The temperatures have been soaring in the south west of Western Australia over Christmas, and with a week of hot days forecast some might question the sense in heading out for a climb. It was already 26 degrees when I left the house at 4:30, making me think that a 5:30 meet at the carpark of Wilyabrup was probably a bit of a late start. But today was, like my last trip out, going to be a cruisy one. Howsie and Nadia were taking a friend who hadn’t been outdoors much, so we were not aiming to do anything hard:
We drove in separately today, as I was meeting Lisa afterwards in Busselton, needing to keep an eye out for roos on the track in. Today we set ourselves up at the southern end of the crag and spent the whole morning mostly having fun on a number of the shorter and easier lines. Normally this end would have a group or two playing on these lines, but today we had it to ourselves. Maybe the promises of another hot day had kept everyone at bay. We started in a route Andrew and I had established way back, Grotesque:
I doubt many people have ever been on it, as the gear is a little sparse and questionable. But the climbing is never too hard so I knew Howsie would be fine on it. I did however notice Nadia pickup on the brief mention of the gear, but she didn’t say anything. Sometimes it is best not to know. You may be wondering where the name of the route came from, well an existing line just to the right is called Gargoyle. A gargoyle is a decorative stone carving that you find on old buildings:
They are usually shaped like the head of a strange and ugly creature or human, and are spouts funnelling the water that comes off the building during a shower. Grotesques are also stone carvings of strange and ugly creatures on old buildings, but they are purely decorative and do not have the same function of controlling the water. So I named it for no other reason other than I felt like the two routes made a good pair, literarily and historically speaking. Even before we were finished on the first line, the sun was coming over the horizon and it had a sting to it:
So we were pleased to be setting the belay up as a top rope after each route had been led. We moved leftwards, next up was Candy Floss and then Brepus. I was curious and checked what brepus meant, and felt it is probably best not to include that on this post. While short these routes are fun and allowed Josh the chance to try an arête, face and then crack-chimney climb. Each requiring a different climbing technique. It was also a chance for Josh to check out the protection we were placing, admittedly the first route didn’t have much on it and in fact when Howsie led the chimney he put equally few pieces in:
It was not a day to be moving too fast and over exerting ourselves, not that this was an excuse for placing less gear. Howsie also went into complete laid back mode with his belaying, as Josh went up the next route. The only thing that didn’t make the lounging around in the shade below the crag pleasant were the flies, more than I have ever seen at Wilyabrup. Relentlessly seeking out any moisture, and capitalizing on any broken skin. We had moved across to Twenty Questions, and both Josh and then Nadia asked themselves at least that many, as they pondered the crux move:
This probably included “why am I doing this”, “surely this is not the right way”, “I wonder if they will let me down if I ask” and of course we wouldn’t, which was proven when Nadia asked. It was pleasing to see them not give up and they both made it up, and persevered even when they both were close to coming off at the midway point. This route has a bit of face, crack and arête climbing, as well as other styles. So they needed to make use of the techniques the last three climbs had required, all in one route:
After four fun routes it was time for Howsie to have a little self-indulgence. We had talked about this before today, and while there was a route I was keen to play on the heat was putting me off. Howsie was however keen and picked Rockfish Dreaming. A feisty and steep line, one he had never been on before so it was going to be fun to watch. I did suggest a few times where the route headed, as he started to look up vaguely. It’s not the most obvious, due to a large flake having fallen off from low down:
This resulted in the route weaving a bit to the right, then left before heading back up right to the centre stage of the steep headwall. After the monkeying around below the arms start to get pumped, and the headwall starts on small crimpy holds, ready to make your forearms pop. I led it a few months back and could still remember how they felt, but Howsie made it look easy. Practically running up the final wall, as a few fat drops of rain fell. Just for a while the air temperature dropped and it felt lovely:
Needless to say Nadia was definitely not keen to run up this one, Josh indicated he’d like to try but was sure he’d fail at the roof that you have to get over straight off the deck. So it was only me following up and while the first half flowed well, the headwall felt hard. The rain was enough to raise the humidity and I sweated myself up the line, and felt exhausted at the top. But before we hoicked our way out I led Tom Thumb Direct, which Nadia was keen to try but felt too tired and Josh seemed to run up without needing to stop and think:
We might need to through Josh at a harder line or two next time. But for today it was time for a sweaty walk out, but there was a much appreciated cool breeze. We passed a couple who had just arrived and were setting up a top rope above where we were climbing. There was also a group abseiling on Steel Wall, and seeing no one had walked past where we had been all day we were surprised at how many cars were at the carpark. We were however happy to leave them to it, and hit the road and enjoy a bit of air-conditioning:
Sandbagged 