The logistical nightmare that is organizing over twenty new climbers for the club's first big foray into the mountains for the year, resulted in some initial confusion, but we finally managed to all meet up at the BP, even if it was an hour or two later than planned. The sheer number of willing and eager young climbers was a little daunting. As we sat and ate breakfast, having taken over a sizable chunk of the maca's eatery, Mooj, Pete, Johno and myself looked over our charge for the day and began to look a little worried at the prospect of taking this large bunch to a small crag like Mozzie wall. While the idea of splitting the group sounded okay, the idea of splitting the experience did not, never mind the already troublesome problem of keeping track of this lot. So with breakfast downed and minds made up, we all set off towards the other side of Mt Beerwah, with the intention of keeping everyone together at the much larger Wayne's World crag. Stopping briefly by the Glasshouse township to pick up another new climber no one at all, we managed to lose a car - though we didn't notice until we arrived at Wayne's World, by which time we were out of phone reception. Fortunately for Chris, the missing driver, a passing shower (storm?) convinced us to abandon the slabby promise of Wayne's World, allowing us to eventually meet up with the missing driver. Though I'm not sure how we managed to lose a car with such a funky paint job in the first place (check out the Volvo in the photo).
Returning to the sealed road, though not before Johno entertained us all with an off-road demonstration in a little MX5, we decided to kick out the tourists at the Glasshouse lookout and have lengthy discussions about what the heck we were going to do. High winds showed the rains to be passing, and we dropped all half-jokes of returning to Brisbane for KP, or (shock horror!) indoors. Ngungun was to be our playground, ready or not. Meanwhile Chris and company had evaded the Mad Max biker gangs and crazed pig farmers in an effort to find Wayne's World, but had managed to make his way to the lonely car park on the wrong side of Mt Beerwah. Realizing the error of his ways, he made his way to Ngungun, and finally the entire crew was ready to get some climbing done. And only a mere four hours after we originally planned to leave Brisbane!
We were fortunate to find flat battery wall devoid of climbers, despite an evil presence in the form of a club from a rival university. So our crew promptly unloaded all gear and took over the walking trail, as we made plans to establish some top roping here. As Mooj set a top rope off Roof Climb (12), which saw a lot of action over the following hours, Liam eagerly lead Bad Move (17), and found a nice problem through that crimpy bad move past the 2nd bolt. After explaining the lead belay to the gathered newbies as Elaine demonstrated, I ran up Flat Battery (13) for my warm up, which later turned out to also be my cool down for the day. Post leads, Liam, Scott and myself set up a top belay to teach the new crowd, and the inexperienced enjoyed the wonders of climbing on real rock. Special thanks must be said here to Liam, who patiently spent a couple of hours on top belay with the new guys.
And Liam, as requested/promised, here is your free badge:
image
But seriously mate, cheers for that effort.
I can't report too much on what the others got up to as we were playing on the lower cliffs, as I was a little distracted with what we were doing. But Johno, Pete, Bjorn, Tom, Kirsty, as well as a bunch of others, went up to the main cliffs somewhere to get some exposure in the wildly howling winds. Pete and Johno ran up an easy Trad climb, only to find that all available protection at the top had been filled by almost an entire rack from someone in that other club. Everything was sweet in the end though, as our group returned with overly wide grins reflecting the great climbing they just had.
Mooj, Tom, Scott and a few others began to have a go on the Own Pillar, with Mooj showing everyone that Ngungun isn't really graded too hard. Scott quickly disagreed though, after attacking Morning Madness (18) with a vengeance, but coming away disappointed. Chalk up one vendetta.
After Liam finished Belay Bitch duties, I convinced him (like I really had to twist his arm) to head down to the infamous three star Absentia (17), which has been on my back for a while now. Making Liam attempt the on-sight, I was delighted to see him rapidly figure out the moves to the high second bolt, and then continue on without a hint of trouble. Struggling to keep myself from offering tips on crucial rests, I tensed as Liam pushed through a very crimpy and sketchy move just below the third bolt, when suddenly without warning he was off and hanging next to me about a meter off the ground. Nice effort! Nice fall! Hmmm, this all seemed strangely familiar…
Liam tried again, but was totally pumped after that effort, so, finally, my turn! Put shoes on… tie in… "right, lets…" and then the sky's opened up again, this time with a vengeance. Time to bail ASAP as the climb became a water fall and the wind seemed to threaten to rip the damn forest down - though of course leaving draws was not an option. Fortunately I still had a crappy old bail 'biner that I scored ages ago on a climb in Brooya, and so, the circle is complete as I donated it to the rock in the name of a quick get away.
With that the day came to an end, with many a smile on a face, a collection of new skills learnt, and hopefully the beginnings of a passion for a magnificent sport enthused into the minds of many a new climber. Returning to the cars drenched to the core we collected gear, sorted new travel plans, and made our way home. Mind you, not without one more convoy stuff up as Scott got a little turned around driving out of Ngungun and decided to head off away from the highway back towards the mountains (and apparently out of mobile range). I assume he made it home eventually, though hopefully not via Mt Mee. Thanks for a great day. And thanks for reading.
Originally Posted by mark Dickie http://qutcliffhangers.yuku.com/topic/959?page=3
Photo's: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trickflip/sets/72157604099652703/