Bouldering Easter longweekend

So the Easter long weekend finally arrived. Many different plans on how to spend it had been thrown around depending on who was free and for how many days. However they all had one common theme – CLIMBING!

This long weekend is usually spent climbing by those who enjoy the sport as it offers a chance to get away from the working grind and boasts excellent climbing temperatures at a time of the year that was usually dry and sunny, and this weekend was shaping up to be idyllic.

*The classic Christina’s Pizza which is a ritual for Sydney and Blue Mountain trips

Its been a while since my last blog post. The work weeks have been hammering me, early starts coupled with late finishes working underground all week – often not even seeing daylight for days on end makes motivation and training difficult. However the thought of this upcoming weekend helped force me into training at pulse one day a week and squeezing in a hangboard another. Hangboards are great, you only need to find a spare hour and the gains are visible. The only downfall is how bat s#%t boring they are which you can try to overcome by some good beats and exercises to keep it interesting. But thats a blog for another day.

The plan for the weekend ended with us heading to Sydney for some bouldering on the south side which is usually too far for a day trip so camping around Sydney for a few days seemed like a good idea. I also had a new bouldering area up my sleeve which i had planned to invite the other guys to check out with me to help develop.

Ok so lets get to the climbing part of the trip already. Myself, Ben Able and Adam Partridge had decided to visit a new place called Alfords point, and apon finding it we wernt dissapointed, to say the least it looked rad! We quickly sorted out what was what and organised our plans for the day. Adam quickly sent ME (V3) whistle I flashed Jetski Jerks (V6), Ben quickly gave up on Jetski Jerks as he wanted to try the classic Stringybark Massacre (V7) which he and I both ended up sending. Next on the list for me was String ‘Em up (V9) and the mega classic Love Gun (V10) which shared the same difficult start. Apon sorting out some beta for these climbs (thanks youtube) I sat at the start and produced a half arsed effort at the first move which to say the leased was unsuccessful. After chalking up and deciding to give it a better go I pulled on for the second time and ended up sending String ‘Em Up, if only i had committed the first time! After a few short sessions on the bouler Ben also found himself at the top of his first V9! Well done Ben. Unfortunately by this point i was just too tired to link Love Gun together and had to leave it for next time. Get Keen Tammon!

*Me on String ‘Em Up (top), Ben on String ‘Em Up (bottom)

The three of us decided to leave and head to the new bouldering area i had been given directions to from a Sydney source. We checked it out in the dark using head torches and when we finally found it we wern’t sure we had found it! As it had been described far better than what we saw. We camped that night on the close by football fields and decided to check it out again in the morning. Well lets just say the daylight gave us a new perspective and the cave we had found proved to hold quite a number of really good looking projects. Needless to say we called John Ash and set to work cleaning the cave top down. Due to its height we wrapped down to be able to reach the top outs.

Hours later we decided enough was clean and to give a few of the problems a go. The first done was my V5 called False Preconceptions which was an instant classic with Ben getting the second accent and Adam close to the third. John started to work on his new line called A session in compression aggression which he should send soon.

*John working his new line – A Session in Compression Aggression

*My new line ‘False Preconceptions’ – V5

At the conclusion of this session i could feel myself feeling worse, a reality i had be en trying to avoid all day – my flu was getting worse. I had woken up that morning feeling about as good as a month old banana and my 4 day sendage weekend had been cut short to only 2. Havnt been sick in about a year and it chooses now to strike – another obstacle trying to hold me back. Well at least that’s how it feels when your sitting at home with sore muscles and a running nose and outside is teasing you with perfect climbing temps. Arrg.

-Michael Tonon