In the South West of Western Australia we would normally have access to the Bureau of Meteorology radar imagery from the Perth (Serpentine) radar. But this has been out of action since late August, so it becomes a little trickier to check what’s happening in our neck of the woods. Added to this, despite summer officially starting in less than two weeks, another cold front marched over us during the last few days. So despite Rongy, and possibly Sarah, indicating a keenness to get to Moses, they bailed on Friday night. Truth be told, I could sense it would happen from a few days back:
It was understandable, when life is busy I can appreciate not wanting to use up precious time when it look likely the conditions may not be ideal. I, on the other hand, was not so easily put off and prepared for a solo mission. Being a solo mission I changed the destination to Wilyabrup, and it is an hour’ish drive from home to the carpark. As I drove west and approached the halfway mark, the sky ahead looked ominous. Sure enough driving rain came and went, and then came and went. Who knew which way this could go, and I was therefore surprised to see another car parked up. At least it was not raining as I shouldered my pack to start the 15min walk to the crag. Then part way along it dumped on me:
Luckily I had just got to the only shrub on the walk in, so I hid under this. Normally the ocean can be seen from here, but it was proper claggy and the ocean could barely be seen. Watching the water quite literally flow down the branches of the shrub I almost turned round. But not being a mountain summit, which would have held onto the claggy weather, the belt of murkiness pass over. My intention had been to set up on Steel Wall, a generally steeper and harder face, but everything was wet. So I decided to set up on Hope Buttress. Allowing one setup for my rope, round a big boulder, that would do for all the lines. Some of which would be easier and more appropriate for the conditions:
Then just as I was about to get the rope over the edge, Wiggins popped up the finishing slab of Hope. I haven’t seen Wiggins for a long time, during which he has changed the number plate on his car, which is why I didn’t recognise it. He told me that he was here with Andrew, who I last climbed with almost exactly a year ago at Moses Rocks, which may also have been his last climb outdoors. They were also joined by Jakke, someone else who I have not seen for a very long time in part because he has been living in Canada and has only recently come back for a bit of a holiday:
Just to be clear I had no idea they would be out, and they also didn’t know of my plans. Wiggins had said to the others on Friday evening that it would still be worth going if there was a forecast of 5mm of less rain. Then this morning, as they had stood where I was as I took the above photo, with rain falling a comment was made by Wiggins that seeing I wasn’t out maybe they had misjudged the conditions. It could therefore be construed that my arrival may have been a good omen. And it certainly seemed that way, with the rain abating and staying away until we were all wrapped up for the morning:
While they were with three, and they had two lead ropes and ample gear, I stuck to my plan and set up my top rope to do some laps. Although we all stuck to the same area, and they made use of my line to rap down after each route. As such I wasn’t going hell for leather as I would normally, and took a few breaks between climbs. This enabled me to catch up with the them, allow them to descend back to base after each climb, and give me an opportunity to take a few images as they climbed and abseiled. Of note I was surprised to hear the image above is of Jakke’s first recreational abseil:
That may have sounded like a random comment, but Andrew and Jakke have both been members of the State Emergency Service (SES), and have been trained up in vertical rescues. While he will have abseiled with the SES they would have used different rappel devices, with more options to meet the needs of a rescue. With my rope round a single boulder, shifting my line was quick and easy. As such while Wiggins got his second lead in, I climbed a few of the routes to the left. Far enough away not to get in his way but also close enough to still be social and catch some nice images of him on lead. With no more rain the rock was drying nicely, and I jumped on a few of the harder lines on this wall:
I mentioned the use of my rope as an elevator to get down. This gave me time to kick back between climbs and look about. Being on the Hope buttress I’d already spotted the Southwestern Carpet Python (Morelia imbricata) tucked deep behind the flake of Glory on my first climb. And as I looked about in the small shrubs on top of the cliff I spotted a skink with a distinct red throat, so sat very still and waited to see if it would come out. It did, not for long but enough time to enable me to get a couple of images. Not only did it have an obvious red throat but also long toes, so I knew it was a skink I hadn’t seen before being a Western Three-Lined Skink (Acritoscincus trilineatus):
Being found in the cooler climates of the South West, relative to the north, it is also known as a Cool Skink. I’ve read that both the male and female can have the red colouring under the throat, and that this becomes more intense during breeding season. While the angle of the image I got doesn’t show it, the red was pretty striking. This was apt considering we are, supposedly in spring and soon to be summer. Once everyone was back down I left the skink alone, and I turned my attention to another line to top rope. In between laps and as it was Andrew’s turn to dust off those leading skills, I scrambling about on the boulders below to get an image from another angle:
While I didn’t find the male and female of the Cool Skink, I did spot the pair of King Skinks (Egernia kingii) I had seen a few weeks back with Sarah and Rongy. They were sunning it up and showing signs of affection, lying right next to each other with their heads on each other’s body. One of them was a little skittish, running for shelter whenever I got too close so I left them alone. The image below is of two Southwestern Crevice-Skink (Egernia napoleonis), which I assume were a pair, and these were not at all worried about me. I used the rope in this location and even stepped over them several times and they just sat there. I reckon Sarah would have had a good day today finding reptiles:
Despite the dodgy start it turned into a great morning and there was plenty to see. It seemed that the boys would call it a day after they had got up Andrew’s climb. Rather than just sit on top I set up on one last climb, this meant we all topped out for the final time at the same time. Allowing them to rap down before I pulled my rope and headed off. My choice of climb to finish on was what they had started on. On which I was very happy to find a Southwestern Carpet Python slithering behind the flake, and maybe it was the same one I had seen on my first climb of the day. I parted ways after saying bye to Wiggins, Jakke and then Andrew as they rapped back down:
Sandbagged 