Geez, it feels good to be able to hop in the car and drive without needing to nervously listen for the thermo fan to kick in or the warning light to alert me that things are heating up. I’m way more alert as the driver than a passenger. So it was nice to be driving and putting all of my attention on everything around me, and not wasting any on the possibility of an engine issue. Such as the waning gibbous reflected in the water, as I crossed the Capel River. Being the phase of the moon as it transitions from full to half. This morning it was at 99% and looked particularly beautiful:
The term gibbous comes from the Latin noun gibbus, which means humped or hunched. The word was adapted for use in the English language to describe items that are rounded or convex. Hence a waning and waxing gibbous is a moon that is becoming less and more round, respectively. On Friday I had suggested to Pontus I could be up for a climb today, and had suggested Welly Dam. A physical and strenuous place to climb, which offers the sort of climbing that could result in a rounded back and hunched shoulders, called a climbers hunch:
Climbing involves lots of overhead motions, and this can result in tightness in the chest and shoulders. This repetitive form of movement can result, in the spine being pulled out of alignment and the back then becomes curved or hunched. I’m drifting off topic here a bit, but I have previously talked about traditional climbing, and this not only relates to placing your own protection but also to some degree the techniques used. The surge of indoor gyms has resulted in people learning to climb routes that for the most part use these overhead movements:
Traditional climbing styles use heaps of other movements, and when climbing at Welly Dam these can be very useful. And if side pulls, underclings, mantles, down palms, etc. are not applied the climbing here becomes much harder than it needs to be. This may be one of the reasons people find the climbing here tough, always looking for the next overhead hold to crank down on. I was pleased to see Pontus was making good use of these techniques. We didn’t have the place to ourselves today and another couple who were not using them anywhere near as much were struggling:
I think it is fair to say Pontus really liked it here. Not just the climbing style, but also the bolt spacing, explaining that it allowed him to focus on the climbing without stopping too often to clip. It was refreshing to hear! He quickly got used to and enjoyed the deceptive nature of the climbing. The rock texture and colouration makes it hard to read. At times bomber looking holds fail to impress, while holds invisible to the naked eye from below suddenly appear just when you need them. We clocked up line after line, mostly nothing too silly in grade being his introduction to the dam, but we threw the occasional line in that started to push his limits:
Mind you I feel leaving these to a little later in the morning was a contributing factor. Eight climbs here is a reasonable session by most people’s standard, which we managed to clock up as the other couple were still fighting their way up their third line. We were wrapping up when Josh and Kellie turned up, with the kids in tow, having just walked the 6km river walk from their campsite. With the climbing over Pontus hinted he may run the same track, seeing it was a nice cool day. While my legs had finally recovered from the stairs session, I had no inclination to join him but feel I should join Lisa and hit the stairs again on Wednesday:
Sandbagged 