Nowra climbing season is booming!!

Beautiful sunset as we head out of Thompson's point, Nowra

Here I am sitting in bed on a Sunday night, tea in hand, cheeky bowl of ice cream next to me (hey... I deserve this :P). I just got back from a day out climbing at Nowra. The season for Nowra sport climbing is here! Autumn/Winter is the perfect weather conditions for the sandstone cliffs. The one time of year when its not too humid and the slightly warmer weather means the perfect escape from the Canberra chills. This is probably my third trip to Nowra since the season started, and since the New Zealand trip. Its definitely my favourite place to go sport climbing. Its only about 2 hours drive so we usually do it in a day trip. And we usually end up at Bernies Diner for dinner, the best diner I've ever been to! Tonight I decided to go crazy and order hotcakes for dinner, possibly too sweet considering I also order a strawberry thick shake every single time I go there (its the best strawberry thick shake I've ever had!!!)

Anyway, back to climbing...

It hasn't been a great start to the Nowra season for me, I've been sort of lazy and not trying too many hard things these days. The first trip of the season I didn't lead anything at all. I warmed up by top roping Gun barrel Highway (19) and then tried to lead Diddy Kong (18) which I have lead before but with a rest. First of all I need to remember to warm up on grades below my highest onsight level, what was I thinking! I couldn't make it through the tough crimps at the crux. Secondly, I chickened out on Diddy Kong again and this time I didn't even get to the top, ugh. Fortunately my failed attempt at lead had sufficiently warmed me up to take on Gun barrel Highway on top rope again. This time it was so much more encouraging! I found the right beta for me to get through the crux (it involved a side pull rather than using the heinous crimps) and I almost got to the top clean, if it wasn't for the pump from sustained climbing I would have had it, which makes me think that I should go for the lead this season, I need to start climbing more grade 19s. I haven't gone back for it yet though, me being too lazy to try hard and afraid to give it a real go in case I fail.

The second trip was all about ticking off climbs at a comfortable grade that I hadn't done in the past. That meant going back to Decent Gully wall where all the beginners usually go for the nice easy slabs. I got two on the trip. The first was Butt Head (17) which was a nice tricky slab with some interesting moves with no great hands that I patiently and methodically took my time getting right. And the second was Barbie Twins (16) which is one of the ones I didn't get clean in the past but this time I got it and now I can tick it off and never climb it again because it has a tricky crack section and I suck at cracks. With these fresh climbs under my belt I had enough courage to try to lead Hang On (17) which I had failed to get in the past because of one committing move pulling over a lip onto slopers and a high foot. Sadly I didn't commit on this try either. I cruised the first part of the climb, enjoying how easy the moves felt. Then I got to the roof part and the third draw and try as I might I could not get a high foot and commit. Damn, that was that for my self confidence on this trip. No more leading for me. I instead decided to top rope Beavis (20) because for some reason I like slab climbing and I had tried to lead it and realised within the first moves that it was too damn difficult. I'm all about trying super hard moves on top rope to see how I go, its fun and not committing at all. Yeah so it was totally too hard even on top rope and I couldn't get the moves clean, not by a long shot. Meanwhile the other three guys were all working the epic roof climb Cowboy Junkies (25). So far no sends from any of them but junkies is a fitting word and I think they won't stop until they red point it, thats true dedication to the climb.

That brings me to todays trip to the crag, its always Thompson's point where we go, I guess because it has some of the best climbs and the most climbs in the region. This time I really wasn't feeling up to anything, I almost couldn't make it out of bed, even with the heater blasting and then I was feeling nausea before breakfast. The trip was postponed by an hour but I eventually made it and was happy to just top rope and belay Pat on Cowboy Junkies, he was so keen to hop on the send train. This time I top roped Hang On and made it too the top although I'm still not sure about the crux move, we'll see if I have the courage to commit. Pat's first attempt at Cowboy Junkies was done with multiple rests as he put the quick draws up and worked on the beta of the climb. Belaying him wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I was imagining being yanked hard if he fell on the climb. But where he did fall, the swing was large enough that I barely felt a thing. The second time or third attempt was a significant improvement from before and he got the climb in just two parts, with one rest before the crux move. Woohoo, guess who was on board the send train!! But roof climbing takes a lot of energy (not that I would know) so it was time for a big rest for him.

We were then joined by our friends Kate and Phil and I was lucky enough to get to top rope a hard climb that Kate had put up. Alex The Kid (21) has a crazy hard start with some pretty tiny crimps but the climbing is a really nice face climbing style and with a lot of help from Kate taking my weight on the rope I was able to get to the top (another reason why top roping is great). After that, the guys were working Cowboy Junkies and us girls were climbing a nice slab climb called Velvetine (17) which by the way totally reminded me of the Transvision Vamp song Velveteen so guess what I was listening to tonight! Anyway, Kate had picked Velvetine to climb, but it had also been on my list of climbs I was interested in hopping on so I was excited and totally encouraged to try leading it after she got the onsight. Its a fun climb and at a grade I am comfortable with. It starts with a bit of a tricky mantle which is always fun (not fun at all, I hate mantles) and beach whaling a mantle is my favourite style. And then the climb heads right and up to a committing move where you lean out in space on the jugs and get your feet up. Now, any move where my feet are not directly below my centre of mass freaks me out hence why I don't climb roofs. So lets just say it took me a few goes of climbing into it and then down climbing to the nice big ledge for safety. Deep down I knew I would have to just go for it, since I wanted to get this climb, so I went for it, and it was scary leaning out, even on massive jugs, but I got the move and then the rest of the climb was nice, with a gentle slab. Considering I hadn't felt the need to climb much today, I was pretty happy that I had ticked off another easy lead in the Decent Gully, and it was one of the climbs I had never hopped on too. Meanwhile, Pat and Phil were climbing hard roof. Sadly I don't think either of them got it this time, Pat tore a massive flapper which meant no more tries for him. But he's so close to getting it!!

So next Nowra trip, Pat is definitely going to send Cowboy Junkies and I'm probably going to go for the lead on Gun Barrel Highway. I've been kind of slack with this blog, only writing when I have time and feel like it. But I will write about the other climbing that I've been doing since New Zealand, here around Canberra. Maybe in the next blog I will tell you about the trip to Red Rocks (theres definitely more pictures from that trip) and the off-width day where all we climbed was off-widths! And some long weekends are coming up so you can be sure I'll be doing some more adventures!