After two sessions of pulling plastic over the last week I have been feeling pretty whacked, and while I’ve highlighted the two boulder sessions there are probably a few factors at play. So when there seemed little chance of anyone else being available to head out this weekend, I was undecided. But my rock fetish got the better of me and I prepared myself for a solo mission. In my usual overly organised fashion the bag was packed on Friday night, and when Saturday morning arrived I wasn’t feeling particularly motivated. Instead mooching about the house chatting to Lisa and sipping cups of tea. Eventually I got moving, and in my relaxed state I couldn’t help stop just after leaving Peppermint Grove Beach to take a snap of the black swans:
Being early spring the wetlands that boarder our little hamlet are full of water and attracting many waterbirds, including egrets, herons spoonbills and of course the black swans. They have an erratic migration pattern, but are known to mainly breed in our part of the world and these wetlands are perfect for them during this period. In the 1800s they were seen as ornamental birds, a little like peacocks, and introduced to quite a few other countries. I can understand why, as the red beaks stand out and when they fly the flash of white in their wings is very striking:
Despite the glorious forecast and my late arrival at the carpark, I had the pick of spots with not one other car having gotten there before me. It is the first time in many months that I have walked to the crag in just a T-shirt, and even the baggy bottoms felt a little overkill today. While there were no cars at the carpark I did pass a couple of people hiking on the Cape to Cape track. The “Wander out Yonder” campaign being promoted in Western Australia to increase local tourism is working very well at getting people out and about, maybe a little too well for us locals:
I had initially procrastinated about where to go, Welly Dam or Wilyabrup and if the latter then which area. I plumped for Wilyabrup, and then even as I walked in I was changing my mind about which area to climb. There had been a bit of rain early this morning and so the rock might have been damp, and that along with me feeling achy and tired made me think about Driftwood Bay where there were long lines and easy grades. But as it was I stuck to my original intention as I had left the house and headed to the Northern Blocks:
It’s easy to set up the top ropes here and every route, or at least the ones I had in mind, are worthy. As I started on my first route, Corpus Delecti, there were a few drops from the sky. They however soon stopped and never returned. Next I hit Digital Delecti. The two climbs felt hard and my arms pumped out very quickly, I was doing my usual of two laps on each route and they didn’t feel any easier on the second lap, which I would normally expect. As I was tackling these lines a group had congregated on the rocks with all their photography gear, and stayed there while I played on the two lines. Hopefully I didn’t spoil their natural landscape:
I was thinking that maybe four lines would do me today. So I climbed Use No SLCDs and then shifted the top rope setup again to play on Trust Your Instincts (below). Despite both of them being a grade harder than the first two lines I felt good on them. On most of the lines today I took my time, resting where I could and shaking out to avoid getting pumped. But on the first lap of Trust Your Instincts I was extra slow, then as I got to the top a large group of hikers burst into applause and cheers. From previous posts you may have noticed it is not something I particularly enjoy, so it didn’t result in any response from me:
As the image below shows the offending hikers moved on after lap number one of Trust Your Instincts, which I was pleased about. Then after finishing the second lap and feeling pretty good I looked down and decided to hit Green Stone, at two grades harder. I have led this route a couple of times before so kinda knew what to expect. But my prior knowledge and new found rhythm for the morning didn’t help me, and on both laps I was unable to sustain the pace and had to rest. I’m still not sure and replaying the route in my head about how to manage the many sustained moves in one hit:
Howsie be warned that last route will be on your list for next year… Now I feel you should never finish a climbing morning on a failure, so I set up on the easiest line of the day and a cracker of a route called Banana Split. In fact you should never climb here and not do this route, it’s so good. It was a nice cruisey way to finish off and I had enough left in the tank so it didn’t feel too challenging. It also offered, like the first bit of Use No SLCDs, a chance to practice my jamming skills. Something that may well be required in earnest on a trip planed in November:
After six fine lines and twelve laps I was toast. In addition to the photographing and applauding hikers I had seen quite a few others out as well. Even as I walked out I bumped into a few more so I let them get ahead of me as I scoured, as I had been all morning with no success, for any fauna or flora of interest. So I’ll leave you with an image of this wood layered bracket fungus, this was the best specimen I found. Google has however failed me and I can find no interesting facts about it:
Sandbagged 