I heard of the line a long time ago after several brushes with mortality at North Heads land of choss, but never really bothered to look closely, then many years later Will rediscovered the line after an exploratory trip to Fairy Bower. He rapt down checked it out and then simply talked me into coming along. There was potential he said and I was hooked immediately. With a name like "Twilights last Gleaming," we were both keen to unearth an old school trad line from the bright dark ages, which probaly has had no repeats in 30 years.
We started the day late after the morning rush and family affairs were settled. Will had already sorted out the location of the well-hidden approach and located the two Carrot Bolts for the rappel. We got there very fast teetering along the edges of North Head until a well hidden alcove with the rap station well out of view. A 70 meter rap rope would get us to the bottom with stretch. As we rapt the rappel line revealed an immaculate sandstone cliff - vertical and repleat with edges and good features - and importantly fairly solid with not too much choss.
But first things first, Will was keen on "Twilights last Gleaming," and so we brought a full rack. The line soars high through several horizontal breaks with good placements until a hard crux section that leads leftward towards the exposed arete. Will led it gingerly taking care not to put too much wait on his feet so that the sandstone edges would not crumble - they held mostly. Once on the arete the views are stunning northward all the way to Palm Beach. He sat up a sandstone bollard for me and it was time for me to clean. Some of the placements might even hold a fall - I kept thinking and was glad to reach the arete. Very gingerly steeping on holds that might crumble but revelling in the moment nevertheless. Once at the ledge with Will we realised that it was not quite the top yet and a dodgy little travers on slopers, crispy crumbles and bush led us back to our rappel station some 40 meters above the deck. What a line we both thought - it will probably never get repeated again and that is probably a good thing?
It was getting windy now with the Southerly blowing and the clouds moving in, the sea darkend and the atmosphere appeared a lot more threatening all of a sudden. We both started to feel the adrenaline kick in and there was still the potential for a new line ? So we rapt again with Will leading once more and finding a mid-way natural anchor in the perfect sandstone abyss. The face above us was immaculate and vertical with the occasional overhanging sectin. The rock was more solid here in the shade and the moves wer more sporty. The features were too small for gear so we used the toprope as a belay devise and searched for a line climbing our way up. The first 10 meters of climbing were obvious and then the lines diverged left and right - we chose right because of the immaculate features. A few falls here and there some rests and the moves kept getting better the hire we climbed. Once on top I anchored myself to the top rope hanging belay and belayed Will up watching his every moves as the waves crashed below. What a moment in time.
The line has only been toproped but is probably worth bolting, we called it "In praise of Shadows" maybe 22/23 but who knows. The line on the left looked a little harder and we would like to suggest "Time to Shine" (24?) but who knows maybe one day we will be back to claim them both. |
