so I was hopeful. I picked Rongy up early in the afternoon and we headed inland, and soon a few drops were falling on the windscreen. In the distance we would usually be able to see the scarp as it rises above the flat coastal plain. Today it was just a mass of grey clouds:
We drove onwards and seemed to be bathed in sunlight, with clear skies above us. I told Rongy that the blue sky would follow us there. The roads driving in were drenched and ahead there were clouds, but as we got closer the sky above remained optimistic and sunny. Finally rolling into the carpark there was not a dry patch of anything in sight. A group had been picnicking and were just packing up, they told us that they had been sheltering under one of the structure as it had absolutely bucketed down just five minutes before we arrived:
I’ve climbed here in the rain and when it has seemed wet, but the steep walls have usually managed to stay a bit dry offering us a number of routes to play on. Today however every surface was soaking, water was running down many of the lines and as we walked back and forth trying to decide which lines to attempt we wondered if we would get anything done. On some routes waterfalls were dribbling down over the overhangs and splashing outwards when they hit ledges making it seem like it was still raining, but the blue sky that had followed us here told us otherwise:
Any routes with black lichen were definitely out, which was most of the lower grade routes. I kindly offered Rongy first lead, seeing how I have been out on rock much more than he has. Eventually he plumped for Raging Torrent, a very apt route considering the conditions. And in view of the conditions I felt like I should place him on belay before he left the deck, not that that would have helped if he had slipped before getting to the first bolt. He slowly and steadily worked each move, and it didn’t look like he was changing his approach to the climb, maybe there was hope:
He came down all upbeat at how good it had felt, so surely it wasn’t too bad… now I could blame Alan for encouraging me to start bouldering early the day before, so he could get a bit more climbing in, or maybe Geoff as he encouraged us to stay on the roof during the later sessions but that wouldn’t be right. I came unstuck at the first crux, I really struggled to stick the wet holds that Rongy had seemingly managed to use with ease and elegance. This resulted in me spinning off the face several times, and needing to work extra hard to finally get up. Then feeling exhausted, looking for a line that looked reasonable or me to jump on:
That was to be Savage Sausage Sniffer, and by the time I got to the top of the quartz flake I was gassed and slumped onto the rope. Everything seemed to ache now, but I had to get up this route. Pulling myself back on the wall I soon found myself near the top with only the trusty Mikey Pinch to secure the lead. It was however not to be and I was again flying through the air. Rongy managed to follow up cleanly, and was being kind when he said it would have been different if he had led it. The sun was still out and he was all fired up so set off up Just Do It, even with a protective overhang at the top this line had water all over it:
He made short work of it, again showing composure and an ability to confidently stick the wet holds. Needless to say that as I followed up my stellar performance continued with two slips on this route. After that there was no way I could have gone up any more, my fingers felt raw and everything was feeling achy. That said it was a lot of fun and for me humbling, but now it was time to pack the gear away and head out. It felt good to finally slump into the car seat, and as we drove out the clouds rolled in and the rain started to fall:
Sandbagged 