A good day out

What with visiting the same locations for a climb as many times as we do, you sometimes have to shake things up to make them interesting.  This weekend Rongy was first to jump on the bandwagon to say he was keen to get out, and I threw out the idea of aiming to achieve what Bob, who I used to climb with in the Lake District, would consider “a good day out”.  And that was to have ascended 1,000ft, or for those modern metric people approx. 305m.  So to prepare for the day I pulled out the route database I prepared when I wrote the climbing guide for the area:

In selecting the climbs we applied a few criteria, which included only considering traditional routes (i.e. no bolts) that were between grades 13 to 19.  Or in British climbing speak HS 4b to E1/2 5b.  While 305m may not seem too bad, the route length at Wilyabrup averages around the 20m mark.  As such it meant packing in a few more lines than a normal morning out, plus with multiple short’ish routes we would have more belay stations to set up.  We would also have to walk back down to the base quite a lot, as we had also set ourselves a condition that we would not abseil to get back down:

Ash was intending to join us, but sadly was a no show.  Sarah also indicated that she was keen to get out again.  However, forewarned of our challenge this time she stuck to reptile hunting, and you may remember she loves our scaly friends.  At the top of the first route I thought I was lucky to spot the above exoskeleton, which I think is from a Huntsman Spider (Sparassidae).  However, back at the base my find was well and truly trumped when we found Sarah handling a Carpet Python (Morelia imbricata) she had spotted and managed to catch.  So no matter what else she might find, she was happy as a pig in poo:

Based on our plan we had agreed we would need to hit 12 climbs (comprising 13 pitches), which is double what we would normally climb in a morning at Wilyabrup.  Our thought being to climb them from right to left, but today was shaping up to be a glorious day so we mixed things up to hit the more popular routes first.  That way if anyone else turned up they would hopefully not get in the way of our plan.  Needless to say today was about efficiency, Rongy had asked me how long I thought it would take us and I had guessed about six hours.  Basing my estimation on half an hour for both of us to climb each line and get back down:

Rongy was on a time schedule needing to walk out by midday, and as such I hoped I had not underestimated how long it would take otherwise we would not get all the routes in.  Our confidence was boosted as we knew the lines well and are both reasonably efficient climbers.  But to save on time we made sure the gear was ready for the second person up, so they could quickly get ready to lead the next climb.  We also focused on neat rope work, to ensure we were not delayed by having to unravel a knotted mess.  Added to that and to speed up the descents we took our shoes up with us.  This provided an added benefit of giving our toes a bit of relief from being stuffed into our climbing shoes:

We started well and as we closed in on the half way mark, climb number six, Rongy showed signs of becoming weary.  He has not been out much recently, and while I took the lead from him Sarah wandered past and Rongy confessed to her based on how he felt he wasn’t sure if he would be able to complete the mission.  I didn’t know this but seeing he was weary, we had a chat and adapted the plan.  Rather than alternating the leads he could pick which lines he would go on the sharp end.  Having a rope above you on a climb, usually results in using less energy so by me leading the tricky lines that were left he would hopefully conserve his strength for when he really needed it.  Although he might have regretted picking the climb below:

Unbeknown to us, a tour group operator was getting ready to set up ropes above the wall, and they threw a line down without checking below.  The guilty person was very sheepish afterwards, and rightly so it was both sloppy and dangerous of them not check below first.  Fortunately they didn’t knock Rongy off the cliff, but their arrival meant we once again had to revisit our plan of attack.  Once more shuffling the route order to now hit the climbs on the walls the group proposed to set up top ropes and abseil lines on.  As we kept cranking, every so often Sarah would pop by, and as fortunate would have it at the top of the ninth route she wandered by just as these two good sized King skinks (Egernia kingii) came out for some sun:

It seemed that she had spotted a good number of skinks and lizards, but no more snakes.  Unperturbed she set off again as we headed back down.  Ropes were now hanging all over the place, as the group finally arrived.  A huge school group of over 50 kids, but because we had left the climbs on the more obscure parts of the cliff till the end we managed to avoid feeling like we were in amongst the crowds.  So for the last three lines it almost felt like we had the place to ourselves, and more to the point with no one watching on.  It was a little surprising that on such a lovely day only a couple of recreational climbers were out today, but this did mean we also managed to avoid getting tangled up with them:

Our deviations along the way had helped Rongy keep going, and finally we were ready to hit the last line.  One I knew he would want to lead.  It was a climb we were absolutely certain no one else would be on, and also that we would be away from any groups.  It was also the longest climb of the day and we both agreed it was a fitting way to finish the session.  We climbed this one with packs, thereby avoiding the need for one more trek back down just to have to walk back up again.  And my toes only now started to complain, as I followed up, of being squished in my climbing shoes.  So it was that we hit our target of climbing 310m or 1,017ft, which had taken us nearly bang on six hours and the way things panned out Rongy led six pitches and I had led 7:

There was still one more surprise in store.  Walking out, leaving the hoards behind us, I spotted a tail sticking out from under the scrub and stopped in my tracks, as did Rongy and Sarah.  Sarah then very slowly put her bag down and pounced managing to get hold of this unsuspecting Southern Heath Monitor (Varanus rosenbergi).  It was pretty impressive watching her go for it with such confidence, and great to get a close up look at the monitor before she released back into the scrub.  It had most certainly been “a good day out” for all three of us: