Being summer in the southern hemisphere, Lisa gets to chillax and recharge her batteries with a decent break before the new school year kicks in, when February arrives. This changes my work life routine. Working out of the office, so as to allow Lisa to have the house to herself, and not feel like she has to tiptoe about just because I’m stuck in the study working. Over the years I’ve also adopted a go-slow January approach, working a four day week by taking Fridays off. Allowing me a bit of time off with Lisa, and after all leave is there to be taken:
While I say spend time with Lisa, the extra day off also allows me to further indulge in my guilty pleasures. A guilty pleasure is generally something that is not held in high regard, which is true for climbing due to peoples lack of understanding of the high level of risk management that we apply. So I use the phrase lightly, as the active outdoor lifestyle we manage to maintain is nothing but good for us. Just like taking leave and truly disconnecting from work by not dipping into technology to check emails and messages, without feeling guilty about it:
Today’s play was at Wilyabrup. Requiring a wee bit more coordination than most trips. I thought there may be four of us, and we needed to do some car wrangling. I’d get a lift down with Seb, and head back with Howsie. Seb only had the morning free, after which he intended to head further south to go diving. Tying in nicely with our usual morning sessions to avoid the sun. He was super keen to get to Wilyabrup and do some more trad climbing. As such I had to pick a few sensible lines for him to further cut his teeth:
Howsie was only picking Mikie up on the way down, or so I thought until three people rocked up. They arrived to see Seb high up on his second lead. Mikie’s mates from back in Queensland happened to be over, and as such Ben tagged along. Howsie and Mikie had something a little more serious in mind, and Ben was out to enjoy the great outdoors and capture some footage. Travelling round Australia he’s got a contract to supply footage of the places he gets too, which is used in social media:
This meant that he was armed with not just a decent SLR camera but also a drone. I am eagerly awaiting a selection of images to include, but can’t stop myself from starting the post now. I’m not waiting for the images in part due to my slight, although some people may say it’s more than slight, OCD nature. Compelling me to crack on with it now. I am however conscious that I’ll be out on Sunday, and do not like to have things piling up. Um again a trait of my OCDness. As such my word may not tie in with the images, but I’ll make it work:
I started Seb off on some of the shorter lines. Easing into the morning with a line on ring bolts, then carrot bolts, and for the third route throwing him onto a full trad line. A feisty grade 16 crack, but one it is easy to stuff good gear into. As such as he climbed I kept prompting him to place a piece of gear, on occasion getting him to do so when he was working hard to stay in the awkward crack. He managed a safe and clean lead, feeling pretty pumped by the time he topped out. So much so he overlooked something:
Completely missing the Southwestern Crevice-Skink (Egernia napoleonis) that was tucked behind the cam placement in the fourth image. We wandered along the crag after his successful battle to find Howsie high on Steel Wall, nearing the top of another trad crack. This one being sparse on gear, so while not physical feisty it is mentally demanding. Ben had his drone out, while taking images with his SLR from the safety of the ground. Watching as they rapped back down, so Mikie could ascend a fingery bolted line to complete their warm up:
As Mikie climbed the sport line, Seb was also went back to clipping bolts. On a route that was nearing his upper grade limit, and it certainly tested him but he’s not afraid to take a fall. Just like the main event for the Howe brothers was likely to result in. Their sights were set on the first grade 24 route Howsie had attempted in 2024, just over a year ago (https://sandbagged.blog/2024/01/05/partners-in-climb/). Back then they did not manage to complete it, but the attempt had provided them with some intel that could prove useful this time round:
I wasn’t able to watch their battle but could tell from the length of time the drone hovered above them that it wasn’t a complete walk in the park. My focus was however on Seb, who after having pumped out on the stiffer bolted route was then keen to hit the longest route at Wilyabrup. A very traditional style route that many people consider a complete and utter sandbag. As such I didn’t walk about as much as I can be guilty of doing while belaying, which I do to get better images. Being happy not to need to catch a fall on this route, as was Seb:
There were however a few falls by Howsie on the other route, but it ended with success. He worked all the moves and topped out, being justifiably happy about it. Due to the relatively short time it took there was still an hour or so to play. Keen for more I sent Seb up another nice long trad line, which he ate up. Before he started on the route we all managed to convince Mikie to jump on something a bit testy, despite his obvious hesitations about it. This resulted in a role reversal, and time Howsie had to catch the falls:
The morning was coming to a close. Howise was however still fired up after working his project, so was keen to squeeze one more climb in. Too tired to climb with packs, Ben kindly offered to be a Sherpa and carried their bags up. Seb would no doubt have also been keen for another route on the sharp end, but I snuck in to get a lead in. Picking a route I wasn’t comfortable climbing with a pack on my back, meaning we had to head back down to get our gear. Instead of walking back down we opted for a fun scramble down and back up, while the others started to sort the gear out:
Another successful day on rock was had by all. Sadly Mikie would be heading off soon, so I won’t get to climb with him again during this visit. But Howsie’s sights are now set on getting the grade 24 clean, and being 2025 he is also starting to eye off a few grade 25 climbs. This makes me think there will be a few pretty tough sessions this year. Hitting climbs equal to the hardest I’ve previously climbed, which was way back when I was in Alice Springs. I’m not sure how I’ll go but if we attack them with the right attitude of just having fun, it’ll be fine:
Sandbagged 