It was a nice winters day on Wednesday when mates Jolen, David and myself headed down to meet Matt, another Tasmanian local for some sport climbing in South Hobart. It was my first visit to this tiny little top roping and sport crag. After some coffee and jam filled croisants we jumbed the fence and headed up to the base of the crag.
The first route we did was called "Bedside manners are extra" and was the easiest route on the wall at grade 17. It was definatley the most obvious line along the fairly steep face. After exchanging credentials with my new climbing partners I put on my harness, grabbed some draws and gave it a shot. I hadn't climbed in over a month and quickly found myself a bit rusty. I was pumped after the first few moves and still not at the first pin. I scrambled off the route and clipped the first draw from a ramp to the right hand side before heading back down to the bottom for another go.
Anyway after that I had no excused and so dragged myself up the face one u bolt at a time, with regular rests and the odd complaint, mixed with pauses for the odd glamour pic. I took me about 5 minutes before I had the rope through the top crabs and lowered off to clean the route. After that everyone in the party top roped the route with mixed success. The general consensus was that the route was probably a 25 or 26 and someone had got the grade mixed up....
After that me and Matt, who was turning out to be the sleeper of the group went over to have a go at what I think must be "Bondage and Discipline". We didn't have any guide at the time. At grade 20 it was a bit tougher. Matt demonstrated how to make it up to the first bolt without using the rope, which meant I was definately obligated to give it a try. I tied in and hauled in to th first couple of moves. The first pin was easy enough but the second pin was slightly more elusive for my short reach. I eventually made it but declared I was too pumped just past it. After a bit of faffing about I took the lower of shame from the second bolt.
Matt charged up next easily passing the first two pins with his long reach. From there he pulled to the third pin using some solid rehersed moves consisting of a strong right hand crimp up high and then a slightly dodgier hole up left before pulling up to some very awkward moves above. It was pretty tense when he dropped the rope while clipping in to the draw. He took a rest after this and lowered off shortly after claiming the some debilitating forearm illness.We cleaned the route on top rope and called it a day before smashing it back to the Huon for a bit of MMA action in the afternoon. Thanks to the boys for a great session.
