Happy Holidays!!!

So with Christmas tomorrow I thought I would just wish everyone a fun and safe holidays!!!

I'll post some details on my trip soon... I'm off on the 9th Jan so I'll lay out all the details so far for you all soon :)

Keep safe and I'll see you all soon :)

Duncan

Just quickly...

Thought I should better drop a quick line in here seeing as I haven't posted in a while.
Tings have been busy lately with getting ready for my big trip coming up soon.
I leave on the 9th of January 2009 and won't be back for a year or two!
I will post more about the trip soon, but rest assured I will be bringing you all every juicy bit of the trip though here :)

Take care and I'll be back with an update soon :)

Rainy weather and new toys...

So it pretty much rained all weekend so not much climbing got done with the exception of Richo, Mel and I getting out to Snake Rock during a short break in the weather on Saturday arvo for a little stint of bouldering there.
I also just recently got a new Tamron 11-18mm Wide Angle lens for my camera so here are a few shots taken with it on the weekend.

Mel at Snake Rock boulders

Mel flashing a tricky highball... focus.

Some chump

Mel flashing another tough little problem

Richo barndoor-ing off a slightly high problem

Me setting out up the same highball

"I though you said it was a 'slightly' highball boulder... what the f*ck are the bolts about???"

Hot

A shot in my backyard on Sunday evening... Menacing

Sunset over my fence

Charlie... were going to Candy Mountain!

It seems like North Black is going through a bit of a renaisance at the moment. The Vines were found and developed just weeks ago, someone has been re-cleaning an old lost sector called Area 51 and bringing it back to life, and we have just found and half developed a brand new sector called Candy Mountain.

Candy Mountain will have about 30+ problems in to v0 to v-friggin hard category so there is something for everyone.

A proper track has been made in to the sector and we are thinking of doing a workshop day out there to clean proper tracks to all the areas at North Black soon to make things a bit neater out there. Watch this space.

Also, there has been alot of talk of re doing all the Canberra bouldering guides (mostly done by Chris Warner) into a new and comprehensive guide to the blocs in the Canberra region, so again, watch this space for more info.

Here are some pics from the last few weeks, hope they tickle your fancy :)

Ian on a nice problem at The Vines

Richo setting out up a classic v1 at Candy Mountain

Richo on the same v1 again


Flash... Aaaah!



Russell bearing down on 'Buffalo Soldiers' v7 at Candy Mountain

Russell again on 'Buffalo Soldiers' v7 at Candy Mountain


Finger tip splittage ala Richo



A nice crack... and a v1 called 'Cheeky', Candy Mountain

Dave sending a nice v3 FA at Candy Mountain



Rusty going for the 2nd ascent of Daves v3 at Candy Mountain



Richo on 'Buffalo Soldiers' v7, Candy Mountain

The world is good...

Mountains and more!

So the rain eased enough to allow us to kick on down to Boronia Point on Sunday and Monday so I did get to climb in the mountains after all :)

A great crew of old mates were all there on sunday I had a great day kicking it with the boys and getting pumped on top quality long routes, had a blast of a day!

Here are some pics from the day...

Nigel Campbell heading out for a crack on 'Mechanical Animals' 33/8c

Chris about to plunge off 'Liptus' 23


One of the best guys around, Elmar and his dog Bob

Elmar and Bob again

Sex bomb, sex bomb... I mean, this is Ren

Dangerous Dan kicking it on a 23

Ren on the same 23

When I got back to Canberra town I headed out to a new sector at North Black called The Vines to check out the new problems put up by Chris Warner and Andrew Bull, etc... its a great area with some quality problems at a range of grades... here's a few pics from Rusty...

Rusty on a 3 star moderate... so nice!

Me on a variant to the same moderate... Rawr! haha

And last but not least here is a cracker of a pic Rusty got of Richo on a route up at Mt Coree.

I'll be back asap with an update as tomorrow we are off to North Black again to start developing yet another new sector we have found out there... Keen!!!!

Rain...

So here I am in the mountains. Saturday was too wet to climbing and today is possibly worse, so it doesn't look like I'll be climbing :(

Here are some pics of various stuff that I have taken in the last few days. There are also a few from last saturday at Hollywood at the bottom.
Enjoy :)

Going to the mountains!

This afternoon I am heading off to the Blue Mountains for a weekend of climbing and hanging out with some great old friends of mine, Katarina & Elmar. Hopefully I will run into some other old mates too as its been some time since I saw alot of the guys from up there.

Looking forward to clipping a few bolts too... lets see if the last few weeks of endurance training has worked at all... Watch this space! :)

Boulders, Bolts & Backflips

So yet again I have left it a few weeks between posts, I really need to write more regularly! (Sorry Richo!)

Alot has gone on in the last few weeks so here is a bit of an overview...

A bit of mid week bouldering saw Rusty and Richo both send 'Stopping All Stations' v8/9 at Cantaloupe Hill, awesome stuff!
Then later that week on another afternoon and on his birthday no less Danny sent our v7 variant to 'The Joker' as well as 'Spruce Moose' sit start v9! Happy friggin birthday champ!

I didn't get out there on that Thursday as I went to see Cirque Du Soliel's 'Dralion'... and it was absolutely fantastic, such a great show... made me want to crack out the circus toys the minute I got home haha! If you can get along to see it I highly recommend it... awesome costumes, awesome music and amazing feats of gymnastic strength and precision... really inspiring!

The weekend saw a big crew of us head out to Hollywood to climb some routes. Yeah you heard me right... we were tieing in!
9 of us swarmed in on the little crag on saturday hanging draws on nearly every route, people climbing all over the place. It was a great day... perfect weather, good conditions, great people.. you couldn't ask for more!
We all did a whole host of the moderate routes with the highlight ticks of the day being Rusty sending the unnamed 27 at the left end of the crag and Josh and Richo sending 'Brokenwood Cricket Pitch' 25.
All in all an awesome day!

Here are a few of Rusty's pics from his Flicker page, I will post some of my own asap!

Enjoy :)

Mel on 'Chilled Right Eyeball' 17

Me on 'Chilled Left Eyeball' 20

Me cutting loose on the unnamed 27 that Rusty sent

Stu on 'Flat Head' 21


Richo taking a clip on 'Right Here Right Now' 25