The interested crew this week steadily grew as the week progressed, and the band of two that I was expecting to be out swelled to six. So it was that on this overcast morning, soon after 6, three ropes were up. Rongy, Jaime and Jake wandered off to find Verbosity while Alan was keen to jump on Sirius, while Mark solo’d up Hope. This may have you puzzled so let me explain that Mark has just started to do a bit of top rope soloing and was keen to have our opinion on his setup, which is why he went solo for his first climb:
If you can cast your mind back to a few weeks ago there was mention of Verbosity, a climb that strikes fear into the heart of many. In fact other than people I have pointed towards it I have never seen anyone else climb it, and only a small selection of those I encourage to try it ever go back for a second taste. Like me, those that do, highly rate it and we can now add Jaime to that list. Maybe also Jake, but in truth I can’t recall what he thought of this route that also happened to be his first taste of Wilyabrup. I can’t say that I was very motivated to start with, and Alan was equally low on energy so while we made our way up Sirius neither of us were really into it:
It felt like the motivation levels were not as high as normal, in that after the first routes were done and dusted people were milling about doing a lot of chatting and not much climbing to start with. The standing about was prolonged when we got back to base camp when Jaime cracked open the Anzac biscuits. We were, however, here to climb so I wandered off to get going. Seeing she had loved Verbosity so much I was hoping to find another crack climb that Jaime could have a bash at squeezing into. Twenty Questions while fun didn’t quite hit the mark and it was even remarked that it “was a bit on the easy side”:
While I was leading and setting up the top rope for the others to have a go at Twenty Questions, Jake had his first taste of leading at Wilyabrup. He’d popped round to mine on Wednesday to join in our weekly boulder night, and had smashed it. As such both Rongy and I were keen to see how he went outdoors, and the answer was clear. He seemed to float walk up Fishing with Dynamite, with an ear to ear smile on his face. I wandered past just as Rongy was heading up so managed to sneak in an extra climb, as I also followed up. Starting to climb before Rongy had topped out as the rope wasn’t quite long enough:
Coming back down, and after finding out that Twenty Questions may have been a little too easy, I thought they might instead like Left-hand Crack. This would bump it up several grades and was a crack climbing so still stuck with the same style. It is the first time in months that I have seen this route dry, and despite it being a southerly wind, which brought a risk of salt spray coming in, you couldn’t ask for better conditions. It’s one of those routes that is engaging from start to finish and demands good technique, without technique it is easy to make a complete mess of it:
In view that the conditions were so good, Rongy decided he would try one of his projects. The mid-section of Stormbringer goes up a steep wall via a long sequence of friction holds, some of which are really not that positive. It’s a style that definitely suits Rongy with his fingertips that never sweat, and I think he was in part also keen to see how it felt in comparison to the last route we climbed on our trip down south, Under Cover. That entire route was similar to the mid-section of this one and it was also the same grade, and the result was that while a little different they were definitely comparable:
You may have noticed that I seemed to have lost control of my camera. Jaime asked if she could take an image or two and I didn’t see it again until we were walking out. So from here on in you will get visuals of her perspective of the morning, and she unashamedly made sure she got some butt shots! That said this image does provide a good view of the first crux of the route Rongy was on, which is steep and depending on how you climb it powerful. He climbed it the powerful way and almost came undone at the very start because of it:
I’m pleased to say that Rongy finally got the route clean, and this time he had a well-deserved ear to ear smile. It seemed that Left-hand Crack was also a winner, both Jaime and Alan lapped, both climbing it with good technique and enjoying it. Alan confessed that this used to be his warmup climb, which is pretty impressive, and he’ll definitely need to start to build up his stamina and confidence to get back to where he was back then. Mark didn’t follow up as he had to depart but he was keen to try it next time, and I’m hoping we can convince him to join us on our morning escapades a few more times:
As Jake followed Rongy I had decided that I too would have another bash at this line. While the mid-section was on my mind, even the start was making me nervous so I was quizzing the people who had watched Rongy how he did it, so I could be ready for it. You might ask why I hadn’t watched Jake, well he pulled out the power on the start and did it in a different and very direct way. I knew I couldn’t do it that way. Jake almost managed a clean ascent, slipping off the last few smear holds in the mid-section:
When I followed up I found a sequence for the bottom that was nowhere near as powerful, but just as effective. It also meant that I was pretty relaxed at the start of the mid-section. Sadly somehow I slipped of the very first friction holds, and ended up having to repeat the route almost from the start. This time I got through the smeary section clean, which is a first for me. Wandering back down Jake appeared at the top of Left-hand Crack, which I also did repeat lap on to clean the gear. It was then time to move back to Steel Wall for Jake’s next lead:
While I was keen to get Jaime and Alan up another route, I was also keen to watch Jake and in truth follow him up. It is a rare occurrence for me to kick back at the crag, but today it happened. The drive to keep going and going just wasn’t there, so like Lisa would I found a comfy rock armchair and lay back. Alan was still not feeling it so was equally happy to relax. Meanwhile Jaime continued on her quest to get the perfect rear end image, as Jake cruised up his second lead on Pascal’s Route:
He was again impressed with the rock and route quality, and I think it is fair to say he thoroughly enjoyed his first taste of Wilyabrup rock. I went up second followed up Rongy, and it is only as I went through the images that I realised what theatrical tricks were going on below Jake and I. Despite, no doubt, using up a bit of juice on this stunt he managed to get up the rest of the route without a slip. In truth both Rongy and I should be able to manage most routes up to this grade, as we have climbed them a fair few times and knowing what lies ahead makes it a fair but easier:
I was still keen to get one more route in, and had considered a few options, aiming for the more traditional style climbing. Not just face climbing but ones that required a bit of three dimensional thinking. So I landed on Rhys’s Rapid Retreat. I’m of the opinion that you should end a climbing trip on a good note, that hadn’t happened last time with Jaime when we finished on Golden Buttress. So I was a little nervous that I might have made that same mistake this time, as Rongy was of the thinking that it may have been a little tough for her:
I needn’t have worried, she cruised up it and even better really enjoyed and even relished the varied climbing that it offered. When she got up explaining how she had slowed down and thought about the moves before racing in to them. Also, when pulling the gear out she thought about how I would not have put the gear in unless I was in a comfy position, so worked out the best stance first. It seems that the lessons from the previous trip had stuck or was it, as I subtle suggested later, the negative reinforcement of my post on that previous trip:
Whichever it was it certainly paid off big time, and there was even talk of repeating Golden Buttress to give it a second chance. Alan was not inclined to follow-up after us, instead content to have a chat with the other climbers that had been steadily rolling in as the morning wore on and taking in the pleasant views. Slowly on patches of blue sky crept in-between the clouds that had greeted us on arrival. As Jaime and I wandered down we found Rongy just starting up Fat Chance, which Jake had led. Not one to miss out I got him to take up my rope so I could also follow up with all my gear from the last route still jangling about off my harness:
Despite having started slow and also having kicked back for a while I had somehow managed to rack up ten pitches, so was pretty content. It was by now finally time to wrap up yet another successful morning. Jake had been introduced to Wilyabrup, Rongy had bagged his project, Mark’s top rope set up passed the test, Jaime had redeemed herself. As for Alan well he had managed a chilled morning out, something he was in need of. Jake and I drove out leaving Alan, Rongy and Jaime to discuss stage two of their Saturday… where to head for a mountain bike ride:
Sandbagged 