How to spend $500, two days and require a full body transplant for just 6m of progress....
After coming down with glandular fever on our first attempt then getting rained out on our second attempt at a spectacular 200m line up the ridge/arete of an unclimbed pillar. This time we hired a drill, took a day off work to make up a three day weekend and went out with seige tactics in mind.
Walked up and over the mountain then down through a trackless jungle, dragging a full trad rack, a pile of pitons, several ropes, a huge arse drill, several batteries along with other assorted heavy bolting gear. We dragged it all 100m up to our highest belay, pulled out the drill to make a more reasonable anchor only to discover that we'd left the SDS chuck back in the case at the carpark. Fixed the ropes, stashed the gear, went to the pub, drowned our sorrows and ate steak.
The next morning we marched back up and over the mountain with the correct chuck, swapped it over and decided we'd try the next short section that beat us the first time and maybe shift the belay up higher. Did the delicate traverse out left found a stance and balanced with great care, my partner used the said drill to bore a hole into the cliff. Pulled a bolt out of his chalk bag and discovered we'd brought along a 10mm drill bit instead of a 12mm...
After much swearing and blaming everyone besides our own stupidity, a dodgy piton was whacked in, the moves aided with a tension traverse and he scrambled up to our planned belay to find no gear or even the slightest seam in sight. After a brief plummet off the ledge we promptly packed up, walked out through the jungle, back up and over the mountain then dropped dead in the carpark from exhastion.
We awoke at the pub with pints, steak sandwiches, our wallets much lighter and feeling rather PISSED OFF!!! |