A few weeks back one of my camming devices fell afoul of all the climbing I do along the coast. Or more truthfully it fell afoul of my lack of washing off the salt residue, which is nearly always present after having climbed on the ocean’s doorstep. The trigger wire, which is used to pull the opposing camming lobs together, snapped. So mechanically it was still sound for holding a fall, but it made it impossible to close the cam up when retrieving the piece after using it. As a result I hit upon the idea of possibly buying some gear of someone who no longer uses theirs:
It has been many years since Lou has been out on rock. In part as she is still scarred by a nasty fall, but to be fair she is also extremely busy with life and other pursuits. When I popped over to check out her gear, she was ‘yeah you can buy the lot’. Then after several days of mulling over the idea, and having once more got her hands on the hardware she started to have second thoughts. Over the years I have offered to take her out, and seeing the Stormtrooper’s interest had been rekindled I took advantage of the situation:
To understand the Star Wars reference you’ll have to read a past post https://sandbagged.blog/2023/02/19/ice-creams-all-round/. We hatched a plan for a very cruisy day out at Castle Rock, to ease her back into the idea of being out on rock once more. I knew this would be more of a mental than physical challenge for Lou, and patience was the key. She isn’t the only person I know keen for a reintroduction to climbing. I liaise with Jo heaps through work. Sometime back it came up that I climbed, and she said she would be keen to get back into it:
There is a bit more to this. Because I build up a fair chunk of flexi time, I have become accustomed to taking a few Fridays off to allow a climb with Howsie as well as the occasional weekend away. This has resulted in the illusion that I’m always taking holidays, or so Jo and her work colleagues have hinted at. Whereas, I am merely managing my hours to the advantage of my outdoor activities. Seeing Lou and my visit to Castle Rock was a non-work day, not that I am trying to make a point, Jo happened to be available and was keen:
The last person to join us today, was Lisa. Lou is not an early starter and in view that we would only do a few easy climbs I was happy to accept a slightly later start. This allowed Lisa a more reasonable morning before we had to be out of the house. Lisa however was not joining us to climb. Armed with her backpack beach chair she followed us round finding comfy spots to kick back and watch the action. She was a complete armchair warrior, and at one point took advantage of where we were to sneak off for a 20min run along the coastal track:
As indicated above Jo has climbed previously, but this was mostly indoors with only a bit of outdoor top roping. So we started with a few top ropes on some easy scrambly routes. These are not recorded lines and people are very rarely, if ever, likely to go up them. This meant loose rock could be present. And was indeed encountered on just about the first move of the first route, when a flake Jo was standing on came away. I felt really bad about this, and while it rattled her nerves to her credit she pressed on regardless:
I was pleased Lou was also there, as she provided pointers and assisted Jo when things felt a bit on the tricky side. Needless to say for Lou the lines proved straight forward, and she scampered up in a flash with ease. Not a hint of her head holding her back, which was great to see. Our numbers dropped from four to three when Jo had to head off to do some kid wrangling. It may have been a short session for her, but on the plus side she had a great time and with luck I can get her back out. Next time it will hopefully for a bit longer:
This left Lou and myself to climb, with Lisa watching on from the comfort of her chair after her run. We managed two more routes, this time on the sunny side of the little castle. By which time things left like they were warming up a bit too much. I led the two routes of Lou’s choice, which she followed up with relative ease from a climbing perspective. Better still her head stayed on straight. A very encouraging sign for more trips out. In fact we already talked about where we will go next, and with luck Jo can join us:
Before we headed off, I was keen to see if the Western Rock Octopus (Octopus djinda) was up for a second playdate. The visibility was sadly worse than our last encounter, although not so bad that I couldn’t see the bottom. There it was in the same spot as before, pulling in the shells from its last feed round it for camouflage. Other than one tentacle reaching out to say hello, there was no further interaction to be had today. So after a few dives to make sure it really didn’t want to come out, I started swam back to shore. Spotting a few fun fish along the way:
The above is a Blackthroat Threefin (Helcogramma decurrens). If you look carefully you will see this cheeky fella was hanging out with two females, which being of a much more drab colour are very well camouflaged. And following on with the green theme, I have had no luck in identifying the below fish. Likely to be Triggerfish or Filefish, and maybe a juvenile. Back on dry land, Lou, Lisa, and I packed up and headed to an aptly named café called Occy’s for a feed. Here Lisa spied the grilled octopus, and after my brief playdate I’m glad she didn’t order that:
Sandbagged 