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Easter trip - Bumblies in Tassie 23-Apr-2004 At 3:58:07 PM climberer

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Well a lot of effort went into typing this up for a friend, so I thought I'd share my hardcore adventure...

Tassie was awesome. To go chronologically, from the boat drove straight to Launceston, to find that the Hillwood guide has not yet been released. Went there anyway, found an empty container there under a rock - cursed the motherf$%&er who took the guide. Jumped on a shortish route that looked doable, was fine with that. Felt reluctant to try anything else without the guide. Didn't want to dog my way up something, only having to bail and leave gear behind.

Next day - Cataract Gorge, where my confidence in my climbing fell to an alltime low, realising that crack and I have a love-hate relationship. Bloody hell, I am happy with my leading on gear in Victoria - but was completely intimidated by *cough* low teen-graded cracks at the gorge. Stoopid crack. Plus took half the morning just finding the right crags. Retreated to a crag off the main path, to avoid weird Tassie bogan climbing family, and toproped some harder stuff.

Day after that: Did some touristy stuff, drove to East coast. Decided not to have a look at Ben Lomond after seeing Neil's slide show - not in mood for bush bashing. Plus my resentment of the crack was strong.

Arrived at Coles Bay in pouring rain, hung out all day in hopes that it would clear - which it did, the next day. Headed to the cliffs, route-finding NIGHTMARE! Dangerous scrambles looking for the right cliff (we were after Whitewater wall), finally found it around lunchtime. Decided to go up a 12 crack for a 'warm up', which I decided to do in one pitch. Needless to say, my attempt was thwarted by running out of cams just before a lovely fist-crack. Set up a belay on a teeny ledge, brought my second up. It gets mighty cold on that rock once the sun disappears. Met a guy afterwards who said that the crack we did was not in the guide, and it wasn't the 12 we thought it was. It certainly felt a lot harder. The surf crashing below also adds to the intimidation factor.

Returned next day, leaving the car at the sealed road and hiking in the 5 km - my little Mazda did not cope well with the road the day before. Raced up Apline, which was beautiful. Scary runouts, but solid the whole way. At top, on way to toilet, I manage to get a stick embedded in the top of my foot (was wearing Tevas), which then snapped off, leaving what felt like a matchstick under the skin. Started to feel faint. End of climbing. Drive to some town between Coles Bay and Hobart where a doctor gives me a local, digs it out, and stitches it up. Tells me to take it easy. Had a nice view of the Organpipes, limping around my hotel room in Hobart *sigh*.

In conclusion: On a return trip to Tassie, would definitely spend another day at Hillwood, once I had the guide. Probably wouldn't bother with Cataract Gorge again. Coles Bay was definitely the highlight and I would camp there for a few days, and check out crags other than Whitewater Wall. Thanks to Neil, Edward Frillypants, James and others who gave advice/inspirational slideshows/guidebooks/etc. Beware of attacking sticks.

Tasch xox