Sweet Dreams

Keeping the big easy day climbs going after the inspiring Arapiles trip, Sunshine and I headed down to Sublime Point and climbed "Sweet Dreams" for the day.


Its a great climb well protected all the way, but perhaps a little loose in places. By far the most thought provoling section would have to be the traverse on the third pitch. Here's a shot I took of Sunshine sitting at the second belay after I finished the worrying taverse.

Arapiles

Filled the car with stuff and drove it 1200km south to Mount Arapiles for 10 days last week.


Sunshine and I slept comfortably in the van, and woke to a great view every morning.



Richard and Daemon spent their time climbing the harder grades...



while Sunshine and I spent our time on long day easy routes...

No climbing trip would be complete without an epic, and epics are my unfortunate middle name I'm afraid. I absent mindedly lead Sunshine up "Eskimo Nell" only 2 hours before dark. Seeing as its well over 120 meters high we did find ourselves descending in the dark. It was pretty scary for a bit there too, as neither of us brought a torch, we were abseiling big drops into pitch black, off slings around chocks set by tough alone!


Here's Sunshine happily seconding up the first pitch of Eskimo Nell, only a few hours before tears and fear would be gripping her...

Towards the end of the trip we met a nice couple, Rubin and Kristy who were just starting out with climbing. On one of our last days we invited them to come up "Tip Toe Ridge" with us, which made for a pleasant day out for us all.



An amazing coincidence to run into the guy who taught me to climb more than 10 years previously. Only this day he was taking his 6 year old son out for a 190 meter day!


I did go out with Richard and Daemon on one of their hard days. This day was to be "scorpion", a high up crack with a fearful start that steps out into thin air. I just made it, clawing my way up, blocking out everything around me!


On the drive back I clocked 100000kms on the van.

Clocked 100 000Kms

clocked 100000 kms on the big Arapiles climbing trip. Comfortably fit 5 people with a weeks supply of food, clothing, climbing gear, and bedding etc + 1 dog, for the 3000 km return trip.

Things To Check Up On

Having trouble getting hold of Custom Bugs and Buses... need them to check and fix a few things:

1. Fix the muffler - Mike estimated about $160 to replace the muffler.
2. Give the engine a clean.
3. Quote for a mesh bottomed, roof rack system?
4. Investigate why fuel efficency has gone down? from as good as 12km pL to as low as 8km pL these days! Would there have been something in the service (fuel filter?, Rotar? Oil?) that has affected this?

Sunset Climbing Again. Tal, Narrow Neck.

Sunshine and I managed to fit in another sunset climb today. We went back to Narrow Neck, but this time abseiled in over Cave Climb. We weren't expecting a 5O meter abseil, as the guide didn't really say exactly where the abseil was. We couldn't find a shorter one so ended up going down Cave Climb's route. We only brought one rope though, which meant we had to split the abseil into two 25 meter descents. There just so happened to be another couple climbing Cave who didn't mind us interrupting their peace and quite for a while, and let us use their anchors for the second decent.

The exciting abseil over and done with, we walked a fare way along the cliff base to find Tal. A 3 star grade 14 that Sunshine picked out.



Tal was a bit of a heart stopper actually. It has a couple of traverses and run out sections to worry about, but I think that may just be because I went off route. The direct line "Toll" - grade 16 looks like a real beauty by the way.

We combined the first and second pithes of Tal, with a great belay ledge to sit on.




First belay ledge, good to get to, roomy, flat, comfy and with great views.

The final pitch was a bit scrubby. Again, not sure if I was off route. Don't think I was, but a traverse right back over Toll would make it a pretty interesting trip.


Second belay ledge anchors.

There is a final pitch that can be added to the Tal experience, but we'll have to return another day for this as the sun was setting, and we were able to walk out from the second pitch. The add on final pitch looks pretty good though.


Sunsetting while sunshine coils the rope.

Images from Just Pictures