Today Alan had kindly offered to pick me up from home. Living in Peppy Beach that required braving the country roads, which at the agreed time of the day was likely to be crawling (or hopping) with roos. That didn’t put him off and so for a change my car stayed in the driveway. Seeing I was ready a little early I left Lisa in bed with a cup of tea and the poodles, and started to wander down the road. If I had waited at the house I can guarantee that as he drove up the driveway the poodles would have gone ape and woken up half the street. Being dark Alan saw me a little late, but soon did a U-turn and came to pick me up:
Today I was going to be doing mostly belaying, as I had offered to allow him to take the sharp end to build up his leading and gear placing confidence. It was a cold morning and the cab of the car was toasty, so as soon as I jumped in off came the beanie and buffalo. I then settled down to be chauffeured down to Wilyabrup. By the time we got to the empty carpark it was light, and as expected there was a heavy dew. The grass and vegetation was wet, but after a couple of days of dry weather we were hoping for dry rock. As we approached the cliff we came across a new sign, and there is also one at the bottom of the cliff:
I have mentioned several times now how I have witnessed many more people down here than ever before. Most of them going for a walk, to take some images or pop down to the beach. I guess this sign has been put up because of that, it seems a bit obvious you’d think but I guess there are the less observant and sensible amongst us. We also witness that later in the day as a kid happily picked up and threw a rock over the edge, we of course politely asked him not too and explained why. At the base we inspected the rock and Alan’s first intended climb, Twenty Questions, looked less than desirable. Water streaked down the face and splashed out as it hit the ledges:
He was not looking too keen, not only was it a very crisp morning which meant rock was cold to touch but this one was mostly very wet. But as many come to expect when climbing with me, things like that really shouldn’t put you off and as such I managed to convince him to just crack on with it. That he did and while it took him a little while at the crux section, he sorted his gear and head and then pulled the moves off with relative ease. As he was topping out and getting his belay set up Craig wandered along with Julian. Julian just happened to be down for a few weeks working at the same place as Craig’s wife Oyukha:
As the introductions were made it turned out Julian knew both Craig and I, we had met him some time back when we had gone out to Eaglestone Rock in the Wheatbelt. I recognised the face but would never have placed it from then, it just goes to show how small our Western Australian climbing circles are. They carried on along the path in search of a warm up climb, while I climbed up after Alan. When we got back down we headed for his second intended lead and that meant a bit of bolt clipping. This allowed Alan to lighten the harness as he climbed Setting Sun:
He said before that he was nervous about this one but it never showed and he made very short work off it After polishing that route off we caught up with the other and found Craig belaying Julian up One for the Road. Some warm up some might say but he managed to on-sight it with relative ease. I had caught wind that he had been here a few times but it seemed that there was lots and lots that he hadn’t climbed, including some of the classics that you might expect. I scrambled round looking for a few nice camera angles while Alan racked up for his third lead, it was time to place the trad rack back on his harness as he headed for Hope:
Other than that first line everything else we touched today was dry and in good condition. The rock was certainly cold but after one climb that didn’t seem to worry Alan. He took his time and methodically placed his gear and climbed. Making use of wires, hexes, cams and tricams so he could practise the full range of trad gear available. I didn’t see him place a dodgy piece the whole day. On Hope there was a bit of a stutter at the crux, needing to rethink his gear and place just one more piece to give him the peace of mind and confidence to then work the crux moves:
It was a glorious day and still we were the only people here. The sun was creeping round and it felt good when you were in it, but the wind was also starting to turn. The easterlies that had sent the wind out to the ocean was shifting round to a north westerly and the cold wind started to bite. I was belaying Alan in the cold shadows of the corner underneath One for the Road unable to escape the wind, as Craig soaked up the sun climbing up Road Trip. The long runout on this route gave Julian a bit of a shock when he came up second, it certainly adds a bit of spice to the route and one I have mentioned when I led this route recently:
Now with three good leads under his belt I decided to steer Alan towards Thunder Thighs, the easiest climb of the day. Another trad line but one that just feels different, and if truth be told may be a bit of a sandbag if you compare it to other routes of the same grade here. It was however not any harder than anything else Alan had led today. I noticed made him slow down and have think and work his gear a bit more than usual. He claimed it was runout and a sketchy in places. After I seconded him up I pointed out that he had placed twelve bits of gear (all good) but he stuck to his guns about it feeling runout. Like I said the route just feels a bit different:
As we wandered down Julian was experiencing the delights of Inner Space. He looked to be making good progress and made short work of the flake and slab, but then stopped below the final headwall. Impressively it only took him a couple of false starts to commit to the runout and exposed finish before he finished it off. Craig, Alan and I all swear that he seemed to finish it off with a bit of a beached whale flop, as his legs flipped out while his body disappeared over the lip of the final wall. No discredit meant, as it was another fine on-sight:
By now Alan was indicating that he didn’t have much leading gas in the tank left, and after four back to back leads with minimal breaks in-between I was prepared to cut him some slack. So as not to raise the grades I headed for Hitching, the name of which Craig seems to mix up with Road Trip. This route has some marginal gear the crux is protected by two of the smallest, tiniest, lest inspiring brass RP placements you can imagine. You then end up leaving them several meters below your feet, a fall that they would be unlikely to hold. This one really did test Alan. He popped the RPs out and got above where they were placed, but then seemed to get lost and went offline:
Holding on to mot much at all he eventually fell off leaving more skin, from his fingertips, on the rock than he really wanted too. By now a few climbing parties had turned up, and as we walked down after this route there were also loads of people who had wandered along to the beach. It was getting to that late morning to midday time when we find most people rock up, and this is why early starts are so appealing to me. Now as I was belaying Alan on Thunder Thighs I had spied some crag booty, so I climbed the first part of Dolphin Smiles to collect it, one tap and this micro wire popped out. The question I really have is why was it placed, when I was able to place not one but two bomber cams just below the placement:
We then decided to hit one last route with our packs so we didn’t have to walk them out. I led up Glory with Julian to my left as he was enjoying a more relaxed climb on Hope. Alan and Craig then climbed up almost side by side to join us, and as Alan and I got ready to head out the boys headed back down. Julian was going to jump on Stainless Steel, and I hope he managed to keep up the on-sighting for that route. Alan and I decided not to stick about to witness it, instead we wandered back to the now packed carpark where I slumped into the passenger seat and enjoyed the chauffeured ride home:
Sandbagged 