Walking back into Wilyabrup today it looked like we might have lucked out. We were heading to Driftwood Bay as Rongy had never climbed there. Despite having been out here top rope soloing only last weekend I was of course happy to return. The place has a charm to it, one that resonates with me and this time we would be leading and that always feels different. Approaching the crag we could see a rainbow starting to form and as I set the rap line up the rainbow, like the dark clouds out to sea, seemed to expand:
Unperturbed we set off, and while I said leading would make it feel different I of course meant for Rongy. Having lead all of these routes myself before, some numerous times, I was more than happy to offer up the pointy end. While it rained as we rapped down when Rongy was ready to set off the sky opened up above us. The rock was damp but not too bad. However, the black lichen on the granite was best avoided and any attempt to hold onto that stuff would surely have resulted in a fall:
Pick Pocket was a good warm-up route for this crag, never too hard and nicely consistent with ample gear opportunities. The rock certainly needed to be treated with respect, due to the dampness, but also checking for loose holds. Sat atop the crag we looked to the south west and the next bank of clouds were rolling in. This time we couldn’t see an end to them, but we put any thoughts of heading home to climb in the shed, with a hot cuppa, to the back of our minds and instead went back down the rap line:
Sure enough the sky opened again, this time not with blue sky. It was the sort of rain that even Craig would call rain. It didn’t take long before water was streaming down the rock and it felt we were under a waterfall. The grades here are however reasonable and so we cracked on. Old Crate was the next line for the picking, again because it seemed to offer plenty of gear as it followed an obvious crack and flake system. Rongy climbed the route almost entirely in the rain, and it started to ease off as I prepared to follow up:
Things looked to be brightening up and Rongy was incredibly upbeat with the climb he had just done, having really enjoyed the fine natural features. So we decided to forget the shed and stay for another line or two. This time I went first, enjoying a gentle ramble up Crab Slab. The route was first climbed in 1970 before camming devices were available, which didn’t arrive on the scene until the late 70s. The upper slab would have been a bold lead back then. Today while it still has a move or two the security of a cam slotting into the slightly flared parallel crack system made it safe as houses:
The sky was now playing nicely and so we went back down for the crag classic. Water still dribbled down the two cracks, and they felt slimy to touch and less inviting than normal. Despite this the holds are positive enough to still use in these conditions, plus it has awesome slots that can gobble up wires providing an extra layer of comfort. This climb was also put up in 1970, and with loads of passive gear options I imagine this would have been a safer proposition despite being technically harder:
As Rongy was enjoying the delights of Integrity I was watching the sun creep round and hit the crag. With a bit of wind and sun, it doesn’t take long for the clean granite to go from sopping wet to bone dry. So I was eyeing off Turkish Delight, a route that stood out for me when I was here last weekend. It does make use of a fair bit of the black lichen covered rock, but I guessed that by the time we came back down the sun and wind would have worked enough magic to make it feel OK. That it did, and it was great fun:
Rongy managed to pull a reasonable sized plate of the wall as he came up, which landed on his leg before tumbling down. He held on, but it is never a great experience when a hold comes away on you so I thought that he was ready to call it a day. But as he climbed the top section I could see him looking over to the slabby finish of Sure Footed. So it didn’t take a lot of convincing that we should maybe squeeze one more route in, that plus I knew he would enjoy the start of the route up a jamming crack:
When it was my turn to follow I was just loading the inverted jam, which just doesn’t feel right, when I heard Rongy shout out WHALE. Holding onto this jam I twisted my body looking out waiting for a flipper, tail or full breach. Eventually and without seeing the whale I knew I had to keep climbing or fall off. As soon as I pulled up the jam slipped, and the stretch of the rope resulted in me gently landing on the deck. As I pulled past the tricky moves on the next attempt I looked round in time to see a big tail slap, after which the whale disappeared from sight:
Sandbagged 