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year long climbing trip around oz

One Day Hero

4-Sep-2011
2:21:47 PM

On 29/08/2011 hipdos wrote:
>I always thought it was a lot simpler than all this!

It is simple, you just don't have it quite right

>Summer - Tassie or Buffalo are really the only good options........wrong!

Booroomba is 100m higher than Buffalo, the granite is nicer, and there's more good routes..........you can get good days at both crags in summer, but neither is a good summer destination.
Point Perp has an awesome shady campground at the beach! Diving, surfing, paddling, and a bit of climbing in the late arvo.....makes it probably the best summer climbing option on the mainland.
Blueys has the canyons. On a 40degree day its way better to be hiding in a wet, ferny slot than baking on the beach.....can get some shady climbing in very early in the mornings, then dive into a canyon at lunchtime to avoid the arvo heat.

>Winter - Frog or Nowra. Many other areas will get a nice mild spell but
>if you bank on that you run the risk of sitting around while it is miserable.

Bungonia is a winter crag...........as long as its not too windy, the south wall is good. Most of the good days at Nowra will also be good days at Point Perp.

>Spring & Autumn - Araps/Gramps, Blueys, Point Perp, Moonarie, and just
>about everywhere else.

I've never had a good trip to Araps in spring, its either been winter drizzle or summer heat. I've never had a bad trip in autumn.
>
> I can't see any keen climber getting burnt
>out over a year either

What's the longest climbing trip you've ever been on? I've never seen anyone stay keen past 3 months.........even the teenage psych machine known as Blake cracked. All it took was one summer at araps to reduce him from a bigwall climber to a boulderer!

hipdos

4-Sep-2011
3:12:03 PM

On 4/09/2011 One Day Hero wrote:

>Point Perp has an awesome shady campground at the beach! Diving, surfing,
>paddling, and a bit of climbing in the late arvo.....makes it probably
>the best summer climbing option on the mainland.

Yeah but you are basically limited to climbing in the morning. I guess that's OK if you are happy to do the other things half the time. The big thing about Point Perp is the wind, once the noreaster comes up you are limited to bayside, unless you don't mind the wind but I find it unpleasant.

>
>I've never had a good trip to Araps in spring, its either been winter
>drizzle or summer heat. I've never had a bad trip in autumn.

I've done two spring trips and it was pretty good both times, only rained on one day. More luck of the draw than Autumn tho.

One Day Hero

4-Sep-2011
3:18:52 PM

On 4/09/2011 hipdos wrote:
>
>The big
>thing about Point Perp is the wind

Wind in summer? Where's the prob? Adds 'atmosphere'

Wendy

4-Sep-2011
4:38:49 PM

On 4/09/2011 One Day Hero wrote:

>
>What's the longest climbing trip you've ever been on? I've never seen
>anyone stay keen past 3 months.........even the teenage psych machine known
>as Blake cracked. All it took was one summer at araps to reduce him from
>a bigwall climber to a boulderer!

Blake must have already had a screw loose. It's the only way I can make sense of bouldering interrupting an intended year long stint in the Pines.

Ollie seems to be doing ok though. Must be up to 9 months or so now.

One Day Hero

4-Sep-2011
4:45:17 PM

Ollie is up to about 6 months, last I heard he's given up climbing to hitchhike and throw tomatos.

Wendy

4-Sep-2011
4:57:04 PM

On 4/09/2011 One Day Hero wrote:
>Ollie is up to about 6 months, last I heard he's given up climbing to hitchhike
>and throw tomatos.

the north face of the eiger would do that to me too

Olbert

5-Sep-2011
12:12:29 AM

On 4/09/2011 Wendy wrote:
>On 4/09/2011 One Day Hero wrote:
>>Ollie is up to about 6 months, last I heard he's given up climbing to
>hitchhike
>>and throw tomatos.
>
>the north face of the eiger would do that to me too
Not nearly enough hitchiking - I have smashed through $1200 in two weeks without even trying. You're both right though - its sooo hard to keep up the psych. I think it helps though if you have good climbing, when we landed in Germany and climbed for a bit at the Frankenjura, it was too shit to inspire us so we did hardly anything. We got to Switzerland and there was some better climbing but we still didnt spend that many days climbing compared to days spent not climbing, probably a 50 50 ratio. Then we did the Eiger and since then I havent done anything. I reckon if we had have been at some of the amazing Spanish/French/wherever crags then we would have been much more psyched.

At least I hope so as thats what I'll be doing for the rest of my trip, after this week. Also I really hope that it is as good, or at least in the ball park of Red River Gorge, because I have basically compared every sport crag I've been to to that and none have come close.

On a slightly related note, has anyone else who has been to the Red ever been to a crag that compares? I'm finding it hard to believe that anything can come close

Olbert

5-Sep-2011
12:52:03 AM

Wendy wrote:
>mentioned Eiger
http://8anisme.blogspot.com/p/le-chant-du-cygne.html
A trip report of the Eiger, done not long after I did it. Unfortunately it's in Spanish but Google Chrome has an automatic translator which made it reasonably ok to read. I'm still vaguely planning on writing up a TR and giving it to Rock or maybe just posting on Chockstone but this pretty much sums up what it was like

dalai

5-Sep-2011
6:42:44 AM

On 4/09/2011 One Day Hero wrote:
>What's the longest climbing trip you've ever been on? I've never seen
>anyone stay keen past 3 months.........

Serious? I did a couple of road trips OS that were both over 6 months and neither time did I stop being psyched... You must not have gone to the right areas!

Wendy

5-Sep-2011
7:28:59 AM

You still in Barcelona, Ollie? Go to Monserrat. It's not at all like the Red, but it is awesome. Hundreds of conglomerate towers an hours train ride out of barcelona. Get train to Monistrol, then tourist train to the monastery, then walk 40m or so with your stuff up to the old hermitage/climbing bum refuge. Climb funky towers at sufficient altitude to make climbing in the Spanish summer bearable probably even for Damo. El Cavaille Bernat (translation: Bernard's dick) is a must do.

Things that might compare to the Red - Gorge du Tarn. Really is awesome, although not as much climbing. fine to climb if it's still warm. Well, at least for heat loving me. Plenty of shady crags, freezing cold river to swim in. Probably going to get cold late in season. Finale. Mostly fine anytime of year, lots of shade, in coastal hills, so a bit cool breezy, but heaps of sheltered and sunny stuff too. New valley developed 15 minutes down the road since I was there, so it's a massive, massive area now.

Rodellar is somewhat closer to where you are and supposed to be awesome - also ok in heat. Most of the rest of spain is a right off even for me until it cools off.

Something that's not at all like the red but a must do - Corsica. Mountains straight out of the ocean, lots of featured steep, granite sport, some limestone sport, long mountain routes varying from scary nonsense to completely bolted. Beautiful countryside, rivers to swim in, Mediterranean beaches that aren't crowded and built up. Look up stuff around Corte and Col di Bavella.

Probably too late for the awesome stuff I did in the alps - whilst I've done the odd cool route in switzerland, I've done much more memorable ones in the french alps. Next trip then ...

What's this need to hitchhike anyway? I thought you guys had some old van lined up?

I don't think I run out of psych for climbing on long trips, but do start missing home ... friends, cat, creature comforts, cooking on a stove, not having limp, mouldy vegies and hot sweaty cheese, not having to pack up tents or find a free bivvy somewhere - dirtbagging can get a bit tedious after 3 months. But I'm always on the rock again as soon as I can when i get home.

widewetandslippery

5-Sep-2011
10:05:32 AM

Perfect time of year for tre cima olbert. Think about the Brandler Hasse.


nmonteith

5-Sep-2011
10:25:11 AM

I did 12 months of full time climbing about 10 years ago, first 9 months in the USA, and the rest in Australia on my return - climbed practically every day. The secret was to keep moving, keep exploring and not to stick to one type of climbing. Climb a 4000m mountain, spend a week clipping bolts, aid a big wall, go bouldering. The three of us never got bored. The only thing that started to slow us down was winter in America. It reduced our actual climbing hours per day to only a handfull. The rest was spent collecting firewood and making pancakes in the tent waiting for a break in the snow. I can happily climb every day for months on end without rest until my body explodes. I had a meltdown in Turkey a few years back when i climbed 12 days on at Kalymnos without a break. Now that's an area that is comparable to Red River Gorge!

Olbert

6-Sep-2011
12:05:36 AM

I'm in Barcelona and will be for a few days. I'm hitching because I abandoned Hamish to meet up with a couple of my mates who happened to be around. So it hasnt all been lack of motivation for the last couple of weeks - it was mostly when were in shit climbing areas after doing nothing else for too long.

Re going to the conglomerate place, I currently have zero climbing gear so...

One Day Hero

6-Sep-2011
3:21:46 PM

On 5/09/2011 dalai wrote:
>I did a couple of road trips OS that were both over 6 months
>and neither time did I stop being psyched...

.......said the bloke who is now fanatical about time-trialing road bikes, perhaps the most boring 'sport' in the world

Hey, how'd your euro tour go dalai? Good weather?

One Day Hero

6-Sep-2011
3:33:06 PM

On 5/09/2011 Olbert wrote:
>On a slightly related note, has anyone else who has been to the Red ever
>been to a crag that compares? I'm finding it hard to believe that anything
>can come close

I wasn't that blown away by the Red, mostly because its so similar to what we have here. The best routes in the Gramps are way better than the best routes in the Red.......they do have the convenience thing going, I spose.

Look, I've kinda burnt out on the generic single-pitch sport climbing thing. The best bit about climbing overseas is long stuff, get up in the mountains before the weather turns nasty.

Wendy

6-Sep-2011
6:45:41 PM

On 6/09/2011 Olbert wrote:

>
>Re going to the conglomerate place, I currently have zero climbing gear
>so...

Bloody hell, Ollie, at this rate you'll be proving Damo right, and we can't have that!

Wendy

6-Sep-2011
6:52:57 PM

On 6/09/2011 One Day Hero wrote:
>On 5/09/2011 Olbert wrote:
>>On a slightly related note, has anyone else who has been to the Red ever
>>been to a crag that compares? I'm finding it hard to believe that anything
>>can come close
>
>I wasn't that blown away by the Red, mostly because its so similar to
>what we have here. The best routes in the Gramps are way better than the
>best routes in the Red.......they do have the convenience thing going,
>I spose.

Hang on, weren't you there for three days, totally out of shape and only climbed trad stuff? The trad stuff was surprisingly good, esp as you never hear about it, but if you went to the areas with more trad stuff, you probably weren't at the crags with the best sport stuff. I've been busy describing the Red as like the Gallery, but longer, bigger, better and heaps more of it. Whilst there is some resemblance, I reckon the Red has way better sport climbing than the Gramps. But I do think Ollie has never recovered from only have 5 days in the Red and discovering he'd really have liked 5 weeks. Or 5months even. I'd happily go back to the Red though, no shortage of stuff I'd have like to do, crags I didn't even get to. And I'd never described myself as a sport climber.

>
>Look, I've kinda burnt out on the generic single-pitch sport climbing
>thing. The best bit about climbing overseas is long stuff, get up in the
>mountains before the weather turns nasty.

I think he's pretty close to being too late already. Aside from having just left the alps and hitched all the way to Spain ...

dalai

7-Sep-2011
7:27:57 AM

On 6/09/2011 One Day Hero wrote:
>Hey, how'd your euro tour go dalai? Good weather?

Still going - into the third week. 1st week was mid to high 30's, second week low 30's. First full day of heavy rain was Sunday and luckily was a rest day and was spent driving to Briancon. The forecast is looking good - thankfully mid 20's.

17 days so far - 1431 km ridden, 49,951m elevation gain over 14 rides...

One Day Hero

8-Sep-2011
1:13:35 AM

On 7/09/2011 dalai wrote:
>
>49,951m elevation gain over 14 rides...

Jesus, if all those hills were stacked on top of each other, you'd almost be in orbit by now!

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