UNSW Bushwalking & Mountaineering Club

Newsletter - November 2000

The Bushwalking Club web page is at http://unswbmc.homepage.com/
This contains the latest trips information, details about hiring gear, contacting the executive, and the discounts available to club members. You can also sign up to our mailing lists to automatically receive notifications of new newsletters and upcoming trips.

Holidays

Once again, it is that time of year, and holidays are upon us yet again. What does it mean? Well lots of exams, then lots of parties and no more Bushwalking and Mountaineering Club meetings for a few months. This doesn't mean that we won't be doing things, just that we won't be meeting in at the University each month.

You can find out what is happening with the club over the holidays in a number of ways:

1. Look at the trips list in this newsletter.
2. Check the trips list on our homepage ( http://unswbmc.homepage.com/admin/trips.html).
3. Join the one of the e-mail lists, at http://unswbmc.homepage.com/admin/maillist.html.
4. Get in touch with any of the executive members, whose details can be found on the club homepage.

Membership Renewal and O-Week

Club membership is valid for a calendar year, and so you will need to renew your membership at the beginning of session next year. The easiest way to do this is to turn up to our O-week or week 1 stall, or come along to our first club meeting for the year on Tuesday 13th March 2001, in the Roundhouse. Alternatively, you can contact the Club secretary at bmc-secretary@bigfoot.com to arrange a suitable time.

O-Week is an important event for the club each year - we try to sing up lots of new members at this time, and run a number of introductory trips during the first weeks of session. We're hoping to have a good presence during O-Week and Week 1, including a BMC tent, perhaps on the Library Lawn or down by Anzac Parade, and maybe even some stunts! If you've got ideas for things to do during O-week, let us know. Even if you're not a new student at UNSW, think about coming along to O-week to join in the fun.

Marc's Climbing Corner

The other day, I was sitting on the lawn with a bunch of the circus freaks (Circusoc people, who are heaps of fun to be with), and I got to talking with one of them who was occaisionally a rigger for them. When he mentioned this, I asked him if he was a climber . . .

"No, I'm an abseiler."

Okay, for a moment I was going to allow him the benefit of the doubt or assume that I'd heard something wrong, so I went on the general climber's tact when abseiling is mentioned and said, "Shit, man . . . that's just the boring bit to get back down isn't it?" Well, I of course expected a response along the lines of, "Yeah, you're right. Climbing is the real thing to do when at a crag. It's where you get that great feeling of doing something real with your life and abseiling is just the boring bit you do once you've finished."

What I got was: "No, abseiling's where you get the true adrenaline rush that climbing doesn't give you. I don't climb and prefer to only abseil."

At first I was shocked. Then I saw the look of complete frankness on his face. He was not hiding his face, nor cowering in fear. He was out there in public and saying that without the slightest hint of shame. To see my face that instant would be an image of incredulity, a little shock, but more than anything else, profound pity. After I got over this shock, the thought crossed my mind that on behalf of all climbers out there who've had fucking abseil ropes thrown down over that elusive three star redpoint attempt, I should really deck the crap out of this guy. I didn't though, because well, the Library Lawn isn't really the place for a lynching, and there were no other climbers around who would've backed me up.

I don't know what to say . . . I really don't. For my brief climbing career I've always held to the belief that abseilers were inexperienced people on "Outdoor Adventure" camps who would soon learn the miracle that is climbing, but that's been shattered now. There are people out there who go backwards on rock. Bushwalkers beware . . . somewhere out there, there's probably a society of abwalkers, a whole lot of people who walk trails facing the wrong way and run into you because they can't see where they're going . . .

What more is there to say, but the famous phrase: "There should be more solo abseilers".

Anyway, on to something that holds some slight interest. I've been writing a trip report for the Grampians Trip that a whole lot of us went on in the Olympic break, and, as you've probably noticed by now, once I get started on something, it takes a while for me to wind down. So the Grampians trip report has turned into something of an epic novel (I am currently negotiating publishing rights and a possible script and movie deal). Here's the first installment, apologies for the current lack of photos:

The Grampians, September 2000

In the Eyes of a Self-Proclaimed Hard Man

It's about twelve hours in a car from Sydney to the Grampians, Western Victoria, which makes up about that long of convincing yourself that you're driving through the clouds and not to them.

Add one hour to that for weird navigational errors involving nearly driving into Bellfield Lake and sometime around midnight we (Andrew Collins, Ben Shanahan and me) made it to our campsite near Mt Rosea.

The rain held off long enough for us to get some tents up and get sleep before some climbing the next day.

Sadly, Sunday involved occaisionally pissing down rain, extreme cold, fog and wet rock. However, being the hard men that we are, we did some climbing anyway.

The walk to Mt Rosea from the campsite involves steep terrain and that wonderful calf-burning sensation of walking up nearly as far as you are forwards. This kind of exercise is preferably avoided as it can create unnecessary leg bulk. I wasn't however, able to convince anyone to either carry me up or push me in a shopping trolley.

Scott Morrison was somehow convinced to lead the first pitch (crux) of The Ascension (21). After some extreme difficulties involving the leukoplast holding his shoes together being soaked through and it just being too cold to climb, he decided to aid to the top. He was in danger of relinquishing his hard man status at this point, but made up for it by trusting an RP Nut (These are tiny little approximately 10x10x5mm "protection" pieces) to actually hold body weight, then, when it didn't, taking a lead fall lasting a good five metres, a lungful of scream and three popped placements. The bottom two pieces, which had about eight more attached to them all came sliding happily down the rope to land on or near Ben Cirulis on belay.

Other than that, the day was quite uneventful, but we can say that the view from the summit would have been breathtaking if we'd actually been able to see more than ten feet through the fog.

Wonderful first day, huh?

Well, that's day one, of the Grampians. Be sure to stay tuned for days two and three, as Scott and I risk our lives on the Shithouse Death Flake and I affirm my hard man status with one of the stupidest deathwish stunts I've ever seen anyone pull on rock . . .

Trips List

Information about upcoming trips should be emailed to bmc-trips@bigfoot.com, or you can just ring Scott Morrison, 93491522.

> The full trips list for 2000

Scott Morrison 13/10/2000