Web Log

24 Oct 2011

A day out at Mount Piddington

"...don't be afraid of places like Mt Piddington" - widewetandslippery

With uni over for the semester and thesis was handed in, it was time to get up to the mountains and get on some rock. After watching the first half of the rugby on friday night, I picked up James and drove up Bells Line of Road to Mt Victoria. We met Pez and Ben at a campsite at Mt York. After chilling for a bit, and enjoying the clear and cool night with the car lights on the highway twinkling way down below, I put up the tent inner fly and we hit the sack.

We made an bright and early start and drove straight to the Mt Piddington carpark. I was pretty stoked to finally be heading out to Piddo, and we even had Pez with us, and he has a picture of himself on On Edge on the front page of Chockstone at the moment, so clearly he knows the place pretty well.

And he climbs pretty good as well.

We got to the Eternity area at the very keen hour of 7:30. Pez started leading up Joseph, and while him and Ben climbed it I started racking up.

That crack looks pretty good. Have I seen a photo of that route somewhere?

Now James and I had spent much of the winter at Barrenjoey, having fun sticking old cams into sandy horizontals, and slowly getting more trad experience. Actually, I think I've led nearly every grade 14 and 15 crack at southwest Barrenjoey now. I was exited but nervous to see how I'd go at big crag. How much gear will I have to place on a 30m pitch? Will I be able to find wire placements? Can I actually hold on for that long? Am I going to freak out with the exposure?

As it turned out I had a blast leading Joseph and even managed to run it out a little and extend the right pieces. So that was good. I then 'persuaded' James to head up The Cartheginian: "I reckon you'll get a good big cam at the start of the wide bit and then you can just power up to the tree!". He had a cracking go, but had to take a rest, before footjamming and hugging up the crux part with the twin cracks. Seconding, instead of managing to get the wire stuck, I got it out but dropped it instead. I continued up to the fantastic belay cave. Rapping down the Eternity, we were treated to one of the most amazingly well-engineered rap anchors I've seen since the one on top of the 18 roof at Narrabeen slabs.

Over the course of the morning efforts were made on SSCC #1, SSCC #3 (I had a good flash attempt but took a fall and had to rest before getting up it), Neil Diamond Syndrome, the first pitch of Flake Crack, and Hope.

Pez makes Flake Crack look easy.

I make Flake Crack look hard.

We then decided to all go and cruise up Hocus Pocus, for tradition's sake. As the first team to the base would not have to wait, we raced to sort out gear, and at this point James dropped something that dissapeared down the slope in the depths of the valley, and I realised I'd left the dropped nut and sling at the base of The Cartheginian. Pez ran off cackling and did the whole thing in one pitch and clipped about 3 bolts.

After waiting and watching from the top of the Cottage Boulder, James led the first pitch. Hocus Pocus turns out to be that crappy rusty-coloured juggy rock that characterises easy Blueys scrambles like Sweet Dreams and Boadicia. After getting a little freaked at having so few bolts in 15m, James mantled over the little bulge and got to the first belay. When I got there he had clipped all four bolts with quickdraws and extendable draws and connected them all with a huge cordelette and an knot about the size of child's head. The rope was somehow running through the middle of this. "You wanted to be fast, so I tried to do something simple". At this point I was very happy I hadn't agreed to do Bunny Bucket Buttress with him this weekend.

But then my own stupidity began. I attempted to step off the belay 3 times but something got caught every time (why do I even have a nut tool?). I then climbed straight up and got a little bit off route. The problem with crappy rusty-coloured slabs is that they are bolted with crappy rusty-coloured carrots which are several meters apart and really hard to find. I then made the mistake of looking down and realised how far I was off the belay. Where the hell are all these retrobolts supposed to be?

At this point James dropped the rope stack. After cursing and yelling a lot I traversed right until I could clip something, and stormed up the rest of the easy corner in a rage, clipping just enough bolts to create obscene rope drag. I staggered to top, sweating insanely (the crag is in full sun by now) and giggling in astonishment at how hard we just got flogged by a bolted grade 8. The camera was also run out of battery power, as though it was too embarrassed to record this.

But somehow I did manage to take this photo. Happy to be on the ground.

Luckily the descent was done reasonably competently. We opted to do it in two raps, rather than do the death downsolo to the second rap station.

The day was not quite over. Pez and Ben headed up The Phantom for a finale. Continuing my excellent record of picking "easy warm-down routes", I chose to lead Avago with the grade 17 slab finish. It was a steep and hard start and I couldn't stop to place gear until I was about 4m off the ground. I slammed in two nuts, a big cam, and slung the 'dick'. I had to make another couple of moves right and up to clip the first carrot.

I kept waiting for the angle to ease off, but it didn't. In fact, I'm pretty sure that when you're pumped, hanging straight-armed from jugs, and you look down and see your belayer is closer to the base of the climb then you are, then that ain't a slab. I yelled "take!".

Sunburnt and sandbagged I flopped onto pagoda on top of the buttress. No sooner have I set up an autoblock and yelled "On belay!", the rope goes taught and traps my hand against the rock. "Owowowow couldpleasegetbackontherockasapmyhandisstuck" "WHAT?" "STOP FALLING OFF YOU MORON!". Of course James had chosen this moment to fight the good fight against cancer and apply sunscreen, and as a consequence could't hold on to a damned thing with his slimy hands. He dogged his way up the start.

Anyway, he comes up, and in a thirsty daze we rap down Angular Crack using the hilariously over-engineered anchor, meet up with Pez and Ben, and trudge back up Horne Point. Just as we reach the cars, a perfect cooling breeze comes up.

In the end we had a great day and we didn't kill ourselves. Piddo is amazing, the classic lines are awe-inspiring and I can hardly believe it was humanly possible to lead them in the 60's. It will take another couple of trips I think to sack up and lead the rest of Flake Crack or Psychopath. It wasn't crowded at all and the people we did see were friendly.

So that was my first trip to Mt Piddington.

Filed in /outdoors/climbing
Permanent link: http://www.samuelmay.id.au/blog/outdoors/climbing/piddo.html

07 Aug 2011

An introduction to the fabled Akuna Bay: Three Star Threes and Five Star Fives

For our saturday arvo climbing mission, James had scoured Balint's bible and wanted to check out an Akuna Bay bouldering spot. Simon came all the way up ("Well, it's not the furthest I've driven for a bouldering day trip...")

I picked up James and we drove up from Mona Vale via McCars Creek Road, with a brief delay caused by trying to drink from a wide-mouthed Nalgene on a very windy road. After running in to Minus and Willis near the entrance station, it was time to find the crag.

James had been keen on Cottage Point, but I overruled in favour of Three Star Threes as it was the only one I'd heard of or had been able to find any mention of online. After driving up and down the length of General San Martin Drive in vain, I feel I can offer the following update to the Sydney Bouldering guidebook directions.

Drive exactly 1.6km from the first park entrance station (which seems to be often closed, we didn't have to pay any money). You will drive through a windy cutting on the right hand side of a steep hill. As soon as you exit the cutting and the railing ends, the road turns RIGHT (not left) out on to a straight section. The first car space is immediately on the left, a bigger one is 50m further down as described in the guidebook. This is the first car park:

From here an old fire trail in poor condition leads away through some thick brush.

The distances in the guidebook are WILDLY overestimated. For Five Star Fives you can pretty much walk a few metres down the trail and then break off left and head straight up the hill. There is no trail, if there was there is so much fallen wood around it's been covered up. For Three Star Threes walk maybe 50m down the track, until you come out of the 'tunnel' to where the bush thins out. Then break off left and up the hill. There is a very faint trail if you can find it, again there is a lot of dead fallen wood all over the place.

Anyway, we found the place! Here we are hanging out at the Three Star Threes area.

My first impressions were...not good. More like "we came all the way out here for this?". It's a pretty small poxy area out in the bush. But then we started climbing some things and I warmed up to it a bit.

The Prow, which you may know from the shot on the back cover of Sydney Bouldering guidebook, is a great problem. (BETA ALERT) Jump start to the obvious break, shuffle around, reach with your left hand to a very small and shallow pocket, then bump to a cool sloper. Heel hook optional, move the right hand to the poorer sloper to the right. Then punch for the top, and attmpt the airy mantle gracefully.

Minus goes for the pocket.

Me gaining the sloper. COVER SHOT TIME.

Heel hooks are always necessary.

Punch the lip and cut loose! Badass.

Then you have to mantle. It was a pretty brutal mantle. I'll hand it over to James.

James Demonstrates How Not To Mantle from Sam May on Vimeo.

After a pleasant ramble up the two slabs of Lost At Sea, the so- called 'multipitch boulder problem' we moved over to the scary, loose, and hard Underthingy. Even Simon didn't really get close so it's a bit harder than V3. Perhaps the problem was the weird face-out beta we tried instead of actually underclinging.

Time went by quickly and the others had to leave, so me and Simon headed over to Five Star Fives to check out Malpomene. Again my first impressions were not good. But what can I say - this poxy seeping micro-crag is definitely home to five star fives! Each problem we tried had awesome big moves that were just easy enough to make you feel good, that led to blank shutdown cruxes waaay off the deck.

(BETA ALERT) Malpomene: sick little roof, a jug and bad slopey crimp leads to a slap to the big rail. Match and heel hook, go for the perfectly-placed slot on the lip, and...go big somewhere on the utterly blank headwall. We got shut down and tried the orange scoop of Tomato Soup: the obvious natural line, big moves between horizontal slots, to a brutal iron-cross move left to a very poor horizontal, which shut us down. So we finally looked at the little line of pockets that is Catch The Bus To Bondi, good climbing left out the pockets (find the kneebar, it helps!) to a big jug, then up to a heinous pinch on the arete, which shut us down.

Lookin' stylish on the bus to bondi.

Grappling with the blunt arete.

So everyone left with plenty of potential projects. This area is exactly what it says on the tin - five star fives and three star threes! The bush surroundings are wild, feels a lot further away from the city than it is. I reckon next time though, we'll check out Above The Boat, a whole lot more rock, and the water views look very nice...

Filed in /outdoors/climbing
Permanent link: http://www.samuelmay.id.au/blog/outdoors/climbing/akunabay.html

11 Apr 2011

Balkans Bouldering

Sunday morning is beginning to warm up and Simon sends me a text letting me know there's some people heading out to the Balkans. I have a quick internal debate (thesis? bouldering? thesis? bouldering?) then realize I'm being far too reasonable, throw a borrowed mat into a borrowed car and drive as fast as I dare up the M2.

Being a northern beaches surfer kid born and raised, the idea of heading as far west as the Hills District for leisure was very threatening to my worldview; however, I was ready to take the plunge and turned off onto Windsor Road. I managed to find the fire trailer described in SS&S with only two illegal U-turns and set off down the track to the Frontlines bouldering area.

I found Simon, Pez, Ben, and the other Sam working on a small sandy cave in the corner of an actual standalone boulder (!). Simon refused to tell us the grade, and after a while our consensus was it was 'V-impossible', so me and Ben wandered off to ramble on some V0 slabs and admire the piled standalone boulders and good-looking grey-orange rock.

Next up was a great V2 Diplomatic Solution, an obvious line up a steep and featured hanging arete. Everyone made it up and it was a confidence booster.

The only other company we had all day was a European guy and his very young kid. He asked for a spot and proceeded to flawlessly lap Sloper Dan Milosovic and Pincer Movement V5! A very strong showing. His kid was having a good crack as well, making it to the top of some of standalone boulders.

We moved a bit further along to Cup Of Milo, a nice techy V3 requiring tenous and committing smearing over a bulge that spat everyone off except for Simon. I got pretty close on my last couple of goes, but only at the price of a big tweak of the groin muscle which ended my attempts.

After lunch, we moved right down to the far side of the Frontlines to look for a cave containing Hollow Mountains Dreaming V7, so Simon could pretend he was back in the Grampians again. While the strong tried to emerge out of that dark slot (admittedly, it was a sick looking hard problem with a giant horrible sloper into a heinous sharp edge) me, Pez and Ben looked at the high Lindfield-esq V0 wall just next door, The Downside I think.

Topping out on the proudest line on the arete (after pulling a mini roof and an easy headwall), I stuck my hand into what looked like an excellent jug, but was in fact filled with huge black and orange ants. The ants immediately exploded all over the surrounding rock and started biting. For a second Pez thought I was going to jump, but I calmly topped out quickly and efficiently, before running away screaming "OW!! OW!!" like a small female child.

Back on the ground, I discovered a forlorn and very dirty looking V1 behind a rotten log, The Upside. After battling the cobwebs we discovered it was actually a cool little problem up a water scoop, with an sit start off a perfect undercling, to a little rising hand traverse left, a good hard throw and a topout over a bulge. Just the right amount of slopers to be easyish, but still feel like a real boulder problem.

With Simon defeated, we walked back to the main area to have a look at Full Metal Jacket V8/V5, and awesome looking problem hugging and sidepulling vertical grooves up a steep rounded boulder. Simon barely had enough juice left to get off the ground though. The rest of us got up Choppers V1, a nice thin face with a perfect landing.

Finally, we gathered beneath the big splitter crack that had caught Pez's eye. Revelations was a steep, tall and burly V3 fist crack over a back-breaking wedge of rock for a landing. The guidebook described it as "either the best or the worst problem in the Balkans depending on your point of view".

Funnily enough, I was the only one who wanted anything to do with it, even after Pez's engineering project with the mats to produce a flat and padded landing. It can't have been that bad though, because I stepped up and did it onsight and hardly lost any blood at all. Flawless victory! Stunning line, bomber jams, and clearly the best problem in the Balkans.

Spent, we said goodbye and I drove back with stinging hands. Only one illegal U-turn was required to get back onto the M2, so I reckon I've got the approach dialed now.

The Balkans is my favourite bouldering venue in Sydney so far, with the combination of variety, huge size, and good rock beating pretty much everywhere else. The setup even rivals the Parkway I reckon, and it's gotta be pretty good bouldering for me to prefer it over a roped route...pity it's just that little bit further to go! Anyway, definitely one to return to, screw Queen's Park.

Filed in /outdoors/climbing
Permanent link: http://www.samuelmay.id.au/blog/outdoors/climbing/balkans.html