 December we had one more great opportunity to get together and celebrate in style the passing of another miserable milestone. The dominos keep on tumbling and one more half-century man was reborn to rise like a phoenix from the ashes to join the club of the “Unstoppables.” See the picture of Will above – this is what happens to all of us: some sooner some later.
"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you"
 This one was pretty special to me so thank you all for coming and making this a grand occasion. There were many special moments but Adele took the cake – pun intended – and thanks for all the marvelous cakes you concocted, they were truly amazing. I wish I could remember all the names but alas just the taste and pretty pictures remain. There were too many highlights to mention them all but Bryan, Elka and the kids on the highline were pretty special and the photos do them some justice.
"If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim"
Friday, Bryan, Nola and the kids turned up reasonably early to join Roman and Louise, Chris and Roman Junior for an early start of the weekend. The kids hit the beach with much abandon as is customary and attacked the large beach break in the Southern corner of Pearl Beach. By early afternoon there was still time to check out one of the many micro-climbing crags around the Central Coast. A short distance up the hill from Pearl Beach waits a gem call “Mantlemania.” It is arguably the most desperate micro crag I have ever been to. I took Roman and Chris along to keep me company and to make matters worse: the flies and heat were particularly bad that day. In a word - perfect conditions - for some mantle madness. After we were done with some pretty amazing warmups up a giant boulder that looked like a frozen wave, we started working some of the classic mantle problems. Usually three juggy moves up an overhanging wall get you to the business section of the boulders with a mantle waiting at the exit point. It gave new meaning to “slip, slop, slap” in summer and not even some desperate heal-hooks could help us get up the ‘easiest’ of the problems. It took one hour and we were complete destroyed and headed back to the beach again. We had to save some muscle for the next task coming our way since this was going to be an action packed weekend. Let’s just say we have to go back to Mantlemania with some serious spotters so that I am not afraid of squashing my kids when coming off the top mantle moves.
Mantlemania Bouldering Area
Do you like mantels then this area is for you.
Everything tops out on hideous slopiness. Awesome but bring your guns with you and plenty of heel hock action.
 Dinner that night was the usual pizza feast with Mat, Larisa, Gabriel and Raphaela joining us. Cam and Adele also arrived on Friday night so that we could get ready for the Saturday morning activities. Saturday morning was put aside upon special request for central coast three hill challenge: Pearl beach – Patonga – Umina. With a rather civilized start of 6:30am the awesome foursome Cam, Mat, Roman and Will attacked the three hills in indomitable style clocking a record time of just about one hour. Just back in time for morning coffee and ready to get the rest of activities under way. But first it was beach time with Mat breaking out the cricket set and getting all the youngsters involved. Once the kids were worn out it was time for the second climbing session of the weekend.
Will had discovered a top-secret climbing area known as Mt.Ettalong South side, which is very close the the famous Brown Room bouldering pad. Mount Ettalong offers panoramic view from high above Pearl Beach and has some real jewels in its quiver of sport routes. Adele, Louise and Roman got started while we waited for the rest of the troupe to arrive. We even discovered some brand new ring-bolted routes not yet recorded in any guide. The highlight was a line of pinches going up along the rim of a huge cave topped with a little roof crossing that felt about 20/21***. More climbs turned up alongside it but alas we were out of time and I only had one or two shots worth of skin left to finish my project. Meanwhile Will was belayed Martha and Christoph up pinnacle of rock while Larisa and Raphaela read in the shade of a giant boulder.
Mt Ettalong- south side
Several of the climbs have unfortunate names but all are worth two stars or more.
- Left end Carrot (17**) great warm up.
- Slopy Pocket Carrots (22**) tough cruxy bouldery start than easier headwall
- Left most ring bolted route (22**) toughish start than cruxy headwall unless you find the hidden finger pocket!
- Undercut start (25**) tough bouldery start to great rest than carefully up headwall with slopers till the end.
- Bolted crack at right hand side of cave, we have to come back for this one.
- Cave Arete (20/21***) awesome
- Another route 10 meters to the right up a beautiful arete. First bolt too high to stickclip, bring a few friends next time for crack at start ?
The two new routes we discovered are probably here: Bayview
 After Will and Roman finished their projects it was time to return to the weekly crossword, cheese and beer. The barbecue was made in heaven with angels disguised as cakes and the dreams came easy that night. But there was still a bit of Sunday left in us and Louise, Nola and Larisa took Roman along to the local yoga studio to make him mindful again. Life is perfect amidst those moments of madness and I shall finish with some immortal words of wisdom that are true for all of us:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
Only then will you be a true Sushiclimber…….
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 Roman 14 December 2016
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