Today we almost had a guest appearance by one of the old crew, but sadly their Saturday morning became double booked. To climb or to help their mum by chopping firewood was an easy choice, and so the axe fell on Glen’s guest appearance. But he still remains “famous” for being the only one of the South West climbing crew that didn’t provide me with a write up on his thoughts about me. This was back when COVID was rife and I idled time away writing about people I climbed with, and they could in return say what they wanted about me (https://sandbagged.blog/2020/04/21/south-west-climbers/):
The climbing scene in the South West has changed somewhat since that time, when there were plenty of people keen to get out for a climb and we also had semi-regular social gatherings. Not that I am ever short of someone to tap on the shoulder for a climb, and today it was Rongy and I that headed out. And due to Glen was not joining us we changed our plans. Instead of a relaxed and easy paced climb at the ever friendly Moses Rocks we headed to steeper, more fingery, and somewhat more intimidating terrain. The Terrace at the Northern End of Wilyabrup is not a place that sees too many visitors:
Not that everyone logs their antics on the online climbing guide, called The Crag, there are only two crew that have reported any action at this crag over the last two years. It is tucked out of the way and you need to abseil into it, which might put some off. The routes are also pretty steep and sustained, and Rongy and I were feeling it today despite starting on the “easy” stuff. Admittedly, the first route or two can feel harder than it should because the body has not yet warmed up and the mind not yet being prepared for the location, conditions, and/or type of climbing:
That said in order of what we hit: Thin Crack felt a tad stiff for grade 14; while Thrice Bitten in the second image felt right at grade 17 it was solid and sustained, which Rongy’s arms were almost not ready for; and then Metamorphic Sausage in the above image definitely didn’t seem to match up with its given grade 13, in fact we both felt it wasn’t a standard breakfast sausage and had metamorphosed into one of those spicy variety. All three routes are graded such that we should have been able to waltz up them. It didn’t feel that way today, and now we had to concede to the fact that our options for easier routes was dwindling and we had to bump it up:
Kym will be happy to hear that his creation of Time and Space got another lap, and after that I jumped on Silver. The latter being shown above, is a climb with more recorded ascents than any other route here. Both were grade 19, both are amazing, and both made us work hard and to the point that we almost came off on lead. Rongy dealt with the pain as his forearms burned and his mind suppressed thoughts of falling in his usual silent manner, while I resorted to a power scream to push through. Success came for both of us on our respective routes, but neither of us had any motivation to raise the bar any further:
Instead we went back down for one last route and Rongy ticked Golden Smiles shown above at grade 14, and it felt like the easiest route of the morning by a long way. In fact it was such a breeze that we both felt like we could take on a couple more routes, but not at The Terrace. Instead we wandered to another wall of the Northern End, called Banana Wall. Aiming to bag a line each, but after we had managed to work our way up the very aptly named Digital Delecti at grade 18 shown below, we felt our fingers, forearms, and minds had been worked well and truly enough and called it a day:
Despite things feeling that bit harder today, we still thoroughly enjoyed being outdoors. Having avoided the crowds we assumed would be over at the main cliffs of Wilyabrup on such a lovely day, and while every route made us work physically and mentally they were all great fun. Rongy also spotted a couple of whales playing about, although they were admittedly a long way out so due to my myopia (short-sightedness) I really didn’t see much. But then on the walk out, I couldn’t blame blurred vision when I walked right past one of the most well-known skinks in Australia, being this Western Bobtail (Tiliqua rugosa):
Sandbagged 