Sunrise on Thursday while heading to work was magical. Whispery cirrostratus were being illuminated in different hues. These are high level clouds, of which there are three main types all with a prefix that comes from the Latin word cirro that means curl of hair. Friday morning I kept my fingers crossed that Howsie and I would be greeted by another amazing sight, as we made our way to Welly Dam on Friday. Not even minding when the lights started to flash on the railway crossing, a rare occurrence and something that would normally irk me:
Today I rationalised waiting for the train to pass would allow a bit more time for first light to really get a hold on the sky. It was sadly not to be, our timing was good but the sky was mostly cloudless and merely became that familiar blue. Being cloudless did however assist in making it a dry, cool, and crisp morning. And after all the warm mornings this summer it felt strange for the rock to feel cold to touch. Making our fingertips become numb on the first climb, a sensation that didn’t last very long at all. Our intention had been to head to Moses Rocks for a relaxed climb:
Those plans were changed for good family reasons. It meant we had to change our mindset, and I’m not sure Howsie had enough time for this. Starting really well, making fine work of some tricky routes. Then was it the intimidation of the steep walls sapping his stamina, or his mind playing games when he kept freezing at, and then falling off from. the same position on the fourth climb. By mixing things up we managed eight routes, just in time as Howsie’s body and mind was cooked and his family arrived keen for a cooling swim in the river and a picnic:
I too was feeling a bit achy after the tougher than expected session. Making me weigh up my plans for a more easy going Saturday, and then Craig hinted at being keen to get out. It would have been a shame to waste one of the rare times when he has the time to hit rock. And I also offered for him to choose the location. He plumped for Smiths Beach, both because it is a great place but also because it is close to a lovely snorkelling spot. You may recall two weeks back, when I introduced Sam to this place. It is another location you have to work:
Both physically and mentally, and maybe a bit more in the latter department as the grades never get too high here. We again missed out on a colourful sunrise, but the rock was dry and ocean seemed reasonably calm hinting the chance for a snorkel was high. I started on a rarely climbed route, in part due to the thin and balancy start with not much gear. In the image above it looks like there is a good rock ledge below the climb onto which you could jump if you failed to make the moves. That is however not the case, as it slopes down to the water:
For Craig’s lead he picked another nervous route, it gets run out with some technical climbing required some distance above the available protection. It felt like a repeat ascent from when Craig established the climb thirteen years back. Going up and down, and eventually coming back to the ground to think about it. All the while I was belaying from afar to get some shots, this being the reason he called it the Photographic Belayer. I made a bit of a hash of it on second, but that didn’t stop me from jumping on another climb that rarely gets any attention:
In fact I wonder if anyone else has ever climbed it since I put this route up with Craig, on the same day we created the route he had just repeated. The belay perch for this one is awesome. As the waves roll in white water funnels along the ledge you are sat on. It was all completely dry when we arrived, and was fine until I was getting close to topping out. Then, as can happen, an unexpectedly larger wave rolled in. It may be hard to see but the rock all round Craig’s perch is now wet, but he amazingly only had a small splash on his back:
We never intended to bag heaps of climbs. This suited me, I was starting to feel yesterday’s workout and was happy that it was Craig’s time to lead. Convincing him to hit one of the more popular climbs here. Above he can be seen making his way up with the rope below him, and below he’s finishing it off with the rope above him. While I ended up leading it, he had kindly placed all the gear on lead almost to the top. His head simply wouldn’t allow him to make the final hard moves, being mentally exhausted but as proven below still physically able, just:
Sandbagged 