Monday, February 18, 2013

Black Heathen

Hello!

It has been quite an interesting month so far for me, mostly enjoyable, except for the past weekend (16-17), but more on that later!

Started off the month quite well, been doing very well with my climbing, oddly, spending a lot of time in Porters Pass climbing the slabby routes, which have been enjoyable, to my surprise. Another great day out with Paul, Marek and Taib. Apart from climbing, I have been working at The Climbing Centre, it's great fun, love working, love earning money!

The week after, went to Porters Pass again with Thanjon (for his last outdoor climb in the blueys), Hannan and Siddharth (who came down for the occasion), had some more great fun! Had some amazing coffee in the morning at Il Postinos at Wentworth Falls. We all had a good day, however, we did get rained out, and headed home. Chinese New Year (Vietnamese too [called Tet]) celebrations, and such! The next day, our family went to Grandma's house to meet the rest of the (extended) family, to have lunch, wish each other well and other traditions.

Monday, forgot!
Worked on Wednesday.
Planned to mountain bike The Oaks with Fletcher and Jake on Thursday, but Fletcher slept in, so it ended up being just me and Jake, typical ol' Fletcher... it was great fun! Super tiring, definitely a fitness test, but I enjoyed it so much, I've got to do this more often! Fell once, around a corner on the long downhill area after the helipad. The climb out from the causeway DESTROYED me.
Friday, rest!!


The Fall...
Saturday, the 16th, yikes!! Met up with Halil in the morning to go climb in Porters Pass (again), with Assad and his friend Chris. Warmed up on a 21, got shut down on a 24 and headed over to where Assad was to do Black Heathen 24. Halil just missed the onsight, unfortunately, so close! It was my turn to go up afterwards, good fun climbing, except for one awkward mantle reach, where can I buy some of this uhh... 'teckneek'? I've heard lots about it... I got to the 7th or 8th bolt, and went to deadpoint for a hold that looked decent, except I hit it wrong, and as I fell, I only expected about a fall of 1 metre or so, as I was pretty much at the bolt. However, the bad bit was somehow, Halil's auto-assist belay device (Trango Cinch) didn't activate, as the belay sling had interfered with the locking mechanism, and I fell about 20 metres, going past the belay ledge and ending up about 2 metres from the ground. A truly, terrifying moment, for the both of us. I felt the rope slow me where I should had stopped, but I just kept going, managing to yell out his name a few times as I was getting closer to the ground.


Very shaken, so I had a long break, watching the others climb, Halil went on to try Returnity 28, cutting open all his blisters (from the rope burn, trying to stop me from hitting the ground). The people next to us, then also had an issue. As the climber was being lowered, the rope came OUT of the belayers ATC. I ran over to grab on, and luckily, the climber had pulled on to the route to try and get a quickdraw off. Lucky. A nother person rethread the device, and we all realised how badly his set up was... Had some lunch, and then I flashed Chasing Amy 21, tough. Halil finished on Nylon Happy 22, and we called it a day. Got McDonalds on the way home, and talked about the incidents.


Went on Sunday to climb with Paul, no idea where we were going, it was dependent on the weather. The clouds were angry, so we settled with The Glen. Started off the day on Ruddy Norry 22, getting up to the first bolt was scary, why is it so high?! Fumbling with bolt plates on my onsight didn't help so much, and came off at the crux. Second go, it went quite easily. I then tried Rat Cat 24, which was great fun, but would be almost impossible for me to link, the crux right at the end, is tough. I started not feeling so well (climbing-wise), but Paul sort of forced me to get on Nev Herod 23. Couldn't do the mantle, so Paul put up the draws for me, I had a little break to try and re-collect myself. When I went back on, I climbed horribly bad, falling over and over, falling while clipping, it was a wreck. Managed to get to the top, eventually... Not my weekend of climbing...

Pictures! Have a good one.

Mocha from Il Postinos
Hannan on Nylon Happy, taken on Sid's GoPro
Great day!
Thank god for bike racks.
Immediately after my fall, blisters from the rope burn.
After bursting all of them climbing.
Fell from just above the frame to a few metres below the frame. 

Friday, February 1, 2013

Hiatus

Well, my bad, it's been quite a long time since I've posted! Nothing much has really changed. The usual, you know? Climbing, quality time with mates, yeah that's pretty much it. Had a few big trips, but nothing else so notable  Awesome pictures, I will amuse you with them rather than typing lots...

This blog will probably be a whole bunch of pictures from my last blog post till now (with captions, zomg)

Happy 2013!

Also, since I'm too lazy to write proper entries as of recent, go on these places for updates!

(Who am I kidding, as if anybody cares)

Facebook
TheCrag
Twitter
Instagram


Climbing Centre Christmas party!
Continued my service of being a Sweet Dreams tour guide with Steph! Later that night, went over to Fletcher's place for a party. Next day, went to Boronia, got lost at Mount Piddington, and ended up doing one climb at Zap Crag...
Went to Barden's Lookout to climb with Chew, Kim and met Assad and Claudine there. This is Major Tom, a 23 I redpointed.
Made "Pic of the day" on I Looove Climbing, got over 1,800 likes, wooh!

Over the course of three days, went camping in Mount York, climbed heaps, swam a bunch and did the multipitch 'Bunny Bucket Buttress' with Siddharth, Mike and Rowan.
Went to Melbourne to watch the Australian Open and visit family.
Fletcher was also in Melbourne, we went to a climbing gym!
Went down to Point Perpendicular for the start of the Australia day weekend, only to be able to climb one day (due to rain).
Went to The Rain Cave on the last day of the long weekend to avoid the rain and be able to climb.


I did a lot more, lots of hanging out with Siddharth and the rest of the boys (he was back for 6 weeks for his annual leave from the ADF). Went climbing much more than what I listed here, went slacklining sometimes, bowling, ice-skating, mountain-biking etc. Good times!

Auf Widersehen!