Saturday, September 29, 2012

Engage the Core

Greetings! Late blog post, about to go to bed, but I decided to blog because I think it will be troublesome remembering one whole weeks worth to blog! Eventful week indeed.

On Tuesday, I headed to Parramatta around 1:30 to meet up with another student so we could exchange hospital placement shifts as mine conflicts with some climbing plans. Not the best swap, but Nowra climbing season will be over soon, so yeah... Afterwards, I headed to Blacktown to visit Halil and Chew at ClimbOz, mainly to chat, catch up and all. We'll be heading to Shipley Upper / Centennial Glen on Monday and that should be good! Perhaps go for a mountain bike ride some time also. Headed to The Climbing Centre for the usual indoor climbing night with everyone! New wall, did the routes really quickly just to try them out. Didn't go too hard with the circuits as I was going to Dam Cliffs again on Wednesday with Benn and Sam. I also invited Thanjon and Coomer to come along, because the more, the merrier!

Wednesday, Benn got to my place at 8am and we headed up the Mountain, stopping at Blaxland for breakfast, in which he shouted, for no reason too! Great guy. Passed through Springwood for Coomer and Hazelbrook to fetch Thanjon, and a stop at Katoomba for lunch supplies. Got to Dam Cliffs and throughout the day, I did 6 routes, 4 of which were serious (2 were routes for Sam, as she's not a climber). I got Lay La Kay, the 22 I was working on Sunday on my first attempt, so I was stoked about that! Benn, Sam and Coomer also did the big ass cliff jump into the freezing water, respect. Benn onsighted a 23, and worked another 23 before we left, but didn't quite get it. I love the rock formations at Dam Cliffs! We left around sunset and it took a while for the Honda Jazz to get out without getting too damaged! Drove back down the mountain dropping everyone off, and that was the day! Good day. Great people! Dinner was great, much needed nutrition! Got plenty of sleep to recover also. You can see the videos of the jumps on my Facebook.

Thursday, I stayed at home all day, sitting in bed, stretching, trying to relax my sore muscles! Forearms were pretty gone, and I used lots of ClimbOn creme again, my skin needs it so bad. Ate a decent amount during the day to keep energy levels and nutrition up.

Friday, lots more sleep again, it was so bloody hot. Had a big lunch, rested a bit more then decided to cycle to the swimming pool in the evening around 5 to do some laps. Good excuse for a swim as it was hot. Stayed there for about an hour and headed home, did some antagonist muscle exercises to balance out the climbing, had a shower and had some duck / noodles for dinner, yum! Planned to go to Centennial Glen with Baden and all, should be good. Anyway, it's midnight, so I'm probably going to head to sleep now.
The Jump
Breathe...
Working Siesta (23)
Ben onsighting School's Out (23), while I flash A Tale of Two Cities (18), haha.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Adventure

Howdy, time for another weekly blog. Super annoyed, I finished writing this post up then Chrome decided to crash. It was so long too... I will make it super brief instead.

Tuesday: University and TCC. Made a new circuit on the main wall with Dave and Coomer, didn't send the yellow. I hope it goes tomorrow.
Wednesday: Assignment and Whose Line is it Anyway? marathon on Youtube.
Thursday: Same as Wednesday. Did an hour long workout with the Rock Rings.
Friday: Finished assignment, handed in, had lots of dead animals for dinner. Visited Chew and Kim at ClimbOz in Blacktown. Tried a few routes, including a 26 which destroyed me! Stayed at Thanjon's place overnight. Didn't sleep too well, bad sleeping pattern, will fix this.

Saturday: Hit up Zap Crag after meeting up with Baden, Lou and Bestie at Katoomba. Did one route there and left because it was cold. Headed to Bardens Lookout instead. Crazy militant-Christian type guy who has possession issues was patrolling the crag, telling us about the history and stuff. He acts like it's his own private gym... Me and Thanjon did a tough as hell 20, I couldn't get the last move. Kept falling. Headed back to the others and destroyed an 18 for our EOD climb as Lou had to go to work. Sun felt good. Had Subway for lunch and played around with Baden's slack line in Katoomba. Had BBQ and vegetables for dinner, watched Doctor Who, and slept better.

Sunday: Hit up Dam Cliffs with everyone, except Louise, she was working all day. Awesome crag, loved it! Spent all day there, lots of climbing! Did 7 routes, and ticked my first 22, wooh! Huge turnout as well, popular crag. Headed back to Katoomba for more Subway. Chilled at the hostel then caught the train back. Had another awesome weekend !

Been resting all day, I'm not in a bad mood, but I just cannot be bothered to type everything I typed before...

View from Zap Crag

 Okay, I was just trying to get photos of people falling :P
Lay La Kay

Monday, September 17, 2012

Addiction

Hello!! Rested all day on Monday because the weekend was bloody tiring! Stayed home and worked on my assessment due on the Thursday. On Tuesday, I went to the climbing centre early so I could learn the system Adam uses on his computer (as I will be starting work there sometime soon, wooh!) It was pretty simple, but with a few glitches that he had to tell me about. Did the green roof climb for some shiggles, tried to down climb, but I was pumped, dang! Finally got the blue/medium circuit on the main wall, and pretty close to the yellow/advanced. I think it'll go tomorrow when I do it fresh.

Wednesday involved me frantically trying to finish my assignment, which was really easy anyway. Handed it in on time on the Thursday. I've decided I need to get my diet sorted again and it's going well, no caving in for anything, and it's good for saving money too! Worked out an exercise plan oriented around climbing so I can really start pushing my grades.

On Friday, I had work at Kathmandu (Parramatta), worked with Jen and Royal and it was a relatively quiet day. A representative from Salomon came in to talk about staff training about their shoes. He was German and seemed pretty athletic, me and him just ended up talking about the outdoors, slack-lining and such. He said it's good there are actually educated people working at Kathmandu because he said so many employees are clueless about outdoor gear, which I agree with, to a certain extent. Everyone at Redyard knows their shit, and I like that! :D

After work, I ran to Sun Ming real quick and got some takeaway (Rice, BBQ Pork, Roast Pork, Vegetables) YUM! Made the early train so I could get to Thanjon's place quickly! 72 minute train trip, so I spent the first 1/3 or so eating, devastated I didn't get an mX on a seat. Quite a large amount of people got off at Penrith, so I pounced and got myself one! Finished my food and read about half. I stood up around Faulconbridge, and met Rowan! Talked for a bit, checked what stop it was at Linden by popping my head out, when the train left the guard went into my carriage (I was next to the carriage he was in) asking if I missed my stop, I told him I was just checking. Got off at Woodford, felt my pockets and realised I left my wallet on the train, I yelled out and he told me to jump into his little area, just when the train started moving, lucky me! Found it, called Thanjon to tell him to go to Hazelbrook. Very helpful guard, genuinely nice guy! Got back to his place after Thanjon had a quick chat with Rowan, and we headed back to his place!

We went to The Edge to watch The Expendables 2! My masculinity feels challenged from the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Bruce Willis and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Typical run-and-gun 80's action hero type film, with a few hilarious one-liners! Doesn't match how good the Dark Knight Rises was, but still good! Went back and prepared the climbing gear for Saturday and headed to bed.

Woke up a bit before 9, had a quick brekky then left for Zap Crag in Mount Victoria/York. Access wasn't that great, had to do a two rope climbs to get to the lower area. Onsighted the 18, it was a little funky. The 20 was really fun, different to normal face climbing. The crux was INCREDIBLY difficult, the hardest one all day. It seemed that most people on TheCrag agreed that the crux screwed. The weather was absolutely great and we decided to head to Bardens Lookout to climb. We did 4 climbs there, I got my first 21, and it was also a flash! Difficult crux, but I just managed to stick the deadpoint. Headed over to a 20, didn't quite get it. The crux was difficult, a huge deadpoint from two HORRIBLE crimps to a crappy sloper. I stuck it after working it for a bit, and realised it was bloody awesome! Haha. Did a 19 next to it, and finished the day on a 16. It felt harder than a 16 though! Got to the anchors just as the sun went under the horizon. Beautiful. Would have taken a picture but my phone was out of batteries unfortunately... Hurt my back a little when I was being lowered. All good though!
Headed back to Thanjon's place, had a shower with their awesome shower head, and his mum made dinner and it was delicious! Great hospitality from is parents every single time. :) Caught the train home and finished reading my mX, and went through the Blue Mountains Climbing guidebook to look for future climbs!

Sunday and today, stayed home, worked on my assignment due this Wednesday, trying to stay healthy and all. My lead climbing confidence has increased so much, and I really wanna get those grades up! Got my Reel Rock 7 tickets today! Can't wait! Oh yeah!! I'm not sick anymore! :D :D
Lots of text in this, and not many pictures, due to my phone being out of batteries most of the weekend, dang. I'll leave a video of the Reel Rock 7 trailer, so there's not an overload of text!

New template to boost!


Monday, September 10, 2012

Nowra

Hello!
Well, I had the absolute best weekend ever. Hands down, the best weekend EVER. It basically involved a road trip down to Nowra for the best sport climbing crag in NSW! I was originally meant to sleep over at Thanjons on Friday night then go up to Blackheath on Saturday, but Baden and Louise decided to make something extra awesome out of the weekend, and thus, Nowra! Ended up going with Baden, Louise and Damion.

Woke up around 6:30am to meet at up at Penrith with them all, went to grab second breakfast at McDonalds and Damo had to vote for the local election, then we headed off towards Nowra! Three or so hours later, we reached our campsite for the night (Shoalhaven ski park) Me and Damo canoe'd (free rental) across, we were hopeless the first time! Baden and Lou kayak'd across with their own kayaks! We forgot the guide book so Baden went back to get it. Our climbing area is called Thompson's Point and there are so many climbs there. Over 200.

Walked around and about, and pretty much just did as many classics as we could and also ones in the sun, since it was windy as hell! Onsighted 4 climbs, and dogged one, Baden took a ground fall on this 6 metre 18, but he was okay. Was truly a holy shit moment! Lou was the one that happened to get hurt more, burnt her hand because she squeezed the wrong end of the rope unfortunately! She was okay too though, thankfully. I did a climb called Orca, probably my favourite climb, ever. It started off with awesome pockets and traversed around an arete, then ended with a balancey slabby finish. Awesome fun! You can see all the climbs I did/do here. Didn't see a single person, which was odd.

We headed back and we were much better at controlling the canoe this time, haha. Wind was still kicking ass, Baden was pretty cold, forgot his jacket! We snacked around on stuff all day, but were still hungry as hell. We set up our tents while there was still light and then headed off into the town for some dinner. Settled for Subway, then went to Coles/Liquorland to get more supplies for the night and the next day! I also got a Roast Chicken from Coles because well, I was still hungry, and it was cold, wah! Actually, it wasn't THAT cold, but the wind was just horrendous. Got back, made a camp fire, talked, drank, ate, all that stuff. Went to bed sort of early, around 10pm or so.

Woke up a bit before 8am, returned our canoe, so we could maximise climbing time (so we don't have to go back early to return it before close) Put the kayaks back on top of the car, packed the tents, had breakfast. (Stuff we bought from Coles) and we drove to the crag. Baden was tired as hell, and we went to Coles for ENERGY DRINKS! 3 more onsights (including one top-rope), one pink point and one dogged climb (so upset about that, gah!) They were all great climbs though, truly awesome. Bumped into plenty of people today, and the wind had stopped, perfect weather for climbing! Was completely knackered and sleepy by the end of the day, left a bit before sunset and headed home. One hour later, stopped by KFC for a feed, yummmmmm. Damo drove the rest of the way, dropped me off and it was official, best. weekend. ever!

Ciao!

Wollongong ahead!
Just after Wollongong.
Our canoe, and the crag in the background.
Damo, car, kayaks!
Ready to head off!
Kookaburra that was just watching us climb.
Rest position on Orca, so I decided to take a photo of the very enthusiastic belayer Damo!
Baden just under the crux of Orca, truly an awesome climb.
Got it!
Heading back to the campsite.
Using his piercing to hold the light to eat, "Wait... I gotta lift it so I can eat"
Campfire + wind = Flying embers!
Great day, sleepy time!
View while eating breakfast!
Packing up.
Taking a picture of the crag, from the campsite!
Taking a picture of the campsite, from the crag!

Lou top-roping Vanderholics, I onsighted these two routes. Both were awesome!
Couldn't do this, was an awesome one though!
Lou top-roping Santa's Little Helper. It was my EOD climb, I also top-roped, too tired!
Long tiring (but awesome) weekend!
As we were leaving.
At the top of Thompson's point.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Realization

Still sick, much better though!
In the mean time, my week has been pretty ... stressful, (but also fun) i procrastinated an assignment and started it the day before. I did finish it however!

So... what else did I do this week?

On Sunday, I went to 'The Surgery' with Dave, Mary, Damion, Baden and his dad! Father's day! I took a video of me climbing, but it turned out shit because of the lighting, so I'll leave a photo instead! (Not on the day unfortunately, but of the place!) Unfortunately, didn't send the climbs I was working on, but did a V1 and repeated a few V2s.

EDIT: I will put a screenshot of the video!

Well, like always! went climbing on Tuesday night at the climbing centre :D
Finally sent all my mini-projects upstairs in the bouldering room, very happy with that. nearly finished the blue circuit on the main wall, so close! We had a group of 30 UWS Penrith res peeps come climb, a lot of them were clueless so I had to help them out with their harness, good guy jason! learnt a bit more about the job at TCC, i'm definitely going to take up that job soon, probably when i finish my assessments.

Wednesday, i went to get a haircut, it's short again! i like feeling the breeze, it's so nice! Afterwards, I went to my orthodontist appointment, just a simple check up, then I had plenty of time to spare, so I decided to go to ClimbOz. To visit Halil, who recently bought it off the old owners to restore it, it is absolutely great and I intend to head back soon! Tried out two routes, one with an awesome dyno, and a roof climb, great fun! :D

Thursday, I went out with Briseida to Cabramatta to eat and hang out! I took her to a place called "Vinh Phat" which is amazing, it is the best Yum Cha ever, period. PERIOD. She did some grocery shopping like a housewife, got some Yummi to drink, some pandan waffle and then I got a new theme on my phone, thanks to her :O Then I decided to mess around with some of her friends that texted, har har har. Was very nice seeing her again! :D
I then went to work, my manager is back! Mo bought some El Jannah chicken, and I had that during my short break, DIVINE. LOVED IT. Tony gave me a lift home again, legend, best boss ever. (He's the other manager) I really like my job, haha! Although, I found out I have zero shifts next week, I guess I better hurry up and get working at The Climbing Centre!

Today, I voted early because I will be spending the weekend driving down to Nowra with some mates, to camp, canoe, and climb! Went to work in Parramatta, worked with Samantha for a bit, been ages since I've seen her!

Another blog coming soon, because I expect my weekend to be epic! Good night, I need to go pack for the weekend, need to wake up at like 6am, yikes! It's almost midnight, blargh.

Teflon V2 - The Surgery
Me and Sam felt that this was a great addition to their white board!

Bri! (Also my haircut)