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TR - not Wild is the Wind 9-Dec-2009 At 7:19:24 PM GravityHound

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The last time I went climbing (12 months ago) I left two hexes on Go Cat in the Wolgan when I bailed. Peter Monks kindly gave me a set of hexes and in return asked for a trip report the next time I went climbing in the BM. It has been a while but below, Mr Monks, is my part of that deal…..I place no guarantees on the quality of the following TR but at least it isn’t about religion or climate change.

After all the suggestions from chockstoners Jerome and I finally settled on doing Wild is the Wind but because neither of us had climbed for some time we had no kahunas so planned to sandbag Scotty with the third pitch. Problem was life is treating Scotty a bit rough at the moment so he might not see the funny side of the situation. So Jerbs and I got in touch with our sensitive sides and decided not to sandbag Scotty, didn’t find any kahunas to lead the third pitch ourselves and decided to head to Piddo instead.
We decided Joseph was a good start so dumped our gear at the base and put our harnesses on. We then stood there and scratched ourselves while we tried to talk each other into taking the lead. I got sick of standing there so took the sharp end, racked up and headed up. We figured out on the walk in that it had been nearly 2 years since I had free-climbed. I initially found myself doubting my placements and hoping to god that I didn’t peel but everything went smoothly (and slowly) and I got to the rings at the top feeling confident, having fun and realizing just how much I miss climbing. Damn freedom I tell ya! I also got to use C4’s for the first time and was pretty impressed. Scotty came up next and was followed by Jerbs. We got cosy on the ledge for a few
minutes and then rapped of to head to the next climb.

Up next was Cartheginian. Scotty took the sharp end and headed up with ease. Jerbs kept calling out encouragement “Use the crack” until Scotty cracked it and told him to shut the f*ck up. It was this point that the amount of slack in the line got substantially greater. Sh!t stirring mates is great fun but we stopped short of throwing rocks at him. I followed next and then Jerbs. Another nice climb, easy footjams and the hugging section is interesting. I reckon this climb is easier for tall people because I always seem to get up it easier than the shortarses I climb with. We rapped down Eternity and admired what I reckon would have to be one of the nicest lines in the BM. I will probably never have the skills to climb it again now.

The whole time we were on Cartheginian we were geeing up Jerbs to lead Psychopath. When you haven’t climbed for a few years it is a pretty big call to get the kahunas to lead a 17 I reckon, so was surprised when Jerbs manned up and accepted the challenge (that I sure as hell wouldn’t have). Jerbs headed up doing his psyched up choofs and I was on belay, Scotty was getting photos and both of us were rather impressed at his effort. Jerbs was psyched and we appreciated he was shitting himself so we didn’t hurl insults at him to wind him up, but probably should have. We didn’t have to in the end because a guy I knew came around the corner and we got chatting. This got Jerbs frothing because I started chatting while he was on a sketchy bit. When you’re bud tells you to “shut the f*ck up and just watch me” you know he’s getting seriously pissed. So I shut up, watched him, he got through the section and then moved up to finish the climb. Scotty followed next, finding it pretty stiff but doing it nicely and then I attempted it but got spat off the first crack section three times because of inability to handjam properly, and a lack of heart. By this time it was getting close to 30 degrees which in my books is pretty frickin hot and rather than head to flake crack I called it pub o’clock. By the time we packed up and got out of there messages had been received from better halves and the pub was canned so I hopped on my bike and went and drank my parents beer instead.

I vowed to come back and get up Psychopath sooner rather than later but the reality of it will be that is happens later. Overall it was day that climbing is all about. Nice climbs and taking the piss out of your mates. Even without the beer it doesn’t get much better than that. We took photos but I probably won’t to bother posting any as they are all from the ground and the mostly show male arses surrounded by dangly bits.