As one of the most pictureques crags in the Blue Mountains Upper Shipley always deserves another visit. One day before winter with temperatures barely hit the plus, but with an ambitious forecast of sunny weather we prepared for a cold day in the Blue Mountains. The most important part on the menu was sunshine. The shady crags were beginning to feel a little uncomfortable so we opted for the open air arena of Upper Shipley. Once the morning fog cleared Dave and Ryan hastened up the Great Western filled with coffee and other choice substances to converge at the crag. The sun was out strong and so were the visitors on an usual busy Friday. In between the Drosera were ablaze with sundew. With Roman and Ryan each having damaged legs we were trying to take it easy, but as always that promise did not last very long and once the warmups were completed some harder stuff quickly moved on to the menu. The Sandwiches wall was already busy by the time we got there primarily because it catches the early morning sun and was bone dry. The nearby slabs were running with water probably from the prior week's tempest. In between the runoff there were a few dry lines which sufficed as warmups.
The Bandoline Grip 18*** mostly dry and perfect warmup with one of the few easier starts. Although the first bolt is 8meters up so take car.
Nude Tuesday (20**) mostly pleasant warmup with one hard lock of crimp at the higher steep section.
a little further along to War Babies Wall:
Scramble Syndrome (20**) nice moves to a tricky thin sequence across a little rooflet. Short but very sweet.
We were looking for something a little harder and moved along to the steeper section where to our suprise a nice motley crowd of visitors had already settled it on some of the longer projects.
Dance like a mother (25 ***) was supposed to be easy for the grade but I never made it past the reachy slab crux on the lower half. Kept dynoing multible times to the wrong hold until my buggered foot had enough.
Found a good Beta description for shorties, which I have to try next time:
slab crux beta at 4th bolt (short person beta: rock over left foot, potentially using thumbcatch thing, flip RH into undercling in the pocket, raise right foot high and commit to ledge with LH).
Equaliser wall
Iron Mike (27**) One for Dave: short compared to the other routes but with an evil crux in the middle. Here is the Beta description from the crag: Dave went with the kneebar first but came pretty close once he changed to the flag:
Breaking down into pretty much gr18 climbing to the crux then V7 or so into jugs at the top. Im sure its possible with the higher feet but I found it reachy at 178 tall my method.
Crux Beta: From the left hand pocket thing, clip then right hand to crimp above the bulbous hold, left foot up to the edge just up and left of the jug then right foot onto first crimp of the full sequence, backflag left leg then left hand piching the nothing arete pull yourself around the arete and breifly grab the 2 finger crimp with tick before bumping above into fat pinch, left foot to pocket and smear right to pull up to jugs.Conditions matter on this one!
After two shots and getting pretty close on the crux Dave cut through one of his fingers and scrabed his wrist bleeding all over. It was time to call it a day! After my unsuccessful attempt on Dance Like a Mother, I was keen to redeem myself. I have been wanting to come back to this one for a while:
Loop the Loop (25***) I had been on this years ago and once again I was surprised by the relentless moves in sequence. Every mini boulder is not too bad but there are many stacked on top of each other with rests on mostly good rails in between, that wear you down pretty quick. The top section is relentless with committing moves throughout. Power endurance classic with the need to recover in between tyring moves. Found some good beta for the slab crux of the log. Match both hands on the left hand double hold - just reachable from the log (no feet) paste your leg far out left on a crimp and rock on towards the left. match on two side by side crimps (bad) and dynamically snatch high left hand jug. First move is done. There are too many individual cruxes left to describe here but rest assured this route safes the best for last. After two shots my skin was pretty much gone.
Ryan was keen on another climb before the temperature would drop. It was close to 4pm and the wall turned dramatically orange. We now had the place to ourselves and still needed some photos for Ryan's Blue Mountain T-shirt so it was time for one more classic:
Lardy Lady's Lats (22***) an all time classic - two pitches all in one. the start slab is probably the crux for the first three bolts with some unique iron stone pinches. Cruisy middle to a rest and a steep section across a fairly juggy roof. But there is a heartbreaker crux gaston just below the roof jugs that got me once again.
Ryan did much better on the slab section and then the sun disappeared below the horizon. The temperature dropped more dramatically then we did all day long - ah well - it was time to pick up Louise for our mulled wine (Gluewine) session at the Gardeners. And just in case you are wondering the secret ingredient was Brandy - we checked :) |
