Rock climbing at Arapiles
Another weekend of rock climbing, this time a much smaller trip with a lot less drinking. Only 7 of us went up this weekend. Nick P, Katherine and I did a multipitch, the climb we wanted to do "The eighth" was being climbed by other people. So we decided to do the one next to it which was 70 meters longer. The climb we did was called "Syrinx" its a 170m grade 10 climb with 7 pitches. At each pitch you set up and anchor and everyone climbs up to it. The leader puts in protection as s/he goes up so if they fall they fall onto the last bit of protection. The last person takes out the protection as they go up. On the first pitch I was taking out the protection and I lost one of Nick's nuts, it just fell of the carabina as I was clipping it to my belt. Here are some pics of the start
This is the first belay ledge
Lunch time with a friendly lizard
This gives you an idea of how high we are, look at the cars
Katherine about to lead
The first 3 pitches were the hardest, but still pretty easy, only grade 10. It took us hours to get
to the 3rd pitch and it was about 4pm. Katherine was going to lead the next pitch which was grade 8.
By the time Katherine finished her pitch the sun was setting. You can see Mitre rock in the background.
At this stage we were still joking about it. The last two pitches were are 25 meter traverse with grade 8
and a easy grade 7 climb to the top. Nick just managed to lead the traverse before the sun was completely gone.
But I had to do it in the dark. Luckily Nick had told us to bring head torches, if he didn't we would have
been screwed. In parts of the traverse it was a 100 meter or more drop down with only tiny ledges to put your
feet on. Quite scary, especially in the dark. We did the last pitch but as usually something else went wrong.
Katherine and I came up on the same rope on the last pitch to save time but as we pulled the other rope up it
got stuck. Nick had to downclimb the last 20 meters to free it. That took us at least another half hour. By this
time it was about 10pm. At the top we looked for the walking path back down but couldn't find it. Walking
around not knowing where you are going near cliffs in the dark isn't fun at all. Nick luckily had his mobile
phone, so we called the others and asked them to drive up so we could see the lights of the car. Sure enough
when they came around we saw the car and headed for it. We got back to camp cooked dinner then went to do a
thing called the squeeze boulder. This is basically a crack between two big rocks that just fits a person. You
have to squeeze yourself through it. It gets narrower at the bottom and you have to go through sideways lifting
yourself up otherwise you get stuck. Most of us did it, except Nick and Katherine who chickened out.
The next day we decided to only do single pitch climbs. Nick choose a grade 16 climb to lead called Castration.
He did it somehow, but Katherine and I both had to rest on it. Here is some photos
Next Nick tried to lead a grade 14 climb called Nero but he got stuck about here
so we went back to the camp site for lunch. After lunch we were going to go bouldering but
we got caught up in creating a pretent guide book for an area in the grampians that doesn't
exist. I'll put it up when we finish it :).
More photos at http://wumbi.homedns.org/gallery2/main.php/view/arap_nick/
This is the first belay ledge
Lunch time with a friendly lizard
This gives you an idea of how high we are, look at the cars
Katherine about to lead
The first 3 pitches were the hardest, but still pretty easy, only grade 10. It took us hours to get
to the 3rd pitch and it was about 4pm. Katherine was going to lead the next pitch which was grade 8.
By the time Katherine finished her pitch the sun was setting. You can see Mitre rock in the background.
At this stage we were still joking about it. The last two pitches were are 25 meter traverse with grade 8
and a easy grade 7 climb to the top. Nick just managed to lead the traverse before the sun was completely gone.
But I had to do it in the dark. Luckily Nick had told us to bring head torches, if he didn't we would have
been screwed. In parts of the traverse it was a 100 meter or more drop down with only tiny ledges to put your
feet on. Quite scary, especially in the dark. We did the last pitch but as usually something else went wrong.
Katherine and I came up on the same rope on the last pitch to save time but as we pulled the other rope up it
got stuck. Nick had to downclimb the last 20 meters to free it. That took us at least another half hour. By this
time it was about 10pm. At the top we looked for the walking path back down but couldn't find it. Walking
around not knowing where you are going near cliffs in the dark isn't fun at all. Nick luckily had his mobile
phone, so we called the others and asked them to drive up so we could see the lights of the car. Sure enough
when they came around we saw the car and headed for it. We got back to camp cooked dinner then went to do a
thing called the squeeze boulder. This is basically a crack between two big rocks that just fits a person. You
have to squeeze yourself through it. It gets narrower at the bottom and you have to go through sideways lifting
yourself up otherwise you get stuck. Most of us did it, except Nick and Katherine who chickened out.
The next day we decided to only do single pitch climbs. Nick choose a grade 16 climb to lead called Castration.
He did it somehow, but Katherine and I both had to rest on it. Here is some photos
Next Nick tried to lead a grade 14 climb called Nero but he got stuck about here
so we went back to the camp site for lunch. After lunch we were going to go bouldering but
we got caught up in creating a pretent guide book for an area in the grampians that doesn't
exist. I'll put it up when we finish it :).
More photos at http://wumbi.homedns.org/gallery2/main.php/view/arap_nick/