Bittersweet Symphony

In a few hours im lucky enough to be riding a plane to the big smoke aka Sydney. Thanks to this bloody ash cloud I thought I was coming very close to not making it at all on this trip. But the airline companies were gracious enough to allow me to give them copious amounts of extra cash, and now I’m off.

So unfortunately this does mean my other three team mates are already on the ground, paving the way ahead. At 5am this morning they had arrived safely and were headed north. Im sure ill have an interesting time, catching them up on my own. If anyone knows anyone in Pakistan please send them the following:

Dear Mr Pakistani,

 You may have noticed a timid looking western lad roaming the streets asking which way to shipton spire. Please feed him delicious chai and other such niceties, and please try and refrain from mugging/raping him in a back alley.

 Sincerely,

 Me

 

Being delayed did however give me one last chance at the epic project I started working on a few months ago. Perched high above the ocean on the east coast of tassie is a rad crag called the Star Factory. While its known for its hard sport climbing, there’s still a number of hard (30-32??) trad routes waiting to go down. Ive been putting some effort into one of these lines, lovingly nicknamed ‘cockhead crack’.

The line starts as a steep, immaculate seam involving powerful shoulder moves and some sick compression. The first 5m overhangs about 1.5m. once your through this there’s a hands off rest at half height. You wanna make the most of it as after that the heady climbing begins.

After stepping delicately around a hollow tufa, you stand in a corner below a roof. Stacking in a couple of wires, you have to psyche up for the powerfully delicate move around the roof. This is the redpoint crux, as your tired and its slick, mean and heady. It involves getting you body sideways before pouncing to a fingerlock! From here it’s a technical battle up the rest of the slick headwall.

After coming soooo close I was unable to get the send yesterday. Since I’ve started trying it, its caught the attention of a few people about. So surely someone will send it while im away. Sure that makes me a little sad. My ego would love to be the first to climb this amazing line. It will be up there with the hardest trad routes around! But the fact that I couldn’t do it isn’t a bad thing. I wanted a hard project to push me further than before. If it had been any easier it wouldn’t be nearly as cool!

So im going to be psyched as to come back from the Karakorum and give it my best to send it! First, second, or hundreth ascent doesn’t so much matter now to me. I just want to climb the thing!

“I don’t care what it is you do, just do it right.” – Ueli Stecks Father

So now I put one idea aside and pick up the next dream, shipton spire in pakistans Karakorum range. Trading a 25m nails-hard crack for 1300m of splitter granite. The psyche levels are off the show. A good partner, a good crew and im feeling the fittest I ever have!

Hey ho, lets go