Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Christmas Climbing!!!

Christmas in Australia means hot weather, sweaty climbing, less than ideal friction, sun burn... in short, not the best climbing conditions. Nonetheless, I am loving climbing right now! Sure, it might not be perfect conditions for working and sending hard problems or routes, but it is perfect conditions for being outside, enjoying the sun and having a great time!
After a little bit of time up in the Blue Mountains I made a short detour to Jervis Bay, near Nowra, NSW to visit my good buddy Jack Folkes. We spent the first day hanging out on the Shoalhaven River at his new deep water soloing crag, Big Red. I sort of chickened out on the roof crux of the mega project (being upside down 10 metres off the water is a bit scary in my books haha!) but I managed to put up a big traverse that girdles the crag only a few metres off the water that I called 'No Heroics' and goes at about grade 23.
The next day Jack took me to a few of his new bouldering areas to try some projects he had cleaned up. First stop was a steep roof under a waterfall at a place called Falls Creek where I polished off the first ascents of 2 projects - 'Spare Batteries' V5 and 'Down The Rabbit Hole' V7. The rock is a little bit less than perfect, but the problems climbed super well. Great, pockety roof climbing!
Afterwards we checked out one of Jacks other seaside bouldering areas in Jervis Bay, but my skin was far too sore to climb, so after Jack had a play on a project we headed off.
Now it's family time, relaxing here in Mystery Bay with my parents and sister and nephews, going to go on a little local crag search today then it's time for a fresh seafood feast tomorrow for Christmas  :)
Merry Christmas everyone, hope you all have a fantastic and safe festive season!
D.

The view from Jack's porch in Jervis Bay

Jack on the 'Big Red' Project, Shoalhaven River, Nowra

The walk ins to the crags around here are pretty awesome

Jack Folkes bearing down on yet another superb seaside project in Jervis Bay

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Where can one find the "big red" cliff?