Sydney, Surf & Sandstone

Its been quite times lately with the bizarre summer weather we are having stopping most attempts to get out bouldering... hot and wet is not exactly great bouldering conditions unfortunately!
I headed to Sydney for the weekend and had a fun afternoon trying to surf at Maroubra Beach on saturday (meaning I spent several hours getting smashed by big waves and not getting up on a single one of them haha)
Then on sunday Chris, Teegan, Marcus and I headed to The Fear Factory for a few hours of fun bouldering where we all managed to get up a few nice problems as well as get shut down by some hard highball slabs... fun in the sun :-)

Well, I will post some pics up again soon, for now were off to boulder at Pierces Creek... Until then, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Have fun and keep safe!

Its been a while...

So it has been a while since I last posted... but with good reason... summer is here so its pretty warm, plus we have had more rain recently than we have had in years... So its been hot, wet and humid most of the time for a few weeks now... Not exactly bouldering weather unfortunately.

We did manage to get out to North Black and do a few problems today, and I fell at the end of a nice v6 so I'm keen to get back out and try it again soon.

Steph and I are off to the beach tomorrow for a swim and a surf / skimboard... Hopefully I will have some more climbing news soon :-)

Hot Hot Hot!

So summer is well and truly here in Canberra... its been 30+ degrees celcius every day for a while now and its almost too hot to climb so it will be late afternoons doing easy problems for a few months now I think... its just too hot to send anything hard :-(

Chis Webb, Helen Day & I went to Bungonia Gorge last friday and while it was too hot to do much I had a play on a nice v8 that I'll be keen to get back and do once it cools down... I can see me spending a fair bit of time there over next winter... Such a great bouldering area! But the walkout is a nightmare haha

Have fun guys and gals... I'll write again soon :-)

More North Black

Two posts in one day... who would have thought it! haha

Josh, Richo and I popped out to North Black this afternoon for a few hours bouldering at 'The Hill'.

While perhaps not in top form Josh and I managed to do a cool and slightly highball v5 and Richo got up the classic v4 on the left end of the steep wall.

We all spent the remainder of the time falling off various desperate problems on the steep wall there... I'm keen to work on the undercling v8 traverse there... so gotta get out there again soon!

North Black

Well the weekend just gone had a bit more rain than we would have liked for bouldering but the land needs the rain so I am sure we can put up with it!

It rained way too much on friday night for us to boulder on saturday so we trained out at the gym in Mitchell for a few hours in the afternoon...

On sunday all was well though so Ross and I headed out to North Black and had a pretty successful day!

We started at 'Frost Hollow' where Ross did a nice v3 and I did an extended start to the awesome 'Sisyphus'... we then tried a few hard things and got thoroughly spanked on them haha

Then we went and had a quick burn on Chris Webb's unrepeated 'Lonesome' v11... damn that thing is hard, and such an awesome line! Long term project for sure ;)

After that we headed to 'The Hill' and we both flashed a nice v4. I also did a new first ascent on the steep wall there... Starting on the low edge and undercling on the far left of the wall (its a bit of a short man start) then up and right to a new top out between the left hand problem and the v8 in the middle... I called it "Smack My Bitch Up' and its about v6.

So all in all a good day that left us psyched to get back out there and finish off unfinished business!

Rainy weekends...

Well this weekend we managed to get out to Pierces Creek after work on friday afternoon and Josh and I did a tough little problem called 'Pizza Knob' v5 at The Tumblers.

Other than that we got alot of rain all weekend and didnt really climb at all...

Oh well, this weekend should be alot more productive! (We hope!)

Pierces Creek

So yet again it is nearly the weekend and I am only just getting around to telling you all what we got up to last weekend haha

Well last saturday Josh, Dave and myself (with Josh's 2 yr old girl Hayley too of course!) got ourselves out to Pierces Creek for a bit of granite action.

We had a ball, but didn't actually manage to get up anything... we played on 'Gastagon' v7 at Cohiba, only to fall just short of the burly opening gaston move time and time again! But we were close so it will happen sooner or later :-)

Then we were of the The Playboy Mansion to try 'Public Enemy' v7. Josh did well but the reachy cross through moves shut me down... but not to worry, I'm keen to try again because it is such an awesome line... a truly classic Canberra line!

Then Josh headed home and Dave and I stopped in at The Tumblers so I could try out one last problem. Again I left empty handed, but psyched to go back and finish what I'd started.

All in all a fun day that left us keen to get back out to Pierces Creek to finish off some tasty granite lines!

Heres a few pics.. enjoy!

Me trying, and trying, and trying to stick the first move of 'Gastagon'

Josh crossing his way through the start moves of the awesome 'Public Enemy'

Me again on the last problem of the day

Video of Chris Webb Parsons on "The Wheel Of Life" - v16

Enjoy!

Nowra!

So for one reason and another I didn't manage to get to Nowra while the conditions were good this winter, but Danny and I managed to sneak in one last session there on saturday after delivering a load of furniture (Danny is a removalist, so they paid me to help him out... haha, a paid bouldering trip, how often does that happen!)

We went to Lot 33 and warmed up on the nice easier problems at the right end of the wall before Danny jumped on the classic v7 further to the left... after a bit of work he nailed it, adding yet another hard problem to his increasingly impressive tick list.

I had done that problem some years back so decided to try the other v7 that leads in from the left to the same finish as the one Danny did... and I managed to send it after a few goes which was great :-)

This weekend were probably going to hit up North Black... then hopefully we will also get a trip in to Bungonia one weekend very soon before it starts getting too hot.

Have fun kids!

Heres a few pics from Nowra... enjoy!

Danny warming up

Me warming up

Danny on the v7 he sent

Me on the start of the v7 I sent

Here are a few pics of us on problems at Georges Boulder out on Corin road... enjoy :-)

Danny on 'Phone Sex'

Me on 'Phone Sex'

Josh on 'Leg Spinner'... a very frustrating, but fun, dyno

Sexual Innuendo?

It must be the week for sending!

Chris with his mammoth effort on The Wheel on saturday, then a bit of luck for some of us here at home...

Last night we ducked up to Corin Road after work where Danny Ewald made quick work of 'The Joker' v6... (It should be noted that Danny first ever rock climbed 5 months ago, and he is now pretty solid on the v5 - v6 range... VERY impressive!) then we ran down the hill and drove to Georges Boulder before the light failed and I managed to send 'Phone Sex' v8... my first hard problem like that in over 4 years.. so Im stoked!!!

We will be back out there Thursday this week after work as Josh & Danny are both really close to 'Phone Sex' as well... hopefully we can all send this week :-D
I'll get some more good pics of it on Thursday and get them up in here for you all to see this week!

Take care,

Duncan

Chris sends 'The Wheel Of Life' v16!!!

On Saturday Chris Webb Parsons made the coveted 2nd ascent of "The Wheel Of Life' v16 (8C+) in Hollow Mountain Cave in The Grampians, Victoria, Australia.

This is such a massive achievement and I couldn't be prouder of him... awesome work mate!!!

More info, pics, etc soon, but for now here is a pic of Chris near the end of the problem courtesy of his own blog...

Good work Chris!!!

Quiet times...

Sorry for not posting for a little while... we havent really been up to much in the last week or two...

We haed a bucks party that wrote off last weekend, then this weekend we have a wedding... so no bouldering for us...

But we have been hitting up Georges Boulder out on Corin Road after work when we can and Josh & I are reeeeaaaally close to doing 'Phone Sex' v8... we have both fallen slapping the last hold a few times now... so hopefully it will go soon! I'll be sure to let y'all know as soon as it happens :-)

Take care all, and I'll be back with good news soon hopefully!

Duncan

Fun in the sun...

Hey all, hope we all had good weekends!

And to all those having a long weekend this weekend due to labour day... nuts to you all... Its not fair that Im stuck here at work while your all out having fun :-(

Oh well... I made up for my lack of a long weekend by thouroughly enjoying the two days I did have.

Saturday Dave Pearson and I met up with Danny Ewald and his mate Coby up at the Balkans in Sydney.
Danny and I managed a few v5's amongst a stack of other fun, easier stuff (There is so much fun stuff there!) and Coby, having never climbed a day in his life bouldered a few v3's like a natural!

Dave had a blinder of a day sending 4 x v5's, 2 v6's ('A2 is not a Tank' & 'Who Killed The Kennedys') as well as 2 v8's ('Boogie Nights' and 'Paratroopin') both is few shots!
The kid is sooooo strong at the moment and its only going to get better... might have to break his legs or something to make it a bit fairer haha Nah, farkin good stuff Dave :-)

Sunday saw Josh Higgins and I head out to Georges Boulder on Corin Dam Road to check out 'Phone Sex', a classic Canberra v8.
We warmed up by doing the v4 traverse then jumped on 'Phone Sex' only to get shut down.
We both didnt feel too strong but the problem felt way too hard for us... but after a chat with Dave last night we might have been missing the right sequence... next time might prove a bit more fruitful with the right beta... We'll see soon enough :-)

Anyhow, take care, have fun and I'll drop another line in here soon!

Duncan

Shenanigans!

What a fun weekend :-)

Caught up with a heap of old mates, drank a little too much and had a ball!

Saturday was the bouldering comp at the Canberra Indoor Rockclimbing Centre... was a fair turn out and the setting was all good so it was a fun day.
Opens was won by Chris Webb & Samantha Berry.
There was also a speed climbing comp at the end and I was conned into going in it after having a few too many beers... speed climbing in sneakers afer 5 beers doesnt work kids! Hahaha

Sunday was a pretty chilled excursion to North Black. Starting at the Campground, Dave Pearson & Chris Webb quickly repeated 'Nob Jockey' (which they had done before)... shortly after that Ben Cossey did the classic 'Zacs Arete' aka 'The Nothing' in about 2 shots... Chris did it again too after a little while (hes done that one before too.).

After that we ducked over toThe Hill and Steph did he nemisis that she dubbed 'Index'. A large flake pulled off it last time she was on it, crushing her index finger and causing her alot of pain and blood loss, she has got her own back on it now though :-)

Dave and I played on the little steep wall at the Hill for a while before heading home to relax the evening away.

Keen as mustard for next weekend!

Take care all :-)

Sissy sends and comp this weekend

So Danny and I headed up to Sydney to boulder on saturday...

Headed to Crumbly and fell off the end of the v5 there a few times.. damn it! So close yet so far! Oh well, next time gadget!

We then went to Sissy Crag... felt pretty average but we both managed to do the easier version of Glad-he-ater at about v5... plus did some other things up to about v4... so it was a good day in the end :-)

Headed home and my car broke down just before home... looks like Im buying a new car now... ghey! :-(

This weekend is a bouldering comp at the Canberra Indoor Rockclimbing Centre... Danny, Josh & I are going to have a go... not that we have any misconceptions about actually winning, but it should be a fun day :-)

Will let you all know how it goes!

Take it easy kids :-)

This weekend

Looks like were going to head out to North Black for some tasty granite on saturday... might go have a play on 'Lonesome'... its way outta my league at the moment at v11, and unrepeated at that, but Im keen to invest some time into it... someones gotta repeat it haha. Going to get Danny and Josh on 'Zacs Arete' aka 'The Nothing'... Id be keen to repeat it if Im feeling strong enough :-)

Sunday we might do a day mission up to Sydney... Im keen to finish a v5 at Crumbly then head to Sissy crag... we'll see though... its a long drive up for the day... but we are keen, so heres hoping!

Bring on the weekend!

Chris sends 'Sleepy Rave' 8C!!!

That strong little punk, Chris Webb Parsons sent 'Sleepy Rave' an 8C link up in the Hollow Mtns Cave in the Grampians... Dai Koyamada put it up on his trip here a few years ago and its pretty much the whole cave link up sans 'Extreme Cool', 7C,at the start...

Heres what Chris had to say:

"Well i'm in the Gramps and the weather has been great.I got here and was feeling a little out of shape due to not climbing for a week cause of my injured finger but it has healed well and i can really yank on it again. Yesterday i did a problem called Sleepy Rave 8C which Dai did on his trip out here to the gramps a while back. The problem is a link of Sleepy Hollow into Cave Man into Dead Can't Dance and is almost the whole cave link up which is called The Wheel Of Life 8C+. I just have to link a V8/V9 into the start of it. So i have one more week left down here in the Gramps to try and climb The Wheel, but there are many other boulders i want to climb so we will see what happens.....stay tuned!!!"

Good work man, now go back and finish the whole 'Wheel of Life'!!!

He is there for a little bit longer so heres hoping he can nab the 2nd ascent of the whole cave link :-)

Good luck man!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful girl Steph... love you so much baby xoxoxo


Only the climbing front, we only went to Kambah Rocks on sunday of the weekend gone... top roping routes for the day for something different.
The routes there are nice and its a pretty spot on the river only 10 minutes from home so its a nice place for a sunny day :-)

No climbing this weekend, Steph and I are up on the Gold Coast from thursday to sunday for a work thing of Steph's... Im going to try hitting the surf (not that I can surf too well haha) and probably check out the climbing gym up there for a training session one day.

Hopefully we will get out on the blocs next weekend :-)

Have fun kids!

New V14 by Chris Webb Parsons

So I headed up to Sydney for the weekend... bumbled on a few problems at The Balkans on saturday but everything was a bit wet so options were limited... wasn't too bad though, had some fun :-)

Then Sunday Chris, Teegan, Helen, Stacey and myself headed to Sissy only to find it covered on water... so on to Crubly we went... only to find it in pretty good conditions, much to my suprise!

We all played around on a v5 at the right hand end...Helen Day & Teegan Webb Parsons managed to make it look easy, leaving me slapping the final jug on each attempt... snatching defeat from the jaws of victory haha.

Then Chris had a go at his new project at the left hand end of Crumbly, which links the start of Mushi Brain into Genesis (a 4 move v13)... he thought he would just have a go at Genesis to see how it felt, and he walked up it while still basically 'stone cold austin' as he put it... impressive to say the least.

A short rest and next shot from the start of the project he fell at the crux move... on more short rest and it was in the bag... there was a fight for the last few holds but it was well and truly in the bag.

The result?

'Catalyst' - v14 :: Sydneys hardest boulder problem? Go try it and see for yourself ;-)

Well done Chris... friggin top work!

Heres a pic of Chris on the start moves


Enjoy! :-)

Signature Cave

Well, after months of putting it off due to various reasons Josh and I managed to finally get out and do some problems in the big limestone caves at Wee Jasper.

The bouldering was (mainly) steep and burly roof climbing on slopers and pockets. We put up a few problems... well 4...

Decepticon - v1
Pockets Of Convenience - v3
Your Turn To Burn - v4
Captain Caveman - v5

Plus we tried one other problem that we couldn't finish that we dubbed the 'Limestone Lizzy' project, which will be tough, but doable.

There is still a fair bit to do there... maybe 15 + lines all up.
The place is a little dirty... but the rock is awesome, smooth, water worn limestone... and you can put up with the dirt for the novelty of bouldering underground in a cave by lamp light!

Heres a few pics :-)

The entrance to Signature Cave

Me on 'Decepticon'

Josh about to tackle 'Pockets Of Convenience' (out through the roof pockets in the top left of the pic)

The eerie dark...

Me on the super burly 'Captain Caveman'

'Captain Caveman' again

Pics... Finally!

So finally, as promised, here are some pics from our trip to the grampians... the weather was ok most of the time and we managed to get up some great problems, I managed to get up a stack of v5's and v6's and was well chuffed with that, so did Josh, Steph and Linda were doing highballs all over the place and Danny manage to see half of the Stapylton area in his 2 days there... we managed to even squeeze a day in bouldering at Arapiles...

All in all, a pretty fun and successful trip :-) Enjoy!

Taipan Wall, Lower Taipan & The Snake Pit (top wall to bottom wall)

Big gaston press on a v5 at Trackside

Steph, post highball at Andersons

Danny busting it out on the only day we got on a rope. Some 22 up at Spurt Wall on Taipan

Josh trying 'The Nevin Rule' at The Kindergarten

Steph at The Snake Pit

Me on a v6 at Lower Clicke

Steph and I at Loopeys

Steph bouldering at Arapiles, under the massive Tiger Wall

Me at Epsilon Wall


And last but not least...
What the..?
(an ostrich at the zoo at Halls Gap)

Pics soon...

Well we are back safe and sound from the Grampians, the trip was well fun :-)

I'll post some pics of the trip soon, but in the meanwhile here is the pic Richo finally sent me of me on 'The Joker' up at Cantaloupe Hill... enjoy :-)

Update soon!

Hi all,

Well, Steph and I are still here in the Grampians, the weather isnt playing all that fair but we are getting alot done regardless :-)

Will post some pics, etc when were home in a few days :-)

So...

So Richo still hasn't given me the pics of the Joker yet... slack ass that he is haha

Well, Josh Higgins and I (and our respective other halves of course) are off to the Grampians, leaving tomorrow... Steph and I are there for 2 weeks and Josh, Linda & bubba Hayley are down for one week.

Hopefully we can pull down as hard as we have been around home lately and come home with some nice sends!

We will probably go get on a rope on a couple of days, maybe I can convince Josh to do something multi pitch on Taipan ;-) But I doubt it haha

I'll try and add a few pics and an update while Im down there, but failing that I'll do it when we get home.

And Richo is off to Europe to chase girls for a few months as of Sunday so we will be missing him, but when he gets home he better be straight onto the Bloc's again with us or we will have to buy him a new blouse to wear :-P

Ez.

New 9a at Ceuse from Sharma

Chris Sharma sent his new 9a at Ceuse the other day - "Three Degrees of Seperation"

Looks friggin awesome!

Heaps of variety in cimbing style in it, big dynos, tufas, everything... check out the footage at www.bigupproductions.com

Weekend sends...

Over the weekend Josh Higgins and I both managed to send 'The Joker' v6 up at Cantaloupe Hill on Corin Rd... we both tried it last weekend, then managed to get up it in a few shots on saturday... well stoked!
Were both feeling well good for our trip to the Gampians next week :-)
Josh also repeated a v7 at Lot 33 in Nowra on sunday too, he had done it a few years ago but cruised it again this weekend, which can only means we can expect good things in the Grampians!

Up in Sydney, ex-Canberra strong man Chris Webb sent 'Genesis' v13 at Crumbly on saturday.
It never ceases to amaze me just how strong he has gotten since we started climbing together here in Canberra... such a strong lad! Good work bro!

I'll post some pics of us on 'The Joker' as soon as Richo emails them to me.

Ez!

After work shenanigans!

Yesterday we popped out to Chapman Ridge after work for a quick boulder before it got dark (as we have done a bit over the last month or so) and Josh Higgins sent the V6 up at the Horse Paddock Boulders. He walked up it first shot of the arvo (he's tried it a few times before) then we did one or two other easier things before heading home once it got dark to train at home.
I managed to get up the same V6 a week or so ago by torchlight one night after work... really nice problem if you have the time to duck up there... its chipped though, many years ago like half of the problems up there... but still a nice little area for an after work jaunt on the blocs :-)

And on rope...

So with V15/8C the new standard for hard boulders, whats the new standard on rope?
Well, it seems that despite a few claims of routes of higher grades the consensus seems to be that 36/9a+ is the benchmark for top end sports climbing... heres footage of the man Chris Sharma sending 'La Rambla' 9a+ at Siurana, Spain (This time courtesy of Work Less Climb More)... makes me want to get out on some routes :-)

The new standard...

So before I had my 3 or 4 year hiatus from the blocs V14/8B+ was the benchmark for hard bouldering... few people were that strong and the problems that hard were few and far between... nowadays it seems like every man and his dog can pull down that hard and a new generation of insanely strong kids (alongside some of the strong old guard) are upping the ante...

To show what is considered really 'hard' these days here is a vid of American strong kid Daniel Woods doing the first ascent of 'Jade' V15/8C in RMNP in Colorado, USA (Courtesy of Big Up Productions) enjoy :-)

A few pics...

Just to get started, heres a few pics :-)

Heres a few of the tunnel extension to Dogleg Cave at Wee Jasper that we did a few weeks ago... fun, but after 3 hours + in a cave you start to get a bit over it... well fun though :-)

And here are a few of the new bouldering area we have been developing out at the Wingecarrabee River... Should have a little guide to the new areas out there done soon...

Gotta start somewhere...

Well, I never thought I would bother with a blog, but I thought I might start one in order to share pics, news and whatever else about bouldering, climbing and whatever else I see fit that myself and people I know get up to.

I thought that I may as well do this after seeing the lack of news, etc about whats going on in Oz, especially compared to the amount of up to date stuff on the net from the USA and Europe...

For those of you that dont know me, my name is Duncan Brown and I live here in cold old Canberra, the capital of Australia.

I climbed and bouldered for many years and lived in the Blue Mtns for a few of those years, climbing and generally bumming around... then in 2003 or there abouts I developed a keen interest in trance and techno... the next few years I wrote music, ran a small record label (www.space-recordings.com), released a mix album and was lucky enough to play gigs all around Australia.

Now that Im a bit too old (27 is old isnt it?) for the whole clubbing scene Ive been getting stuck back into bouldering again and doing my best to catch up on lost time on the blocs.

I'll post whatever news that comes to hand, pics, guides to any new problems / areas I can, and basically anything thats of interest.

Get into it!