Weekend of Week 5

So I'm posting this pretty much out of discipline- 'cause I said I would, so it's gonna be brief (some effort was put into editing the video of last post, so...)!

Last weekend we headed to Page's Pinnacle, over at the Gold Coast hinterland. Page's is a really beautiful crag, located right at Springbrook National Park, famous for its lakes, waterfalls, and glow-worms. Page's Pinnacle is a shark's fin of rock at the top of a big bushy hill with great views of lakes and other big hills, and the long, kind-of-gruelling approach keeps the I-don't-climb-for-anything-other-than-climbing/gradehunting/not-the-whole-experience/etc climber away, which makes for a really special social ambience (so far for me at least!). It was Maria, Kimberley, Igor, DRyan and myself. The people that go to Page's strike me as the kind that just give it absolutely all they got and also the kind that really "feel" your effort when climbing and encourage you with heartfelt cheering! At the same time, they're really laid back and keep things honest and funny, so a really comfortable environment to just hang around, even with the horse flies buzzing and that sweat-filled hour-long approach!

Some from a while back!

Anri falling from Strip Clubs (22)

This outing was a special one, as Maria got to toprope a 17 and an 18 cleanly, which marks some progress in her wrist's recovery, and Kimberley also lead that 18 (onsighted it), which means she's getting some lead-climbing confidence back. DRyan was just crazy! He arrived the day before to Australia after spending roughly two months away in Europe visiting his partner and her family in France (I'm actually surprised he wasn't out of shape after all those French dinners!), and decided it was a good idea that in order to beat jet lag, he would go out climbing that day! Igor and I decided we were going to focus on practicing multi-pitching, so we did two 2-pitchers; the first's second pitch was terrifying to say the least, as there was a lot of loose rock and I hadn't brought a helmet with me, so belaying Igor was scary, and seconding after him even more so! The second mutli-pitch went better than the first, mistake-ridden one. I thought the line was pretty good apart from the fact that once more, there was a lot of loose/hollow rock (about 75% of the good holds), and we cleaned up our act a lil' bit more. Another thing that stood out was that I got my first 23 (5.11d) flash/onsight! I decided to try Yule Tide and after a first cruxy section, it was just pumpy climbing to the top! To be honest, I felt it was a mid-22 (especially after last week's onslaught on Mr. Middle Man, you sandbag, you!), but people there and on thecrag.com seem to think it's legit, so I'll take it! I also managed to flash Bombay Rock (22 or 5.11b/c), a real beauty of a line! I must add that now that I am eating more protein I have gone down almost 1 kg and have been cranking a little better... But perhaps it's too soon to tell!

After a great day out, we headed back to Brisbane to get our fix of Kookaburra Party Pizza, which was glorious to say the very least! We caught up with Jin, who ditched us that day to go do a multi-pitch with some douche. Laaame Jin!