A journal by any other name... » climbing

One Sunday crafternoon…

adam — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:02:02 +0000

This past Sunday we made a baby sleeping hammock! We’d heard of them and they seemed like such a great way to start a new human off in the world, as opposed to being lost in a giant crib. So, we eaded off to e-bay, looked at quite a few of them and were about to buy one when we thought hey – we can do this ourselves! So a trip to spotlight, a raid on the recycled timber stash downstairs, some retired climbing gear, a bargain at the hardware store and a few hours later, we’ve got 90% of a hammock made.

I should post a photo, but I’ll do that when its all finished. Just a mattress to go – needing some advice from the sewing guru, my mum.

It was a good antidote to being spanked again by the old organ pipes on Saturday – attempting to read the crux moves of third bird resulted in some education about boldness, trust and footwork, via sliding out of a hand jam and reducing my skin cover somewhat. Yeeow! Bring on a face climbing mission next…

3 weeks and counting, to a world of craziness, to rocking round on rocks

adam — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:30:37 +0000

In around 3 weeks there will be a new little human doing its new human thing in our household. What a crazy thought! Its both exciting and scary – but its been done billions of times before… no doubt I’ll write even less about life here when the little’un arrives!

Its been an intense weekend, dominated by word of a devastating bushfire for our close neighbours to the north – and potential actual physical neighbours in the near future. This stuff always makes me think about how we would react, what we would do faced with a similar situation. The armchair emergency responder comes out, as it does all over the world, no doubt. Most likely, we’d end up in the same basket.

Next, we await the great blame game – just like we did after the Canberra fires in 2002. Not much justice for the folks who watched their world burn down – the money that the lawyers will suck up would be better spent on staving off some mortgage repayments, or helping replace homes, or something. Anyway, thats my same old rant. Its Australia, there will be bushfires.

And finally, the world of fun and rock and biking. Sounds like it was wise to skip the tahune marathon this year – tales of woe and fused brakes abound! And rock.. glorious rock. The pipes have been good this past month, with a couple of fine ascents and a notable grovel up the classic Arthurs Circus – body chimney insanity! but sooo much fun…

post-Arapiles, and studytime all round…

adam — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:03:18 +0000

Ahhh… almost a week has passed since I returned from the glorious rock of Mt Arapiles. It was a very good trip, although I really had to wind back my expectations – the price you pay for not climbing much between big missions. Regardless, loads of good climbing was had with some repeats, alternate pitch leads and fresh ascents of some of the Arapiles classics. The feeling of climbing with the sun on your back is amazing – so different to summertime, where climbing is impossible between 11am and 3pm.

So back in Hobart, it’s time to knuckle down around here. Bel is on the road to becoming a herbalist, and I’m a bees whisker away from setting off on a new round of studenthood. Lots of reading going on, and this old keyboard will be losing its ‘e’ key faster than ever.

…and we may have some even bigger news soon! Stay tuned.

In the meantime, some pics from local adventures with Bel have shown up in the gallery. Enjoy!

always learning… something!

adam — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:07:35 +0000

This week I’m on a remote area first aid course. There’s so much to learn, and it really is one of those ‘things I should have done years ago’. But it is never too late. So a group of us have been hanging out in a scout camp on top of a hill not far from my house – but you can’t get there quickly, I need to drive all the way around the hill and up the other side!

[yes, I'm having a lazy week, driving...]

Today is the big night scenario – I sure need the practice, since I messed up my patient yesterday. Or, at least, failed to pin down what was going on. He might have survived…

Never mind. Failure is our great teacher.

So, by the end of Friday I predict I will be exhausted, and trying quite hard to retain all this information stuffed into our heads. At this point, it looks like I’m off climbing for a week on Saturday – so I’ll have plenty of time to lie in the tent and catch up.

Ahh, arapiles. Land of rock, tent time, and guitars by the fire.

A couple months worth of ramblings.

adam — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:26:43 +0000

Its nearly the end of April and I have been slack at updating things again. Trying to escape the facebook plague and get back into this little baby of my own. Sheesh.

That, and I’ve been busy working and lacking a home internet connection. So – what’s going on? A bit more marathon mountain biking – Pete and I entered the Kellevie 24 hour race as a team of two, and managed to come second by a lap and a half! Not bad, since we were racing a gun shop team. Needless to say, Rosie the bike is now in need of a new drivetrain after all that long distance racing. Every second lap in the 24 hr race, I stopped to repair my chain. I guess it comes with the territory.

I’ve managed a bit of climbing, and even got Bel up to the organ pipes – massive dolerite cliffs up above Hobart – for a play. Its been good. And I built a chin up bar to make up for lack of going to climbing gyms.

So life is full, and its autumn, the best season of all. Actually, all the seasons are the best season of all – so there’s no losing out there, huh?

I don’t have any political comments to make at the moment – I’m really not sure what is going on! I better go read the news…

Happy trails!

100km of recovery…

adam — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:20:13 +0000

As usual, its been almost a month since I last looked in here! Well, you can rest assured I still think about this site a bit, and have even started extracting content from the old overcomplicated beast in order to reload it all.

I digress. Yesterday I rode my mountain bike 100km, along with around 200 other complete nutcases in the Tahune mountain bike marathon. I crashed twice, and considering there was a broken collarbone and a few stitches, I feel pretty lucky to have escaped with a few bruises, broken sunglasses and a wrist that feels OK but not quite right.

Lukcily, I’m off to Melbourne tomorrow for a week of R&R with Bel. No climbing, no riding, just lots of stretching, good food, relaxation. Ahhhh….

In other news? The organ pipes assault continued for some time, leading to the ticking off of a few more classics on the north buttress, the latest involving my hardest lead for some time, with an epic run to the top since we forgot where the climb finishes. We turned it into a 55m epic pitch, finishing up the classic pulpit chimney – actually it was cool! Every style of climbing was represented. Face, then hand, fist and finger crack, chimney, and a little offwidth. Ha!

Sorry, no new photos or anything yet. Soon… I’m going to Frenchmans cap straight after Melbourne. I’ll take the camera, it’ll be ace!

ciao for now!

An organ pipes frenzy!

adam — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:01:18 +0000

In the last two weeks I’ve done more climbs on the organ pipes than in the two years before that!

Crazy huh? had a new year climb fest, involving arriving at work by 7 am so I could go climbing at 3. Good fun but I need a rest now! A few days off, then Hillwood on Sunday. I’m racing my friend Margaret to a grade 25 tick – but I have to onsight lead, she just has to top rope. I’ve been climbing a bit longer…

Its a whole new year!

adam — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:45:19 +0000

welcome to 2008 everyone! In the months since my last entry here, much has happened. Lets wind back to Movember. Yep, I grew a Mo in aid of mens health, and it looked quite funny. It gets real bushy if I leave it on long enough. Hilarious! But it got shaved off real quick after the end of the month.

…except that it stayed for the first weekend of December, since we had a cocktail party at Twilight Tarn, Mt Field. Then, ohyeah. Just work until christmas – at which point Bel and I went off and walked the overland track! I got paid, Bel got to do a swanky hut trip for free. Loads of fun all round. yeeha!

Since then, Bel’s been away at meditation retreats and working at Cradle mountain, so I’ve been filling time with lots of rock climbing. Can you believe – more climbs on the organ pipes in the last week than I’e done in the last two years! crazy!

I spent new years at an old haunt – Bluestone bay. There was a total lack of Tasmanian dwellers, but loads of people from the north island, so I hung out with a cool bunch of people from the blue mountains! We played guitar, drank beer, ate good food and had fun. It was inevitable really!

…and I think that brings us up to date. With Bel away for a month, I’m just in training mode. For what? hmm.. who knows. We shall see.

back on terra firma…

adam — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 07:49:40 +0000

I’ve actually been back on Terra Firma for some time now, a few days short of a month! Crikey time flies. So you can see what I got up to on the ship at the SIPEX voyage website, if you navigate to ‘blogs’ and look for my entry there.

So, what have I been up to? Well, where to start. I got back and couldn’t walk right for a day, which was quite funny. Then I went back to work for almost a week before heading off to the north island for a ‘holiday’. Intending to visit some mates in Canberra and Sydney I accidentally did a 24 hr mountain bike race. So, I spent quite a while on the bike, and almost an entire day in bed recovering. Not really the most social thing to do, but I think I’m forgiven! Many thanks to Murray for helping heaps in preparing Rosie the DMR for the next part of riding epic…

So after my day in bed I jumped on Rosie and pedalled off to see my uncle, aunt and cousin, then pedalled back, loaded Rosie up and embarked on a ride to somewhere near Sydney! I made it to a random creek about 110 km away from Canberra on day one, tired, sore and in the dark. I had a great sleep in possibly one of the worst campsites ever – I didn’t care. Eatsleep. The next day I woke up early, ate a fine brekkie and pedalled along through Nerriga, then Sassafras [cool name for a place], flies dust and heat, all the way to Nowra. And there I stopped, camping at the traditional spot in the animal park, eating an Andys burger for dinner and washing it down with cold beer, a hot shower, and an awesome sunset!

The next morning I gave up on more biking and went for a climb in the morning, then caught the train to Sydney. It looked like a nice ride, but I was too stuffed. Ah well. Sydney came with all its craziness – after finding Harriets house [and another hot shower] I headed out to a swanky wine bar where Amelia works [an old classmate from honours days] and enjoyed an awesome dinner. I love dirtbagging in swanky places. Its fun. Met my bro Ben briefly before he was sucked back into corporate dinnerland, then cruised home for another round of long sleeping. I didn’t actually see Harriet until Friday, when we went for a beer and dinner. I crashed before Sydney even gets started, and had another good long sleep. The rest of Sydney involved lots of urban biking, a walk in the blue mountains, a play, some sculptures and loads of good, glorious sleeping. Ahhh.

…and now I’m home! And even better, I have a home, complete with the beautiful Bel, who hasn’t quite forgiven me yet for running off to Antarctica and the north island in quick succession. Anyway, I’ll find a way to make it up, I’m sure. We’re off to Cradle Mountain this weekend… Bel is working, I’m gonna have a little adventure.

Ohyeah I nearly forgot. I did a 6hr solo race last weekend and didn’t come last. yay! Rosie is grumbling though, she needs some lovin’ after all that hard work…