Long Neglect

Sometimes there are things that just get put on the back burner. Time is of the essences and with only so many hours in a day you just have to prioritize. Take this blog for instanced. It's not that I don't like posting material here, it's just when nothing particularly new or exciting has been happening in my life I can't seem to justify the time to ramble on repeating what has become commonplace. Of course I've been out climbing in the last three months, loads of times, but it's been pretty much the same old story: I go to a familiar crag, climb on a routes that look a lot like the ones I did on either side of it and have probably already blogged about, maybe do it or maybe fall off a bunch of times trying it, and then come home. I thought I was going to have something new and interesting about three weeks ago when we made a plan to go scuba diving in and around some sea caves down on the Tasman Peninsula. It's suppose to be some of the best diving in the state and doing  underwater caving sounded like it could be fun, but unfortunately when we drove down there the weather had turned to shit and the combination of big swell and poor visibility sent us driving pretty much straight back home. However, during the drive back home in the pouring rain, the possibility for another activity I had long been neglecting was making it's way up from the depths of my psyche and seemed to be gathering motivation as it came - kayaking.

I've always liked kayaking, it's just that in the last eight years or so I've been so obsessed with climbing I haven't had time for it. If you want to climb at the top of you ability there's not too much room for other similar attention/time consuming activities, so skiing, kayaking, and mountain biking got the chop. That was until about three weeks ago. Skiing is still out since we don't get any real snow here, and biking is also out cause I don't own one, but the opportunities for boating had presented themselves. I don't actually have a kayak here either, but it just so happens that some friends of mine living three houses up the street have about seven and are willing to lend. Combine that with some spring rain, a lack of climbing motivation, and a few other keen paddlers and I've got myself back in game. I've been out boating more days in the last three weeks than I've boated in the past 6 years and have been pleasantly surprised at how quickly my skills came back. I was never a world class boater or anything, but I wasn't too bad either and I think I've even improved at many of the mental aspects in my hiatus that has made up for my lagging muscle memory. It's been a nice change from the climbing life, and has gotten me out to see some really beautiful rivers and exploring a new aspect of the island. Unfortunately I don't (yet) own a waterproof camera so my ability to take pictures and video has been lacking. Nevertheless I did get a couple shots of my compatriots  this past weekend with Leanne's old camera before the battery died when we went out and did the Lea River.

The Lea flows off the Cradle mountain plataeu, and this was actually the second time I had done it (I also did it a couple weeks before when the water was up). The water was a bit low this time around, but it was still fun and the run is a beautiful section of steep creek regardless. There is an annual race on this river and here is some footage from a few years back to give you an idea of what it's like. There is some footage at the end of that video from another river, The Leven, which also looks pretty amazing and if the water level is right I might try and do it next weekend.

The cataract gorge just down from my house was also running last week at a nice water level and I was able to get out after work with the lengthening days and run it a few times. There was a professional race held on it a few years ago that has some nice footage of some of the drops.

I also had an amazing day out on the last weekend in September with a couple other guys. First we did the Nile river - a fairly difficult and technical steep creek in a remote valley coming off of Ben Lomond (it was actually snowing at the put in when we started). 

After that we drove over to do an upper section of the North Esk I hadn't done before called the Big Bend (sorry, couldn't find any footage of this one). It had a bit more volume than the Nile, but was technically easier and was a lot of fun just riding over big waves and punching through holes. Between the two it made for a really exceptional day.

So that's what I've been up to recently. I'm not sure how long this boating thing will last considering we're coming into a dryer part of the year (most of the tassie rivers need rain fall to make them boatable), but so far it's been really fun. Hopefully next time I'll have a bit more white water experiences to share, but if not I'm sure I'll have something else. I will make a real effort to get something up on this blog next month, so check back toward the end of November and I'll make sure I'll have done something noteworthy to talk about. Till then-

June: climbing in Fingal

Didn't do at lot out of the ordinary in May. Definitely didn't take very many pictures, thus the lack of blogging activity. I've been trying to focus my attention on work recently and with the days so short it's been hard to get out and do much else after I get home (shooting climbing video doesn't work so well in the dark). Some things have paid off though, I just submitted a manuscript to the Public Library of Science for publication which if accepted will be my first publication of research for this PhD, and my 8th peer-reviewed publication overall. May not seem like a lot, but  each one is a lot of work in the making. I spend less time trying to climb a 5.14 at any rate. I've also been preparing for an upcoming trip back to Port Lincoln in July for what I hope to be my last time collecting samples. If everything goes well I'll have what I need to finish my research and it will just be a matter of hours in the lab and then writing it up. I don't' usually talk about my research as it's fairly complicated to communicate and much of the data, at least preliminarily, is confidential. However maybe one of these times I'll try to give an overview of what it is that I do the 5 days a week when I'm not rock climbing.....but not now.

This time, as usual, I will focus on those other two days a week in my life fondly referred to as the weekend. After my last post, I still was going out to my newly discovered Mersey cliffs and seeing what else could be developed. Unfortunately, the area isn't really that big and there isn't too many more things I want to do out there. I did a couple of traditionally protected lines on the lower tier, and cleaned up a couple of short powerful routes on the upper section but ran out of hangers to equip them with. Since my order of fresh bolting supplies has yet to arrive, those projects have been put on hold for the moment and I've turned my attention to Fingal.

There is a clean, slightly overhanging face on the massive Bare Rock escarpment (dubbed the boneyard) that I have been interested in. It has seen quite a bit of attention this last year and produced a good number of moderate to semi-hard lines. I'd been out there before, but at the time many of the routes had yet to be finished and the season was coming to an end so I didn't really get to try much. It's kind of a pain in the ass to get to, which is pretty much standard for any good climbing in Tasmania. In this instance you have to trudge up a steep hill for about 30 minutes, follow a sloping set of large ledges half way back down, then ascend a fixed 30' rope to gain a small crumbly ledge that you can traverses across to access the climbs. It's also often very hot if its at all sunny, but the redeeming feature is that you get some really nice views being 300' off the ground, and trundling blocks off the ledge is also pretty fun.  Over the past few weekends, I repeated a lot of what has been done so far (mostly in the 7b+ to 7c+ range) and also started trying 2 new harder projects, both probably around 8b+ in difficulty. This past weekend Gary Phillips also opened up a new route that clocks in at at a similar grade, which he's calling 'White Powder'. I've started trying this new route too, and have currently been alternating burns on all three of them. I shot some video this past weekend when Gary did his first ascent and was able to shoot some footage of Simon Young doing one of the area classics 'Too Fast, Too Furious' as well. Here's the video, although I'd have to say it's not my best effort. I still need to get used to the camera a bit more and my computer has a really hard time working with the HD footage, so until I can upgrade to a better processor its pretty much as good as I'm going to get it for now. Enjoy-


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKdxXQ5NN0c

Mersey Cliffs

At the end of my last update I mentioned some new climbing projects out in the Mersey River valley. Well, I've been pretty excited about that place and have spent a good deal of time out there cleaning and developing some routes and exploring the area's potential.

The rock is this smooth quartzite, with amazing beautiful orange, white, and black patterns reminiscent of Arapiles (a world class climbing destination on the mainland). This is certainly the little brother of these two geologic counterparts, as the amount of good climbable rock here is far less than for its mainland brethren. Still, its not to be scoffed at. There is potential for a good number of climbs, probably around 50 I'd guess if you wanted to started squeezing, maybe even more. Unfortunately for me however, they are mostly relatively easy and I personally don't intend to spend the time and money cleaning/equipping too many proverbial hikes. That can be for someone else interested in getting a bunch of grade 12-24, not great but not bad, first ascents. At least I presume they would be first ascents. I haven't heard about the place from anyone or seen it mentioned in any guide, but the amount of untapped dirty traditionally protected lines makes me suspicious. From what I've seen this stuff strikes a real chord with a large subset of the local climbing population. These guys will drive and hike for hours to find some dirty unclimbed cliff faces so they can clang and clatter their 20 lbs worth of aluminium widgets and carabiners slowly to the top. Indeed, this cliff's current anonymity is probably because the access wasn't sufficiently heinous to make the climbing justifiable. But I digress.

From what I've seen, I have now currently climbed the best of the best from what is to be had, or at least mostly. This has culminated in six really good routes, three climbs of standard fair, a couple more good looking lines that I haven't finished (or in some cases even started) equipping/cleaning yet, and a 'exiting' trad line I did this past weekend. The grade range is pretty spread out: a couple 6b+ warmups, three somewhat moderate routes from 7a - 7b+, and two harder routes at 7c+ and 8b. the one trad line I did was probably 7a, and if I were to translate the danger to a movie rating, it'd be R for sure. A couple of the 6b+'s are good, the 7b+ is probably one the best for the grade I've done on the island as far as quality of moves is concerned, but the absolute best route in my opinion was the hardest one, which I figured to be about 8b although probably on the lower end. I haven't climbed on a hard route recently to compare so it's hard to tell. What I can say for certain is that it's got a combination of difficulty, fluid unique movement, and interesting hand-holds that makes for one of those really fun climbs to be on. It was a real pleasure for me, and has rekindled some of the enjoyment for climbing that I've lost over the time I've been living here. My friend Alec was able to take some photos and video with my camera on a couple days when I was trying it. Enjoy-

Your better off watching the clip on Youtube, for whatever reason I can't seem to increase the size when it's embedded here.

Cruisin' the Tasman

Last week Leanne and I had a couple of old friends, Hannah and Rob, visit from the states. I saw them briefly when I was back in the US at Christmas, but it was nice to catch up again and be able to show them around this little corner of the world. During the week I had a bit of work to do at the University, so I supplied some recommendations, handed them the car keys, told um to keep left, and sent them on their way. They seemed to do all right on their own, and then when the weekend came around we all packed up and headed down south to do some exploring.

We started out at the Salamanca market in Hobart, which is always nice since Leanne and I don't make it there very often and there's a lot of interesting stuff.

We then headed over to the Tasman Peninsula for a relaxing evening on the beach at Fortescue bay.

The next morning, Rob, Hannah, and myself took the Tasman Island Cruise, which gives a 3 h tour of the eastern coast of the Tasman peninsula. The word cruise may be a bit misleading, as its a tour of the sea caves and coast line in a highly maneuverable, 900 hp, 40 ft boat rather than an alcohol soaked jaunt on a multi-story ship with bar and casino. The morning we went out was hot, sunny, and calm and we got great views of some of the most amazing and rugged coastline Tasmania has to offer.

We also got to see a good deal of wildlife including black faced cormorants,

New Zealand fur seals,

Australian fur seals,

and albatross.

The remote lighthouse on the Tasman Island was also an interesting feature,

as well as the Island of the Dead in Port Aurthur Harbor, reportedly home to over 1,000 buried convicts from the mid 1800s. Rather amazing, considering the Island looks to be about 3 acres.

When we got done with the tour, Leanne and I took Hannah and Rob for a climb out at the familiar Mt. Brown. Rather than going to the Paradiso on this occasion though, we opted to check out the Parrot cliffs as there appeared to be more moderate climbs which would be better suited for our guests. In between literally and figuratively showing them the ropes, I went over and checked out a new climb that was recently put up in the vicinity and suppose to have a spectacular position traversing above the lip of a sea cave. As soon as I laid eyes on it my mind instantly thought of deep-water solo. The channel appeared deep, and the cliffs dropped straight into the water without any potentially hazardous protuberances or boulders. The climbing was about the right height off the water too, mostly 30-40 ft during the traverse and then topping out at probably 50 ft or so - just enough height to make it interesting without too much real danger. Under normal conditions with moderate or large swell, the biggest problem would likely be getting back out of the water if you fell in. On this occasion though there was almost no swell, and to top it off someone had recently climbed it as was visible from chalk that could still be seen on many of the hand holds. An opportunity wasn't going to come by any better than this, so I put on my shoes and chalk bag and gave it a go.

The difficulty of the climb wasn't too sever, about 7a+, and well within my ability. Nevertheless, it was hard enough that falling was a possibility if I made some poor judgements. Indeed, things spiced up for me when I got to the end of the crux sequence and found a couple slimy and wet holds. I pulled if off without taking the plunge though, and I'd have to say it was one of the coolest climbs I've done in a while. The exposure was excellent, especially without a rope.

Hannah and Rob have now headed off to New Zealand for a few more adventures, and I'm back in Launceston trying to get some progress going on this PhD. Other than work, I think the next things I'll focus on is shooting some bouldering footage in the Cataract Gorge, and getting back out to the Mersey River valley to finish up some beautiful projects I've recently found out there, so stay tuned for next month-

A late start to a New Year

I've been a bit lax in updating this blog recently, just been busy travelling and haven't really had anything much to say. Nevertheless-

During the month of December and into the first week of January I went back to the states to spend the holidays at home. It had been a full year and a half since I'd been back, so it was good to see the family and catch up with people. I didn't really take any photos except during a few days while I was in Vegas. I stopped off to meet up with a couple friends and have a few relaxing days of climbing to help break up the 50+ hours of travel required to get from Launceston TAS to Ithaca NY. The time in Vegas was awesome, one of the best climbing trips I've been on. Got to see some good friends, the weather was perfect, the climbing was excellent, and none of us really had any goals so we just had fun climbing and hanging out. I don't get out climbing with very many people these days, and when I do it's a bit different, so it was really nice to re-live some of those good ol' days.

Here are a few shots I took of Brian Raymon climbing the classic Gift (7c) at the Gallery in Red rocks, along with a few other shots up at the Trophy wall

Since I've been back in Tasmania I haven't been up to a whole lot. I've started running again, after about a 10 year sabbatical.  For the first 5 or 6 years of not running I used to pride myself at my 'off the couch' ability, but in these last few years my shape has definitely atrophied in that regard and it was time to get back out there and do some cardiovascular fitness. I've been running about 3 weeks now, and I already feel better. When I get my shape up a bit better I think I might start doing some trail running up in the mountains.

I got a new HD video camera for Christmas, so I'm excited to break that out and shoot some footage. I took it down with us last weekend when we went climbing on the Tasman peninsula at the Paradiso and messed around shooting some stuff on the walk in and a little bit of Leanne climbing. I put together a short clip to see how it would go and get a feel for the software. I lost some quality with multiple format changes, but I think I just need a little more time getting used to the camera and software and it'll be good. I've embedded it here, or you can watch it on Youtube.

I've also been out searching for new climbing crags, and have found a really nice (albeit small) cliff relatively close by, which I intend to go out and develop soon so stay tuned for that and hopefully some more video.

I'll try to post again before the end of the month. Till then-