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A summer of rock and snow in the Alps.
2 September 2013, 12:36 pm

Cloud inversion over the Italian Val Ferret, no lifts. Lifts! I haven’t written for a while. I think I used up a lot of writing juices with my last blog about our trip to Morocco. I may have used up some of my climbing juices as well; even though I’ve done a lot of climbing this summer, none of it has been particularly hard.

Over the last few years I’ve climbed quite a lot of things that I thought were quite hard for me and achieved goals that I’d had in mind for a while, such as climbing hard single pitch trad routes in the UK, and freeing El Cap. But I haven’t really worked my weaknesses so much, and neither have I put in motion any long term projects. I have recently booked some flights to Patagonia for January 2014 and with this in mind I have been trying to improve my alpine skills. Using crampons and ice axes, climbing and walking long distances in my mountain boots and climbing with a rucksack – all things I sort of hate but all things I need to be better at if I want to climb the routes I want to in the mountains.

Enticing description Perhaps my biggest alpine adventure this summer was climbing the Gervasuti route on the East face of the Grandes Jorasses with my boyfriend Peter. Peter isn’t the best rock climber to come out of Cumbria, but he’s very experienced in the mountains and he’s like a mule (can carry heavy bags and keep going without complaint) so he was a very good partner to have. The Gervasuti route is a rock route but the approach and descent are long and complicated. It has also yet to see a free ascent even though the crux pitch is ‘only’ thought to go at 7c+. This drew me to the route but I also knew that with the amount of ground we’d have to cover we may not have the time, energy or inclination to work a pitch.

The Jacchia hut: 4 star accommodation with 5 star views Those things all turned out to be true, especially when the approach that we thought would be 3 hours was closer to 9 and we were racing to get to a bivy spot before it got too late. We were also denied the chance of even really trying to free the route because a lot of pitches including the crux pitch were soaking wet.

This route is such an undertaking because there are no lifts that can get you up to a higher altitude (unlike a lot of the routes off the Valley Blanche) so you have to gain a lot of ascent from the valley floor. To make matters more interesting, the access to base of the wall includes complicated and potentially dangerous glacier navigation via the Coll de Hirondelles. Not really liking the sound of this, we decided to go along the Tronchey ridge instead. On the map this looked like a good idea, but in reality it was a never ending choss-ridge of doom that took us 9 hours from the Jacchia hut to the base of the wall.  And this was after 6 hours of walking to the Jacchia hut the day before! Getting  to the base of the wall at 2.30pm was not the start we wanted and it was quite stressful committing to the route.

Peter picking his way up the endless Tronchey ridge We had a team talk before we started and discussed our options. Unlike most routes where if you get in to trouble you can just ab down and you’re back to safety, reversing the ridge and the abseils we’d done to get to the base would have been equally involved as climbing the 15 pitches to the top and descending the 2600m back down to the valley floor. So off we went. We got to a bivvy spot near the top close to midnight. I found the route to be quite a challenge even though most of the pitches were graded quite easy – some of them were wet and the pitches closer to the top had a lot of snow to navigate around. 6a slab feels pretty hard when smearing on snow and you have a rucksack on!



Since Peter is bigger and stronger he carried more of the bivvy gear than me (food, a jetboil and a bothy bag) and in return I lead more of the meltwater 6as – teamwork! We had a very short/fitfull shiver bivvy, but we were repaid with a beautiful sunrise. Although we didn’t have the convenience of a nice lift on this side of the range the lack of people, views and feeling of adventure certainly made up for it. We climbed the last few pitches along to the summit and were greeted with the most spectacular view of Mont Blanc and the French side of the range. We descended the normal route up the Grandes Jorrasses and got back in time to have a pizza in Courmayeur.

Peter on the summit (point walker) What else this summer… a short trip to the Ecrin range, which was fun. I finished off a route on the Petit Clocher called Ave Ceasar with Welsh star Calum Musket. An amazing route with RAD splitters all the way up it. I fell off it quite a lot 2 summers ago, so I was pleased to free it all with no falls this summer.

The petit clocher du portalet I also managed to try a route I’ve always wanted to do – The Voie Petit. I beautiful line with an absolute mega 8b corner/roof pitch on the Grand Capucin. I didn’t manage to send it, but I’ve got all my beta written down for another try next summer! I’m psyched to have a long term project in the mountains to work towards.

German Daniel/Ben styling the crux pitch We finished the trip off with a few days in Salvan – a really cool sport crag in Switzerland. The climbing is nice and there is a cute little hut under the crag, but the grading is a little strange. Apparently I climbed an 8b+ there – but it felt more like 8a! Peter also climbed his first 7c and Ben his first 7c+, but these routes felt more accurately graded.

I’ve also spent a lot of the summer filming my adventures and playing around with documentation. Hopefully with this footage and Matt Pycroft’s genius editing skills we can make a fun video series (called Hazel Days!) for epic tv. If you haven’t looked at this website yet – you probably should: epictv.com



Filed under: Alpine Climbing, Trips, Uncategorized Tagged: Ave Ceasar, calum musket, daniel jung, gervasuti route, Grand Capucin, grandes jorasses, Hazel Findlay, Peter Graham, Petit Clocher du Portalet, salvan 8b+

Source: hazelfindlay

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The Movie Business!
8 October 2013, 6:55 pm

A screen shot from Reel Rock 8′s piece about me climbing Once Upon a Time in the South West I left the UK mid September and I’ve been bezzing it around the world since then.

First stop was Boulder CO, not for white water rafting down their flooded roads, but for the reel rock 8 premier. I’ve spent much of 2013 filming with Sender Films and Big Up, to create a piece about me for reel rock 8. Sat in the crowd with hundreds of other people having never seen the final edit I was a little nervous. If you are a person easily embarrassed by watching yourself on screen this was in some ways a sort of living hell. In other ways, it was really cool to see the beautiful finished product of a big project for myself and the team. The other films were also really good, I especially liked the Daniel and Yugi Karate kid combo. Anyway Sender and Big Up are right at the top of adventure film today and the Reel Rock grows every year and so far this year hasn’t been an exception.

If you haven’t seen it yet here is the link http://reelrocktour.com/reelrock8tour/ to find a showing near you.

Recently I’ve picked up the camera myself, and started making a few short films with the help of Matt Pycroft. The intro to the series is here:

Now I’m in South Africa. Filming with Alex Honnold for a film about the cool trad climbing over here. Of course Alex easily occupies the majority of the limelight, but so far it’s been a great introduction to the amazing climbing and people over here. Hopefully there will be films, writing and photos to follow!

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Emily Harrington, epic tv, hazel findlay days, Morocco Big Walls, Reel Rock 8, spice girl

Source: hazelfindlay

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Adventures in South Africa
29 October 2013, 7:50 pm



I recently spent almost a month in South Africa with Alex Honnold. We were there to route climb and make a film about it. I had a really good time and I’m already planning a trip back. I was so excited about the trip that I wrote a trip report for UKC. To be lazy I’ve put the opening here and you can read the full article here:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=5882

When most people think of climbing in South Africa they think of Rocklands, the world-class bouldering Mecca and might be interested to learn that South Africa also has world-class sport and trad climbing. When most people think of Alex Honnold they think ‘soloist’ and might be interested to discover that Alex does actually wear a rope on occasion. This is a trip report about Alex and I on a route climbing tour of South Africa.

The trip was born when entrepreneur/budding film-maker/local gym owner Robert Beyer bumped into Alex in Rocklands last year. He invited Alex to dinner and asked him if he wanted to be involved in a film project that highlighted the route climbing of South Africa. Alex readily agreed and the ball started rolling. A few months later I snooped some of Alex’s emails from Robert whilst on a North Face trip to Oman, psyched to go to South Africa I was eager to invite myself on the trip alongside Alex.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=5882

Alex sending an open project at the mine near Cape Town   

Filed under: Hard Routes, Sport Climbing, Trad Routes, Trips Tagged: Alex Honnold South Africa, Blouberg climbing, cape town climbing, the mine, trad climbing in South Africa, waterfall boven, Yellowood climbing

Source: hazelfindlay

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The Nose in a day and Freerider in three
31 October 2013, 7:39 pm

James suffering up the Monster This year I turned up in Yosemite and for the first time I had no plans and no partner. In some ways this is nice because it means I get to try all the random routes that I want to do but aren’t big goals. Doing the PreMuir last year was one of the best climbing experiences I’ve ever had but it was also one of the hardest, and unlike Mr Caff (who rested a day and then went straight back up El Cap) I’m a mere mortal and didn’t really feel like doing anything after the 5 days we spent up on the wall. So this year I wanted to just try a few things, do some of the ‘easier’ free routes in Yosemite, that sort of thing. An obvious partner was James Lucas, who roams around the valley most of the year living in his ‘saturn’ car adorned with a lightning bolt.

THE James Lucas James was keen to go up on Freerider and I said I could be his partner. We didn’t really feel like hauling (can you blame us) and since James has worked the route from the top a lot anyway, we spent a day abseiling down the whole of El Cap in order to stash a bag in the Alcove, which is about half way up. Hauling may be hard, but there is no easy way around the fact that you have to get all your food, water, sleeping and pooing supplies up the wall with you and abbing El Cap is no exception. It’s long, it’s scary and it’s hard work, pulling the ropes 20 plus times, terrified that it’ll get stuck and you’ll be sleeping on the Salathe headwall. But when it came to us climbing it – we didn’t do any hauling, which was really nice. The first day we woke at 4.30 and climbed the 13 pitches to the Alcove where our bags were. This meant doing 12 pitches before embarking on the Monster offwidth, which didn’t feel any easier 2 years on and left James and I feeling like we’d been chewed up and spat out the next morning.

Day two was the important day – the crux. We wanted to make sure we climbed the boulder problem in the shade, which meant waking up at 3.30. The boulder problem is an amazing piece of rock, with some funky moves. There are about 12 or so real moves and it culminates with a cool karate kick to a sidewall off a sloping pinch. I got it after a few tries and James got really close, falling at the sloper. Soon it was too hot to try any more so we escaped the death star and abbed to the shade of the Alcove.

James seconding me up the enduro corner Day three was to be a long day. We woke at 4 again and climbed from the Alcove to the top and then rapped the whole route. The thing with Freerider is that if you can do the Boulder problem the pitches aren’t that hard, not compared to The PreMuir or even the Move pitch on Golden Gate (if you’re small), but there are a lot of pitches and they’re all so burley. Perhaps I’m just weak at that type of climbing, but fist jamming, offwidths, chimneys, steep laybacking, all that stuff, it make be graded 5.10 but it’s fierce and my body still feels them 2 days on!

Having freed three lines on El Cap now, with Freerider supposedly the easiest, I have to say that there really isn’t an easy way of freeing El Cap, and it’s a real achievement to even get up it at all. I also think that after a month in South Africa climbing with Alex, I was probably in need of a rest, not three days on El Cap. But rest isn’t as fun as monkeying about on boulder problems and swinging around on ropes thousands of feet above the valley. I always love it up on the wall; for me El Cap feels like a natural phenomenon and it never gets boring being up there.

Hans on his first jug free ascent of the Nose – here he is seconding me on the worst pitch on the route! Yesterday I did the Nose in a day with none other but Hans Florine! I was worried about getting lost, but he assured me that after 97 (!!!) times up we’d be OK. We did it in 12 hours with no jumars (Han’s first no-jumar ascent), and no simul-climbing, which I don’t think is too bad, but we may have broken the record for Han’s slowest time!

This week I’ve been up and down El Cap 3 times, and I’m pretty tired. The problem with Yosemite is that it’s impossible to be down in the valley, hanging out with the other tourists who are just looking at the walls, knowing that you could be climbing up them instead. Although things are getting wintery here in the valley and I’m not sure I have another El Cap mission in me. We’ll see!



Filed under: Hard Routes, Trad Routes, Trips, Uncategorized Tagged: el cap free routes, freerider, james lucas, the nose in a day

Source: hazelfindlay

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The rest of the USA (beyond Yosemite??!!)
11 December 2013, 2:44 am



I’m sat in Las Vegas airport and it’s time to leave America. The fact that there are  computer screens instead of people at the ‘information desk’, McDonalds instead of real food and slot machines instead of water fountains isn’t interesting anymore it’s just annoying. 

2012 might have been the year I’ve struggled most for partners. This year I turned up in the valley for the first time without a partner or a plan. Luckily for me ‘the last dirt bag’ James Lucas showed up in his Ford ‘Saturn’  in which he offers girls to go on an  ’intergalactic journey’. Uninterested in his spaceship come car, or his one-liners, we climbed Freerider in great style with James one-hanging it and myself freeing it. It was my first non-ground up ascent of El Cap, since we stashed a bag at the Alcove. This didn’t bother me so much because I’ve been on that part of the wall before and since I was climbing with an American my ethics were tainted already.

With only a week or so left in the valley I succeeded in two pretty cool things; I climbed a V8 after a few tries, which is pretty good for me. Maybe a bigger success was freeing a route with Alex (Honnold) called The Final Frontier on Fi Fi Buttress.  James and  Nick Berry recently did the FFA of this route in the spring. The route is really cool, with some technical, sustained and bouldery pitches, a few of which are 5.13 and most 5.12. None of this is really important compared to the fact that I only fell on one pitch and Alex fell on THREE pitches. The take-home message of that day was that maybe Alex’s worst day of rock climbing isn’t far from one of my best. We all take what we can to make ourselves feel better. 

Alex – just about to fall seconding a pitch I onsighted. Oh dear!  Unfortunately great success comes at a price and mine was re-injuring an old shoulder injury, which subsequently gave me some hassle in Indian Creek – our next destination. I’ve been to Indian Creek once before, 3 and a half years ago. It was there that I really started to crack climb to a reasonable standard, and I climbed a really cool non-splitter called Air Sweden. I love Indian Creek, but I sort of hate it as well. It’s an extraordinarily beautiful place and you can’t help but spectacle at  how cool all those splitters look. But on the other hand, I sort of dislike the brutality and the monotony of climbing pure splitters. I feel like once you’ve done one of every size, you’ve done them all.. OK not quite, but I still feel like they lack that sense of the unknown you feel  when you stand below a face climb; you can’t see the holds, or the gear and you know you’ll have to read the sequences on the spot. At Indian Creek, it’s all about trying hard and controlling the pump. Of course crack climbing is highly technical and it’s really cool to slowly improve at all the sizes, it just doesn’t grab me as much as funky face climbing. 

Neil on the hardest 5.11 in the worldThankfully I didn’t fall on this sketchy Cedar Wright knife blade protected affair he called Half Aligator Half Shark Man. Really funky climbing. James Lucas photo Anyway, I didn’t end up climbing many hard routes – just two 5.13s. This was largely to do with my shoulder and then later the cold, and mostly me being a bit slack. Along side the two 5.13 redpoints I onsighted 5.12 most days and I felt like I improved at a few of the harder sizes. Toward the end of the trip it got very cold and motivation slipped – so we spent the last week of our trip in Red Rocks. After all the trad climbing I was psyched to climb single pitch sport routes, and it was unbelievably fun. It further cemented my belief that I just love holds, face climbing and sequences. Perhaps the reason why I love granite so much – is that you get both – the cool lines that come with cracks, but also the technical sequences and intermittent face climbing. 

Death of a Cowboy, 5-13-, got this thing second try – very bouldery. The rain on the 5.10 fists above made things a bit more interesting. James Lucas Photo After a lot of travel to visit the TNF offices and my friend Emily in Tahoe I’m back in Las Vegas en route to Patagonia! Once again, I have no set partner, luckily I know a lot of people out there this year, brits included. With no plans, and no partner and the weather down there being how it is, I just have one hope for this next trip; that I get to climb something. Anything will do, just something. Fingers crossed. 

Filed under: Hard Routes, Trad Routes, Trips Tagged: Alex Honnold Fifi, Death of a Cowboy, Fifi Buttress, Final Frontier Yosemite, freerider, Half Aligator Shark Half Man, Indian Creek, james lucas

Source: hazelfindlay

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Trying to be a better alpinist, trying to be a better sport climber
24 April 2014, 11:58 am

Patagonia

Tourist trip to Torres del Paine. Looks like nice climbing weather? Winds of 70m/h on the valley floor A gentle breeze. I’ve put off writing a blog for a while, mostly because I’ve been struggling with what to say about my recent trip to Patagonia. It was quite possibly the least productive trip I’ve ever heard of. I didn’t climb a single peak. I climbed some boulder problems, did a lot of hiking (which trashed my knees) and tried two routes (one rock, one ice) but that was it. All the Patagonian regulars admitted that the season was a particularly bad one in terms of weather and the only real window they got was after I left. The small windows in which I tried to climb weren’t for rock climbing; it was just too cold with too much snow and ice from the previous periods of bad weather. Despite this, I had a really good time in El Chalten, largely because I had some good friends around me, the scenery is out of this world and the bouldering is world class.

 

It’s hard to complain with a view like that. Peter Graham commuting back El Chalten  

Fitzroy gathering cloud But sometimes when I think of my trip I ask myself whether I really deserved to climb anything in Patagonia anyway. I’m an experienced granite climber and I’ve climbed a reasonable amount in the mountains, but I’ve done very little mixed and ice. With the weather how it was, I was very ill-prepared to climb there.

There is a famous mountain behind the cloud It was going so well, and then the route fell on our heads. Ben Silvestre showing me how to climb an iced gully The important question is whether I want to become a more experienced alpinist. If I was just transported into the Matrix and I could download ‘ice climbing’ then of course I’d sign up. But in the real world you have to spend a lot of time doing something to have the requisite skill set. Do I really want to go Scottish winter climbing every winter instead of sport climbing in Spain? Do I want to climb mixed routes in the Alps in autumn instead of going to Yosemite? The answer to these questions is probably no. So I wonder whether I do really want to be a better alpinist. Hard alpinism really is a game for the minority. From the good alpinists around me in El Chalten, the thing they had in common was patience. I am one of the least patient people I know, often preferring to give up entirely and do something else than hang around and do nothing. Perhaps I need to learn how to be more patient, and then the magic on the mountains will compel me to return.

Really? We’re walking in to go rock climbing? I extended my trip by a few weeks, but it wasn’t long enough. I went home a week too soon, missing the only rock climbing window of the season. Bad luck, or was I just not trying hard enough? Either way, I had fun and I still managed to scrape myself up some rock routes after I got home.

Spain! 

Me on Fish Eye, 8c. Photo: Peter Graham It’s been two months since I flew home and since then I’ve climbed my hardest sport route to date. Fish Eye, 8c at Oliana in Spain. It was a really enjoyable process and it got me psyched to try something harder one day. Hanging out at Oliana also made me really appreciate my ability to travel and climb lots of different sorts of things. I was at a sport crag trying an 8c every day, but I wasn’t getting bored because before that I’d been in Patagonia walking a lot, and I knew that after, I’d be in Yosemite big walling. Mixing it up so much means that I won’t ever be the best at any one of these branches of climbing. But when did anyone care about being the best?

Thanks to Walker Emerson for the picture and for being my red point coach It also gave me confidence in my sport climbing ability. I know there are harder 8c’s out there and that it being an endurance route suited me, but it didn’t take me too long (7 days of effort) so I feel like if I wanted to I could climb something a bit harder. It was a great feeling to clip the chains of a 50 meter overhanging route with only a few proper rests, and for it to feel easy when it finally went.

I’d like to say I drank all those beers, but it’d be a lie. What’s next 

It’s time to concentrate on something totally different – Yosemite. Although on paper I’m technically stronger than ever before, climbing 8c is a very different story to climbing El Cap. I would like to climb Free Rider in a day, but with a total lack of all-day-fitness I might have to save that for another trip – we’ll see!

El Cap yeeeeaaaaahhhhh!  

Filed under: Alpine Climbing, Bouldering, Hard Routes, Sport Climbing, Trad Routes, Trips, Uncategorized Tagged: Ben Silvestre, Fish Eye Oliana, Hazel Findlay 8c, Patagonia climbing, patagonian weather, Peter Graham, Walker Emerson

Source: hazelfindlay

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Easy climbing in the UK and a Yosemite video
3 July 2014, 8:41 pm

The Lovely Troutdale Pinnacle Since climbing the hardest thing I’ve climbed – an 8c called Fish Eye in Oliana, Spain… it’s all been down hill from there. Life is still pretty good, but an annoying shoulder injury (whingury) halted play in Yosemite and now also back home. It’s not that acute of an injury but it just won’t go away, and any amount of climbing makes it feel pretty sore. But… I’m seeing some pretty good people; Tim Button at Cleve Chiropractic in Bristol and Nina Leonfellner a friend and great Bristol-based physio. So fingers crossed it will only be a few more weeks of whinging. Even with the shoulder life has been pretty fun, seeing friends, going soloing and doing easy climbs in the Lakes and North Wales.

Peter loves Newky Brun! I don’t like moaning (too much) so instead of talking about how I didn’t free El Cap this year, I’ve edited some footage from 2012 and 2013 trips to Yosemite. Being injured has meant that I’ve had time to play around with other interests, one of them being documentation of climbing. I don’t think I’ll ever be that good at photography or film making, but since I go to all these cool places it would be a shame not to at least try. Have a look, and please bare in mind that this is only my third attempt at editing, and due to blonde hair and a slow disposition the nuances of iMovie are not coming quickly.

The UK is about as green as it gets. I miss that when I’m away. Claire and Helena walking down from a route on Cloggy

I’ve also set up a youtube ‘channel’ in the hope that I might spew out further edits.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2KWFpT-7OashcJQzJSX_CQ

Filed under: Trad Routes, UK Climbing, Uncategorized Tagged: cloggy, freerider, Nina Leonfellner, premuir, Tim Button, Yosemite

Source: hazelfindlay

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Back at Araps! Also, did I mention I have a sore shoulder?
7 October 2014, 12:20 am

The summer is over, even though it feels like 2014 started only yesterday. I’ve been a full time climber for almost 4 years now. It’s crazy how time seems to speed up the older you get. Since I’m having way more fun now than ever before, I was sort of hoping it would be the other way around.

Back in May, the first day of my Yosemite trip, I hurt my shoulder bouldering and what I hoped would be a few weeks of recovery has turned into months. Five months later it still hasn’t totally healed up. I’ve had a few different diagnosis’s and so far I’ve chosen to go for the safe option and listen to everyone. I’ve seen chiropractors in Bristol and Sheffield and my very supportive physio Nina Leonfellner. The only thing that I have learnt that I can be totally sure of, is that the body is a crazy place. I feel like I know more about the surface of the moon than I do about how my own body works. People think that with modern medicine and rocket planes, and google maps we know most things about how the world works. But dealing with this shoulder has reminded me that there are still big question marks. Through my research I’ve come across musicians that have lost feeling in their fingers because of tight muscles in their necks, people who’s hair turns grey over night, and climbers who are injured because they wear metal jewellery. Despite the lingering shoulder pain coupled with feeling completely clueless about how to make it better, I’m still happy and psyched. Right now I can still climb and I am actually climbing reasonably close to my limit. If there is one thing that an injury is good for, it’s psyche. Since first becoming a professional climber 4 years ago, I haven’t been this psyched.

Arapiles 2014 Right now I am in Australia and today I need to take a rest day. Perhaps if it wasn’t for my shoulder I wouldn’t need to rest after only two days on. But, I’m going to spend most of the day pouring over guide books in a generally twitchy and excited manner. There is no better feeling that being psyched for climbing, with or without an injury, and recognition of this psyche makes me happy.

I came to Australia 6 years ago on my ‘gap year’. I went to 10 different countries in 10 months and 3 of those months were spent in the Pines campsite under Arapiles. In those 10 months I was most happy in the Pines. Life was simple, no money, no car, no work, no school, the only thing to think about was what route we’d climb the next day. We met the weirdest people, saw the craziest wildlife and went the longest I’ve ever been without washing. It’s a bit of a different scene this year. My Dad moved to Natimuk a year ago and got hitched to a local Ausie lass. So this trip my friend Cedar and I will be staying in a lovely house, we can borrow a car and shower every night if we want. What’s interesting is that even though I’m 6 years older and this trip is completely different from my last trip, I’m still overwhelmingly excited to climb on Oz rock. It’s great to know that I’ve not lost my love for moving over stone and that shower or no shower the climbing here is still incredible.

Another positive is that even with an injury I think I’m still a better climber. Maybe, just to be sure, I shouldn’t get on any routes I did last time. Sometimes you do need to protect the ego a little bit.

On a negative note, we only have 2 weeks here! What were we thinking! We’ll spend 8 more days in Nati, then off to the Blueies to do a talk at the Australian Climbing Festival. Should be a good’un.

http://australianclimbingfestival.com.au/

Here are some pics from 2008

Matty Rawlinson styling Denim, 26 (I think). One of the better harder routes I did back then. 2008 no shower, no hairbrush

Filed under: Trad Routes, Trips, Uncategorized Tagged: arapiles, climbers shoulder injury, grampians, natimuk, sore shoulder, the pines

Source: hazelfindlay

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Fun times down under
29 October 2014, 7:46 pm

Strolling!  

 

Air India flight 807 Heathrow to Delhi.

“I’m glad that my next flight isn’t going to be as long as this one,” I said to a red-headed brummy I’d ended up sat next to.

‘Where are you going?’ he asked.

“Melbourne” I replied.

He spluttered into his tea. In my mind Delhi was really far away, so Australia couldn’t be that much further.

“You’re not even half way there,” he laughed at me.

 

In between considering how an earth India was ever going to understand that lad’s thick Birmingham accent, I decided angrily that my Dad couldn’t have moved further away. With already 12 hours of travel under my belt and another 20 to go I wandered through Delhi airport looking for something edible.

 

Robbie G on Eau Rouge, the Lost World in the Gramps – what a pitch!  

I’m in Yosemite now and to be honest I wish I were still in Australia. Irritation at my Dad moving so far away changed into gratitude as soon as I touched the rock at Arapiles. A daughter needs to see her Dad at least once a year. Or at least that’s a great excuse to visit the best rock on earth. Exaggeration? Probably not.

Women’s Climbing panel at ACF – sat next to legend Louise Shepard!  

Gemma sent me an email at the start of the year asking if I would talk at the Australian Climbing Festival held in October. This was before my Dad ever intended to move to Natimuk, before he’d decided to marry an Aussie chick. I agreed, largely because for 6 years I’ve wanted to return to Australia. Gemma also invited my friend Cedar, which was perfect seeing as I’d have a partner in crime for the whole trip. Later I found out my Dad would be moving to the village situated under rock I wanted to climb at and I hadn’t seen him for over a year. Everything aligned and we had the makings of a perfect trip.

 

In the last 6 years I’ve been to most of the best climbing destinations this planet has to offer and I’ve climbed on every continent other than Antarctica. Half of me wondered whether I’d still think Arapiles was that good after been spoilt so much. After Yosemite, maybe I’d think it was a pile of choss.

 

Birdman of Alcatraz!  

If anything I think it’s better than I did when I was 19. With only 7 climbing days at Arapiles and a few days in the Blueys the trip felt like a bit of a tease. Just enough of a taste to get psyched but not nearly enough to feel satisfied. Once the jet lag had worn off, Cedar and myself got a cold and then we had to leave. Despite the jet lag and the cold, my shoulder behaved for the whole trip and we managed to do more good routes in those 9 days than I have the whole year so far (!!). Every pitch we climbed, we would lower off with massive Cheshire cat grins on our faces. Was climbing really that good? Take any of the best sport routes you’ve done in Spain, times the quality by two and then make them a trad route with bomber gear the whole way up.

About as good as it gets – Orinoco Flow, Lost World, trad 25  

We also had the pleasure of attending the Australian Climbing Festival in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. Three days of climbing-related festivities including a competition, talks, workshops, films and music. I usually enjoy events like this, but also find them quite hard work and tiring and sort of wish they were only an evening instead of three days. I’m not that good at prolonged socializing and small talk. Although I was tired after the 3 days and the cold made resurgence, everyone was so friendly that it really didn’t feel like a chore. Apart from being a tad sport-climbing/lack of adventure orientated in the Blueys there is a good crew of people who get out and make the most of their amazing back garden. I always thought of the Blueys as a good sport climbing destination. But actually it’s a great sort climbing destination, with the routes and the rock being a slightly more special than European limestone. I also learnt that there is a ton of adventures to be had there from multipitch trad to choss to aid, should any of those things take your fancy.

Debutantes and Centipedes, classic 25  

Unfortunately on the last day I pushed my shoulder a bit too far. Before I left I saw Matt Pigden in the Peak district about my shoulder. He gave what seemed to be amazing advice and I went on my way feeling better than ever. In Australia my shoulder felt better than it had in 6 months. I think for this reason I got a bit cocky and pushed it a bit far. On the last route of the last day I tweaked it. And now I’m sat in Yosemite housekeeping, doing laundry whilst my friends go climbing. It was only 6 months ago that I was in this same position. Yosemite is quite possibly the worst place to be with an injury. Those big walls stare down at you mockingly as you massage your shoulder, wondering whether you can go up there without breaking yourself.

Leaving Sydney Cedar on the Space Odyssey, Lost World Cedar took all the good pics. I took the not so good ones.

 

Filed under: Hard Routes, Sport Climbing, Trad Routes, Trips, Uncategorized Tagged: arapiles, cedar wright, eau rouge. space odyssey, grampians, lost world, matt pigden chiropractor, orinoco flow

Source: hazelfindlay