22nd July 2018
Another relaxing/tough day ahead – I find the clandestine crag at 0930hrs. Exactly. Not a minute late. Not a minute early. Since I am renowned for being the first person to the crag, I walk, look at my Crag Guide, walk more and wait… By 1003hrs, the UNSWOC Clan finally appears all at once with the lot including our precious dynamic rope, quickdraws, ATC’s, Karabiners and stuff.
Being a first time trip leader, I am fortunate to have the expertise of Tad and Hayden to co-lead the trip. With my unstoppable excitement, I lead Dorothy May with an awfully overhung start but zoom to the top then rigging a Quad Anchor.
Soon everybody was out and about. The Marks, Milly and The Matts were killing Whippersnipper whilst Jani and Wen Jun were setting up an extremely tricky 19. Yi along with Nicolas, Joyce and Sana were pushing quite hard pass the pumpy starts on Grandma’s Wheelchair Direct – again another overbearing overhang.
It is of the utmost fortune that I was NOT cold so I didn’t risk smashing my knees on a 5m lead fall like I did 3 weeks ago at Mezzaluna! However, Matt Bruck did take a massive whip on Karins Loose Stool right before the last clip fortunately without any injuries. (Thank goodness I survived that climb)
After lunch, Hayden and I took the Marks and Nicolas to learn lead climbing on an awkwardly facing grade 10. From Lead Belaying to Clipping, it comes to me as a surprise to be instructing after only 3 months of lead climbing!
By late afternoon, I realised my shoe’s mini-hole was being a not-so-mini-hole and this forced me to stop climbing before re-soling would be impossible! By now, most people had attempted Fixed Steps – a juggy but overhanging route the whole way.
As the sun set, I was fortunately 20 minutes around the corner to a warm house and a rest after climbing 5 days this week.
