I'm also intrigued by the "seasons" Hot season / Cold Season / Wet season / dry season?
Summer. Water is waaaaaay too cold in winter. Would be Sept though April really.
Weird to say "years" as summer runs over 2 here..
Nice one Jack. Looks like a great journey and one that you must be glad is over! I admire you for going ground up.
I'm interested in the logistics. How many attempts do you get in a session? Is the limiting factor a physical one (you get too tired for more attempts) or do you just run out of dry rockshoes? Is this close to where you live? And is that close in a way that I would consider close (my local crag is a 7 minute drive from the house. There is one a 2 minute drive away but its crap)?
Did you ever struggle to get people to go out with you? Is there much else at the crag to keep them busy while you're on a project? Did you have any trips there on your own? Did anybody else try your project and how did this make you feel? How would you have felt if they'd done it?
And finally, did you ever try using a foothold closer in towards you? I don't even know if there's a foothold there but the whole time I was watching you fail my brain was screaming, "bring your toe in closer to you and you'll piss it"! On that note, did it take you long to find the right sequence or is it fairly obvious? If number of goes in a session are limited it can be really hard to force yourself to try something else.
Sorry for the barrage of questions.
Questions! So many questions!
Usually up to 4 attempts. Shoes and skin are the limiting factors. Did only have 4 pairs for dws, now 5.
The wall stays in the shade until about noon, so early morning summer sessions were the way forward. Shoes don't like to dry out enough in the shade... More attempts were usually early days, working out moves, in arvos. More time for shoes to dry.
And skin, the intermediate crimp on the face is pretty small and the constant 'being wet' thing doesn't help. Obviously drying off properly and resting but skin would be a lot softer after an attempt or 2. Have to pull pretty hard on that crimp, it likes to take my index and middle tips away. That's all that fits on it.
Don't get that tired on it until the crux really. Probably because I've done the lower moves so many times.
I used to live 20-30min away. That's pretty close. Now I live 3hrs away.
I get on it sporadically because I visit my parents and then try it every morning while I'm there.
Haha 90% of it was by myself.
Winter is Nowra season here so hardly any climbers around in summer.
There is plenty there now, about 25 lines. Mainly smaller stuff on a 5-6m wall next door. This is far and away the hardest line so far.
Popular jumping spot and a couple of rope swings, beach on other side of the river. Gets pretty busy in summer school holidays with boats, skiers/wakeboarders.
www.thecrag.com/climbing/australia/nowra/area/351405501A few other people tried it. Generally they didn't really have a shot at doing it though. I didn't mind taking people there because they often took one look at it and said Nope! Too scary.
Had a mate try it with me first 2 seasons then he got busy with new family. He actually got the break a couple weeks before I did but then couldn't match it.
I'd heard a few people had tried the line over the years but no one getting close. It sort of became known that I was pretty close to it so everyone just let me get on with it.
Tbh I would've felt like shit if someone did it first really. Happy for them but shit for me.
Ha. That footer just doesn't work. It's too close in and makes you too bunched to take the intermediate. And then totally wrong spot for the bump. The wide foot is in a good spot, means you can really rock onto it and crank hard on the left hand.
I think day 1 I had made it out of the roof but hadn't worked out the crux at all. Looking back at videos, I'd worked out the crux sequence on 30/12/13 thanks to mate abbing in and finding the face crimp. Think this was maybe 10 sessions in. Took a few more to be at the point of attempting the move but still...
Did I miss any?
