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Ozymandias Direct – Trip Report – May 2011 21-May-2011 At 1:12:24 PM Organ Pipe

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DAY 2

Ben:
There’s nothing like a big day of aiding, a warm meal, and a glass of Jameson to guarantee a good night’s sleep. We hadn’t set an alarm and woke naturally at about 8 I think.

The only Spartan aspect to our accommodation was our decision to omit bedrolls. It was a bit of a thermal gamble but none of us had any issues overnight.

I unzipped the fly and peered out into a golden bathed gorge. It was a stunning morning with blue sky and no fog. The view down into the valley off the mountain was spectacular, but I’ll leave it’s description till the morning of Day 3 cause it was even better then.

*Morning from Big Grassy.

We ate our muesli at leisure, brewed up some coffee, and sat around chewing the fat on big grassy for some time. It’s an amazing little geological formation. I assume it took centuries to build the soil up, and only a couple of decades to erode it away to its present state. I’m guessing all the soil and plants will be gone in another 20 years, then one day after mankind is no more, it’ll build back up into a fantastic platform again.

I took it easy as I was settling in to spend most of the day at Big Grassy while Karl led and Phil belayed. Just before Karl racked up it was time to take care of business. Business you ask? That’s right. The harsh reality of conscientious big wall climbing: depositing and retaining your own waste.

We used a screw top plastic tub as the storage vessel for our sh!t, and used large lavender scented garbage bags to facilitate collection.

The arrangement worked really well. When popping a squat, it was easy to get my whole arse into the bag and go crazy. Once done it was easy to tie, roll, and dump into the tub. Who said this was going to be hard?

Karl:
For me Day 2 started a bit slow but quickly ramped up after breaky and a cup of coffee. I inspected the next few pitches directly above me and sorted out the gear that I needed. It was at that point that I realised I could no longer avoid the inevitable. I was about to pop my “Big Wall” Toilet cherry if you know what I mean. Our friendship went to a new level that morning.

Ben:
I packed up the camp while Karl led, positioned the gear for hauling, and jugged up to hang out with Phil and take some photos of Karl leading.

Karl:
Feeling lighter and eager to climb, I lead the A2 4th pitch in great time. Bomber protection chewing up lots of nuts and the occasional RP (my first time using RP’s).

*Karl leading Pitch 4.