The Buff

After a couple of busy months I finally had some time over the holidays for an escape up to Mt. Buffalo and to get some climbing done with Geoff Gledhill, whom I met briefly in the Arapiles parking lot when hanging out with Fred. One of the legitimate olde dads of Australian rock climbing, Geoff has been scouring The Buff for new routes since the mid 60's and qualifies as the best climbing partner I've yet to churn up in Oz. Two years into retirement and as keen of a rock climber as you're ever likely to meet, Geoff spends much of his time winching terrified noobs up routes he put up 40 years ago - which, while having it's merits, can still get a bit tiring. Our kindred tastes for granite cracks, simul-climbing and relaxing fun complement perfectly and Geoff was grinning like a bird-fed cat to be sailing up routes with Yosemite-style tactics in an hour or two that would otherwise have taken most of a day and a fair amount of drama.

Two of our outings turned out to be noteworthy and the first occurred after doing a couple of routes on The Castle one fine afternoon. Geoff mentioned that he had once ventured, with the late Chris Baxter, across the meadow to Corral Peak where they had spied a couple of cracks appearing well worth climbing but that they had never gotten around to revisiting. How right he was! What we found scattered around the peak were three or four splitter hand cracks ranging from probably 6-10 meters in height that, by his reckoning, remained unclimbed. Wide-eyed with disbelief, I had fortunately brought along my shoes and chalk bag and eagerly plunked down in the grass, shod myself, and started up like a rabid chimp. All good climbs, if still a bit gritty, I can definitely recommend them either to soloists or folks looking for good training cracks and/or convenient top-roping in a nice location just twenty minutes from the road.

Our second notable outing occurred after I convinced Geoff to come examine a new route I had spied months ago near The Hump and had already done a bit of the prep work on. The day prior, we had been discussing the tendency of first ascentionists to be convinced that their routes are the best climbs in any given area so I was trying to lay off the enthusiasm a bit but, after rapping down for a preview, Geoff had to agree that it is an amazing feature that "is going to be quite an adventure". The next day we borrowed the requisite tools and installed a two-bolt anchor and one protection bolt high on the route where the crack runs out into a blank scoop. I cleaned up some of the holds, installed a fixed wire at the start and thus the route, The Pimp Hand (left hand held as if to backhand somebody, then view photo), was ready for a free attempt that was going to have to wait as this week had come to an end.

A bit obsessed and dreaming about the moves at night, I got Susy to come belay me the following week so I could try to work out the moves on a top rope. I knew it was going to be hard, I was speculating maybe 5.12+ and that if I trained a bit I would be able to send, but there's no way around what happened - I got brutally slapped down not even able to pull onto to rock for the first 30 feet. Susy laughed and laughed, "I thought you were a good rock climber, but wow, you really suck!" Thanks, darling. Yes, it was indeed a comical failure, but it was also rather depressing after being so amped up to climb something hard again and to, well, not even come close.

Therefore, the Pimp Hand is now an open project awaiting somebody a lot stronger than me, probably one of them Cossey brothers or some visiting international fingercrack aficionado, but aid climbers would still have a lot of fun here. I think it's probably in the neighborhood of 5.13+ (Aussie 30ish), but maybe I'm just super lite. In the first image above (taken from the top of the second-to-last ski lift at Tatra) I'm already swinging back into the crack which gives some indication of the steeeeep angle. The second shot shows the first lock, at the bottom of the photo, which now has a fixed wire in it as you enter by leaning off a crimp undercling on the right-side arete. So there it is folks, get up there and have yourselves some fun!

Fred's in the House

After almost two hours of searching we were getting a bit worried. He was already a bit concerned about the flights; Seattle to Melbourne is a rough trip even before you miss a couple of connections. I went to do another run through the baggage claim while Susy checked another gate and had him paged again. Walking down the escalator, I caught a brief glimpse through the columns of our missing climbing partner-in a clearing next to a busy carousel crawling around on his hands and knees. I walked toward him and could see that the contents of his pack were exploded across the floor and he was uncrumpling little pieces of paper looking for my phone number. I walked up to him, bent over and yelled "FRED!" couple of times with no response. I grabbed his arm and opposite shoulder. The look on his face when he saw me was absolutely priceless; purely amped and ready for "anything". Everybody should hope to be just like that when they're 87.

The First Outing

Nearly one year in an apartment had brought us to two conclusions: stationary living is highly overrated; Melbourne housing is at unaffordable levels by any metric. The question remaining was what to do when our lease is up in December? Having spent the three years since I moved here trying to answer that we do have some idea about what our specific needs are. We've had a temporary van, lots of temporary housing, and temporary jobs but it was time for us to finally commit to a lifestyle and, for us, that lifestyle is mobile. Winter was getting oppressive and we were both about to snap. Then, a series of unfortunate events occurring over a short time frame were the catalysts to kick our van shopping back into high gear.

Our criteria basically came down to: a square shape, automatic transmission, legendary reliability, and 4x4 if we could get it. Australia is chocked full of places to get bogged in mud and sand and being limited by these factors is a bummer. On the other hand, the only 4x4 van readily available is pretty much the Mitsubishi Delica-too small for living and a terrible shape for building. Also, we already have a Toyota Townace that's a nice commuter rig. There were a few Volkswagen and MB Vitos in 4x4, but all manual trannys or in poor shape. Then we came across this one:

2000 MB Spinter 312D, 4x4, automatic transmission, 4 seats, 180,000 kms, rear security cage. Originally imported to Australia by an outback ambulance company, it was then a 13-seat tour bus in Queensland before being acquired by a family who was going to drive from Asia to Europe and had fitted it out accordingly:

But after four months driving around SE Asia the eldest of their two daughters was over it and wanted a "normal life" again. A year spent mostly sitting mostly idle in the city convinced them it was time for them to sell it and move on. The ability to walk around the inside standing up sealed the deal for Susy. Having found a great match with impeccable timing for everyone we've got our new home!

Lots of work to do tuning details in the way we want them but that's going to be a long-term project. Focusing now on sound dampening the door resonance, a layer of closed cell foam inside to block high frequencies, and then a thermal barrier or two. Need to finish hinging the security cage over the hatch on the back as well.

Did a quick trip to the Grampians last weekend with Phoebe and Dave, two of Susy's Krav Maga partners. We picked up the gear I've had stashed at the Fortress for several months and set up a top rope on the first 20 meters of Raving Loonies, a grade 24 (5.11d) steeeep thin hands and finger crack. The kids both kicked out noble efforts on their first rock climb and got much farther than I expected!

Our first big trip is coming up in October when.....[drum roll]....., Fred Beckey comes to Oz for 2.5 weeks! Woohoo, rockin' with Fred! He not only going to be first to sail in the new van with us, but he's also the first person we know to come to Oz specifically to hang out with us (we've seen a few others but they were already coming anyway and we met up). What a legend!