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-