A perfectly steely grey Saturday after Easter with the last short days of glorious sunshine despite the autumn chill in the air, dreamlike mist with a slight chance of rain forecast in the afternoon. To escape the looming ennui, we went anyway, the roads were pleasantly empty early in the morning, the ride smooth and the coffee at the Victory café strong. James was already there after a rough night at the youth hostel, keen, readyand pouncing for glory. But we needed breakfast first and make impossible decisions about where to go – these days one has to be careful – of the mayhem. Solitude is bliss and hard to find these days even in the rugged crevices of the Blueys. Ideas swirling around in our heads, Roman called it: Zap Crag, where many projects were waiting – and everyone was happy. The crag is a mini-maze with several tiers and subsections strewn via labyrinthine paths connecting it all: sport, multipitch and most importantly a well hidden bouldering spot - it is all there for the taking. After our hearty breakfast we went straight to the warm-ups at the bottom of the cliff:
MrMcGlue (18*) a very nice warmup with gentle moves up a steep areter.
Resistor (20*) aptly named with one quite hard crux move that requires either reach or lots of flexibility.
High Tension (25***) the area classic and one of the best long routes at the grade in the Blue Mountains. Hard boulder moves interspersed with complete resets. Roman and James both flashed easily.
Once the warmups were dispensed with, Roman and James went exploring the bouldering area and found a secret stash of hidden bouldering pads - no more excuses. A photo of this was enough to entice Cameron to get out of bed and join us. When he got there - at lunch - it was time for Roman and James to look for a new project. The stand out line up an imposing face with a steep and cruxy arete high above the deck was a good choice:
Zapt (28***) A short face with some long moves leads to a good rest then the crux awaits on the arete above. The crux boulder problem has four draws almost impossible to clip: Roman managed to skip two on his redpoint. James and Cameron are close.
Jug Buzz (22***) one of the best warmups anywhere with nice jugs to a crux move followed by more jugs. My back was killing me that day and the Nurofen was wearing off quickly so I only managed three laps before calling it a day.
Electric Mainline (27*) Roman still had some juice in the tank and I was able to move the draws from Jug Buzz across to this line just on the right. Surprisingly easy climbing leads to a little rest below a roof, the boulder problem across the roof is very tough (harder than Zapt apparently). Short but very boulder. It took Roman two shots to dispense this monster.
It was getting dark now and we were ready to back up but suddenly in the setting sun: Thulia and Meg arrived. Better late than never so we managed to squeeze a few more climbs in with the girls:
MrMcGlue (18*) Meg led this one putting the draws on – nicely done.
Megawatt (21***) Thulia led the upper arete with the little roof finish.
The darkness was nearly complete now, but there was still some time for Roman and James to get stuck into some of the hard boulder problems at Lower Zap. I rushed to the upper area with Thulia who did a quick lap on Jug Buzz (22***) to finish the day. The stars were out now in a perfectly cloudless sky as we made our way through the bush back to the car. As short drive later the Gardener’s Inn at Blackheath enveloped us with its gentle embrace: food for the soul. |
