Mikey is back in town for a while, having made the journey from over east again. That means there are more opportunities to get out, as he is always keen and motivated. Having arrived with a tick list in mind, which included a few lines at Moses Rocks. More than a few in fact, enough to probably spend a reasonably long day there. But both he and Howsie have young families, also want and need to cram quality family time in while they are all in one part of Australia. We knew it was an ambitious list for Moses, so just took it one climb at a time:
Walking in the tide was visibly very low. The small bay from which the sand is often washed away had a thick and low angled blanket of sand stretching into the sea, with very few boulders in view. As such I was keen to see what was happening in the zawn, which aligned well with a couple of lines that Mikey had in mind. So we walked past the harder lines he was keen to jump on. Instead rapping into the zawn where most of the walls were wonderfully high and dry, unusually allowing access to nearly all the routes:
I was the tag along today, so was happy to let Mikey and Howsie jump on alternate leads. Using my time to snap a few images from angles, which when you climb with just two are impossible to get. All three of us love the zawn, being right on the water’s edge, having steep walls, and providing fun climbing even if it never gets too hard. Mikey started on one of the original lines called Freddy Kruger’s Claw. For Howsie’s first lead I showed him the possible new line that I had purposely not climbed yet, so as yet has not been named:
I had told him some time back that I’d leave it for him to nab, although we were not too sure whether it may seem a little contrived or indeed if it was worth climbing. Happily it was not contrived and worth the time. He thoroughly enjoyed jumping on something unfamiliar. Stepping into the unknown with the potential of having anything thrown at you certainly makes climbing more exciting. And having climbed every route here, here bar this one, was another reason I was happy for the two of them to take on the challenges on the floppy end:
Mikey had on his list a route that I am not sure if anyone else has ever clocked up a second ascent of. Very few people venture here making me fairly confident with this statement, although maybe Rongy has led it. I can’t recall. Dreamweaver was a line I put up with Craig in our heydays, and has a blank looking start to further help put people of trying it. But it was on Mikey’s list and I was of course encouraging him to look beyond the blank start. As he climbed, I was busily working out the best angles to deal with the contrast created by the rising sun:
I’m pleased to report it was a good route, and well graded. And in view of the near optimal conditions I next encouraged Howsie, with Mikey’s help, to jump on a line that I knew for sure had never been repeated. I put The Beach up with Rongy when this place was a beach, the only time I’ve seen it like that in eighteen years. It was so unusual that I had to put an image of the beach on the back of the Moses Rocks mini-guide, to prove it really happened. As can be seen above it was not quite as good conditions today. Howsie was nervous, but went for it:
You could tell it challenged him. Eventually he made it up, just as a Mikey and I were lucky to look out the window of the zawn and spot a pod of dolphins cruise past. This time it is questionable as to whether the grade I had assigned the climb was reasonable. It certainly felt challenging, and could easily be bumped up one grade and maybe more. Mind you, will anyone ever attempt it again? Maybe not so there is no need to update any records about the grade, and it can be a ‘nice’ surprise to anyone keen to try it as it had been for Howsie:
We spent most of our time in the zawn, which I took in from almost every conceivable angle other than from the sky. Scrambling and rock hopping to get the best vantage points. Time slipped away, but left us enough of a buffer to tick two more routes off Mikey’s list before we walked out. The stiffer opposition of Twist Until you Lock and the much easier Mini Thor, which we all soloed. While I won’t get out with them on all of their adventures while Mikey is over, but I hope to get out and catch up with the brother’s Howe again soon:
Sandbagged 