Glenda, Jason, Lee, Mark, Martin, Roman

Like father like daughter

Will & Martha

Its All Lies...

The long ANZAC weekend was an opportunity to catch up with Glenda again on her annual visit to the Blue Mountains. The weather forecast was as usual diabolical, but we never really let that stop us. It also provided an opportunity to catch up with Jason, Mark and Lee and depart slightly from our usual Central Coast climbing trips. The Blueys, as it turns out, are still there waiting for us and the sandstone never felt better in the cold and dry conditions. Only Glenda and Roman braved the wet cliffs on Friday afternoon for a little bit of sweet desperation up the smooth and wet slabs of Upper Shipley. The afternoon thunderstorm hit about 16:00pm just when we started up These People are Sandwiches (22***). Glenda was on a day off, but was kind enough to belay me through the rain and the chalkbag never felt more squishy! Completely soaked I was happy to complete one climb and then the sun returned. As we moved further along the crag to the classics. We were joined by one of Glenda’s mates and together we put up a few wet lines with dry steep roofs high above. The orange sandstone bristled in the late afternoon sun.

Mark cruxing on Scare Tactics (20***)	Glenda on Flesh	Boys Strategising	Bardens Lookdown Boys
Jason and Mark Camping	Katie User Friendly	Roman on Cave Route	Carb loading at Mt.Vic pub
Lee and Glenda at the bar	Jason on Puppy Fat	Mark on Boatbuilding	Jason and Mark
Boys "pushing"' the grades hard .....			Bardens Lookout Crag

There was enough time to vist Glenda’s home away from home: Glenella Guesthouse at Blackheath with its secret downstairs backpacker salon. It came complete with slackline in the backyard and I was sold. Jason and I signed up for a night, but not until he conviced me to go for an early morning run for his annual redemption at the North Face 100km ultra marathon training. The local French tourist signed up to join us for the run and at 6:30am on Saturday morning we were off down Govetts Leap Road for 2km until the road terminated at Bridal Veil Falls. From here the track went straight down to the bottom of the cliff along a series of switchback stairs and rough trail. The downhill was treacherous and wet but the uphill was what we came for. I cursed Jason a couple of time on the way up when he started to run, but we made it back to the hostel in under two hours for a total of about 7.2 km and just under 400 vertical meters. Not bad for a pre-breakfast warm-up. The breakkie never tasted better.

Once Lee, Mark, Glenda and Martin joined us we decided to head towards Barden’s Lookout since the weather was sunny with a forecast of showers. We figured there were enough caves to keep us dry if the weather turned ugly on us. Barden’s was crowded as is customary and the Little Trigger Wall was delivered impeccable steepness as always. We worked our way from the left with easy 16s to the harder right until the sun almost hit the cliff. It was time for a little steepness at the Jean Genie area to mix up the day. Our first contender was:

• Puppy Far (23***) with its cruxy start and dino to liven things up.
                          The description: “hard yarding on poor holds” was an open invitation too hard to resist.

  That should have been the end of the roofs until we saw another line go up with perfect moves just to the right of us:

• Cave Route (24***) was just too good to walk past so once more we threw ourselves into the fray.

Was it lunch time yet ? who cares, next it was time to head towards the Way of All Flesh (26/28***) where Glenda was doing laps on the most outrageous steepness on offer.

The place was crowded with people on every imaginable angle tasting the perfect friction of the day. We had a little gas left in the tank and headed over to the Land of the Giants, where slabs were tickling our fancy. The thin cruxes made our tips scream with excitement but there was still time for a few steep ones on perfect orange sandstone:

• Statistical Scare Tactics (20**) with its tough finishing move to the anchor.
  And
  Tree Beard (21**) with its thin lower crux.

Then it was time to bail quickly since the setting sun saw the temperatures plummet. After setting up camp at Mt.York we headed for a well-deserved brew at Mt.Victoria pub as traditon demands. The meal was a filling high-carp diet (eat your heart out Kerry!) and then the drizzle became heavy outside.

Copyright 2005 Dr.Roman Rosenbaum. All Rights Reserved.