Thursday was set to be a corker of a day, with a light wind and swell and temperatures in the low twenties.  With the forecast being what it was Rongy and I decided it would be waste if we didn’t take the opportunity and head out, so I booked the day off from work.  Daylight crept from the sky on Wednesday, as I drove home, and it was a glorious sunset, even more impressive than normal.  Mosaic looking clouds, in glorious glowing oranges and reds.  The old saying red sky at night Shepard’s delight, which really should be sailor’s delight, crept into my mind and I was hopefully for a great day out bagging first ascents:

In the morning the sky was clear, so while the light of the waking day was beautiful it was not a scratch on the sky of the evening before.  Walking down the familiar path that we had trodden countless times before, we made the customary pit stop at the with toilet one of the best views you are likely to get.  Then we turned off the main track and headed to the Organ Pipes.  When I asked Rongy if he had a preference for the morning out, he indicated we should head to where I had a few projects waiting to be sent:

I was very surprised to find out that Rongy had never climbed at the Organ Pipes.  That was however good, as I then had an excuse to jump on the more relaxed climbs while pointing him to some of the more gnarly ones.  The Organ Pipes is a place for trad climbers, the lines are not always clean, they are varied in nature and there are no bolts to provide you with a safety net when the gear gets thin.  This happens on a number of climbs here, more so than at any of the other crags at Wilyabrup.  But to start with Dry Reach was a gentle and well protected way for me to start the day:

Rongy was happy to be at my mercy so I suggested Spraying.  Despite being only two climbs in we were already warming up and it was time to shed some layers.  The cold crisp morning we had expected, before the sun warmed the world up, was not so cold.  The air hung a little heavy over us, with the humidity up and no breeze to keep the air flowing and moisture away.  This meant that the rock has a slightly greasy feel to it, which was fine on the easier lines but I knew that might hamper some of the projects we had in mind:

The sun still hadn’t fully come over the ridge, but a few rays started to extend across the ocean lighting up the occasion boulder and the white crest of the occasional wave.  There was also a strange sight that neither of us had seen, or noticed, before.  A plume of mist hovered above the water extending in a narrow strip straight out from the beach.  It was an eerie but calming sight, and just a bit too far away to allow the photography do it the justice it deserved.  As the morning wore on and the sun made a full and proper appearance, the solitary plume of mist lifted:

My intention had originally been to only have a couple of warm up routes before we got down to some serious business.  But with the slightly damp feeling rock, we felt it was worth staying on sensible routes until things dried up.  That of course would only happen if the wind picked up, which it showed no sign of doing.  So I took another gentle stroll up Crab Arête, the easiest line of the day.  It makes use of a slightly concerning musical flake.  Above the flake there is no gear, and this was the first route where we started to have to run things out:

We had set up a rap line, as scrambling down at this place simply is not worth it.  You either have to walk a long way round or scramble down some horrible lose gullies.  On the first rap Rongy spied the line of the crag classic, Heaven Calling, and was keen to jump on it.  So that was the next route we went up and even this route toes the “Organ Pipes” line.  The top flake has generous holds but no worthy gear placements.  So there is a 5m runout to finish, which is fine when you are comfortable at the grade but can be unnerving if you are climbing at your limit:

So came my lead next, and I decided to bypass my more difficult project that scaled a vertical face with only smears for fingertip and foot holds.  I had visions of slipping off them, and with the usual runout top section that simply wasn’t going to fly.  So I jumped on a potential new route that I first discovered with Andrew.  Truth be told it is a bit of a contrived line but looks inviting and as such still seemed worth doing.  The bottom two thirds fell with relative ease, I knew what to expect and just got on with it.  However, below the final headwall the holds felt super greasy resulting in me yo-yoing the next moves unable to commit, and pumping out:

So I handed the pointy end over to Rongy, who doesn’t get as fazed by greasy holds as much as I do.  He nailed it!  So become a new grade 18 route that we called Honesty Box.  I have put up a post about the new routes of the day (I feel like I am giving things away here) on the CAWA forum, which is awaiting moderation.  So in the interim here is the route description: This wall was climbed independent of the side walls, with an airy and exciting finish into the unknown.  A great sustained line with some interesting challenges, but requiring honesty to stay on route as it is sadly easily escapable:

I have to say that while it was a little disappointing not to have bagged that line, it had been my intention to let Rongy have a go at getting the first ascent on it.  That was supposed to happen after I had led my really long term project (now six years), the one for which the conditions were not right.  Regardless of how it came about I’m pleased that there is now one less line that will be nagging me to get a move on and climb it so I could write it up.  Despite Rongy having just led the new line, we kinda felt that it was still his turn to lead:

This was in part because the next route on our agenda, Knocking on Heaven’s Door, was a line that I established a couple of years back with Wiggins.  As far as I am aware it yet to get a second ascent.  The post I put up on CAWA about the new route has never had any feedback and the line has not found its way onto The Crag.  So I was keen for Rongy to lead it and see what he thought of it.  It took a little thinking before he committed to the crux moves and final 5m runout, which was on small crimpy holds.  But did a clean job of it and without prior knowledge confirmed the grade to be spot on:

After I followed Rongy he suggested that he was pretty happy with the climbs we had bagged so far.  However, while he may have been hinting that he was happy to head out, I still had unfinished business to attend.  It really didn’t take much for me to get him to agree to two more lines.  The first one was one that I had tried to encourage Mikey to have a go at during his 10km challenge, but he was understandably focused on meterage and so plumped for a bunch of easier options and passed up the opportunity.  It was probably a good thing that he didn’t try it, as I would have felt very guilty:

The bottom slab was fine, but once I reached the headwall the gear was fiddly and also only present in the first few meters.  After that I pretty well solo’d and screamed my way through every move.  More out of fear of the potential long fall should a hold break off, which was made all the more plausible (in my mind) due to one having done exactly that low down while I was getting the gear in.  So became The Screamer at grade 16 described as: Start as for 10K trending right up the slab before taking on the steep face.  Small but good gear low down in the face is soon a distant memory, and while true to the grade with fun climbing it gets very run out (even by the Organ Pipes standards):

I was understandably feeling pretty happy with that ascent.  I do however feel that I will be waiting a very long time before anyone else attempts the route.  I’ll gladly hold the rope for anyone who fancies giving it a bash!  We hadn’t quite finished for the day and there was still one more new route to polish off.  I knew the start would be right up Rongy’s street, a bouldery roof followed by balancey moves onto the slab.  It is a very committing move, and it took several false starts and I began thinking that he would wear himself out and would then not have the gumption to do it:

Eventually he figured out “the move” and plucked up the courage to make it, then being rewarded with a more pleasantly protected headwall above.  And so fell project number three resulting in The Grunter at grade 16/13: Grunt your way up the bouldery moves via the break in the rooflet.  Keep your composure and balance to mount the slab, with a potential ground fall for those who falter.  Trend right up the slab to the narrow crack line that splits the buttress to the right of the chimney.  Easier, well protected climbing awaits.  The bouldery start can be avoided by accessing the slab a meter or so to the left making a more consistent grade 13 route:

The sun was moving in the sky and starting to hit the west facing rock, and it had a sting in it.  It was certainly warming up and there was still little to no breeze.  With that we both agreed the last two exciting new routes, both with a true gnarly traditional “don’t fall off” feelings, were a great way to finish the session.  We were both extremely satisfied with our morning jaunt.  So with weary bodies we shouldered the rucksacks and made out way out, but will return when the conditions are right for me to polish off that last project:

So following on in the Howsie tradition, Chris has set himself a challenge to lead every grade 20 in 2020.  There is a big end goal in sight that aligns with some big landmarks both in time and place.  You won’t however hear about the end goal for another four years assuming I am still keeping this blog up to date, haven’t bored you senseless by then, and am part of the glory run.  The recent self-distancing requirements put a bit of a spanner in the works on the challenge, but now we are able to fire things up again.  That is why today the goal was to hit five grade 20 at three crags:

The last route of the day was to be Ain’t No Slouch, on the Approach Wall at the Northern End of Wilyabrup (above).  An unusual climb for this area, and one that was put up by Kym some five years back with the assistance of both Craig and myself.  So it was fitting that today Howsie would be encouraged along in his pursuits by both Craig and myself.  Before we were to tackle Kym’s route we had to walk all the way to the Playground.  The first route of the day was in fact a solo I put up seven years back, it was however sensible to first warm up on some of the many other solo’s that this place offers:

We hit the usual lines here some recorded and some not, and maybe got a bit carried away knocking one, two, three, four and then five fun lines.  The fifth was Slime Ball, and only Craig managed to get up that one.  Despite the conditions being good I chickened out at the final hard moves, and Howsie seemed to struggle to really get established on the long start moves.  With that we decided not to keep trying this particular problem, but to get on with the line that we had come here for… Locked and Loaded:

Interestingly both Howsie and Craig considered, when they first looked at this line, that it seemed easier than some of the problems that we had been playing on already.  I was happy to observe, as they gave it a crack, and ran around the top of the crag getting various angles for you to decide if it looks easy.  Seeing it was Howsie’s challenge he had the first go, I think Craig thought he knew how to unlock this one so didn’t want to jump on first.  So up Howsie went finding out that the holds were a little trickier than he expected:

Resulting him going back down rather rapidly.  The sandy landing here is ideal for this kind of malarkey, and he tested that numerous times.  Each time just as he thought he unlocked the puzzle something would give and he’d be hurtling back down.  After several attempts he needed a rest and it was Craig’s turn, he too went up and then came back down quicker than expected.  This yo-yoing continued, Howsie and then Craig but with each attempt they started to figure out the best approach:

Craig managed the first clean ascent, and was closely followed by Howsie.  That then meant I had to have a bash, for no other reason that I wanted too.  I too struggled and it took a few goes to bottle up the courage and also work out why the approach that they had used simply didn’t work for me.  Eventually I sorted it out and it was all in the name… a slightly uncomfortable finger lock that neither Craig nor Howsie had used.  So once the that was locked and loaded the rest all fell into place.  With the first grade 20 in the bag it was time to move to the next crag, and we had to tell ourselves not to stay here longer to enjoy a bit more bouldering at the Playground:

Our next destination was back towards where we had come from, at the Book Shelf.  Here there were three more grade 20s to bag, and Howsie wasted no time in jumping on the first one.  It was a route that he had been on before so knew what to expect, and he made short work of it.  Smear Factor is a fine, but again short line.  Most routes would be, with only the last one being of any length.  Both Howsie and Craig have a longer reach than me, so managed to pull the crux sequence off with not quite so many exciting moves up the layback flake.  Their loss I say:

I had wondered if, with winter approaching, whether this crag would have been accessible and in condition.  It is certainly one of the crags that is closer to the ocean, and with the rougher winter conditions the rock platform that is mostly dry in summer can become a tad dangerous.  Today however the swell was reasonably low and there was practically no wind to stir up big waves.  So while it may seem in some images, such as the one above, that we were taking a risk being here, we were never in any danger of being washed away:

To give Howsie a break between his grade 20 leads Craig decided to jump on Bronze Medal.  I’m not sure how much of a break it really was, as the start and bottom half of this climb was certainly a tad steep and pumpy.  It even had Craig, with his envious reach, stumped for a bit as he tried to work out how to get established on the wall.  However, once he sorted that the rest flowed with relative easy.  Howsie and I followed him up and then it was time to get back to business, and we headed over to the main attraction (for us) of this crag:

There are two ways to tackle the widest part of this imposing roof.  Craig and I established, and graded both routes 20, when we put up some 30’ish new routes at the Book Shelf during two visits here in 2015.  Those two trips were however sadly not written up, so are only in our memories and the pages of the South West rock climbing guide.  The two approaches are called Monkey Bar and Grease Gun, and Howsie was heading for the latter which we reckoned back then was the classier line.  It was going to be interesting to see if that was really the case:

I did my usual run around looking for the best angles.  I reckon the one above is the best one, despite it being a little washed out by the sun that was just peaking over the hills.  Howsie was hanging on and on and on, he made it to the outer lip of the roof and eventually gassed out and had to come back down.  After looking up at the gear options and with a bit of encouragement from us he went up again, and again, and again.  But it simply seemed to have him foxed.  Then the biggest wave hit and Craig got just a little wet, it was time for Howsie to have a rest:

So it was my turn to have a lead and I plumped for One Too Many, one of Craig’s creations.  It felt steep and pumpy and I could feel my arms stretching out.  Of note this is the climb that I probably pushed Gav a little close to breaking point on, which I alluded to in my post about the Peppy Crew.  Even though he chose to lead it without any encouragement from me, I was pretty vocal in persuading him to keep going on it.  This, in part, resulted in Gav taking his first ever trad lead fall and the experience is written up in Getting Back on the Horse.  I have to say going up this route today it felt steep and strenuous, and I did feel a bit guilty about my past crimes.  I’m truly sorry Gav:

It was then time for Howsie to give Grease Gun another bash.  This time with the gear sorted, he made quick work of getting out to the lip and placing the gear.  Then came the crux, a funky move to get established on the lip.  This requires putting your left foot up level with your head and then working some slopey side pulls in a vertical crack to get your weight transferred across to your foot.  It all sounds so easy!  But until you work the moves, you are left hanging on your arms with the only footholds under the roof and your body in a horizontal position:

This time Howsie managed to get up, it was however not clean ascent.  He fell on his gear, then rested on his gear, then fell and then rested but eventually worked out a sequence that got him up.  Seeing he got up Craig and I took advantage of the rope above and both jumped on the line.  What a cracker!  We both got up, certainly not in great style but we had managed it.  Loaded with lots of ideas and suggestions we piled them onto Howsie as to what he could do on his next attempt, in truth this probably only confused him even more:

Needless to say that his next attempt wouldn’t be for a while, so Craig and I indulged in a few quick climbs.  We knocked off A Cracking Line, Good Flake, Bad Flake and Cheeky Money.  It’s interesting that looking at the grades we gave these climbs, as given in the guidebook, especially in view that during our walk out Craig said that the lines we had picked off in-between Howsie’s battles with his grade 20s “hadn’t been push-overs”.  Well either we had under-graded everything or they were push-overs, with Good Flake (below) getting a lofty grade 13 and being the hardest of the four:

With each climb there was the down climb, and this place offers lots of choices of varying difficulty.  Chimneys, faces and corners all begging to be used.  This makes for the ascents and descents being equal fun.  Now I include this image for no real reason other than I find it hilarious, you will just have to believe me that it was definitely not staged.  One of those magically instances that the camera captures, and those in that fateful image hoping that it never sees the light of day.  Unfortunately for Howsie and Craig I have control over which images I use:

By the fourth interlude climb it was time for someone to decide what we would be doing next.  And while that someone was not 100% sure, we managed to be the voice of reason that convinced him that surely with all the intel on the gear, moves, holds and best sequences it was obvious that one last attempt should be made.  What could possibly go wrong, and with that we came back down and sorted the gear even stripping everything he didn’t need to make his harness as light as possible:

And once again we found ourselves in that similar position… The lip of the roof was reached, the gear was placed, the left foot was positioned high and then it was time to crank on the rounded side pull to transition the weight onto that high foot.  All the while the rest of the body flags in open space being of no use and just acting as a dead weight pulling downwards on your poor tiring arms.  Needless to say, as my words might indicate, Howsie’s arms just would not listen to reason and that last move, while so tantalising close, was just too far away and not meant to be (today):

He had yet another sit in the harness and then play with the holds and options.  This only ended up wearing out what little juice was left in his arms and while he did managed to finally get up, there was simply not enough energy or will power left for him to have another last attempt.  Seeing another opportunity Craig and I again took advantage of the rope above us.  This time we did both style it, making it look relatively easy and probably not making Howsie feel any better about all his failed attempts to get that elusive clean lead:

So after that we walked out.  The Monkey Bar and Ain’t No Slouch would have to be attempted another day, maybe when we come back so Howsie can bag the Grease Gun.  Back at the car Craig broke out the second flask of tea… gold!  Now while Howsie only managed to get 2 out of 5 grade 20 routes today, I feel that it is very fair to say that he wasn’t a slouch.  With more attempts on that roof than either Craig of my arms could endure collectively, Howsie certainly gave it everything today.  And after all if the grade 20 routes were all easy enough to allow five to be bagged in one day (along with ten or so other routes in-between) then where is the challenge:

After being back at work, and staying off my wall at home, all week I was itching for some time on rock. While I had taken my top-rope set up along to Castle Rock over the last few months I really wanted some longer routes. So for this weekend I decided on the Dolphin Smiles wall at Wilyabrup, with a little assistance from Kym after I asked his opinion. It has five classy lines ranging from grade 14 to 21, all of which are nice sustained routes. I advised Lisa of my intention to disappear on Saturday morning to relieve that itch, and she asked if I was going alone. Well that had been my intention until that moment… so I dug a bit deeper. We had a chat and she suggested that seeing the restriction were easing up, the number of live COIVD 19 cases in Western Australia were dropping, and there had been extremely low new cases being identified (including numerous days of none) that it would probably be OK to head out and climb with someone:

Seeing Rongy had asked me about heading out, no doubt to test the water, just the other day I was quick to see how keen he was.  A silly question really this is Rongy we are talking about, he is as bad as me when it comes to climbing!  During the journey down we briefly discussed which area to climb and what routes to bag.  But mostly we chatted about nothing in particular, just catching up on news in each other’s camp.  So that is how we both came to be standing at Wilyabrup at just after 7am watching the waves roll in with a glorious morning light backdrop:

We are lucky where we live and it really hasn’t been that long since we have all been in lock down but it feels so much longer.  In fact the last time I was out climbing with others was with Rongy and Wiggins only six weeks back at Mount Frankland.  Now last night, after we had arranged to get out today, Rongy had managed to slice his thumb chopping the onions for dinner.  But with the style of climbing here he felt that would not be a big issue.  He also indicated that not having expected to be heading out he’d had a few beers in the afternoon, and was feeling a bit lethargic and woolly:

It felt like he was making excuses… so I found myself taking the first lead.  We had plumped for Dolphin Smiles wall, as it was easy to just go with my original plan and not to have to think too hard.  We both enjoy the routes there and there is a mixed enough bag to keep us both happy.  The intention was for me to jump on Sinuosity, but I instead ran up the more direct line of Thunder Thighs.  A bold route at the grade due to having some runouts longer than some would like.  It felt good to be placing gear again, and to have the rope below me.  The top roping has been fun but when you lead it is a whole different ball and mind game:

The other great part of climbing with someone else is that you are not continuously on the rock climbing or setting up ropes.  Allowing a bit of time to chill in-between when you need to be on rock, giving you a chance to watch the world wake up.  The sun was creeping over the hills and hitting the white horses that were riding in on the clean crisp waves.  Despite looking perfect for surfing in, and while we both looked long and hard, neither of us spotted any dolphins today.  As I was kicking back watching the waves and enjoying the rush of hearing them crashing into the rocks, Rongy walked up One for the Road:

It seemed his previous self-confessed ailments were not holding him back. He wasted no time in romping up this line, surmounting the tricky roof and setting things up for me to follow. My head however, after relaxing for a period and watching the waves had not properly focused on the task that lay ahead. The rounded and awkward cracks at the start of this route had me confused and I wasn’t sure which way to tackle them. So I just went for it and climbed it in a clumsy and far from graceful manner. Still I got up in one push and wasn’t feeling pumped. It’s a good job, as Rongy had suggested before his lead what might be a good next line:

And that plan was for me to tackle the mighty Dolphin Smiles.  An absolute cracker of a route that cuts a path up the middle of the wall, only achievable due to three bolts having been placed.  Even with the bolts the mid-section is massively runout, with possibly six meters between the bolts and no trad gear placements of any worth to be found.  After that comes the steep crux sequence, so this climb earns it’s classic status and then some.  As the image might indicate I was very chuffed with this lead, managing a clean ascent.  I must have been a little on autopilot, as the thought of a possible big fall or two hadn’t crossed my mind at any point as I climbed:

Then it was another walk back down to the base, we had not set up a rap line and instead decided to walk down between climbs. This slowed us down from some of our previous trips frantic pace, which we would keep up in order to pack in the lines. Today we were both however of like mind and content to take our time. We also took our time to sort the gear out after each climb, which I think helped Rongy’s arms. He hasn’t been as fortunate as I have with getting out, both during the lock down and before that, and while the ailments he had talked up previously had not hindered him his arms were starting to feel the mornings choice of climbs:

As he set off on the next route he was not convinced that he’d manage to get a clean lead. The first half of Fishing with Dynamite is on a steep wall and has one big move after another, not really giving you any rests and forcing you to keep working. Once he tackled that, it may seem the pace of the route eases but it in fact changes and becomes more technical. So while not as steep, instead with tiring arms he was forced to work out the more delicate moves on smaller holds. Personally I didn’t think he looked like he was in trouble at any stage on the climb, and he certainly didn’t break a sweat:

The routes we had bagged so far were no pushovers and that along with leading them made us hang on those holds that bit longer. While our forearms may have been getting a good work out we were still keen for another couple of routes.  And sticking to my original game plan for the day we knew which two they would be.  Rongy wasn’t so keen for lots of exposure today, so I got to lead Golden Buttress.  This line is a an absolute stunner and the best trad route here, with traverses, roofs, corners, arêtes, runouts, and exposure it has it all!  While I wasn’t able to see Rongy follow up, the sun was moving round as the morning wore on so I could watch his shadow as it inched its way up the very fine line:

To wrap up the morning up Rongy got the last route, The Unbolted and the Beautiful. He again managed to float up this line, placing the gear only slowed him down slightly and he seemed to make effortless moves in-between each piece of gear. His ailments that could have held him back today had certainly been vanquished. As he topped out and set the belay up, a lady walked past, heading to Steel Wall. She said that her husband was replacing a few bolts on his climb, and so I became introduced to Sally and Pascal. The latter being the creator of the very fine “Pascal’s route”, which gets a mention in Life’s Good when Denis had a crack at it. We got chatting and exchanged details so could one day we could hopefully climb together, then I followed Rongy up yet another great route. It certainly felt like we cleaned up the routes on Dolphins Smile wall in style:

Having been good and kept off my wall this week I allowed myself to venture out on real rock one more time.  That has evened things up, making it four trips out over my two week holiday.  Not the fierce and more relentless approach I would have taken in the olden days, but no complaints from me.  While the temptation of a couple of the coastal crags called, I didn’t fancy the harder stuff at Castle Rock, and Cosy Corner just felt like too much of a mission.  So it was back to the old faithful of Welly Dam, making it an easier and quick morning out:

Just after passing the lower Pile Road Mountain Bike carpark there was the obvious shape of what I thought to be road kill.  Driving over the ball of feathers I noticed the head was up and moving.  The Kookaburra was looking dazed and had lost all of its tail feathers, which lay strewn across the road.  However, it’s eyes opened and looked clear and alert, there was no visible blood on it or the road, and no obvious external injuries.  I decided to place it off the road in the bush, and keep going with a view of check in on it on the way back:

I was by myself when I arrived at the dam with no walkers, climbers or car tourists about.  Pulling up in the top carpark I “suited up”, as the Red Tailed Cockatoos cawed and screeched in the distance.  Then it was then down to business, for which I had already mapped out my morning of climbing.  I rapped down the first line and as I climbed back up I was struck by how many millipedes were out.  There were clumps of them huddled in protected pockets, while others were going for a morning stroll and some had got caught up in the many spider webs, and would no doubt be providing someone with a tasty meal:

As I said I was going easy today, which some might say isn’t possible at Welly Dam.  However, just like the above millipede that made easy work of down climbing (just a fraction) of Murky Corner, going up for me never felt too hard.  With the amount of times I have climbed this route I would be a bit worried if it gave me grief.  Today I was not only going easy having picked the lower grade routes, but I was also pacing myself.  Due to the ease of setting up the anchors here there could be the temptation to bash the climbs out in rapid succession, but not today.  On my next line I came across the home of another insect, and thankfully not the insect itself:

I’m pretty sure that it was a mud wasp nest, which I found on Raging Torrent.  The perfectly formed nest didn’t show any signs of the damage you would expect as the wasp emerges from its larval stage.  It is possible that the home was yet to be completed and occupied with eggs, and fortunately I didn’t come across who was making it.  I then moved across to set up on Welcome to Edges during which my wildlife discovery tour continued, as I spied a centipede crawling up near the last bolt.  I’d heard rumours that Dan Meester had been working a continuation variant for this climb, and while I could see some options above the anchors they all looked too hard for today:

On the next two lines of Pocket Knife and A Walk in Central Park the millipedes were rampant and I came across a few sealed mud wasp houses.  Sadly however there were no new discoveries to be found.  I really slowed down and looked about, and when I was rapping down even checked the many crevices and cracks to either aside, but still found nothing new.  The climbs like all of today’s were however fun, and Rongy will be pleased to l know I had a chalk free day.  I do however suspect that this is what made me slip on my last lap of the day, as I tackled the small holds near the top of Central Park:

That was all I had planned, but in my usual manner a little voice was saying “just one more climb”.  My brain was saying be sensible and pack up while my arms were sitting on the fence, and happy to either bag another route or call it quits.  I plumped for being sensible.  Walking back along the top for the crag several cars rolled into the lower carpark and people got out.  With people starting to mill about I had made the right choice.  As I drove out I cruised along the Honeymoon Pool loop road and had a quick pit stop at Big Rock just because I could:

With the place to myself and the sound of the water, it was very calm and relaxing but eventually it was time to hit the road.  There was however a second pit stop, this time to check in on the kookaburra and it looked like it had gone.  I did a wider search and discovered it had managed to move but not very far.  Decision made and I picked it up and brought it home, letting Lisa know that I wasn’t coming home alone.  There is not much we can do just yet and will have to leave it alone for 24hrs.  As I type this post I can hear it occasionally shuffling about in the box next to me.  Fingers crossed it makes it through the night:

It would seem that despite having thought about the way I would approach training on my wall, or maybe it was the back to back harder routes at Welly Dam and then The Terrace, my old shoulder injury has managed to rear the first ugly signs of reappearing.  Any sensible person would back right off and not climb.  But I instead went for a different approach and laid off my wall, but still went out this morning for a relaxed paced top rope session on the easy classics at the main cliffs of Wilyabrup.  This was in part driven by the fact that I am still on leave.  I therefore have the ability to pop out whenever a weather “window of opportunity” comes by, such as today:

I really love seeing rainbows and saw a double rainbow on the drive down.  Now something I didn’t realise is that a double rainbow is created when the light is reflected (and I mean reflected not refracted) twice within the raindrops, and while I have never noticed it before the upper rainbow has the colours in reverse.  The sky really was a bit of a mixed bag today, and any conditions may have hit.  As you’ll see above I started with blue skies, but darker clouds loomed out to sea.  A gentle westerly was bring them towards me.  In fact it is hard to believe all the images in this post are from the same day, but they are.  Walking down to the crag I could hear the thunderous sea, it was going to be another atmospheric day:

I’d decided to start the session at the Fat Chance Area, with not even a suggestion in my mind to try Fat Chance or any of the other gnarly routes along that wall.  Instead I played on Setting Sun, Tom Thumb Direct and Tom Thumb.  In that order and as such getting the hardest routes of the day, at a lofty grade 15, out of the way early on.  Having the bolts above this area made it nice and easy to set up , a quick adjustment of the double figure of eight allowing the rope to be redirect to the next line.  True to say that if I had fallen from the left or right route the rope may have been dragged across the lip, but I felt comfortable that the chances were pretty slim and it didn’t happen:

The last route on this set-up, which was also the easiest of the day, was Tom Thumb.  A more traditional style trad climb, unlike the first two that were more akin to face climbing.  The off-width crack splitting into two cracks separated by a huge wedged boulder.  This requires a much more traditional style of climbing, more three dimensional than the previous face climbs.  As such despite being the easiest of the three routes, I also had to be more careful on this one.  Avoiding going for high right hand holds that would require shoulder rotations.  It made me use holds between my shoulder and waist more, as well as using down palms.  Being careful not to then compensate by overloading my left shoulder:

After these three lines it was clear that the bank of clouds would pass me by, heading landwards to the north.  When I eventually drove out the roads north of the area were wet and had lots of puddles and I was glad that I hadn’t been hit by the rain.  With the next bank of sun coming in I shifted position moving across to the Hope Buttress.  The locals won’t be surprised to hear that Hope and Glory were both on the hit list for today.  As I set up the ropes I had an idea to get an image of me getting ready, carefully balancing the camera on a ledge and putting it on timer.  The photo didn’t come out that great, as the scramble back to where the ropes were took a little too long.  So you only get this image to prove I tried:

Hope was great, despite having been up the route countless times it is never dull.  The middle provides and crux, and there are so many ways to get through it.  You’d think, in view that I had climbed it so many times, I would have it wired and go straight for the same holds every time.  But no, each time I seem to do something just a bit different and at times I might even purposely miss out a hold or two to see what would happen.  Even though I have used so many variations over the years, the grade never changes.  On my second lap I could feel the wind picking up and looking across the bay the salt spray drifting landwards was becoming more prominent:

The rock still felt good, and so I soldiered on.  Glory was next, I knew there was no chance of it, but something inside me still hoped that I would come across a Carpet Python.  On the first lap I was being extra careful on the low roof, choosing my path wisely and focusing on which muscles to engage.  After the roof it is easier ground and therefore easier to avoid shoulder loading moves.  I kept an eye out looking in all the usual places I have seen them but failed to see anything.  It wasn’t till the second lap that I saw a short length of an old snake skin wedged deep in a crack.  Better than nothing and just had to include this image:

One more move this time just right of the Stormcock Area, where I managed to get a better image of me getting ready at the base of the last climb.  A climb that if I didn’t point so many people towards probably wouldn’t get much attention.  Verbosity, does however get some attention in the comments on my post about Wiggins.  Like Tom Thumb the first half is a true trad style classic with a great stemming corner, it is also one of the longest routes at Wilyabrup.  A route to take your time on, enjoy the positions and savour every move, which I did twice!  Better still not one twinge in my shoulder, but I could feel my calves as I maybe savoured those positions up the corner a little too long:

Now I did have in mind to two more pitches in, by jumping on Sirius.  Still within the grade range and offering two great pitches, that using as top rope could be linked into one.  The first pitch includes a long traverse across the entire width of Steel Wall, so rope work would prove interesting but I had that figured out.  It was hard to fight the temptation, but I managed to be uncharacteristically sensible.  At the back of my mind I wanted to end on a high, with no twinges and then I might get away with one more trip out while I’m on holiday.  So I packed up leaving the rock in peace, no one else was in sight.  However, as I walked out I came across four separate couples all just out for a stroll, and possibly having a romantic escape from the world as we currently know it: