Yaayy Bluies!

This being my last Bluies trip of my stint in Australia i had big hopes for a great trip and by all rights i had a blast!

The following can't quite capture the joy of getting familiar with a dead grub kept as a pet, doing four walkins in a day to look for a guide you thought was lost, but was merely misplaced in a car boot. Nor does it capture the rush felt at the realisation that "Yes, you can do this. You ARE doing this!" when you've pushed yourself just a little further than you thought able to. 

But it does capture the climbs - and cafes - I did while in Bluies this year. 

Dam Cliffs Sunday 21

Lead Lonely Thursday (19) with Daniel Rantala, i found it to be a good and interesting climb especially dor a warmup. Dan did not fare so well, but soldiwred through to thectop. 

 I lead a 16 i dont remember the name of with Genevieve. It was good fun juggy and flowed well. 

Top roped Sloper for Saddam (19) and found it mostly uninteresting after the start, but glad i managed to do it this year without Adam Gibson' crazy 'technique advice'. Heelhooking is a complete waste of effort!

Went on and lwad Stormin Norman (18) which is the most fun climb I have done at Dam Cliffs. Daniel was looking a little worse for wear at thus stage. 

No Dam Cliffs endevour being complete without a run up the mountains classoc Jug City, i convinced Suran to lead it for practice and get familiar with top belaying bwfore finiahing off the day by shaking my head at the kids swimming in the near freezing water up the top. Silly uni students!

The Eternity Monday 22

"awhh, You can climb The Eternity!"

Spurred on by a drunk climber in 2008 who saw me monkey up a wooden post in the mt vic pub i was determined this year to have a go at this timeless beast of a crack-climb. Had i known more about what i had in wait for me i might not have tried it, but im glad i did. 

Tje night before i asked stephen cox if he wanted to do sime trad climbing, joost overheard and so tbe next day saw tge three of us walking jnto mt piddington for a glorious day. After taking a copious number of photos of the view and doing poses hanging off a handjam in Yellow Crack we had managed to get to one of my major goals for the trip The Eternity.  Opinions of tbe grade vary a fair bit, the 07 guide indicates it's a 17 while the 2010 guide rates it as 19, personally it felt like a hard 18. One thing rhat does not vary is the 5 star rating and the excited raving by climbers who have done it or just know someone who did once!

With anticipation high i set off on my first trad climb in months and realised after placing two dodgy pieces that it had both been a while abd i was distinctly out of shape. I pushed on, got some better gear in and made it to the first rest stance. 

After perfectung the hex placement (read: setting it so hard it became a near permanent fixture) i committed the perfect hand jams above me. 

After a few more poor choices of gear pkacements and kicking out a green hex i had deemed 'too good' (the little voice in mt head guiding me away from danger was so loud it felt like my brain was cut in half) i had somehow managwd to make ot clean to the last few metres of the climb.  I was starting to feel the relief from seeing the end nearly at hand, but the eternity would have one last terrible trick to play on me.  The crack was thinning out and would fuse completely two metres under the belay ledge and i had left all my small gear at the base believing it would be wholly unnecessary on a climb described as having bomber gear the whole way. O guess the finish and start does not count as part of rhe climb in the bluies guides! Determined not to fall after having endured all that had come before i delicately ran it out on the small crimpers to the top.  Someqhat shocked that i was still in one piece and had done it clean to boot i clipped the anchors and called out to steve "im secure". 

Bardens Lookout & New York Tuesday 23

Bardens Lookout

Started on The arrow and the song(15). Quite a good climb, thoight provoking move midway with a fair bit of commitment.  Onsighted Mike and lorna go town (19). Awesome climb, had so much fun climbing this. Very thin at the end and lpts of good movrs the while way up. 

New York

i flashed landmines for line dancers (17). Very good climb, thpugh the start is quite hard felt like 21, excellent climbing from half-height up the nose.  After finishing the climb i thought i had lost my guide and walked back and forth to bardens lookout to try to find it. I had no luck at bardens, but found it in steves car when we returned to tge house. I was glad i still had my guide. 

Much needed rest day Wednesday 24

Took the train to Katoomba for a very special session at the Hominy Bakery! After eating I looked around the stores for a hangboard for Diana but didn't have much luck, the selection was far too small to make any meaningful choices. Found a cozy cafe at the top of the main street for some more rest and relaxation. Wrote a christmas card to my grandparents and tried to organise Sweet Dreams the next day.

Sweet Dreams Thursday 25

The thing to do when you're going to climb Sweet Dreams is to get on it as the sun rises. What we Queenslanders seem to forget every time we go to do this is that the sun rises somewhat earlier down near Sydney than back in Brisbane... So at the ungodly hour of 04:15 in the morning eight sleepy Cliffhangers headed off to Leura - 15 minutes behind schedule, eurgh! After nearly leading the party down Snappy's Approach I found the good sense to walk past the lookout as the guide instructed and miraculously the correct descent path to Sweet Dreams was found! Without much dramas we all made it safely to the start of the climb. I headed up first with Daniel as my seconder, followed by Steve Cox & Loren, Michael Hirning & Suran, and finally Joost and Choppy Tom as the last party. Apart from me not finding a few of the carrots on the third pitch, Dan and I kept a good tempo and were done in about 2.5 hours. A great improvement from my previous attempt in 2008 where Benni and I spent the same amount of time in a cave at the last pitch waiting for the rain to pass!