It was that time of the year again when Craig can claim to be yet another year older. And for some strange folks like us there is no greater gift we can give or hope to receive than a day out on rock. It keeps things easy and there is none of this need or expectation for cards or presents, instead all I had to do was offer to take him out for a climb. This year, more so in view of the weekend forecast looking grim we headed out on the big day itself. This was also a weekday when Henry and Charlie would be at school, so it meant that they still had the weekend together. After putting the plan in place earl in the week I didn’t check the forecast again until the night before and it had all changed, but we decided to head out anyway:
It has been a little while since Craig has been out, and even when he has he hasn’t done a lot of leading. Today OI wanted to make sure he got on the pointy end and as such I was thinking to keep the grades reasonable. While it may seem an unlikely option at Bobs Hollow, there are a surprising number of worthwhile routes up to grade 19, or low E1’s for the UK folk. It was another walk-in during the early waking morning. There was rain to the north and south but we had managed to score a patch of clear sky, allowing enough of the dawn light to seep through to be able to see without head torches:
As soon as we arrived we made a beeline to the southern end of the crag and Lovers Nuts. Being the most protected and one of the lower grade routes it was an ideal way to start the morning. Being in auto pilot I found myself racking up, and when I asked if Craig fancied leading he made comment about me being all racked up so I might as well go first. Well as the images above show it didn’t take long for me to chuck the ten draws on his harness and send him up first. There wasn’t too much resistance to the idea and while he got a bit of a flash pump he managed a clean ascent and he seemed to enjoy the lead even though he had no time to warm up:
The plan for today was for me to get Craig back to Busselton for 1pm, where he was going to be going out for a birthday lunch with his wife, Oyukha. I knew that it was quite achievable as Rongy and I had managed a similar return time last weekend. However, I also knew that we wouldn’t get as many routes in due to Craig’s climbing fitness and stamina not being where it once was. He can still crank but with this steep stuff and my intention to get him leading would no doubt wear him down in a good way. As such I had formulated a bit of a plan of how the day would pan out, which a little bit selfishly included not repeating too many routes from my trip here last weekend:
So it was that I climbed Unknown. One of the lesser climbed routes of the place and one that is a bit of a mental challenge for me, due to a gnarly last few sequences to get up and over a huge cave. That sequence always puts me on edge and when you get nervous you tend to over grip and waste valuable energy making things seem so much harder than they are. Today’s ascent was no different, in fact it was worse. The route finding was not immediately obvious and a couple of times I deviated off line and yo-yoing on these steep lines is not advisable. I managed a clean ascent but was so pumped that it hurt, and as Craig lowered me back down it was a very slow descent and I was spinning round as the rope untwisted:
The combined effect of painful arms and the whirly decent started to make me feel a little queasy, and I was very thankful when my feet hit the ground. It was only then the reason for the slow decent became apparent, the rope drag was horrendous. I hadn’t noticed on lead, but maybe that had contributed to making it harder than it should have been. We struggled to figure out why that was. Yes there was a dog leg in the route near the top and thought maybe that was the reason but it really didn’t make any sense:
On Craig’s ascent he ducked into the big cave and tied off on one of the speleothems, a ceiling to floor pillar, so he could untie and to get rid of a huge twist in the rope. While this may seem a strange thing to do he explained later that he didn’t fancy the spinning effect that would occur if he had fallen. Craig had however been paying attention while belaying me and learnt from my mistakes. This allowed him to follow the line proper, conserve his energy and manage a clean second. When he rapped down the reason for the rope drag became more apparent, he was able to completely let go of the rope and he still came down at a very slow pace:
Today we were using his rope and while it has been stored appropriately, not coiled but flaked into a rope sack and kept dry, it was feeling a bit stiff. It looked like new, hardly a sign of any wear, which is why when it was a bit rigid during belaying we had not paid it much attention. Hopefully after a few routes it would start to flex up a bit, or at least that is what we hoped for. The next route I had in mind, was a new line that Rongy had spied last weekend. As we stood below it Oyukha called. Plans were changing and the lunch date was off, so could we instead pick the boys up from school. This meant two more hours of climbing:
We looked up at the new climb and Craig wasn’t sure the start was very overhung, almost horizontal. It then went up another very steep section before tackling the headwall on which there looked two be two lines. The easier top line looked to continue along a traverse out left to the belay anchors. Looking at the guide I now know is the traverse of Mixed Grill. That meant the route is likely to be at least 22, and I feel the decision we made not to try it was sensible. Rongy will be pleased to hear that as I know he is very keen to jump on it next time, and I reckon that the alternative top section which goes direct to the belay anchors will be somewhat harder:
With more time up our sleeves we decided to ease the pace and climb the two easiest routes at Bobs Hollow. Unlike the rest of the steep climbs these are proper slabs. My memory of them being that they were very sharp. But after some of the routes I did on my last trip these didn’t feel that bad, or maybe they had seen a lot of ascents and the sharpness had been worn out of them. Regardless of that Craig enjoyed leading up Export Bogans, which we both agreed is pleasant but somewhat over graded. As he climbed I was being distracted by the water beading on the bright red Templetonia retusa flowers, or coral bush as it is more commonly called:
I got Craig to jump on first to lead both of the routes here and next up was Clever Trevor, the slightly steeper of the two lines. Neither stumped Craig but this one was certainly a bit more interesting and made him stop of a moment to think at the crux. This was at some of the flowstone features that makes for interesting and unusually climbing, which Craig said he really enjoyed. This one is graded more reasonably but comparing it to the other routes here is probably still at least a grade easier than the guide suggests. I enjoyed the relaxed amble on these so much that I also down climbed them, something that I didn’t even contemplate on the harder lines:
Now as many will know, you can’t get out with Craig without a flask being taken. We had always intended to have a tea break, Craig’s arms would need it and today after the second route I felt like mine would also need it. And seeing we had more time to kill we rationed the hot brew to ensure there was enough left for a second reasonably sized cuppa later on. While it didn’t look threatening we stashed our bags high up in the main cave to avoid them getting unnecessarily wet. It was a room with a view and very comfy, so we spent some time just kicking back:
Since we had arrived clouds were looming all around us but we seemed to have managed to secure a pocket of mostly blue sky. This was in part assisted by the winds being low and the banks of rain to the north, south and west of us had never looked too close. It seemed like we were in a protective bubble created by the blue sky hovering above us. This also resulted in us seeing lots of rainbows of all shapes and intensities, including double rainbows. Some were just fragments like below and other stretched their vibrant colours across the sky in perfect arches:
As we sat and drank our tea I was getting more relieved that Craig wasn’t overly keen on the new route. We had a clear view of it from our stance and the final wall looked to be slightly overhanging, so I feel it is likely to be a pretty intense route. The upper wall offered a steep blank looking left variant or right variant that may look easier but then finished with the leftward traverse that I knew from past experience on Mixed Grill would be super pumpy. Craig was however keen to try something a bit harder than the routes so far so we moved to the northern end of the crag. Scanning the lines I suggested a couple of them, both of which Rongy had led last weekend:
He plumped for the slightly harder line of Constructive Vandalism at grade 21, in the E2 range. With big holds and reachy moves we both felt that it suited his stature and style. However, as soon as he set up I heard whimpering’s of the rock being wet and everything felt slimy and hard. With much encouragement by me, and far more back talk from Craig than I am used too, I encouraged him to dog his was up to the fourth bolt. By then he was well and truly done, I could tell he really did want to get back down and it was no longer fun:
I pulled the rope, feeling confident that it wouldn’t be that bad. After all, last weekend when I climbed it Rongy’s words were “you cruised up that”. The moves just fell into place and nothing felt hard, I hardly had to think about it. The first bolt was OK and yes there was dampness nothing too bad, but after that while you couldn’t see water running or dripping off the rock it was soaking wet. The water was literally seeping out of the rock and it was horrendous. Hats off to Craig for getting as far as he did and in better style than I did, I think he found a bit of very deserved satisfaction from watching me struggle more than he did at the crux. Needless to say when I eventually got to the fourth bolt we bailed:
With a better idea of how to read the rock from below it became clear that most of the lines at the northern end were seeping water. It wasn’t coming from above and it certainly was coming from rainfall, as it had been dry the whole morning. We could only conclude that it had come to that part of winter where the groundwater from above was starting to express through the rock. I wonder if Rongy and my trip last weekend may have been the last opportunity for dry rock in this area of Bobs Hollow:
It was an easy choice of what to do next. While I had been thinking to try Magnus the Robot Fighter that too looked to be seeping, so we walked by and headed back the sun bathed southern area. Craig pondered as to whether he was up for the crag classic of Shaved Cats, and came to the conclusion that after four and half routes he wouldn’t be able to do it justice. So I repeated a line from last week and went for Escalade De Rasoir. It felt great to be on dry rock again, and as Craig was getting ready to climb I got a message from Howise that they had spotted our car:
We later found out that they had started to walk towards the crag but Fergus and Frank had had enough half way along, which was fair enough. It may also have had something to do with the clouds inching their way towards us. Craig thoroughly enjoyed the route, the delicate and technical nature of the climb was just his style and perfectly dry. However, the super sharp rock did mean that a fall on this route would be pretty painful and he openly admitted he wouldn’t have been up to leading it. Coming down he indicated that we could rap things up, but I had other ideas:
We still had plenty of time before we needed to pick Henry and Charlie up from school so, and seeing how Craig had earlier mentioned how much he liked climbing those flowstone features I had one more line in mind for him to follow up. I was also keen as it had been mostly quite sunny this morning with minimal wind. You may be wondering why that is relevant, well it meant is was warm and I quietly hoped warmed enough for carpet python. I have come across them quite a few times on this line, just lying there soaking up the rays of the sun:
It was not to be today but the route was fun as always, except for the traverse. Like the first climb the rope drag was really bad, I knew it was not the bolting as last weekend when I led it there was no drag. Today however I had to work hard and yank the rope through before making each move, and again being lowered it was a slow affair. It seemed that Craig’s rope, while it had been fine on the direct lines we had done it really didn’t like anything that snaked about. Craig followed up Juggernaut with ever tiring arms, as the rain started to encroach:
The sky didn’t open until he was safely at the rap station. As a few drops started to fall I scampered off to the protection of our base camp high in the big cave. It was now time to have that second cuppa. So I poured them and sat back in the dry as he got himself ready for one last slow abseil. I could see the rain bank getting closer and closer and the flood gates opened as he was half way down. It felt like we had squeezed the most we could have out of the weather window that had lingered above Bobs Hollow today:
We still weren’t in any rush, so sat back to drink a very welcome second cuppa. As we looked out at the amazing view the rain passed over followed by sun. This allowed some of the gear to dry just a bit before we had to stuff into our packs. Eventually we could stall no more and as I coiled the offending rope it still felt pretty ridged. It was a good thing that while the rope had been stiff as a board Craig had not felt that way. We had managed to bag six great dry lines of which he led three, not forgetting the half a lead on a sopping wet climb, on a day that most wouldn’t have even consider heading out to climb on:
I really don’t know how we lucked it, but the walk out was in sun. We took a much more leisurely stroll that the last power-walk march out of here with Rongy. A relaxed 45min walk, as opposed to a 30min stealth mission. This allowed more time to observe things and that included all the borrows all along the footpath. Piles of dark sand mounded up with a distinct hole in the middle. I wasn’t sure what had made them, and then we came across a bug that was in the early stages of attempting to bury itself in the middle of the path. Maybe this was the guilty critter? To avoid it getting trampled on we moved it off the path, allowing me to get a close look:
It is a beetle larvae and checking online I wonder now if it is a cockchafer beetle, which is in fact an introduced pest. Despite the inclement weather, as we made the return leg we still passed a few people out for a walk. Like them we stopped on several occasions to admire the spectacular views. We finally strolled up to the car and on the drive back there was enough time to pick up a feed and do a couple of errands in Busselton, before picking Henry and Charlie up from school. The change of plan that Oyukha had mentioned before was for Craig and the family to head out for a birthday dinner, and after such a long day out I hope he didn’t fall asleep at the table:
Sandbagged 