Australia part III
The Grampians
Back over to
Victoria, Mike
and I scored a
room in a house
to rent for the
time we were
planning to be
in Horsham, just
outside the
Grampians. Our
housemate,
Christina, was
studying to be a
farmer, which we
found
interesting
since she did
not grow up on a
farm. She was
looking for 2
housemates to
rent the house
she had scored
as a rental. We
counted as 1
person since we
were going to
share one room
and before we
left, another
housemate took
occupancy in one
of the other
rooms. The
weather was
turning and the
nights were
getting colder.
I found another
specialist just
around the
corner from
Christina’s
house that took
me in as a
patient. He was
quick and
thorough but
effective. I
spent some time
visiting the
aquatics center
to re-train and
stay fit while
Mike hooked up
with climbing
partners. I made
it out to the
Grampians a few
times, though.
On our first day
out, we went up
to the Taipan
wall where I
quickly realized
I’d come
unprepared. I
had no helmet,
trad gear, or
ATC. I had my
sport gear and
it would do
little to help
me on this wall.
Malcom and other local climbers were seiging Serpentine, which Mike wanted to get on, so we started looking for alternative climbing options. The whole of the Taipan wall was gorgeous to behold. Even from underneath it, the wall seemed to hold some sort of magic to it. I had been doing enough trad climbing to this point that I was comfortable with it. Yet, not being prepared for multi-pitch, mixed gear, climbing kept me uneasy about the climbs. Mike settled on this climb to the far left on the wall called Sirocco, a 26 which goes at about 12c. The first pitch was a sketchy traverse that took you through some big, balancy moves before arriving at the belay ‘ledge.’
Sirocco was famous for its move just after the 2nd piece of gear, which fortunately was a bolt. It was a huge move off of a crappy pocket to a ledge that was a long way away. There was no alternative around this move. Mike tried the move once and fell. I caught him just fine but I slammed myself into the jagged rock to my left, which hurt. The guy climbing to Mike’s right suggested we re-anchor me further right to avoid the rock, since he was far enough above his gear, he didn’t think he needed those pieces anyway (his belay remained at the bottom of the first pitch belaying). Mike came down and re-anchored me. This time when he went up and fell attempting the move, I caught him but then the system did a kind of reverb that went through my body and slammed my head really hard into the wall. At the time, I didn’t even notice that I’d smashed my right hand pretty good as well. Mike came down and quickly lowered me to the ground. I was untied and he cleaned the climb. I kept a cool water bladder to my face for most of the rest of the day and didn’t climb anything else. Fortunately, there was no bruising, though I couldn’t smile without pain for several days. When I realized I hurt my hand as well as my head, I realized I wasn’t going to be doing much climbing. I tried to climb at Millenium caves one day, but it was a no go. From that point on, I was just getting more and more depressed about my situation and my inability to climb. The aquatics center tided me over temporarily, but it wasn’t enough. When the weather turned sour, and it did pretty quickly, I was ready to leave. We saved Martina from camping in the storms and Mike and Martina went out to climb whenever the weather seemed good enough.
One time I went out with them hoping to
get in some climbing, but after the one climb I got on, I felt that
climbing was just out of the question. I was going to buy my ticket home
that day, it felt so impossible. This day, I left Mike and Martina at
the wall while I went back to rest in the sportswagon in the parking
lot. Naturally, we were the only ones there probably because of the poor
weather and the timing, it was most likely a weekday.
Martina had only 1 day left or so to try Serpentine and Mike was
there belaying her. I had very much wanted to get on that climb, but
there was no way I was going to touch it given how I was climbing at
that point. Some fog started to roll in and some rain began to come
down. It was cold in the car and I tried to rest some and do some
crosswords to pass the time.
Several hours passed and dusk was beginning to set. I was reminded of another time I came to pick up Mike from this wall when he came down rather late for it being dark and well after he’d told me he’d be down. When darkness came, I was only a little concerned but mostly annoyed that they had not come back. An hour after dark, the rain was coming down pretty good. I was getting increasingly more concerned and less annoyed at their absence. I would leave the car and hike up to the approach ramp, looking for their headtorches and seeing nothing begin to speculate on the possibilities of what could have happened. With the rain and fog, it seemed possible that something could have gone wrong on the wall and they were both in need of help. With Mike’s skills, I usually have little to worry about but with conditions as these and the extreme tardiness that was building, I was left to suspect the worst.
What could I do? I went over this question repeatedly trying to decide if I should go in and search for them or rather how much more time would I allow before I went in search for them. The next concern was, what if I found they needed help? Who would I contact? Was there a ranger’s number nearby? I didn’t see one. I finally decided it was best to at least find out the situation and then decide what to do from there. I got my headtorch on and proceeded up the slick ramp calling out ‘Mike,’ ‘Martina,’ every few feet hoping to get a response and save me the grueling hike in to find them at the cliff.
Nearing the top of the ramp, and after many unreturned calls, did I finally get a response. A dot of light appeared around a bend and it was Mike calling back to me. I nearly cried with relief. After reuniting and giving him a bit of a ‘what for’ for scaring me like that with his inconsideration did our attention return to the descent down the ramp and getting ourselves back to the parking lot safely, which we did not long after. Apparently, Martina was very close on Serpentine so they stayed a little longer for her to give it another go. She got it and then they tried to quickly pack up, but it was already late when they got off the wall. I was very happy for her send, but even more happy that they were both alright.
Martina was leaving from Sydney and I was leaving
from Melbourne. Mike was staying on to get in some surfing up the coast
so he and Martina drove east after dropping me at the airport.
There was a nasty storm brewing over the east and Mike and
Martina were going to be driving into it so I wished them super safe
driving. Apparently, the storm that came was strong enough to ground a
tanker. Mike and Martina arrived safely back in the Blue Mountains and I
started my journey back to Seattle.
