Categories
climbing general

climbing in the rain at the arapiles

Ignoring the forecast of rain, I figured that it would probably be dry anyway. After all, it never rains at Arapiles. However, I had forgotten to take into account that with the change in government had come a change in weather patterns – since Kevin Rudd broke the drought, it just hasn’t been the same. The bare dirt has gone, to be replaced by actual green stuff growing from the ground – the paths to the climbs are festooned with daisies! And the cliffs themselves seem to be developing a healthy amount of foliage.

 

 

But anyway, it rained. There was a lot of this:

 

Megan (at the base of the cliff) shelters from the rain under a rope bag

 

And this:

 

Pete’s tongue shelters from the rain under a rope bag

 

And occasionally some of this:

 

“Wave your hands in the air like you just climbed Trapeze (11 ~ 5.7) in the rain!”

 

Categories
canada climbing general

lake lousie

The weather’s taken a turn for the unpredictable recently – weather forecasts keep looking promising, then turning to scattered showers the day beforehand, and the day in question ends up being miserable and rainy. And that’s exactly what happened when I tried to finally climb at Lake Louise.

 

Views of Lake Louise (ski resort), Lake Louise (chateau) and Lake Louise (lake – filling up with people in canoes)

 

There was low cloud lurking through the Bow Valley, and all the way along the drive there.

“It’ll be fine!” we said. “At least it’s not raining!” we said. The rock was horribly cold and uninspiring. The longer you spent on the climb, the more warmth was sapped from your fingers and your toes, so instead of warming up you’d just get colder and colder, until you couldn’t really feel your fingers at all, and your big toes were definitely quite numb (possibly your next toes too, and some of the others). You’d have to place your feet and hands visually and hope the hold was good enough to stick to, as it was just impossible to tell by feel.

 

Walking into the crag

 

By the time we finished the second climb (which was actually quite fun climbing on Arapiles-style horizontals) it was a little warmer. Perhaps we would keep going. But then it started to rain. We retired to town for hot chocolate and brownies.

Categories
general

rock

rock

Rock at Bundaleer, Grampians.

No climbing this weekend. Sitting and waiting for phone calls about plane tickets. And vicious rain and humidity that makes my skin crawl. And testing out the new fish and chip shop down the round (conclusion, a bit too pricy).

Categories
climbing general

uni climbing championships

hoorah! it looks like we’re going to be hosting the australian uni rockclimbing championships down here in melbourne. now we just have to arrange a budget… and organise everything… and get sponsors… and blah, lots of work to do. but yay.

Categories
climbing general

arapiles – october 2003

Jacki on Gecko (14).

jackie on gecko