Good times in Nowra

The cold weather is finally here and it was time to start hitting Nowra so on the weekend i headed down to Nowra with Sam berry and Nathan Harowell to try a project. I wanted to try the Extension to a existing rout called Crenshaw boulevard 30/31 I had worked out the moves the week before and i hoped to climb it this weekend and i was lucky enough to do just that so now the route goes all the way to the top of the cliff. I called the new route Hats And Hoods and graded it 33/8c. on the same weekend in Nowra there was an event called 24 hours of power heres the write up from the event

The following txt is from www.nowrarocks.blogspot.com

It was hard to find a car park at Thompson's Point last weekend and the walls were packed with climbers enjoying the stone. Over at the Creek, the South Central car park was packed until well after dark on Saturday as climbers squeezed in that last route of the day. 24 Hours of Power at Nowra was conceived as a way get climbers on the rock, meeting, talking, sharing and building the sense of community that is a wonderful aspect of our sport. The competitive part of the weekend was a sideline to the real business of hanging out, but it did provide many exciting and amusing moments.

The overall points winner was Jan Zbranek whose twenty routes included ascents of Dungeon Master 31, Pimp Behind the Wheels 30, a few 29s and 28s and a stack of routes in the mid 20s. In second place and best Aussie effort was Matt Adams who managed to haul himself up Frosty 29, Ain't No Sunshine 28 and plethora of other classics. Third place went to renaissance man Graham Fairbairn and fourth place to Andi Richardson who managed his 20 routes in a massive one day effort on Saturday (he had to work Sunday) fueled by energy gels and sports drinks. Andi's day culminated in an inspired ascent at 7:30 pm of Come Poo with Me 24 at South Central with his headtorch on and his arms cramping badly! Best Female in the points category was Phoebe (sorry Phoebe, I didn't get your surname!)

In the volume competition Malin Hannu was clear winner in the female division climbing 34 routes, visiting 3 crags, and managing to get lost on the tourist track at Hospital Rocks on Saturday night! The volume male winner was Marcus Loane who bounced out of his car at 6 am on Saturday morning with his harness already on, teamed up with Malin and didn't stop all weekend. Marcus climbed 42 routes, cut new tracks (accidently) at The Lair and still managed to fit in few games of bowling on Saturday night!

In the juniors, Brittany Fletcher took out the female event doing nearly as many routes over the weekend as she has done on rock before in her life! Nick Wagland took home the cake for the best junior male after the stout effort of catching the train down from Coffs Harbour to attend!

A cake was awarded to Jason Piper and Matt Pascoe for the strongest start. These hardcore, psyched lads cranked out Cowboy Junkies 25 by headtorch at 6 am on Saturday to start and were the last ones in on Sunday arvo as they tried to squeeze one more route in!

The cake for 'living up to the routes name' went to Luke Geelan who was on his last route of the day on Sunday, long after his arms had given up. At the top of Fist Full of Steel, with the rope out and nothing left in the tank he snatched the chain and avoided the death plummet. Better to live to fight another day!

The trivia competition was won by Graham Fairbairn and Andrew Bull who should know a thing or two about Nowra climbing history!

Another highlight of the weekend were Wendy Walker making the first ascent of Baby Conehead, a new three star 21 at The Hood, to the right of Girls In the Hood. This route now holds the Nowra record for having the most repeats in its first day, receiving 10 ascents! As the name suggests it's just like Coneheads only littler and easier! It climbs an over hung corner before launching out onto a steep face!!

Unable to participate in the 24 Hours of Power competition due to time constraints, but still keen to be part of the action, Chris Webb-Parsons made it down on the Saturday and made the first ascent of what is now the hardest route at South Central, and Nowra's first 33 (although we do have a 34)! Hats and Hoods is an extension to Crenshaw Boulevard adding a burly boulder on top of this already solid route.

Chris Wallace (Wobblebunns) had what he has declared to be his proudest sporting moment ever when he decimated the field in the old boys ten pin bowling session, not once, but twice. In a flawless display he decided to try some spin and reaped the rewards!

Carlie and I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who came to Nowra last weekend and climbed, hung out, talked, encouraged and generally added to the fantastic atmosphere at the crags. Thanks to all the climbers who participated in this fun style of competition in the light-hearted way in which it was intended. A huge thank you to Big John for donating the sausages and rolls and manning the BBQ on Sunday evening to make sure the climbers were well fed afterwards. We learnt a lot and look forward to doing it again next year in new improved way!

Mountains Session

After climbing indoors at the comp on the weekend it was time to get outdoors and climb. I went to see my mate Ben Cossey for breakfast and some general chit chat about Climbing Rocks, Guitar playing and Life. It was then time to stop talking about Climbing Rocks and actually go and do it. So I went to Mini HaHa for a wee boulder. I wanted to try a problem called Missing Sync 8A+/V12. The problem is sooo rad it was first climbed by the ever strong Garth Miller a few years ago and it has what I believe to be some of the coolest and best moves and holds in the Blue Mountains. I had tried the problem before but I had never tried the boulder when the conditions were good and today although the sun was still on the wall the holds felt better than I had ever felt them before and after a while trying to figure out how to climb this amazing problem I had the last hold in my hand and was a very happy chapy.

First Block Climbing Centre Comp

The First competition at the Block climbing centre was held on the weekend it was the NSW State Tittles. There was a good turn out to the comp and the gym had a really good vibe with live Music from the very talented Matty J Baker and his mate Brendan, well done lads you guys are unreal to listen to.
Mark Edwards and Sam Berry the owners of the gym have done a really good job with there gym and it’s a pleasure to climb on such good walls and good holds.
I was not feeling the best in the comp but I did managed to take out first place, but only just as Tom(the butcher)Farrell was Cranking. It all came down to the last problem, I managed to climb it second shot securing 1st place. It is funny after travelling and climbing in much bigger and stronger comps I felt more nervous in this comp than any other maybe its cause your climbing in front of your home crowd? I’m so stupid sometimes :)

Deep Blue Sea

Deep Blue Sea V13/8B
My dog Annie telling me good work after climbing Deep Blue Sea

Since I got back 4 days ago I have been climbing almost every day but yesterday I had a really good day as I went to a new crag in manly I think it was found by Phil Staples? The main cave that I bouldered in was pretty small but the rock quality was really good and the position of the cave is perfect it’s about 10metres from the ocean and if you are keen you could have a boulder and catch your lunch at the same time.
The line out the middle of the cave was still a project and it is a perfect line with about 8 moves in the roof to 5 moves on the head wall. It took me and mark Edwards a while to figure out how it would work but when we figured it out it was time to have a shot I climbed the new line pretty fast calling it Deep Blue Sea I think it V13/8B but a nice and solid one. So go and have a go and tell me what you think?

Back in Home

My bed for the night in the airport

I’m Back in Australia after 2 months in Europe. When I arrived back I was tired and a little sick from all the travelling we did as we had such a mission. We left Innsbruck on Tuesday morning to drop the car off in Munich in Germany then got on a plane and flew to Vienna back in Austria and we had to find some place to sleep for the night as our flight left at 9 30pm the next night, so we found an emergency exit stairwell in the airport and slept there for the night (well tried to sleep anyway). The next day we waited and waited and waited for our flight to finally be called and finally at 930pm that night we boarded our flight and headed home to Australia via Korea where we had to wait for another 5 hours so after 3 and a half days of travelling we finally arrived home to Oz.
Back in Australia a lot has been happening mark Edwards and Sam berry opened there new bouldering gym called The Bloc Climbing Centre and its really really good lots of fresh new holds and great walls with many different angles and shapes. So now between The Pitch and The Bloc I now have the best indoor bouldering in Australia close to my home so I hope now I can get stronger and stronger.

Back to ZT for last day bouldering

Dave, Me and Zlu in the Zillertal

Back to the Zillertal for one last boulder session with one of my best mates Zlu.
I wanted to do one boulder before I left Europe to head back to Australia. I had seen photos of this amazing problem called El Gauhara 8A. I wanted to flash the problem but stuffed it up but I managed to climb the problem pretty fast so that was cool. Any way after we did some easyer problems we drove back to Innsbruck for a BBQ and bon fire with some of the great people that made this trip a good one. My time in Europe has been really good I have meet some great people seen some wonderful things, climbed in some great places and learnt a lot about my climbing and have a good idea of what I need to improve on for the world cups next year. Thanks to every one who made this trip possible

World Cup

We left Innsbruck in the morning in convoy with the Austrian team and we arrived at Grindelwald in fine time and we decided to spend the night sleeping out on the street and surprise surprise I had a really bad night sleep and felt like shit in the morning I went straight into isolation and tried to catch up on some sleep in there. My turn to climb came around after a few hours stuck in isolation and I still felt like rubbish I went out on the first boulder and flashed it but I felt terrible. problem number two had a really nails mantle in it and I got my ass kicked problem three was better and I should of flashed it but my heel popped of and I fell after a few more shots due to my foot slipping again, I eventually toped the bloc, problem four was crazy I got the zone hold but could not even come close to getting the next hold and no climber did any better than me on this boulder it was set much to hard, problem five was I really crap problem with I got the zone hold but could not get much further as I felt shit. I think I could have done a lot better if I did not feel so bad but I will have to wait for next year to find out if I can do any better now. In regards to the route setting for the comp I thought it was some of the worst route setting I had ever seen and climbed on as did a lot of other competitors in the comp I hope next year they will do a better job. So as I did not make the semi finals I went to magic wood and had a nice day of bouldering in this amazing forest I did not climb to much but did manage to flashed snow storm 7C+/8A so that was cool.