Comments: |
Staring back at 40 but never left my teens...
Leading Eternity (18) at Mt Piddington has been my limit, but grunted up some grade 23 thing via top-roping at Coogee on
Sydneys sea-cliffs early 2008.
Have dabbled with ice-climbing at Blue Lake a couple of years
back - I XC skiied in and was humoured to find out that the guys
who have swung ice tools in Peru and NZ were on snow-shoes for a
reason...
I have found the majority of climbing to be cool and calculated, although the start of third pitch of Holy Guacomole! (in the ACT) involves sprinting down a slab then leaping up and off to grab a bottom corner of a dish. Guess it is the only dyno I have done, and it was a rush - delayed by the 3 or 4 moves that follow until you top out. I want to feel some adrenaline, so Im going to bridge-swing at the foothills of the mountain. Soon...
I am being calculated in my pursuit of adrenaline, hence my use of visualisation and on-paper planning for a sea-kayak crossing of Bass Strait. Heck - I paddle through Sydney Heads to get what rock-climbing cannot offer me with respect to adrenaline.
Although, I have paddled across Bass Strait thrice now (12/07, 02/10, 01/12), and found I was too busy with logistics or enjoying quiet beaches to be finding any head-space rush en-route.
I have dabbled in ornitholgy - setting up mist nets, measuring and weighing aves, sometimes down to 7.5 grams for an adult female (Eastern Spinebill, I think). Once home or back at work I would rave over the living jewels in my hands that made me chatty - endlessly. Although many didnt relate to bird watching either; I certainly did not receive admonishments as I get when I speak of rock-climbing - which I have learned not to speak of very much at all to non-punters. |