Being the last week of my go slow January, and due to having a public holiday in the middle of the week, I took Thursday and Friday off to really chill out. It’s going to be a bit of a rude awakening next week, when it is back to the five days week. But I am making the most of it before then, with a trip to Welly Dam on Wednesday; helping Craig to put the frame for his new shed up yesterday; getting out with Howsie today and then tomorrow I’ll help Ash get his trad leading head back:
I’m not known for my love of the sun, avoiding the sun being a key reason for why I like such early starts for climbing. But yesterday, helping Craig with his shed, there was no escaping it. You could say I’m a bit of a wuss in that regard, I get really weary when I’m in the sun all day. Therefore, it was a good job that today Howsie and I were visiting the Organ Pipes. I could take it a bit easy, allowing Howsie to take nearly all of the leads. In part, as I had recently been here with Mario but mostly because Howsie has not climbed here before:
He is like me. He loves climbing for climbing sake, so I knew he would enjoy the at times more rambling style of routes here. If you can forgive that they are good trad lines, with a good number awaiting Howsie to tick them off. We started easy, allowing him to get a feel for the rock. We had a rap line set up, and as many lines start from the same location we could throw the rope down. It was quite fast paced morning. While Howsie was loving lead after lead I was bidding my time, waiting for my chance:
After Howsie had enjoyed four very fun leads I decided it was now or never. Time to once again battle my demons and attempt my long term project. As I started the excuses began to enter my head. The first four routes had been just enough to wear the initial layer of skin from my fingertips, and I could feel the sweat seeping out more easily. It also felt like my arms where tired, did I get too much sun yesterday? Then there was the anticipation of what was to come, runout gear, delicate balancy moves, and small smeary holds. Only one point of contact needed to fail and I’d be off:
Despite all of those thought rattling about in my head I managed, finally, to get a clean ascent of The Reaper Man. It has only been waiting for me to lead it since 2014, but I can’t see people flocking to repeat it. We weren’t sure about the grade 19 or 20 but looking at my grade app I reckon a UK E2 5b/c is fair, so I’ll go with 20. Seeing this route has been such a mind game for me I had to video it. Whichever grade it really is, Howsie won’t need to climb it as part of his annual challenge. The year of 20’s, 2020, has passed and I get the feeling he might be pleased about that:
After my one lead I was more than happy to hand the rope back to him. The next few routes were not as hard but the grades, compared to his first four leads, were going up. Two of which had reasonable runouts at the tricky cruxes in the upper sections, offering a long fall should things go amiss. I could tell he too was getting tired, which was not a surprise. Taking on lead after lead is mentally draining. Also being new routes, for him, there is a tendency to hang onto holds for longer than necessary. As you ponder what might be above, so it is also physically more demanding:
Three routes later, and only just over three hours after we started climbing, we decided it was time to wrap things up. There are still a few routes here that Howsie will have to come back for; he just wouldn’t have had the energy to do them justice today. While I am loving all this climbing, it is taking my time away from the water and with each passing day it looks like our local beach is really starting to clear up again. Hopefully the clarity will be like it was before Christmas again, but I might not get in until after my first full week of work for a while:
Sandbagged 