We were in for another warm day, and while we weren’t the first at the carpark we were the first at the crag. The occupants of the two cars already parked up were still in slumber land as we walked in. It’s been an abnormally hot summer, a record breaking one with more individual days over 40 in Western Australia than during any other summer on record. Australia’s heatwaves are usually driven by high pressures lying over the Australian bight to the south. This year this phenomena has been more regular and consistent:
In addition there has been a regular high pressure off the west coast, and this has at times resulted in the Freemantle Doctor not coming to drop the temperatures. Normally during summer, a cooling sea breeze would coming in the evening to provide respite. Locally known as the Freemantle Doctor. Without this the place stays warmer overnight, and this repetitive pattern of warmer nights and hot days results in the whole place heating up. What’s really interesting, and I knew this through work, is that heatwaves are Australia’s deadliest natural hazard:
More people die from heatwaves than floods or bushfires. Despite that, so little is done to improve how we plan our cities and towns, or build our houses to reduce the urban heat island effect. Where a bubble of hot air forms over the concrete jungles we insist on building. While it would be warming up today, Ash and I were keen to have a chilled session. A recent climbing accident of a friend of Ash had, understandably, knocked Ash’s confidence. But he was still keen to keep climbing, so today was about helping him to rebuild his trad leading mojo:
There is of course only one way to do that. Get on the sharp end and enjoy some cruisy lines. Ones that won’t stress you out and allows you to reset your climbing mindset. We jumped on the obvious well protected Glory and Hope, heaps of easy to spot and place gear. As each piece slots in your mind can relax that bit more, and you feel safer. I led and first and Ash jumped on the second, Hope. He laced it up with stacks of solid gear. After all if you are going to put it on your harness then you might as well use it, to save hauling it all the way up the climb:
You might notice above that Ash not only had a harness full of hardware, but he also brought along his big gear. I’ve only used a No.5 and 6 Camelot once, with Kym when I took on what felt to me like a brutal off-width. Not big enough to wedge your body in or arm bar, but not narrow enough to jam with one hand. But while I haven’t used them at Wilyabrup, it didn’t mean we couldn’t find a route or two for Ash to use them. Orryjohn seemed a likely candidate, a wide crack at the back of a chimney. Like his first lead he throwing the gear in at every opportunity:
Climbing with, and placing so much gear, can be time consuming. But today was about resetting Ash’s mind, by cramming in and trusting the gear not by bagging lots of routes. So far it looked like it was working. Orryjohn was a big hit. Ash was keen to get one more lead in and had his eyes on one of the big corners. His choice of Fat Crack was out, due to a party top roping right next to it. We had managed two routes before the trickle of climbers drifted in. So we picked another one of the wide corners, Chockstone Chimney:
Ash romped up his third lead, placing less gear than the other two. More so due to the ease of the route than anything else, but it was great to see him run it out a bit more with confidence. To boot all of his big Camelots got used for a second time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if after today they are put back into storage. The harness certainly feels a lot heavier and more cumbersome with them hanging off it. Despite the rising temperature, I reckon we achieved our goal of enjoying the climbing and staying cool headed:
Sandbagged 