Team Geared Up

HORSHAM, VIC, AUSTRALIA (Team Geared Up) -

It’s Monday morning and I’m back resting in Horsham. We survived the 20-hour drive up from Nowra on Friday night, to arrive into Buandik campground in the Grampians National Park at 3am (yawwwnnnn :). To describe it is as chilly here is an understatement - temperatures have plummeted!

Saturday was spent just re-acquainting myself with the style of climbing here, loosening the arms up, waking up, and reminding myself of all the moves on my route - I’d forgotten just how steep it is! The weather was beaming and it was looking like Sunday would be a great day so we all took it pretty easy.
Sunday dawned, myself and Chris had a brief hour and a half walk up some of the nearby creeks for some fun and to loosen up, only to arrive back at the campsite in a downpour…….I couldn’t believe it!

Firstly, the video below is of the final attempt, I’ll explain some of it below.
The rain did clear up after an hour or so, but with heavy cloud cover, nothing was really drying. I arrived at the crag to drips of rain running down my route - previous experience told me this was not good. Still though, I wasn’t leaving without a go (or two :)…..
Two aborted attempts later (I’m always nervous when going for this grade for some reason), lots of energy wasted, and I went for the final push. I got through the easy-ish 25/7b/5.12, but (very steep), first half, and was feeling good. Maybe this was meant to be the day? Got through the next few meters (which is the crux), and then almost fell out of a hold (about 2 minutes into the video) which I should have realised was a bad sign. Three holds more later, I’m feeling really good (but tired), go for a move and….watch my right hand in the last 10 seconds of the video. It slips out. Yep, damp holds.
I’m gutted and with the rain pouring down today, and only one day left, the route is in the hands of the Weather Gods now! Still though, there’s more important things in life to be stressed about so I’ll give it my best shot tomorrow and see what happens….

Image Credit: Chris relaxing on an early morning walk in The Grampians National Park. Photo by author.
Video Credit: Neal on ‘Koalas…’ (29). Bouncy-cam by (and motivational comments!) by Chris, using a Panasonic DMC-LX2 digital camera on maximum video resolution. Note: route overhangs about 40-ish degrees, excluding the roof, even if it’s hard to make out in the video!

- Neal :) -