It is of course possible to have too much of a good thing, with climbing for me that has mostly come about from strain injuries sustained from the artificial style of climbing by pulling on plastic holds indoors. When it comes to climbing outdoors, other than managing the physical bodily risks to avoid strains and the environmental risks that can pose more serious injuries, there is very little that can result in me reaching a point of saturation. At which I am unable to gain any more enjoyment from it:
So it was that once again I was heading back to Cosy Corner, and area that doesn’t have heaps of routes. What attracts me to this place is the setting, and luckily there are those that I climb with that feel the same way. In it for the whole experience, as opposed to the singular focus of the battle with the rock and for some people an even more focused battle with just one line on a piece of rock. Having this wider appreciation of the environment also helps in avoiding silly little injuries by slowing down and not needing to go hard all the time:
I was a little surprised to find out that Josh had only been climbing outdoors for about a year. In fact today was the first anniversary of me taking Josh out climbing, although it was Howsie that first got him out on real rock. On that trip the three of us, plus Nadia, went for a play at Wilyabrup on a hot and sweaty day. Today our first thought was again to visit Wilyabrup, until I suggested Cosy Corner as an alternative option. Although it would require an earlier start time of 4:30am, even though it was only supposed to be a mere 26 degree:
The temperature of 26 also happened to be where the mercury started at 4:30am for our trip one year back: https://sandbagged.blog/2021/12/27/cooling-off-time/. A far cry from today, and as can be seen we were all fairly well rugged up, with cloud that looked like it would threaten to precipitate, a stiff southerly wind that in the earlier hours felt like it cut to the bone, and a choppy ocean. In fact 26 degrees felt unattainable today, but that didn’t dampen our spirits:
Josh’s aim for 2022 was to be able to get out once a month, which he has achieved. Due to such infrequent trips he has not led many routes, with his first one being exactly ten months ago. A trip during which his perseverance also resulted in me not losing my ring of power https://sandbagged.blog/2022/02/27/my-precious/. And speaking of first, today was his initiation of sea cliff climbing, during which he even bagged a lead. Howsie’s aim for 2022, as you may be aware of, was to have a crack at all the grade 22s in the area:
Life this year has thrown a few obstacles in the way of this goal. However, in line with my comments above Howsie no longer sees the challenge as a singular focus, and enjoys the whole sensory experience nature offers to those prepared to look around and notice it. And while we may not have been out attempting grade 22 routes today, which would have resulted in Josh not being able to be so involved, much to our surprise we did manage to bag a couple more first ascents (https://www.climberswa.asn.au/topic/cosy-corner/):
The first is shown two images above and was an unexpected find, while the second shown below was a line I have considered before. It was only Howsie’s second first ascent, the first one he scored was also at Cosy Corner when the two of us climbed here six years back. On that trip we also established a line each (https://sandbagged.blog/2016/11/20/cosy-corner/), and it would seem this place yields two routes at a time for me. As this happened recently with Rongy ten days back, and not so recently with Craig way back in 2006:
I guess the opportunity to find new lines are in part because nearly all the other climbers who visit the south west end up at either the main area of Wilyabrup or Bobs Hollow, resulting in places like this rarely getting any attention. There is of course good and bad with this. The good far out weighing the bad, and includes that we have places to climb where we can enjoy the environment in relative peace and as experienced today the chance to climb new lines for which there is no prior knowledge:
Climbing new routes, ground up, is in my mind the only way to do it. No idea of what lies ahead or indeed whether it is even possible or you are good enough to complete the climb. Then there is the bad, and the only negative I can think of is that you are more likely to come across loose rock. More care is needed in these less frequented areas, where there has not been the traffic of many hands and feet to dislodge anything loose. Or at times have loose rock more forcefully removed, because it is not within their risk tolerance levels:
The only loose rock we found today was on the last route of the day. It is a large wobbly flake that we have known about since the route was established, and having climbed the line many times we have never considered trying to knock it off. Howsie was the last person up and when he reached it we pondered whether we should “clean” the line. It was certainly of a size that could likely result in a fatality, but then again we have climbed the route without incident many times and the route description clearly mentions the need to avoid it:
As can be viewed above, we decided to give it a wobble to test how secure it was. It would certainly unnerve someone while they are climbing the route, but you would need a crowbar and some grunt to dislodge it. So we left it alone. We were also not all that keen on the idea of purposely damaging the cliff, and it again comes back to why you climb. For those with a singular focus they would probably want to remove it, but for those who enjoy the bigger experience we are more likely to be able to accept the place for what it is:
Sandbagged 