Euro-Tripping

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times…..

im on a six week euro climbing trip, but i just started a post with a well trodden cliche.

kind of sums up europe in a nutshell for me though. in tasmania im used to the freedom of the hills for want of a better term. the feeling of being able to get off the beaten track and into the wild. europe seems to be more of a sheeps trail for the masses, very little original thought or positive acceptance of creativity on the micro-level.

while chamonix is the most beautiful place, with easy access to some super impressive alpine terrain, i found it quite a stifling town to live in. bloody arogant french dickheads at every turn, posturing and posing while turning the whole alpine game into a ego-contest. good for them i guess, but cant we all go out and do these things and get along!?

i did manage to climb a few things, the Swiss Route on the north face of les Courtes was definitely a highlight, 800m of alpine ice. i climbed it with my new friend Nadav, an israeli-american. the whole experience really set in my mind what alpine climbings about. two strangers meet, find similarities in the way they live their life and can forge a friendship while climbing something big and scary together. thanks mate!

North Face of Les Courtes, we climbed the line in the centre of the face. We didnt get any sunshine though!!

unfortunately he had to leave the next day, so in the coming weeks of good weather i was often left feeling frustrated without a partner. i did climb some smaller objectives but the rat was getting restless. unfortunately though by the time my friend Owen arrived to climb with me, the weather wasnt playing ball. we climbed the Burnier-Vogler gully in thin conditions, which was super fun! after another week of frustration i pulled the pin.

now i sit down in sunny spain with an espresso and pastry in hand. a rucksack full of quickdraws, finger-tape and all sorts of other sport-climbing nonsense. theres a good crew of psyched and strong climbers down here, so for the next few weeks its time to forget about danger, route finding decisions and judgment calls, and focus in on hard movement. im about as fit as a fat kid playing playstation, but fitness comes fast!

oh and if you somehow missed out on Ross and Simon´s awesome first edition of Vertical Life, Australia ´s new online climbing mag, check it out here! theres even a shitty article about some snow-plodding in pakistan….

happy climbing guys!

Oh, the Places You’ll Go

So I found this recently. how on earth did I never know of Dr. Seuss’ last book.

Watch and enjoy……

Oh, the Places You’ll Go

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.  And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets.  Look ‘em over with care.
About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.”
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you’ll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you’ll head straight out of town.

It’s opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen,
don’t worry.  Don’t stew.
Just go right along.
You’ll start happening too.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed.
You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so
but, sadly, it’s true
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump,
you’re not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted.  But mostly they’re darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out?  Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right…
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…

…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That’s not for you!

Somehow you’ll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You’ll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,
once more you’ll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored.  there are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame!  You’ll be famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t.
Because, sometimes, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times
you’ll play lonely games too.
Games you can’t win
’cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance
you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike
and I know you’ll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You’ll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life’s
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So…
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,
you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

by Dr. Seuss

Walk the Line

Last week saw an awesome day go down on the Totem Pole. A little while a go a friend of a friend put another friend in touch with me to see if I would help out on his little idea. After swapping some emails plans were soon made.

Florian Herla is a gun highliner and was super keen on setting up the highline between the summit of the Totem Pole and the mainland. He recently did a pretty impressive effort at hanging rock to boot.

Steve Monks was down and keen to revisit his old climb, and my mate Matt Scholes was down doing some work with me. We would be the motley crew climbing the beast of a tower to rig the highline.

All things went smoothly and the line was rigged sometime in the early afternoon.

What followed was the most impressive display of mastery I’ve ever seen. Florian jumped straight on and smashed out a few laps. His friend, Leon, had also come down to have a crack. It had been a while between drinks for him, but he also cruised the line with style.

Enjoy the photos from the day:

 

Florian Herla walks the line. (c) Simon Young

Florian steps out in an amazing position. (c) Simon Young

 

Rysavy Ridge

Life in sunny ol’ slowbart couldn’t be much better for this young climber. Currently I’m earning a crust by working hard for a rope-access company, Spidertech, based out of north Hobart. Every summer a large chunk of work on the Hydro power schemes comes our way. Last week we were busy inspecting the inside of a penstock, the pipe that carries water to turn the turbine that powers your computer to read these words.

The penstock we had to inspect. Three of us jumped inside and travelled the 400m to the power station.

Hydro sites tend to be in cool places, and working at Wilmot meant staying a night in the sleepy little town of Sheffield. Mt Roland is a craggy conglomerate range that looms above Sheffield, keeping watch. In 1977 a ridge was climbed by a bunch of friends, who discovered the classic Rysavy Ridge. A 350m grade 12 that rambles its way up the line of least resistance.

I’ve always wanted to climb this route, however the opportunity never really presented itself. One afternoon we managed to finish early at work, and quickly readied for an ascent of the route. I threw together a light rack, as the description made it sound reasonably involved.

Arriving at the base of the route, Haig and I decided to start soloing the route, with ropes and gear on us with the intention to use them if the going got too much to handle.

In the end we soloed the whole route.

It was an amazing climb, with just enough exposure to keep you on your toes. I can’t recommend this route enough. If you have read the route description and felt a bit worried, like I was, don’t be. For all the steep sections there were good crack systems to accept gear. Belays would always be on a comfy ledge. With two 60m ropes you can easily retreat from anywhere on the route by making one abseil into the descent gully to the left.

 

Hope you all have a great friday, i just booked some tickets to Chamonix in late march, so I’m STOKED!!!!

Wizardry

As this young man gets older, slowly but surely I’m piecing together a coherent understanding of how this whole ‘life’ business works. no I’m not going to launch into some dogmatic tirade on how the world works, just penning some thoughts as much for me to see as for you. I’m lucky enough to enjoy a lifestyle that affords me ample opportunity to expand the concept of whats possible. while most people slave away on a treadmill, lift heavy things or drag themselves up boulders, it seems to me mental training doesn’t get enough attention. the old cliché rings true for a reason.

its all in your mind

one of my favourite ever climbing videos is an interview with Dave Graham, in which he talks about the ‘wizardry’ involved in doing what he does: crushing. something about this concept struck a chord. somehow it seemed to make the most perfect sense, summing up the feelings of climbing your best. some people don’t appreciate it as much, perhaps they just don’t get him. watch it. find out for yourself:

I often have trouble explaining myself when people ask how i do certain things. do i get scared of heights? how do i bounce across a slack line? how do spend days alone on a big-wall? each time a scrape together some lame response, trying to sum up some kind of deep intuition.

conscious thought has never been much use when trying to perform physical co-ordination type activities. the phrase ‘free your mind and your arse will follow’ sums that up nicely. but what does that really mean?

the concept of wizardry talked about is basically allowing your body to do what it knows how to do. climbing a route for example, theres a way to move your body over the rock thats the most efficient way. we’ve all had those days where we floated effortlessly up everything. while on sighting things just fell into place, you hit each hold perfectly and flowed with elegance and grace. other days you shook like a dog shitting razor-blades, nothing worked and everything felt like a sandbag*. why?

your mind.

the best sends are often the ‘no-aticipation’ sends. that is you honestly didn’t know how you would go, and gave yourself up to just trying. preconceived ideas about what you could and couldn’t do didn’t have a chance to step in and bungle your ascent.

so how to achieve that? OPEN YOUR MIND. why can’t you try that hard route you’ve always looked up at? why should you listen to those people that say you shouldn’t? i always find it amusing that the people who have achieved the least, feel like everyone should listen to their advice and speak the loudest. heres a good example of that.

“you have to be able to take it or leave it, then you take it” – Danny

from all my failures, and theres been more than successes for me, i’ve learnt the important skill of balancing desire and ambition, with the fact that it truly doesn’t matter. sure theres things i want to do and achieve, and I’m doing heaps to try and do those things, but so what if i don’t? the quickest way to sabotage yourself is to let the desire override your ability to let your body just do its thing.

its such a first world attitude to forget about all the time spend striving for that ideal. don’t let yourself get too caught up in the end goal, or thinking that i shouldn’t even bother ’cause i don’t think i can. what a drab life that would be…

open your mind to the endless possibilities. don’t worry so much about the what if’s and give yourself up to whatever you do. living in the moment and accepting where that takes you is the first step to a big smile. forget about what every other rat in the race is up to and ask yourself, what do I want to do? you can’t make people happy unless you are, and would it hurt so much to smile a little more?

and for something completely unrelated that made me smile, it seems I’ve garnered a new fan over here. i guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all…

*sandbag – climbing term to mean something felt harder than it should, that you must have a sandbag on your back if it was meant to be easy. you can also ‘sandbag’ someone, give them wrong info intentionally to giggle at them flailing away.

Running on Air (220m 26A0)

My good friend Alex and I have been adventuring a little bit lately. Please enjoy a small photo-essay I’ve put together of the best day out.

In the not too distant past (2009) I was psyched,  and I don’t mean just a little bit psyched. That all consuming fire inside was burning brightly. I had established an aid route on the side of the East Face of Mt Anne in the winter previous, and rat needed feeding once more. I readied my arsenal for another assault in the wilderness, this time with free boots packed, and a grainy photo showing a line straight up the guts. The long and the short of it is i had a screaming epic. A forgotten helmet and loose rock almost got the best of me before i turned tail and ran. vowing to return one day, fitter, stronger and with a partner.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. The forecast for Tassie’s west looked hot and clear, perfect timing for a busy monkey trapped in the rat race. we readied ourselves for a ground-up assault on whats the steepest continuous dolerite i’ve ever climbed on. Alex was feeling fit and strong, and my belay skills were as sharp as ever so we set off confidently.

For a full report head over to Alex’s blog here. But now a little something for your eyeballs…

The majestic Mt Anne. As viewed in the dying sunlight, from the track up to Mt Eliza.

The view from halfway up the big hill. Such a beautiful friday evening.

Shelf camp, with the Mt Anne in the background. Running on Air tackles the tallest section of the lower buttress. Photo Simon Mentz

 

Alex swings out onto the arete while on sighting the first pitch.

Alex confronts the crux pitch, an amazing pitch of steep hard crack climbing.

Another bum shot.... Simon enjoys himself on the splitter hand crack. the photo can't do justice to the spectacle around you on this pitch

Simon monkeying about atop the first buttress.

Alex making quick work of the final upper buttress. A couple of fun crack pitches soon lead the way home

"Im looking down!!". Mr Shuffelufagus goes to work on the super fun last pitch.

A couple of happy-as-can-be fella's sit proudly atop the summit of their new route.

cheeky monkey enjoying another somewhat more often visited summit....

We write up a detailed topo in the hut book at Mt Eliza...

...before we head off into the sunset, a couple of friends riding the euphoric crest of living out their dreams together...

 

 

Running on Air (220m 26A0)

1. 30m 8 (solo) scramble up to a ledge a pitch below the free-standing pillar.

2. 35m 22 Up L on face before shallow corner. Up this until drawn out onto the arete before a small stance. Blast the R-facing corner above(crux) to belay on sloping ledge next to freestanding pillar.

3. 35m 26A0 Up into perfect finger crack. Squirm into the V-groove above, before desperately exiting this(crux) into a pleasant crack. Belay on spacious ledge.

4. 10m 17 Transfer belay up and to the left beneath hand crack on the lower ledge.

5. 25m 20 Fun hand crack. Step left where it steepens before heading back R up wide crack to belay (RPs) with some friendly loose blocks.

6. 35m 23 mantle onto ledge L of belay and up the shallow groove. this opens to accept good gear and fingers. Pass ledge and enter chimney. Step R at top for more wide action to the top of the buttress.

Now you must walk up a few hundred metres to confront the second, smaller buttress above. head to the low point in the centre. at the toe of the buttress is a wide hand crack. both routes on the face start up this.

7. 30m 19 Take the prominent hand crack. at the top, traverse R to find belay up behind a detached pillar beneath wide chimney.

8. 20m 18 Classic. Chimney your way up, placing gear in the chockstone. Shuffle up the final wide bit before returning to the horizontal realms.

 

“I don’t know why I’m weightless now,

but I guess its because I’m running on air” –  BEI

 

 

The Last Post

Summers been a bit hit and miss on the climbing front. after a slight period of severe lack of psyche I’m back in the game going hard at being happy.

my good friend had an accident which shook me up a little bit and led me down the usual garden path of having too good a time partying hard. but in amongst that theres been some awesome activities to boot. I’ve been slacklining like a mofo and starting to get a bit better. I’m loving the feeling of progression. that feeling of knowing that your learning new skills. the best bit though has been sharing that with the multitudes of random passer-by’s that stop, look and have a go. i think the world needs more pure expression of happiness. somewhere along the way australians have gotten terrible at letting people do their thing, and seem to feel threatened by someone who is good at what they do.

in turn the tall-poppy syndrome leads to cutting them down. ruining any chance of an open minded society that can express and grow creatively and ultimately make the choice to be happy. those that disagree might possibly have bought in too hard while the buying was good, ill explain what i mean about that soon enough…

but for now let me present possibly the most poorly made film you’ve seen all year. the budget was non-existent, the actors amateur at best and equipment? well i made it entirely on my iPhone.

 

Garry Phillips steps out over the void and onto the second pitch of Pole Axed(21). Cape Raoul