Wednesday September 24- Riding to Arapiles.
Well, it's begun. Although hardly an epic, this ride to araps is quite an undertaking for someone who didn't own a tent, bike, and can't change a tube.


On the road...

I covered 50 km today; there were a few 'easy' climbs in the 16 km to my first stop in Moyston, but then I had lunch and some cookies and did the other 32+ pretty easily, the main issue being that one of my back panniers is already fucked and fell of a few times, throwing my groove; quite annoying when you're strapped into your pedals.


Lunch on Day 1


Step 2!

There were a few times though where I felt indescribably happy, singing along to My Chemical Romance as I raced down a hill, and grinding along some flat sections as Godspeed You! Black Emperor rose to a crescendo. Oh and the two hour train ride to Ararat went fast as I was absorbed in "Kafka on the Shore".

Now i'm at the YHA ecohostel in Halls Gap which is good and bad; shared kitchen and not having to put up a tent is great; sharing room with two old guys and having no people my age around; maybe a mixed blessing since the slow tomorrow will be tough. 88 km but much harder terrain. But i have way more time before it gets dark, which helps a lot.



At the moment I'm waiting for the water to boil so I can cook some pasta, sauce and chorizo, then last shower in a whole and bed.

Friday 26

Transport and accomodation in foreground, Entertainment System in background

I'm squeezed against the walls of my tragically established tent but life is pretty good. Yesterday I did the big ride; the first 4-5 km was very tough terrain but after that there was a good 20 km of mostly downward coasting; at one point racing down the hill I even shouted my joy into the wind as I burned down the mountain. The first 3 km were very tough. Eventually I got a decent rhythm and the next 30 were good, basically until I was off the Grampians National Park area and back onto the lonely road out to Horsham.






At this point the road were fine at a steady climb of about 3%. I would normally be fine, but there was a strong headwind and I fought it for every inch to Horsham, where I rode around for a while before I settled on a motel.





I was pretty spent by this point and so when I got to the paying for my room part the woman looked surprised I didn't barter over the price.

Woman: "That's $75 a night"
Martin: "Ok"
Woman: "Oh"

So that made my feel dumb. As in many things in life people just want to feel like they did ok even if they didn't. I felt stupid, despite normally spending $75 on the minibar in a night at the hotels I frequent since I am awesome. Anyway I had a shower and some chinese food from next door went to bed.

Today I rode about 40 km but it seems I've pulled a hamstring so it became a bit of an epic really, fighting the pain and the headwind for every inch. Evenso it was over quickly and I was soon chatting to some randoms at 'the campsite'. There's a pretty good tarp setup and a kind of communist donation based food sharing system in place. I basically decided to commit when one of the guys brought some groceries over and asked who wanted to split them. I threw in some money and my remaining food and that was it.

Then I went out for a boulder (The Crankshaft Boulder) with one of the long term campers. I warmed up on an easy on next to it and was scared for a bit at the top but all was good. The main line on the boulder I did was an overhanging traverse and after making some progress with a footcam and a heel hook got pretty close to sending it. Next time I guess.

I'm almost finished Kafka on the Shore now, still good. The people outside my tent are making a tonne of drunken sound, so I guess I'll read some more. Dinner was good; I had planned on instant mash but ended with rice, veges, beans and then custard, cooked over the open fire. All this food was donated by weekenders at the mountains who leave their perishables with my new communist climbing group.

Hopefully i'll find someone to climb Australian grade 14-15 (5.7/5B) tomorrow. Really want to start going as hard as possible but worried about inconveniencing the people I climb with by sucking; interesting catch 22 since it is hard to get good without doing this...

Gonna read a few chapters then bed.

Saturday 27
In my tent as per normale listening to the wind. We just cooked some flat bread for tomorrows lunch after a super-spicy dinner (I spilled the chilli flakes...) of pasta and veg and tuna that was made mostly from donated food. Feels good; today had anxiety attack when climbing; was really insecure about burdening two good climbers wtih my presence. But felt some small improvements. Climbed at Pharos Gully; ticked 15 (Jeckyll) on top rope, then crashed and burned on a Bouldery 17 (5.9). Finished on Dewey, a great 18 (5.10) that I finished wtih some hoist assistance but hope to do on gear by the end of my trip. I guess I should buy some gear (it's all trad climbing at arapiles) but it's so expensive in Australia and i'm going to Canada soon. I really want to learn to lead climbs on gear though (completely different feeling from top roping..).

Sunday 28
Woke up pretty early (3am) to do a piss; really considered holding it but eventually succumbed. Had some oats for brekky then went climbing with the blue mountains crew who are here for a couple weeks it seems (Tim, Marty, Jules and Dylan).

We went to Castle Crag but I had to leave suddenly to do a shit which was awkward. When I got back they had hoisted (prussiked) their way onto the second pitch of the climb. I tried to climb up where they had setup a top rope but the only real line was v tough; I figured with a top rope I could make it though, climbing one move at a time then stopping and resting. However, the first time I went to rest I fell into a tree since the top rope was pretty stretchy and swung. Oh well. It was pretty painful. Eventually they threw a rope down and I prussiked up too. Climbed a 15 (5.7) on top rope. Was a nice climb. Felt like I might fall at one point but found a mammoth jug and all was well. Still feeling insecure about burdening other climbers but really have no choice.





Castle Crag w/ the blue mountains crew

Might ride into Natimuk now (8 km away) to have a look at the little climbing shop there.

Sunday 28- second entry
The sounds around camp from the weekenders are mostly gone and i'm left listening to the blue mountains crew play some cricket outside my tent. Rode about 20 km today and got lost on the way home despite really obvious directions. Felt pretty stupid of course. Had a look at the climbing shop to see their prices which seemed pretty normal; might get a set of wires, some quick draws and maybe a few C4 camalots which would be a good start to a rack.

Feeling a bit lonely without any friends or trad gear and needing to climb even lower grade stuff when I start lead climbing on gear... hopefully things will work themselves out.

Sunday 28- night

Tarp under which donated food is stored (and eaten when there is rain and campfire is out; the couches there are ancient, probably from the local tip, scavenged by climbers of another time...)

Well it's started raining and i'm in the tent. Food donations today were good; a few tomatoes, sugar, corn on the cob, wheat bix, milk. One of the south african long term campers (2 months so far) was really happy as always which makes me happy. 'YES!!!! CORN!!!'. He reminds me so much of one of my friends from South Africa except a bit older. On that note, he said all the money he had was 50c so I asked him if he wante dto make a bit more teaching me to lead since I was looking at guides anyway. He's a good climber and I like him a lot. Also Hugh (another new long term camper) returned and we talked about gear. He said he had some new wires and wiregate quickdraws he'd sell so maybe I might BEGIN THE RACK. Anyway, just ate some melatonin so bed.

Monday 1

Great balls of fire!



The campfire provides just enough light to eat but is dark enough to hide my greasy lips and fingers pretty effectively which is great since I am really going to town on a cob of corn which i've smothered with butter. It wouldn't matter anyway though, since Jonathon (israeli camper) and Richard are doing the same thing. Life is good.

Jonathon is another long term resident (about a month). He's a pretty good climber (23-24 on gear) who graduated from medical school and decided to travel a year before doing his internship. I like him. He has truely immersed himself in the dirtbag lifestyle despite being a rich jew; he will eat literally anything that is donated (most the people here will), and seems to take pride in downing things like cream that's off etc. Him and Richard told me a story of how one of the weekend campers spilled a pasta dish and ruined it (since it fell in the dirt). They went and collected it in a pot, washed all the individual pasta pieces, and then made a sauce for it; then raved about how good it was. The simple things!

Dinner today went by the typical formula; Starch (Rice or Pasta) + Donated Protein (canned tuna or beans) + donated Vegetables (usually tomatoes, carrots, zuchini, broccoli, garlic, maybe ginger or potatoes) and some kind of sauce (usually donated curry or pasta sauce, maybe a can of tomatoes or something). Add as much donated spices as possible. Enjoy by campfire with a couple cups of box wine (in this environment, drinking box wine out of a cup is as good as Bordeaux at Nobu).

Climbs: climbed with Richard and Jim, both great guys. Started with some multipitch, YoYo, a 16 (5.8), 45M climb which I sent both pitches of on top rope pretty easily. Then "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly", a 3 pitch route (the first pitch is good, the second is bad, and the last is usually skipped since it's not much fun) of grade 20 (5.10c, 6b); I climbed to the crux (toughest part) of the first pitch then choked which was very frustrating. I got up the second time though. The second pitch I couldn't even do the first move of. It was a big overhanging move where you just bullshitted your way into outerspace and I have no idea how jim did it. A funny note was that as Jim was climbing it the first time, Richard fell off the belay ledge (which he was anchored into). Like, he was standing on a rock ledge about 25M in the air, and just suddenly decided to fall off to the amusement of all. Was a sudden shock, suddenly everyone swinging around in space, anchored to the rock. I would do some swinging around in space myself as I launched myself again and again at the first move of this pitch; eventually I had to get hauled up by Jim (but only over the first move; after that I was fine). LOL.

In the afternoon I climbed with just Richard. Climbed 18 (forget the name), which was a balancy slab. SOOO had it but fell off once on a move i had. Then I angrily grovelled my way up the rest of the route. I've never climbed 18 before even on top rope so it was pretty annoying to miss an easy move and slip off. Then Richo climbed "Feral Chicken" (22, 5.11a, 6c) which was brilliant but extremely technical. He sent it on-site though which was fucking great, was a really stressful belay (let alone climb). Then we warmed down on "Philanthropy (15, 5.7). Was ok. Richo made the pitch a bit harder by going off route so it was really more like 16 by the time I was climbing. Dinner and bed. Climbing today was good.

Tuesday 2

Climbed with Taal today, one of Jonathons Israeli friends. Taal is married and his pregnant wife waits in the car while he climbs all day which leads to her wanting to kill him most nights. Went fine, sent a 17 (5.8) straight away which felt good. Was a balancy slab again, found it very easy. Then climbed Pedro on top rope, a burly grade 11 with some massive exposure and juggy moves. Was lots of fun. Taal is a really slow climber (in hindsight he isn't really that slow and the others i've climbed with are fast; I am definitely slower but it's easy to be hateful from the belay...) but the gear he placed was good and he climbed well. Richard didn't get back until later tonight, which was a shame since I wanted him to help me learn to lead on gear.

Tomorrow i'll probably climb again with Taal but it's a shame since he doesn't want to lead 16+ and I don't want to second 12s. On Thursday I'll buy some cams and rocks and draws and begin the rack!

Tuesday Evening-
Someone's spinning flaming poi as I sit at the last embers of our campfire. We've just eaten (donated chicken masala sauce, vegetables, mashed potatoes, then custard, with a few cups of box wine; so good) and the conversation naturally turns to ducks; would it be better to hook up with a mallard or a chinese duck? WTF? I didn't start this conversation luckily. Jonathon naturally muses 'what's the best pickup line you think, if you're trying to score with a duck". Rich throws in the bomb-proof "How would you like to go South for the winter?".

Someone mentioned a memory game and it was basically one of those increasingly difficult memory chains. I asked what it was so Jonathon (who had done it before) decided I should try it. Basically he will say one animal etc with some tricky adjectives, then you have to repeat that then all the preceding animals.

Jonathon: 1 hen;
Martin: 1 hen;
Jonathon: 1 hen, 2 ducks
Martin: 1 hen, 2 ducks
Jonathon: 1 hen, 2 ducks, 3 squawking geese

until we basically got to 1 hen, 2 ducks, 3 squawking geese, 4 lymerick oysters, 5 corpulent corpses, 6 pairs of Don Alversos Tweezers, 7000 Macedonians in full battle array, 8 Brass Monkeys from the Ancient Sacred Crypts of Egypt, 9 Old Men on Rollerskates w/ a marked proclivity towards procrastination and sloth, 10 lyrical spherical diabolical denizens of the deep who haul the quo of the quay of the queen all at the same time. I got the first 9 and missed 'haul' on the last one which was frustrating since it's the easiest part of the sentence. Jonathon said 'that's the best i've seen!' and seemed mildly impressed but obviously my need to feel special left me feeling like just another guy since i didn't finish. Obviously I AM just another guy; ego is so stupid.

In other news, we got a slackline setup so by the end of my stay here hopefully i'll be able to do some laps on that. I can't even walk one step at the moment. Bedtime; need a new book so looks like I might indulge in some ipod time.

Thursday 2:00 pm

It's really hot and i'd like to be climbing but took a rest day today. Looks like we'll be going into Horsham (nearest civilization) today (shower!!!!, internet, mexican dinner). Really feel like i'd be having a better time if I was leading easy long multipitches on my own gear all day. Just can't workout how to make it happen.

Yesterday climbed Togrul Khan (19, 5.10b, 6a+), which was very tough. Didn't think I could do the first move (fell first time), but had another go when everyone else was done with it and sent it after a rest in the middle. Then climbed a decent 35M 13 easily and had a go at a technical 19 that I really liked but fell near the top and didn't repeat. Was very frustrated.

Friday 3 October
It's late afternoon and I've just had a pretty good day despite only climbing one route (and a grade 7 at that!!!!). But I lead using an older guy (50ish)s gear. Yes!




Sup?

I started the day building a few anchors (an anchor is basically 3 things you've wedged in the rock and equalised to provide something that can hold your / your partners fall, and is what makes climbing on top rope safer than climbing lead). Derrick (older guy) checked my anchors on the ground and decided they were fine and off I went. I would have been very comfortable soloing (no rope) the route I climbed but made a concious effort to put heaps of gear in.


Derrick, on the day of my first trad lead

I've started to look for the weaknesses in the rock to place elegant pro and really want to get the most out of a few well selected pieces of gear. It is quite an art to place gear; it's one of those things where you don't want to place too much since it makes climbing very very slow but you definitely need to place as much as you need otherwise you are going to take a monster whipper and hurt yourself, or get scared because you realise if you fall you will be doing just that. On that afternoon I finally bought a set of DMM walnuts (wired nuts that jam into the rock) and 6 wire gate carabiners with slings. Definitely the most important things to start a rack with. Going to hold off on the cams since they're very expensive and not sure exactly which ones I want to buy (+ would prefer to buy for like 1/2 the price in Canada).


Richo cranking at Mitre Rock where Derrick was teaching lead climbing.

Tomorrow i'll hopefully be able to climb some more lead with Derrick and his son, or maybe Taal, but the weathers crapped out (rain) and no ones really a good enough friend to convince them to climb an easy multipitch in the rain. It doesn't have to be fun to be fun man! i would say.


Richo post-cranking at camp

Anyway, wine-o-clock by now and there's a box of cab merlot with my name on it. Funny aside; we got donated heaps of food today which richo immediately labelled with a permanent marker; ADC (the arapiles dirtbag co-operative). Pretty funny. Also when we were in Horsham me and Jim went on a dumpster raid but turned up short. Apparently dumpster raids are often profitable endeavors, sometimes turning up bags of muffins etc; naturally when in Rome i went along with it...

It's quite a change from Nobu seeing how little you can truly live on.

Saturday 4th
The weekenders in the tent near mine are already snoring but I can still here most of the long term campers around the fire. Dinner today was donated lamb mince (well over the use by date but tasted great), green curry paste, vegetables, rice. Was good.

Here's what I ate today;
Up & Go breakfast drink (drank this in the tent since it was not donated (I bought it in horsham) and I didn't want to alienate myself by being greedy (lol; a $2 drink...).
Breakfast: oats with donated cream.
Lunch- donated soup.
Dinner- as above.
Dessert- Cookies covered in chocolate spread and peanut butter.
Wine- 3 cups of chateaux cardboard.

Climbing today was very good. Exactly what I wanted out of the day. Started by seconding Taal on a 14, then after lunch did 100 vertical metres of grade 9. ON LEAD. Felt like I was soloing most of the time (not a good thing) since my nut placements are still shaky (or, I have no confidence in them yet; Taal said they were fine after). Good practice though, climbing lead, building anchors, climbing multipitch. Weee.

Tomorrow same thing hopefully. This guy snoring in the tent near me is insane.

Monday 6th
I'm lying on the ground in the foetal position and the ringing in my ears won't go away. My vision has turned into a kaleidoscope or maybe someone has placed my brain in a washing machine; whatever the case, I can't see anything, or more precisely i can see a few of everything which is close enough. Taal is calling down from 40M up asking what's going on and I yell to him that i'm ok. I think he heard me say 'FUCK'. I am ok right? Yea I think i'm ok. My body hurts a bit and i'm concussed but I think nothing's broken. I suddenly feel quite sick, like I am going to throw up but am happy that i'm now aware that i'm mostly ok.

Taal is still trying to workout what happened and I can't really think of what to say so I just tell him to work out his own way to come down and that i'm fine. There's not much else he can do and saying i'm not ok won't help. The time passes slowly and I am suddenly very cold. It's getting dark. It's about 7pm. Eventually Taal has rapped down.

"What happened, are you ok?"
"Yea i'm fine. I rapped off the end of the rope and dropped 3M and landed on my back on that rock then bounced off and hit my head on the ground. I'm ok though".
"How'd you rap off the end of the rope, I tied knots in the end of both ropes"
"Yea I ran out of rope and wasn't at the ground yet so I undid one of the knots".
"Why would you do that?"

It's a good question. One I don't have a good answer for. I thought I was good on one rope I guess which is obviously stupid since that's not how rappelling works. There IS a way to even the ropes up like what I did except you do it slightly different and don't untie the knot until the end. I don't know, but in that moment I did something stupid.

My shoulders are pretty sore and my back and head are too, but nothing's broken and I feel lucky. Just annoying because I don't know how to prevent stuff like this happening. I guess you just have to make mistakes sometimes; I will certainly never make this one again. Hopefully other future lessons are not as painful (or worse...).

In the morning before this happened I lead a multipitch (35M) grade 8 on gear called Tantalus. It was really exposed and steep but easy climbing. I felt scared sometimes because I felt like if I fell I would hit the ground since I wasn't sure my gear placements were good. This is why lead climbing is harder, basically rather than falling onto an anchor that could literally hold a car in the air, you fall into one small piece you've placed WHILE climbing, often from a height of a few metres (in itself a bit scary)... Gonna make sure I don't lead anything too high for a while. After that Taal lead a great 13 called Muldoon. Very exposed, big moves. Although Taal can climb about 21 on top rope, he found it pretty scary I think, asking if he was on the right route a few times. After he was at the top he looked very happy though. After I top roped up after him, we setup another top rope on a tougher route that neither of us wanted to lead but both wanted to climb. The top rope was crap though and so we just climbed muldoon again on it. Besides the fall it was a good days climbing although setting up a top rope took a while and it sucked that we had to use it to climb the same route again.

Feel a bit homesick. But getting a lot out of being away, climbing, camping, being more independent, recognising personal fears and working through them, while living more simply.

"Thought I probably knew it all, but all it took was a fall, and now you're lying on the ground, foetal..."
"Let this be a wake up call, next time it might cost it all, you're lucky all you're nursing is your ego..."

Tuesday 7th, morning
I woke up today feeling useless and helpless. After yesterday's rest day I am still sore. My back and ribs have a dull ache coursing through them and my arms are bruised. It's a theme for me at this point; my climbing isn't progressing as quickly as i'd like, but I can't just dissapear home at this point. Even if I could, I don't know that I would. Climbing helps me confront my personal weaknesses. It's also really fun, easy to forget sometimes! I just hope I really don't hurt myself in the process.

"Trapped in ways that walls can't bind, prisoner of my broken mind"... Feeling quite alone also; most other climbers here besides Richo are here with friends or are good enough to climb with whoever they want / have all their own gear etc. Although I am still social with everyone there is still that difference, that I am glimpsing a way of life that is not mine. i am the weakest climber here also which alienates me a bit. In reality it's all good though.

I guess since I am kind of stuck here I will have to work through my problems rather than running from them in the usual fashion.

Tuesday 7th- evening
I dropped my head torch this evening. I'm writing by the light of my mobile phone. V hard. Climbed Minimus (14) on toip rope, Maxemus (17) on top rope (twice, good crimpy slab), and lead Camalot (10). Was pretty easy lead, but good practice. Ate lunch and seconded Tremelo (14) and lead keyboard (9). I ran keyboard out (didn't place much gear) like a mofo and was scared at a few times but the gear was good mostly. Fucked up the anchor at the top so that Taal would have taken quite a whipper if he fell even though he was on top rope. Will never make the same mistake again; it turns out what Derrick had said was ok on an anchor either wasn't or he just didn't notice the small mistake I had made when he was checking my anchors earlier.

Rapped down in the dark (first time ever). Was all alone after Taal rapped down first to make sure it was ok (he was a bit worried I think after I injured myself the other day). Without a head torch, sitting on a pinnacle 35M in the air, I felt a bit like Batman. Except I was a bit scared; would I fuck up the rap again? I couldn't even see the chains properly this time. But I made sure I kept with it and went through the familiar motions required to rap off, and all was well. The head torch still worked after dropping 35M which was great; but I will have to buy some batteries for it tomorrow since I lost one. Dinner was good as always. Gonna listen to some Jeff Buckley and fade into dreams...

Wed 8th

Gone Climbing...

Still no batteries for head torch so using the light on phone again.
A typical day
-woke up hating life as usual; sleeping in a small tent after not showering for up to 5 days makes you feel kind of gross in the mornings; once you are out of the tent, life is suddenly great though.
-noticed we had been donated some cereals and milk; ate these for breakfast.

-climb w/ taal and jono at pharos. climbed Agent Orange (15, brilliant! was so pumped after climbing it, pumped meaning my body was completely spent and I was scattered...). After that, climbed Vanoise (20, 5.10c). Almost got up it the first try on top rope, but fell while my left arm was in a hand jam. Basically what that means is that my feet fell out from under me while my hand was in a position where it was locked into a gap in the rock. So it felt like my shoulder dislocated; made a pretty grotesque sound, but wasn't thattt painful, so probably just a sprain. Was far more angry about the fact that I didn't make the climb the first try, since 20 is significantly harder than i've ever done in one try.

After that I took a rest at the move I didn't finish, and tried it again. Failed again. Tried again. Failed again. Tried again. Failed again. Decided to have one last go and did the move differently to how i did it before and how the other climbers did it but somehow made it up. Shouted "WOOOOOOO!" as soon as I hit the anchor. Felt awesome. Spent rest of afternoon belaying Jono on a 23 (5.11b) and climbed a 15 pretty easily. Also lead a grade 6 (super easy) chimney for practice. Was pretty fun even though it was very easy. Jono cleaned the route (took the gear out) without wearing a rope, while climbing in Crocs. lol.

Dinner was good as always. New chick at the camp fire who is bubbly and nice. Pulled shoulder hurts. Bed. Hopefully climb tomorrow. Prob not.

Thursday 9
Just woke up. Def can't climb. Dreamed of a wormhole setoff by the death of superman. Was really cool story, the plot jumped back and forth or maybe just went backwards like memento. I don't remember much of it. Dreams are fucking weird. Shoulder v. sore. SIGH. Read some climbing magazines and played someones guitar for most the day. Decided it would be cool to do some mixed climbing in New York at a place called the Adirondacks or something. Rode 20 km in the afternoon. Also began reading 'Prelude to the Foundation' by Asimov which is ok so far, at least it feels like i'm learning when I read it since he makes a point of explaining a bunch of different concepts through the context of the story itself.


Hugh slacklining

Friday 10
Pancakes in the morning. SWEET. Climbed long 13 on top rope at castle crag but arms is very sore so done for the day. SIGH. Feel trapped now. Should I stay and wait, wasting my time til I feel ok to climb? KALGKFLGAL. Oh well.

Sunday 12
Writing from computer at home. Rode to Horsham yesterday, and took train home in the morning. Might car pool back to Arapiles on the weekend since I was JUST getting into climbing on my own gear, multipitch, had a climbing partner of a compatible skill (Taal) and had sent a great tough route that felt like a milestone, even if it was on top rope (Vanoise). OH well. We'll see what happens I guess. The trip was great and I am happy I did it, even though I was basically always injured in one way or another and often felt alone, stupid, or afraid. But the good things more than made up for it; friends made, dirt-bag-dinners lovingly consumed, the joy of newly donated food, of a shower at the aquatic centre for 40 minutes after none for nearly a week, of climbing through fears or learning new techniques to improve, rocking out while pedalling as fast as i could on a lonely road surrounded by golden canola fields, seeing potential futures opening and monotonous ones closing. Life is good.

after 6 hours of slogging up a mountain with a 20 kg pack we turned back 100 vertical metres from the summit (we were at about 1900M, pro about 15-16 km walk) because of the weather and camped it out in the snow; it took about 6 hours, with a 30 minute stop for lunch. my endurance was surprisingly decent, i lead the pack most the way and powered through my bodies complaints. I didn't sleep at all that night because I was sharing tents with someone who must have had a 3 season tent, it poured with rain non stop and i basically spent the night curled up in a summer sleeping bag, telling myself that suffering was character building. in the morning i opened my eyes again, ate some oats and we did some crevasse rescue practice, which went well despite the fact that i thought i'd have some trouble remembering how to get the rope systems set; no problems though. built snow anchors using t-stakes, did assisted crevasse rescue etc. was good.



through the mist...



there's a hut near the top at about 1800M but you can't sleep in it; was pretty busy with people making tea and shivering.


tents...




then trudged back down which took about another 2.5 hours. overall a pretty good experience. might have to go back soon to try the east face which has some ice and mixed climbing, makes it a bit more fun than just a hardcore slog.

at the moment i'm researching buying a touring bicycle which i'm loading up to ride the 200 km out to Arapiles, which is a good rock climbing crag near melbourne where people often camp. prob plan to do that ~the 10th-11th of september, 2 days biking with a stop overnight and then 5 days climbing or so and then home again. madly learning everything i can about bicycle repair, setting up a bike for distance travel, finding routes that aren't the highway etc.

http://www3.utsidan.se/corax-e/ : been reading this site a bit, sweet bike tourer.

bought basically all the books i could find in local bookstores on bike touring, bike repair, etc. probably plan to buy the bike tomorrow, the model I have in mind is a sealy steel frame touring bike; will continue to post updates!

I wrote this while I was camping for the most part so some of it is rushed and jumbled and so forth. Basically I set out to learn how to Ice Climb with the company Adventure Consultants (www.adventure.co.nz) and had a very rewarding experience. Ice Climbing was one of the most challenging things I have done in my entire life (I used to think Rock Climbing took this category and since I haven't climbed any really hard rock, the fact that easy ice was like easy rock except in more extreme conditions, it was harder). Click the photos for bigger versions. Click a second time for an even bigger photo! Here goes!


Getting in the helicopter after packing to leave.

Ice Climbing: Day 2, Tuesday 15th

Well yesterday we spent the majority of the day packing, flying into the valley (Wye Creek), 1400M at the back of the Remarkables, a popular skiing destination near queenstown.


the main tent where we ate! made things a lot cushier than if we were mountaineering!!!


our tent; all 3 of us slept in this like sardines.


Paul and I pack for the first day of climbing.

We set up our tent on a platform we dug in the snow then ate lunch and snow shoed for maybe 30 minutes up to the ice. It was a pretty hard vertical slog at about a 40 degree incline up the mountain (lots of zig zagging to take some of the steepness off the slope) but we got there and had some sweetened tea and prepared for ice climbing, which basically involved putting our crampons on. I was happy enough with my fitness I guess, from the start I had planned to be exhausted most the time so I guess the fact that I wasn't completely raped was reassuring.

A crampon is basically an attachement for your shoe that has metal spikes on it so you don't slip around on the ice. It's got two (sometimes one) point on the front which allows you to dig directly into vertical ice so that you can climb it. This is called front pointing. The two guys i'm climbing with, Pete and Tim seem like nice guys. Pete works in internet security at a bank and Tim is in the final year of his law degree. With regards to the intensity of the sport we are taking in, i'd say we're all a little soft, but whatever, you have to start somewhere.


Ice tools, crampons


Tim snowshoeing up the slopes


Pete


Paul, the man we would trust with our lives for the next 5 days


THE ICE (at least, some of it)

We did a small amount of ice bouldering on some pillars of ice and a bit of work on front pointing and 10 point (french technique) crampon work. Our guide Paul seems like a nice guy and is very competent.

Today we snow shoed to a different area, and I broke trail for a lot more of it this time; no wonder i thought my fitness was good yesterday, breaking trail is 100x harder when you keep sinking into the snow. Still, I felt good and the other guys were lagging behind a bit despite stepping in my footsteps, so I was happy enough that I wouldn't be slowing anyone down.

We did a couple climbs that were all extremely challenging:
1- route with big bulges to step over; the first climb is always mentally a bit tricky because you are not used to climbing up ice the second you wake up. Here I go:


Going!


And going!


Gone!

2- different route with thin ice and more rock; a kind of mixed route, easier technically but some weird parts to get up like a chimney of rock that felt kind of claustrophobic.
3- route 1 again, except using only 1 ice pick, focusing on footwork. i was very happy to get to the top of this route and was the only one who did although I suspect Pete probably could have. He definitely would be able to now.
4- extremely tough - I was fatigued, forgot to unclip my rope from a quick draw on the way up (this would become my kryptonite on later climbs), and had to down climb 3 metres to unclip it. EXTREMELY TOUGH. me and pete and paul (our guide) did a stacked rappel to get down (3 people on one rope but linked with a master karabiner) because we had no rack left at the top (forgot to bring all our webbing because we didn't think we'd need it today).

We snow shoed back and I forced myself to stretch- EXHAUSTED. I feel great though.

The knots i've learnt so far are basically stuff i'd already learnt in the past but with different (correct) names; the clove hitch and the italian hitch. I've got the double fishermans knot down now too.

Dinner's ready, I better go eat..

Ice Climbing Day 3, 16th July

Woke up after sleeping pretty poorly last night- it seems our tents on a bit of a slope and I end up against the wall of the tent which collects condensation- makes for a pretty muggy experience. Once I was up it was fine though.

Last night Paul did a bit of a gear talk- some interesting things to remember:
rope: sounds like i should start on a 60M 8.8mm (dual rope trad) and a 60M 10.X (sport / single rope mountaineering).
boots: Paul's wearing La Sportiva EVOs which are a leather plastic composite. He recommended a stove too, the MSR reaktor (I've since bought an MSR whisperlite stove for camping).

Got out to some different ice today, a lot of similarly steep stuff but longer pitches. I asked Paul how ice was ranked and he said that climbing something that was like a steep river bed would be a 1, the easy stuff (level 2) we were doing was any running water source (vertical) with some thickness to it, 3 was just steeper 2. If you were climbing 5 you'd be very good. 6-7 is basically ice at the 4-5 level but maybe thinner.

1- 15-20M, level 2 ice, found this pretty painless though the first step was psychologically tough.


Pete climbing this pitch


The full pitch as Pete comes down


Loving it


Tim on the way up


Looks like he's found the anchor!


Home sweet home



2- L3; 4 on a different day (with thinner ice); found this extremely taxing. Was glad I didn't breakup despite having to downclimb at one point to remove an ice screw, put my own screw in, and continue. Many times I thought there was just no way but I forced myself to stay calm and got up there. Pete commented on this later which felt good; he seemed to cruise up the climb himself. Tim almost had it but broke up at the end and lost his feet.


I think this is the right climb, it looks fucking awesome anyway and we definitely climbed it at some point


Another sweet photo from the same day

We did some V-threads later, how and how not to place slings in the ice, and so forth. One thing to remember is not to tie a sling around an ice formation with a girth hitch since it has a habit of breaking the ice (the girth sends you to the earth! i mentally noted). V threads are extremely strong when setup correctly (we would later use them for a 50M rappel) and consist of a rope threaded through the ice in a space screwed out using an ice screw (forming a hollow V in the ice formation).


Practicing V-threads as the sun goes down

Snow shoeing back was good, quite a workout. Time for some milo and a stretch, then Thai fish curry for dinner.

Thursday, Day 4, July 17

One again I slept poorly last night despite being in the middle of the tent. The zipless sleeping bag I've hired is really doing a number on me. Woke up pretty late really, ate some eggs and toast and then snow shoed out to some ~L2 ice where we'd be practicing multipitch / lead climbing.

Pete and Paul lead the first pitch simultaneously and finished pretty fast. I took my time; the route was pretty easy (at the time it felt tough but the others were definitely harder). However, near the end of the pitch my crampon came off, I felt my feet give way and suddenly i was just hanging on my ice picks dangling precariously from the ice.

I stayed as calm as I could and got my foot with a crampon still on it into the ice, then went for the other when I realised it was no longer there. Meanwhile my glacier glasses had fogged up and I was half blind (enough to make it hard to choose good axe placements). Paul told me to ditch them because he figured it was better than falling but I clipped them onto my rack nervously as I hanged on one arm and with one foot in the wall and hauled myself up the slope using just my arms basically. We stopped in an ice shelter at 30M for a cup of tea once I was up, and I belayed Tim as he climbed up. Pete said "Imagine how much pussy you get when you tell that story to chicks man!". I had a laugh about that, I was definitely glad my crampon had come off now that I was safe and sitting down; it felt good to know that when the shit had hit the fan I acted in a calm and detached way.


My brains fried in this photo after the crampon accident

The next pitch was my turn to lead however, and it started with a straight traverse where I would have to climb horizontally across the ice. My brain was completely fried after the crampon accident but I figured there was no way I was going down so I told myself to get my shit together because I was climbing. I inched myself out onto the traverse working very slowly (knowing I was leading the pitch at 30M; i would have protection but it wouldn't be good when I was traversing and once I was up higher it would be a straight lead).

After a few minutes of conservative ice axe placements I worked my way over and up the pitch; clipping quick draws into screws, pulling up the rope, clipping into the quick draws, and moving on.

As I was about 5 vertical metres to the belay station, an ice cave about 50M above the ground, I slightly overshot an ice screw I was meant to clip a quickdraw into; a common mistake i'd been making. However, I had known it was there (I had actually moved a quickdraw from the left side of my harness to the right seconds before, because I knew i'd be hanging on my left arm as I clipped in) so my ice axe placement was ok. Paul called down (he had been simultaneously leading the pitch maybe 5 minutes before I started, in this way u can have 2 people lead and two follow for faster multipitch climbing) from the ice cave and said i'd fucked it and would have to down climb, so I started down, figuring he meant it would be easier if i was horizontal on the screw rather than having to lean down slightly to get at it; I started back down again, suddenly realising my last piece of protection was an ice screw about 5M below me (making for about an 11M drop on a precarious piece of protection).

As I headed down, getting closer to the screw, Paul shouted not to worry about it; he had thought the ropes had crossed, realised they hadn't, and told me to come on up. I got some good axe placements and repeated my ascent, now with my legs melting all over my front points.

"I'm not in the quick draw, you know that right?" I asked him.
"Well you'll just have to go back down and own it and clip in, you've chosen a terrible place to fuck up" he told me.
"You'll take quite a fall from here" he continued.

I once again forced myself to stay with it and not to choke, remaining as calm as possible. Hammering my axes into the divets I had used on the way up, I began to down climb, now extremely aware that I was not on a bomber top rope. I was overdriving my tools pretty hard as I didn't want to fall, and as I headed down, I couldn't get one out of the ice. This is fairly common, and normally you have to just gently ease the pick out of the ice. I tried to do this, forcing myself to stay calm, completely exhausted at this point. The pick wouldn't come out.

I closed my eyes, and visualised how the pick had entered the ice, and tried to gently remove it. It still wouldn't come out. I was pretty aware that my crampon points at this time weren't great either, because my legs were so tired and because I was downclimbing, so I didn't have a great idea of where my feet would be ideally placed, and I was also aware that if I tugged too hard on the pick, my own force might propel me off the icefall and plummeting towards the earth.

I kept wiggling, but still nothing. Paul said "COME ON YOU'RE GOING TO JUST HAVE TO FORCE IT, HURRY UP" which just didn't help at all, it kind of broke into my calmness but who knows, maybe at the time it was necessary. I did force the pick for a while and it still didn't come out. Then I wiggled it some more and it still didn't come out. 5 minutes total had passed with me trying to get this tool out of the ice. Finally I gave it a bit of a pull and it came out. YES!

I still had to downclimb a couple metres to the last piece of pro and clip in with my right hand (being left handed this was kind of tricky), but after getting the tool out I knew I was going to be ok. Clipping my quick draw into the screw I made my third ascent of this short but completely vertical section of ice. Cautiously placing my axes in the divets I had used twice now, I front pointed up the ice, made it into the cave and clipped into the belay station there. WHEW! I was completely fucked. Paul handed me some tea which I gladly drank and then I belayed Pete as he came up.

He was doing fine for a few minutes and then his crampon came off. The day was turning into something of an epic. He called up that his crampon had come off and sounded kind of scared. However Paul wasn't about to let him go down so we put him on belay and he placed his crampon back on while he dangled in the air. He stopped talking for a few minutes and me and Paul waited, knowing Pete was dangling below trying to get his shit together. Eventually though my belay rope started getting looser, indicating that he was moving up the ice, and he got up with no dramas after that; well, no dramas except for the fact that he had scratched his face with an icepick and there was blood pouring down his face.


Doesn't look like someone who works at a bank to me!

"Imagine how much pussy you'll get with THAT story!" i said back to him.
He laughed.
"Probably just as little as I'll get with mine!", I said, realising Paul was probably laughing about how small time our little incidents had been.


50M up in another cavern

Tim tried to come up but he was just too exhausted from the last few days and Paul setup a fancy rig to let him rappel down. He also decided that we were all too fucked for the last pitch and it was too late really for it anyway (it was going to be dark soon) so we rappeled off a V thread he setup in the ice (pretty nifty way not to waste any expensive gear). He added a french prussik to it to the rope as an autoblock since I looked completely fucked, and off I went.


The V-thread supporting my weight


Rappelling down after the epic; yea, I look really confident!


Reallllyyyy confident... Actually I told myself to stop being a bitch after a bit and picked up the speed and enjoyed it a bit, but I was happy to be on the ground when I finally got down.


Paul rappelling down after me and pete; you can see him if you click the image.


Just a great photo to end the night.

Day 5, written in melbourne


Morning of day 5

We had planned to just do some light leading on Day 5 but we didn't have any time for climbing; it turned out that everyone didn't want to trek out of the valley by foot (I kind of wanted to but only in a masochistic way, apparently it would take 4-5 hours and I was so exhausted, so the idea of choppering out was A OK with me.


Final shots of the camp on Day 5

The helicopters could only come at 12 pm though so we lost most the day packing and then did some avalanche awareness stuff for an hour or so (using avalanche prob / transceivers to find buried transceivers), Pete and Tim took some photos around the valley, we packed up the tents, and we were off.


Getting ready to go home and have a bath


Shots of the ice from the chopper


New Zealand is sweet

I am really happy with how it all turned out, I spent the end of the day in a bathtub drinking beer, ate a degustation menu (7 courses of french w/ wine pairings) and went to bed. Now I'm back home and getting ready for the next adventure! I told Paul about my plans to go camp near the good rock climbing areas in Melbourne and he recommended latching onto some traditional Trad climbers who are usually happy for someone to let them lead and then clean their gear off the rock on their way up; good practice since you get to learn how to correctly place cams and slings from experienced climbers.

Basically only need to get a tent now and i'm off in a few days; hopefully going to get some response from my old gym climbing guy so I can get some practice in, I'm worried i'll limit myself by not being able to climb at about a grade 20 level.

Until next time,

MARTIN, IMPLIED MOUNTAINEER