The Goat Cave 7/8/11

The Goat Cave

A big day was had up at the Goat Cave in Bulahdelah last Sunday. A bunch of Pulse regulars and staff headed up to Bulahdelah with the forecast saying rain, so the Goat Cave was the consensus. Although the bad weather didn’t eventuate, long, hard day of roof climbing was had by all.

Squiddy was into the action first putting draws up on four climbs before any rock was caressed by humans. The top choices of the day were Pull ya Plonka (23), Toast (25), Trotters Trifecta (25), Black Leg Miner (25), Sugarmonster (26) and Sugarmonster Extension (28).

As Cam, Gerd and Brad warmed up on the routes outside the cave and squiddy was continuing his work, Pete jumped on Black Leg Miner, a 35m roof with a boulder crux at the last bolt. Not having been on the climb in two years he warmed up putting the draws on and remembering the moves. Suitably warmed up (flash pumped) he came down to jump on belay duty.

Brad and Gerd started taking shots at Toast, a short, bouldery 25 with the crux close to the ground and requiring you to hold a swing on small crimps. Gerd has previously discovered the proximity of the ground on this climb, when a nameless belayer dropped him to the rocky ground a few weeks back. Shrugging off possible spinal damage (jokes…) he returned Sunday to send Toast in fine form! Congrats Gerd! Brad came super close managing to keep his feet on through the crux but pumped out heading up towards the anchor. He will surely be back to crush the Toast later this month.

Trotters Triffecta is a gymnastic 25 with big moves between big holds. Aiden figured out his sequence through the climb with lots of spinning around, heel hooks, toe hooks and a small amount of Monica Seles like grunting. Feminine grunting aside Aiden cruised the climb, forgetting all of his sequence, and clipped the anchors after one last hard move with plenty of juice to spare!! Congrats Aiden!!

Now to the Pulse Staff who set a great example by falling off everything they tried!! Jas decided to get his inner trad on and climb with double ropes. Climbing to the top of Pull ya Plonka on one rope he had a sit down rest and changed ropes to continue on up Sugarmonster on another. After possibly a little too much enjoyment at the Plonka he mucked up an intricate foot sequence and cut loose through a normally static move. Fail. Pete in the meantime returned to Black Leg and after sucking in some deep ones at the big sit down rest he ventured out on the second half. Taking in the two good kneebars on the way out, he looked fresh. The kick back at the anchors foiled him again though, after skipping the last draw he came off less than a metre from the anchor. Fail.

Successive tries in fading light by the Pulse boys didn’t bear any fruit unfortunately. I guess it’s time for some more endurance training in the gym…