Howsie sent me the list of grade 20s still left to bag after our trip to Wilyabrup last weekend, and seeing we had a week of dry’ish weather ahead of us I suggested a short jaunt up to Welly Dam might be in order. With five lines still on the list from this location it was the obvious choice, plus we were both keen on a quick session and the accessibility of Welly Dam gives exactly that. After the last few trips out, and feeling the cold, we decided on a far more reasonable start and the mist was rolling over the dam wall as we arrived in full daylight:
Over winter Welly Dam has been pretty soggy, worse than any winter I can recall. However, Rongy had been here on Friday doing a bit of trip rope soloing and had said it was definitely drying up. We were not expecting perfect conditions but we were hopeful and on arrival it was looking promising. We had not however managed to dodge the cold and it nowhere near to breaking double digits. Howsie had already suggested a warm up climb and was looking at me expectantly. I got the hint and racked up and pointed me towards Raging Torrent:
I felt cold and clumsy and by the top of the climb my arms were feeling tired. That said today was not about me, and it was the perfect warm up climb for Howsie. Making the whole body move about and stretch, with not too much fingery stuff. One of the negatives of the dam being that after winter loose rock can be more abundant, and as Howsie climbed up he managed to dislodge the rock above that narrowly missed me. If you look carefully you might be able to see it below as well, lucky I had my tin pot on eh. As we were finishing up a couple of cars rolled into the carpark:
The new arrivals were also climbers, a crew from Perth. A friendly mob who had camped to last night, so before they intended to get climbing they needed coffee. Out came a stove and they mulled about as Howsie took on his first grade 20… Gumby Goes Bolting. It’s a route he seems to enjoy and he made short work of it, I then pulled the rope and went up. I was again feeling clunky and robotic and felt like this pink fumitory, which is almost a climber. This weed doesn’t quite manage to climb and instead just seems to crawl over, and smoother, whatever it can:
Next on the list was Ebonie Road, the rock on this route was a bit wet in places. The start wasn’t too bad but the mid-section followed a line of very wet and greasy holds. Howsie was looking in fine form and cruised the start better than ever before, and then kept his cool on the upper section to make it two out of two. I followed up and this time I had started to warm up and things felt much smoother. The new arrivals who were still just mulling about watched on and afterwards we stopped for a bit of a chat to discuss the various lines here:
Today I was doing Craig’s job and had brought us a flask of tea. So with three lines down we felt like it was a good time to pour a cuppa, and make sure Howsie didn’t burn out to quickly. On the last few trips out he has only managed to bag two (or less!) 20s before his arms and stamina had given up. This meant we stopped and looked about a bit more and we noticed a sure sign of the changing seasons. The deciduous trees were covered in buds just starting to open up. The new green foliage will no doubt be very welcome as things heat up, providing us with a bit of shade when we start to battle the heat instead of the cold:
As we looked about a bit more I started to take a few images of the magical patterns lichen makes. Howsie told me how lichen are made of two plants that form a symbiotic or mutualistic relationship. They are formed of both algae and fungi, the algae produces carbohydrates which the fungi make use of and the fungi provide a protective environment for the algae to live in. They are very slow growing creeping outwards by 0.5mm a year and can live for up to 5,000 years. Even more amazing is that it is estimated that 6% of the earth’s land surface is covered with them:
Next up was Savage Sausage Sniffer, and seeing the tea was piping hot we left the lids off so it could cool down and marched on. Howsie had a bit of a stutter on this one near the top of the flake and I like to think that my words of encouragement along with reminders of where the better holds were helped him break through the maximum of two 20s a session barrier. Number three was in the bag and on each route I pulled the rope and led after him, this was in part to help slow us down and give him a bit more recovery time:
The red tails could be heard afar for most of the morning, but for a fleeting moment they gave us a display as landed and then took off from the trees atop the quarry wall. One of the other crew, who were still not climbing, also took advantage of the opportunity and got his camera out. Despite them all being racked up there was not a rope was in sight. They admitted to finding the climbing here “different” and quite sustained and difficult, and they are certainly not alone with that thought. Finally as Howsie and I finished our cuppas and started up Shock Therapy they started to put a few top ropes up:
We both had a shock when both of us walked up Shock Therapy, leaving only one grade 20 left at the dam. Loose Association was looking the least inviting of all of them, a rarely climbed route in the dry it looked even more ominous with water dripping down much of the line. Half of the holds were covered in slime and despite his best efforts, getting past the first bolts was just too difficult with so many holds out of action. So we decided to back off but not before I solo’d up to get the runner back and also witness just how horrible the holds were. They were truly grim, and we made a good choice:
We still had time for a bit of fun and just as we had started Howsie looked at me expectantly, so it looked like I was going up first and he gave me a choice of two routes. It was a quick decision, Taj vs The World won because it is technical, sustained, lots of fun and both Howsie and I really rate it. As I inched upwards, holding onto and relishing the small insecure holds Howsie had to occasionally return the favour and remind me where the holds were. It was, as always, brilliant and Howsie just couldn’t resist but to have a bash on lead himself while I experimented with a few new photo angles:
It was not until we were getting ready to pack up that the other crew finally started to put the top ropes to use. There was no sense of urgency created by crazy challenges or limited timeframes. Mind you even when we are not on a time limit there is still an air of desire to pack the lines in, or is that just when I am out there? It was time to fill the cups again and hit the road for the journey home, with four out of five 20s in the bag. A great session at the dam but it was time for us to leave the other crew to enjoy the pleasures of Welly Dam, who we found out were known as the Spider Monkeys:
Sandbagged 