Outdoor Climbing...a reintroduction

The lucky folks of the South-West have been treated to an unbelievable winter of warm and sunny weather. It's almost to the point now where it's becoming kind of eerie as each new day of beautiful conditions dawns. Rain has been a foreign concept for the most part with only an hour or two of showers every six or seven days. Unsurprisingly, it's now officially the driest start to winter ever recorded.

What has this meant for us? Well, it's been idyllic for any activity outdoors, take for example the action packed fishing action in "The Game is Strong" of a few weeks back. We've since gone back for another two cracks at the tailor there without any luck on either occasion. The weather's been so damned good that we probably could've comfortably gone out fishing every day this winter, if only the gun fishing spots were just that little bit closer. Instead I've had to settle for more local activities up here in the hills of Perth. I'm talking here mainly about my beloved mountain biking. The annual coverage of the Tour de France has inspired me to get out there as often as I can, usually four or five times a week, but yesterday myself and Dad ventured outdoors to engage in another one of our favourite activities: rock climbing.

Dad's a real fanatic for mountaineering but since there aren't any decent mountains in this part of the world, he's had to settle for rock climbing to keep his head in the game. I'm an on-again-off-again kind of climber. I'll go through spurts of keen-ness followed by long months, sometimes years out of action. Usually I get roped back into it (pun alert) by Dad needing a climbing partner for safety reasons.


Dad sets up the anchor system of ropes we'll use for top-roping

Anyway, one of the best outdoor climbing areas in the Perth metro area is about five minutes from where we live up in the hills. Churchman's Brook is the name of it and its a beautiful vertical expanse of outcropping dolerite. This type of rock makes for pretty exciting climbing because its smooth but has plenty of nice cracks and blocky foot and hand holds. I really like the variety of moves you can practice on this rock. Dad on the other hand loves granite, in particular the massive, more gently sloping domes of the Wungong Slabs. Granite slab climbing involves a delicate balance of friction and limited grip rather than the strength and reach required on the vertical dolerite rock, granite ain't my cup of tea at all. Hope you enjoy the pictures from our day out. And this was my wife Lina's first outdoor climbing session ever by the way. She did pretty well for having only ever done indoor gym climbing before.




Me: "On belay, climb when ready"

Dad: "Climbing"












That's me climbing with the dorky looking helmet















And that's Lina in the same helmet facing a daunting 30 metres of vertical dolerite