How true:  the child is indeed the father of the men and when the opportunity of a long weekend beckoned us to test the weather in the Bluies, we could only answer the call of the Cherry Blossom’s in full bloom, the plum tree just beginning to bud and the promise of a hot weekend in autumn. We headed up Friday after work trying to escape the weekend rush and hit the skateboard  park on the way to try out the kids new skills: ollies, kickflips, it was all there with dad watching from the safety of the park bench.
Antoine was kind enough to organise the house in Blackheath and followed with Louis for a weekend of adventure. Laurence, Eli with little Laurel arrived later in the evening to join us for the night. Friday night was spent with red wine, cheese and late Marshmallows thank you Eli. The fireplace was still roaring and a heavy fog set in – reminiscent of winter. 

Chris on the sharp end	marshmellow time	Antoine in situ
Laurence and Antoine	Antoine on Noodle	Dinner time
Laurence on Mezzaluna	Tired Boys	Chris waiting for his turn on Noodle
Chris on lead	Louise on the Noodle ledge

Saturday morning started early with bacon and eggs on muffins but homemade. By eight o’clock we were ready for a quick visit to Big John’s store and then it was off to Mount York shady side. Our area of choice was Blaxland Gully with its three star low grade classics.We began our day with “Unknown” which is a fully ring-bolted grade 17 just to the right side of the “Frolic” crack that splits the Mezzaluna wall from the Wentworth Gully Wall.  Antoine followed this climb barefoot, which was impressive and Louise also had a crack at it. Next was the classic “I know Boats (17) with reachy moves making the climb seem much harder. Chris and Roman both led the climb ground up.  It was time to give the area classic a go and Chris and Laurence both styled up the somewhat technical Mezzaluna ***(16). The grade is very “interesting” and old school. I guess you should be solid on grade 20 to attempt this test piece.  One of the characteristics of this climbing area is that the grading is old school with carrot bolt protection. However ever climb finishes with a modern day double ring anchor, which makes cleaning the climb a really pleasure. 

The final pools	Antoine in action	Antoine down the falls	Canyon Group
Traverse Jump	Roman in the abseil	Roman taking off	Canyon Boys
Chris on the abseil	Chris in the Falls	Canyon Boys	Roman Louis Chris
Chris Hanging Belay	Roman First Jump	Leo on the sharp edge	Monster Yabbie
Empress Falls	Louis in the Falls	Louis ready for action	Louis waiting for the drop
Jumping Chris	Leo going for the last pool	Glowing twins

By now it was really heating up and the sun was just about to hit the crag, so we left our beautiful picnic ledge and headed straight into the strong sun around the corner to the amazing “Noodle Wall.” I know this is a big call but I would suggest that the upper tier of this wall is one of the best low grade orange sandstone walls in the entire Blue Mountains.  The views are to die for and everyone polished off the test piece: Noodle ***15 , which ascends the centre of an overhanging wall on massive jugs. But beware take the grade with a grain of salt. Next was Lexical Density  ***18  on the same wall and then the sun’s rays made us escape back to our picnic ledge. Things were slowing down in the afternoon heat but we head a few more ascents up our sleeves:  Stinkeye *16 and finally the amazing Salubrious **18 with a boulder problem start that will make you weep. Full credit to Laurence who made it through the double crux reachy start of this feast of understatement.  The kids began to crave some sugar so reluctantly we headed for some triple-mix milk shakes  at the Memory Lane café in Blackheath. Saturday ended with a slacklining session at Blackheath Park and Antoine’s amazing lam roast sizzling away for the entire day.  
Sunday morning was Empress falls day. A brief abseiling session off Antoine’s balcony got us into the mood for the final mega abseil through the waterfall.  It was Louis and Antoine’s first time through the canyon and the water was still carrying the winter. Leo was kind enough to come along to help with the rope work and we all arrived at the Conservation hut at about 11am ready to descent into the bowels of the beast. The water jumps were as we thought brilliantly “refreshing”   but sparkling with the reflections of a 35 degree scorcher that barely made it into the depths of the canyon. The balancing jumps were tricky but within 30 minutes we reached emerald pools with the crux abseil waiting just beyond.  But not before we captured the “super” yabbie for a trophy shot (don’t worry we let it go).  We noticed a new abseil station to probably avoid the tricky undercut section at the beginning of the fall, but then it was time for the boys to rap down for the first time by themselves. Antoine shaved is knuckles on the sharp edge of the undercut section for some war wounds to show off and everyone finished with a quick dive into the crystal pool at the end of the falls.  After the short ascent back to the observation hut we clocked just less than three hours and it was time to head to the German bakery at Wentworth Falls to round off another magical weekend.

Roman 4-5 October 2014.