It seems like it has been a while since I have been back to the crag that always feels like an old friend to me. So with the help of Jaime that was rectified today. It’s a traditional style place with mostly lower to mid-grade routes, but despite the lower grades it seems to strike fear into quite a few people I know. As such I was interested to see how Jaime went here. First impressions were good and like me she really liked the situation with the ocean so close and a great outlook from this small rocky headland:
We began the day on the main area, Hand’s Up Wall. Gothic Streak was Jaime’s first taste of the roundness of Moses that puts many people off the area. While it initially came as a bit of a shock, she soon figured out how to work with the different formations and made short work of this route. I have probably said it before, but this line was the first route I climbed in Western Australia. Back then fresh and strong from Alice Springs I soloed it, but today I made use of the available gear of which, despite some people’s views of many of the climbs here, there is enough of:
Before we had started climbing and as we walked in, I showed Jaime a few of the areas that offer a surprising diversity of climbing at Moses. I’d already checked before and knew it was going to be a low swell and very low tide, raising my hopes of getting into the Zawn. But it all depended on the condition of the rock and whether Jaime was OK with it. As the images show she was up for it, and after just one route on Hand’s Up Wall we were scrambling down into the Zawn to get even closer to the ocean:
I was super happy that she liked the feeling of being so close to the water and the atmosphere the Zawn provides, which is quite unique to nearly all of the other spots in the South West. We started on Wetting Thy Pants and then below on Freddy’s Bidet, before moving onto Broken Surf. There is nothing too hard in this area, but the conditions are often a bit more damp, with either seepage coming down from above or salt spray coming up from below. Today however the rock was in perfect condition, making each route feel like its listed grade. Despite a few holds coming away Jaime still wasn’t put off this area and we carried on:
While we were lucky with the conditions today, we did come across a baby octopus that was not so lucky. I thought it was alive as it slithered into a crevice, looking like it was trying to hide from me as I approached. It was in fact being dragged down by several crabs who had a secure hold of its tentacles, and were showing no signs of letting go. I was a little surprised as I always viewed the octopus to be the predator and the crabs to be one of their prey, but I guess this one had not had the chance to get big enough before that was the case:
We left nature to its course, but I have to admit that before we did I took a while to see if there was any life in the octopus and it seemed not. So as the crabs to continue their feast we tackled the steeper southern wall of the Zawn, starting on Frontpage. One of my creations from nine years back that was a little more feisty than I recalled, probably because I opted to avoid the obvious crack and climb the blank walls in-between spaced horizontal breaks. While Jaime was really enjoying this place, she opted not to follow my lead and made use of the cracks:
Next up was the classic and first route put up in the Zawn, A Wet Dream on Elm Street. This line was established in 1989, five years after the namesake film was released. It’s a route that often makes me nervous due to holds sloping the wrong way, being one of the steepest lines here and often been a tad damp. While I found a couple of drying puddles of sea water on a ledge, the usually seeping lower crack was close to fully dry and the upper wall was in perfect condition, in fact probably the best I have ever climbed it in:
Jaime paid particular attention to the start of this route claiming, as I got above it, that she might struggle due to stronger climbing techniques I had employed. In my usual casual manner I brushed this aside and mutter something along the lines of she’ll be fine and figure out a different way. I relished every hold and position on this the route and once on top, as I had for the previous climb, wandered to the back wall to ensure I got into a good position for some images:
Despite my antics to get the best angles Jaime wasn’t put off and even seemed to cruise up the initial crack with relative ease. The angle for the images didn’t quite work, due to the shadow the sun was still making on this wall and the bright background, but it did allow me to have a great view. It also allowed me to test Jaime’s acceptance of such antics, and she seemed fine with it. We pondered what to do next and soon found ourselves back in the Zawn at the bottom of Freddy Kruger’s Claw. It was almost good enough to jump on The Beach, a climb I’ve only ever seen in condition once, but for today it was now time to leave the mighty Zawn:
I can’t recall hitting so many routes in the Zawn in one day before, but we were not done just yet. The classic of Moses Rocks beckoned and as such we finished off on Wheely Things, a fitting end to a very cool session at my old friend Moses Rocks. The ocean was looking stunning and very inviting but it was time to walk out. There was talk of needing to bring snorkel gear next time something I have been thinking of doing this summer on my climbing trips, so maybe next time and hopefully we might get to see a live octopus:
Sandbagged 