Another 4am wake up time meant there was no hurkle-durkling for me today, which was in fact yesterday’s word of the day. Nor Chris who I would pick up three quarters of an hour later. There are a few things I do to reduce the time required between rolling out of bed, quite literally sometimes due to the dogs taking up most of the bed forcing us to lie on the edges, and driving out. First I set the tea maker so I can pour two sippy mugs of piping hot tea. One for me to drink on the road and one that I pop on the bedside table for Lisa to sup several hours later, at a more sensible time of the morning:
Secondly I pack my climbing gear the day before and have it ready in the car. And being yet another Welly Dam trip for which there is no walk in, that meant using my handy crate. I also put my sandals and a warm top, when required, in the car. With a first light temperature of just below 4 degrees being forecast in Collie, a warm top was worthwhile so that did go on top of the pre-packed crate. However, after donning my top and popping my harness on I noticed I had forgotten to pack an essential bit of kit… my climbing shoes:
It is not the first time I have forgotten my shoes, although it has only happened once before. The first time was for a trip to Smiths Beach with Lou. She kindly allowed me to wear her shoes as I climbed, and after each route I lowered them down to her. They were several sizes too small for me and pretty painful, but at least that meant my feet didn’t move about inside them. Today Howsie was also generous enough to allow me to use his shoes. This time they were several sizes too big, resulting in them feeling fairly floppy and not supporting my feet as well, which is important when you have to trust your feet on small edges:
He confessed to having a bit of a sore shoulder, and due to the steep, technical, and often powerful climbing here we decided to jump on the lower grade lines. That said they still ranged from 17 to 20, or HVS 5a to E2 5b in UK speak, so were of reasonable difficulty. While I used Howsie’s shoes for the first route, I reasoned that due to their floppiness and the grades we would hit that I would climb in my sandals from then on. Even though they were even more floppy and offered less support. This made me rethink the moves, use my arms that bit more, and work a lot harder, which is not a bad thing:
I’m pleased to say that Howsie’s shoulder held up. I checked in on this regularly, ready to pull the pin if he even hinted it was being aggravated. I also held up pretty good in my sandals, and even on the small edges I seemed to manage to angle my feet enough to apply pressure. That said I did use my arms a fair bit more, where there were better hand holds. Both of these changes in my climbing style resulted in me tiring much quicker than normal. So much so that Josh may be pleased to hear on the last climb of the morning, the rootlet of Raging Torrent gave me grief. I say that as it blocks his path every time:
The high, small, and slopey hold for your left foot felt incredibly insecure in my sandals. Maybe in part due to tiring arms. So I took the sandal off my left foot and attempted to go barefoot, but that put heaps of pressure on my big toe to the point that it was too painful. Howsie captured the barefoot attempt above, but as I groaned above he was too worried that I might slip to spend time focusing the camera. I eventually worked out a different sequence that worked with sandals on, and then grovelled up the rest of the last climb coming down completed shatter. So much so that I think I might be hurkle-durkling* tomorrow morning:
* A Scottish word meaning to lie in bed or lounge about when one should be up and about.
Sandbagged 