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bl@ke and Hargs. Ozymandias. TR

bl@ke

1-Oct-2010
2:11:46 PM

On 1/10/2010 Fish Boy wrote:

>
>Blake, a 70 is big enough for two people in summer for several days. Two
>bags, ignoring the size is a better option than one so things can be split
>up and used during the day etc...

Two bags would be handy but a 70 still seems to tiny. Ill try get all my stuff into a 70l pack tonight.

I think we went overkill on most things. Like next time i wont bring any food, you can survive for a month without it. No sleeping gear either, you can stay awake for 3 days and nights. No fancy aiders, 3mm cord 3 steps should do, no need for two. clothes? boxers are enough, shivering will keep you warm. only one small rack, just back clean heaps. One 500ml waterbottle should do.

bl@ke

1-Oct-2010
2:16:21 PM

On 1/10/2010 One Day Hero wrote:
>Yeah, I don't reckon the hippy frame of mind is right for big walling.

Who says im a hippy?

>Bailing before you start cause "we were probably gonna get a couple of
>pitches up, then pike"?!?......wandering off for a few cones?!?

I dont do drugs.

"wow man,
>the karma just wasn't right down there, next time maybe we'll feel the
>vibe, y'know!?!"................. We spoke nothing of such crap.

>Take different drugs, I recommend whatever Contador is on!

Who is that?

Destroy your Jack
>Johnson CD's,

Who is that?

simey

1-Oct-2010
2:22:09 PM

On 1/10/2010 nmonteith wrote:
>The walk down is way easier than rapping down Comet Ramp or down Defender.... Should take about an hour - even with haul bags.

Neil is correct. I don't know what route you guys are taking on the walk-down. In fact I don't even recall the fixed ropes you mention. I've walked back up South Side from the base of Ozy with all my kit having bailed after two pitches after trying to solo it (I had never done any aiding and was a bit clueless). I am pretty sure it only took me an hour and a half to walk back up.


nmonteith

1-Oct-2010
3:00:29 PM

When we did Lord Gumtree in winter we packed three 'bars' per person per day for food. Breakfast - one museli bar, lunch - one powerbar, dinner - one powerbar. By our 2nd day we weren't feeling too good and by the end of the climb we both had hideous stomach cramps from starvation! We had light haul bags though.... :-)

bl@ke

1-Oct-2010
3:08:09 PM

Well ODH maybe you do too many drugs and you just think that what I wrote sounded airy fairy. Feel free to point out these hippy climbing ideals because I cant find em.

simey

1-Oct-2010
4:09:58 PM

What lovely prose ODH. You have truly managed to encapsulate the Buffalo experience. It is a pity Simon Carter didn't use it for his introduction to Buffalo in his Australian Climbing coffee table book. I look foward to your continuation.

daave

1-Oct-2010
4:12:18 PM

I'm pretty sure thats the funniest thing I've read on chocky...ever! lol.

simey

1-Oct-2010
4:25:48 PM

On 1/10/2010 One Day Hero wrote:
>Am I the only one who feels an urge to spew as yet another climber distills the essence of climbing into yet another flowery guidebook introduction?..............the gentle caress of the warm stone, the dance of swallows flitting along the cliff............bleaaaarrrgghh!

Well I think that is the angle we went for with the Arapiles guidebook, but Glenn wrote the intro so you can blame him.

simey

1-Oct-2010
4:54:00 PM

I love how this thread is called Ozymandias Trip Report when not one metre of Ozymandias was climbed. Here is the first part of my trip report to climb K2.

K2 TR
So after lots of emails and PM's and other stuff Michael and I were off to Pakistan to do K2.

We arrived at the airport at around 10 on saturday morning. We had packed everything into Britney the pig. This pig when full was a beast. "Whats in there?" says a tourist, "Lots of heavy shit that is completely useless" was my reply and I kept walking. We had packed our rack into a large daypack.

So we arrived in Pakistan with two very heavy packs which made the going difficult. We heard some other climbers were climbing stuff in the Karakoram so we kept tabs on their progress via our iphones. We got lost a few times trying to find customs but this was not the worst part. Carying a pig was horrible (my left knee is still swollen from all the walking down the stairs). Michaels pack was just as heavy but mine was bigger so I just pretended it was heavier.

After getting out of customs we had to somehow find our way out of the airport. Michael zipped through the terminal while I took my pig off and put it on one of those little airport trolleys so I could wheel it around. I stick my iphone into my mouth. For some reason I open my mouth and my iphone dropped onto the floor, bounced and then landed under someones foot. There goes 500 bucks.

We got to an escalator that wasn't working so we had to lower the pig. It was now getting late in the day so we picked up the pace but another section with stairs slowed us down.

We finally got out of the airport and found a hotel just on dark. I filled my drink bottle and sculled most of it, I was so thirsty. Then we had a quick sniff around for which room we should each take. The only available room had a double bed just big enough for both of us to sleep on. We added some extra blankets for comfort, had tea and settled down for the night. The constant noise of the traffic made it hard for me to sleep but I got enough so I wasnt too grumpy the next day.

to be continued...


..::- Chris -::..

1-Oct-2010
5:03:56 PM

oh Simey .... haven't had a good laugh like that in a while....tears in my eyes....

simey

1-Oct-2010
5:12:17 PM

On 1/10/2010 One Day Hero wrote:
>Yeah, well maybe I'd be able to throw a few words together for the next
>edition. Perhaps you could discuss it with Glenn the next time you bump
>into him? Remember to mention that I got about two sentences into his intro
>before blowing chunks all over the guidebook........I had to sort of mush
>it shut, slip it back on the shelf, and scamper before the saleschick got
>stuck into me!

That might have been the guidebook someone returned to us with a complaint about some smudged printing on one of the pages.

costa

1-Oct-2010
7:42:16 PM

i wanna know where you got an iphone for 500 bucks

costa

1-Oct-2010
7:43:10 PM

correction. where you would

jacq

1-Oct-2010
9:02:05 PM

You guys are so kind and supportive. Nice work.

simey

2-Oct-2010
12:11:26 AM

I don't think Blake needs warm and fuzzy support from Chockstone readers. Judging from his trip report I think Blake needs a rev-up speech similar to this when he is next standing at the base of Ozy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thWqNof5nXA&feature=related

james

2-Oct-2010
4:17:20 AM

simey you need to recruit that guy for the Rams!

the coach's welcome on the Nati Footy club website could apply to these TRs also "...we tried but failed..."


gordoste

4-Oct-2010
2:05:16 PM

Sounds like they underestimated the climb and made some bad decisions about how much gear to take. Once things seem to be going against you, it can be easy to get intimidated by the unknown. And when you're relatively inexperienced, everything is unknown!
Anyway, the weather was pretty grim the next day (freezing, raining etc.) so it's probably for the best, otherwise there might have been a genuine need for rescue services...
When I met Blake last year he was just learning to lead trad and got really scared leading Piccolo. Yesterday he led his first grade 16 on trad (and it was a crack too!). So he is rapidly hardening up and should overtake most of us well before he turns 20 :)
You don't learn if you don't try, at least they got out there and gave it a go. I'm sure they learnt something and will be back to try again.

Don't listen to simey - what has he done on grit?


IdratherbeclimbingM9

5-Oct-2010
2:29:51 PM

On 4/10/2010 gordoste wrote:
>Sounds like they underestimated the climb and made some bad decisions about
>how much gear to take. Once things seem to be going against you, it can
>be easy to get intimidated by the unknown. And when you're relatively inexperienced,
>everything is unknown!

~> Yes, and can be a fun learning curve if one has the attitude that they will enjoy the moments along the way.
I would expect that their bivy on the Crystal Brook Island will be looked back on with fondness by them some time down the track!

On 2/10/2010 simey wrote:
>I don't think Blake needs warm and fuzzy support from Chockstone readers.
>Judging from his trip report I think Blake needs a rev-up speech (snip)

That may work in some situations but maybe a mix of both would be better.
The positives out of some of the harsh feedback they have received are;
Harden up, and take less 'stuff'.
~> These are hard won lessons that have now been somewhat learnt.
I have been on that same learning curve, and decided that the compromise depends on how badly you want the objective vs. the creature comforts you are prepared to forego...

In the background I received an email that kind of refers to the 'warm 'n' fuzzy' component mentioned above.
It basically translates as...
>trip beta should be offered with a K(indness)-factor, defined as the extent to which a piece of information (a) is valid and (b) preserves the adventure experience. >Low K-factor beta seriously diminishes the adventure experience, high K-factor beta provides for, well, for the type of weekend described
(in the Trip Report).

If someone had given me harsh trip beta in my early days, I seriously doubt it would have made a huge difference to me, as I was more intent on finding out for myself my limits due to valuing the adventure component highly and applying the experience I had already gained for myself.
Yes the objective/s may have been realised earlier, but in my opinion life is equally about the journey to get there, ... and the hard lessons along the way I find help fortify the mental component for future endeavour.
If the objective is worthy, then the endeavour to reach it is also worthy. I am happy for them that they are progressing along their journey, so who am I to criticise their pace?
Having said that, I do now more closely subscribe to the nmonteith three bars a day ethos, than I ever have before!, and FB is right about a large haulbag being for two people to share all the 'stuff' for a multiday wall sojourn!!, ... or one soloist, if they trade company for a bit of luxury in their hard earned endeavour!!! ^{heh, heh, heh.}


MrsM10iswhereitsat.

5-Oct-2010
4:28:34 PM

Dearie me. So much effort and so little result. Oh well, you now know more than you did before and I am sure it will stand you in good stead for a future attempt.

On 1/10/10 Mr simey wrote:
>Neil is correct. I don't know what route you guys are taking on the walk-down. In fact I don't even recall the fixed ropes you mention. I've walked back up South Side from the base of Ozy with all my kit having bailed after two pitches after trying to solo it (I had never done any aiding and was a bit clueless). I am pretty sure it only took me an hour and a half to walk back up.

I'd like to see you putting yourself out there with a trip report about that epic dearie.
?
What? there is no bar reception in the gorge? I don't believe it!

hargs

7-Oct-2010
7:10:05 PM

Well, back in Sydney, couldn't log in for a while. Very funny reading on the TR thread. Here are my various thoughts on the exercise, in no particular order:

-- "This is hardman country and I have no business here," was a recurring thought I had going up and down the gorge. ODH's post is basically on the money: harden up, princess. I'm putting this trip down to the recky I should have done first, and some bonus mental preparation.

-- Take less shit. Seriously, a lot less shit: No stove. One quarter the food or less. Somewhere between Neil's "3 bars per day" insanity and ODH's "it's not a camping holiday." And I considered lugging a boombox in there, fark me. Romantic Yosemite Climber images of paisley-clad Bridwell & co standing in a grassy meadow before a glowing El Cap have been erased. Buffalo is pointy and abrasive; it completely destroyed my daypack before we even started. It's a good thing the 'ledge building fiasco ended in disaster at 10 oclock the night before I left: Lugging that bastard in on top of everything else would have killed me.

-- More confidence at the grade. Led Cream Machine the day after really enjoyed climbing the pitch -- but I balked at the M4 where Trogster took that 8m groundfall last March. Ideally, a few M4 pitches before next attempt, but I'd settle for one or two. (Annoyingly, I thought of top-roping the M4 on the drive back to Wagga; I really wish we'd done that instead of Banana Blase, or at least as well as, but it'll keep for next time.)

-- More confidence in the environment. We met Fishboy after he soloed She and he suggested rapping into Bannisters Rush -- 50m grade 21 hand crack -- and aiding out, but not knowing the rap stations, the route, or where to find the anchors on the wall, I baulked (again). In retrospect, that was a missed opportunity: at worst, we'd have gone over the edge, buggered around on the end of a rope -- admittedly, over a somewhat intimidating void -- and jugged out. But that alone would have been worthwhile.

-- Learn to properly interpret local advice. There are tricky subtleties, and individual snippets must be taken in context to glean their full meaning. For example, "the access track isn't pig-friendly" together with "give some thought to a recky" translates, roughly, to "the bastard access track will seriously f*ck you up, especially if you haven't been down there before." Obvious after the fact, but not before. Now we know the way in, it'll go much easier next time. (But if you rapped in and bailed, and hadn't walked out before, you'd have a fun time locating the exit. The track may get more obvious with use over summer, but right now it's quite overgrown in places.)

-- There's a big, significant difference between taking yourself up there and figuring shit out on your own, and tagging along with someone who's done it before and knows what they're doing. Fishboy offered to go up with us -- thanks, FB -- but already a tiny, perverted part of my brain is telling me that would be a cop-out. Like Gordoste said, it's scary and intimidating when it's all new.

-- Per ODH's TR rewrite, spend the next few weeks punching walls. I sprained my ankle on the way in, and my back hurt for days from lugging around a bunch of crap we didn't need. I need to train some weakness out of me. I taped ODH's post to my computer. I've been running up and down hills with my revised Ozy kit, cranking scando metal -- man that's some messed up shit -- practicing screaming obscenities at the traffic on the way to my fucharse job and ripping heads off butterflies. I'm not sure it's helping: my wife wants me committed.

-- Get back to Buffalo in November for the aid weekend. M9, sign me up.

There are 44 messages in this topic.