The past few months in Australia have really been just amazing! Its such a great place and the climbing just keeps coming! Although we have been based in the Blue Mountains, we have had the opportunities to explore some of the other areas Australia has to offer, including the Grampians!
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| Taipan Wall, Grampians |
Me and Wiz have just got back from nearly a month in the Grampians, and it was AWESOME! I had never been to the Grampians, and never been on a trip solely for bouldering, so it was good to do something new! We spent the first week living in up in log cabins, where we stayed with Angies family! They were generous enough to not put us in a campsite in our tent, and we were able to stay with them for nearly 2 weeks! This in itself was a new experience for us both. We are used to roughing it in the bush on a climbing trip, in a tent for weeks on end eating bin food and what not. So it was good to come home to a warm place after a day out!
The first week we just cruised around all the different areas, sussing it out, doing all the classic problems! There is soooo much bouldering! All within walking distance! Its amazing!
After a few days, we started to find projects, and places we preferred to climb in, so off we went, everyday trying to do as much bouldering as possible. And it was FUN!!
I soon discovered my two favorite places to boulder, Kindergarten, and Hollow Mountain Cave! Kindergarten is such an aesthetic wall, and the problems are awesome! My favorite problem was The Nevin Rule (V7)! A highball for my standards (so not very high really) but still enough to put up a challenge for me! The Cave was also amazing! Due to a few days crap weather in the first week, we were confined to the cave and I soon found a project I was super psyched for, Cave Girl (V9). I was stoked to find this boulder problem, and even more stoked to realise that it was actually doable for me! The Cave is super steep, and I was really struggling with my tension! But to even be able to pull onto this problem was amazing! And so I kept at it over the next few days and was slowly progressing. As I haven't bouldered much, this was going to be my first V9 and I was super keen to do it.
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| The Cave on a Busy day |
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Me on Cave Girl (V9)
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While we were in the Grampians, we were lucky enough to run into and meet some of (or most of) the worlds best boulderers! Just to name a few, Daniel Woods, Paul Robinson, Carlo Traversi, Nina Williams, Dave Graham, Nalle Hukkatavial, Courtney Sanders and Alex Megos. To be bouldering next to these guys, and be helped out and given beta by, and to just watch how seriously strong they were was such a cool experience. I even swallowed my pride and dignity and followed Angie up to get a photo with Daniel Woods! Looked a bit stupid being the red faced 19 year old asking for a photo after little 9 year old Angie, not my finest moment, but anyway!
So after a week and a half, Angie and her family bid us farewell as they left to head back to the mountains, and dropped us off at the campsite where we were going to spend the next week and a half. And boy, did we have a great week. In all of our 10 days there, we saw about one hour of sunshine, and about 3 hours of rock a day, if we were lucky! Rain, rain, rain, fog, more rain, more fog, and that was the extent of our week and a half! I know it sounds miserable, and I guess it was, but the few days climbing we got were really great! The wet fogs in the morning prevented us from climbing in most places, so again we were confined to the Kindergarten and the Cave. And even then, there were only a few problems to choose from that weren't soaking!
Even though the weather was a bit rubbish (to put it nicely) it was still such a great trip and I am super psyched to get back there one day! Due to the weather, and super low psyche levels from everyone, we unfortunately had to leave some projects behind, including Cave Girl for me, where on my last attempt before leaving I fell off on the easy finish ( dumbass haha). But never mind, it was a great trip, we met some amazing people and got to experience some of the best bouldering in the world, so im not complaining!
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| Daniel Woods working The Wheel Of Life (V14) at the Cave |
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| Rest day at Arapiles - Squeeze Boulder |
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| Stealing Nalles internet from next door haha |
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| Wiz on So You Think You Can Dance (V11) |
For now, we are both back in the Blue Mountains for a few more weeks, and I'm super psyched to spend it just cruising and climbing as many of the classics before I leave! Our planned two months in Australia has turned into four! Thanks to a bunch of extremely generous and amazing people, our time here has been extremely comfortable and has made it easy to stay!
