Reservoir Dogs

80 meters off the ground pulling through a difficult overhanging roof and all I can hope is that the howling wind won't blow me off the cliff face.  Sounds like fun climbing doesn't it :).

Leighton and I traveled to the Blue Mts. again today to Medlow Bath, with its single car dealership and one store that is only open until 2:00 pm, to work out some multi-pitch climbing.  Multi-pitch climbing is a form of climbing where one person will lead a rout up to a specific location and than that "leader" will bring their partner up to their location on the wall.  The team than continues up the cliff face in this fashion until both people reach the top.  The rout we decided on from the guide book was "Mr Orange" a four star 21 consisting of two pitches.  The only draw back was that it first required us to repel down onto a half way ledge that was roughly 40 meters from the valley floor, so if we were unable to complete the rout we very well could be stuck in the Blue Mountains waiting for rescue.
We made it to the repel point with little trouble, only needing to stop and consult the guide book once, and set up the rope through the anchor bolts in order to repel.  We put on all our gear and stashed the extra back pack in the bushes and than proceeded to repel thirty meters into the canyon to the halfway ledge.  That's when the trouble began (I feel like I wright those few words on almost every adventure I take here in Australia...).

After Leighton and I had both reached the halfway ledge we attempted to pull the rope through the anchors at the top in order to use it in our climb, but it wouldn't budge.  What we had failed to take into account upon setting up the repel station was that the position of the two bolts was such that it caused a pinching of the climbing rope which made it very difficult to pull.  Nearly impossible when there is 30 meters worth of rope weight on the opposite side of the bolts.  The only solution we had was for one of us to fixed rope ascend up to the anchors and set up a new method that would allow for the rope to be pulled.

Prusik Knot

Fixed rope ascension is where you use two or more prusik knots to hoist yourself up your climbing rope.  you have one that is connected to your harness and one that is slightly lower that you use as a step.  you than stand on the step and slide the prusik knot attached to your harness up as high as it will go.  Sit in your harness and slide the step up as high as your leg can comfortably bend.  You repat this process over and over until you make it to the top of the rope and can get back on firm ground.  It is quite a tiring adventure which can get you scratched up from the rock if you aren't careful.

After about 20 min of standing and sitting I eventually made it to the top of our rope and was able to fix up an alternate anchor system which would slide a little better.  I than repelled back down to Leighton on the ledge and together we pulled the rope in order to begin our multi-pitch climb.  Leighton led the first pitch which started out on a very exposed corner and made its way up for about 20 meters to a small shelf in the rock.

He led very well up to the first belay station with very smooth movements and only one break in the climb.  It then became my turn to follow him up the rout and clear off our gear.  Just as I was beginning my climb the wind picked up.  At first it was nothing bad, just a slight breeze that would blow every few seconds as I worked my way up the beautiful jugged rout.  As I got higher though it began to pick up in speed and frequency until, as I neared Leighton's belay position, it became a constant howling wind that made me nervous about my moves even when I was hanging on large holds.  I was able to make it to Leighton's belay ledge without to much trouble since I was on top rope and that lent me quite a bit of confidence.

We sat together on the ledge taking a short breather and watching as a large mass of storm looking clouds blew in with the howling wind.  Eventually we decided that the wind would not die down any time soon and that we needed to get to the top of the climb before any bad weather hit us, so I began leading the second pitch with the force of the wind always blowing me slightly off balance.  To add to my nervousness I was required to traverse (move sideways on the wall) out to the left before finding a suitable location to climb up, this put me way out to Leighton's left with nothing to stop me from pendulum down below him if I was to fall.  Knowing this I carefully worked my way back right after a few feet of vertical climbing and was able to clip a quickdraw that gave me a little more confidence.   That confidence didn't last long however, for I made it maybe 2 more bolts before coming to a roof system arching up over my head.  The rout itself worked over the right edge of the roof and than up a slab face to the finish which looked quite fun and strait forward.  Climbing through the roof while clipping draws and dealing with a wind so strong that it pulled the slack rope out to the right below me, on the other hand, didn't make the next few moves look fun at all.

We were stuck in the middle of a canyon with no feasible way out though, so climbing over that roof was the only way.  I quickly made a few moves in one of the short calm spells between wind gusts and was able to find a nice finger size lie back crack that I could rest on.  I than had to bring my left leg up high and get a solid leg hook on a ledge before I was stable enough to clip the bolt above the roof.  After clipping I took a short break hanging from the rope with my legs dangling in space.  This was quite nerve racking since I would sway back and forth under the roof due to the wind not to mention the void below my feet.  After chalking up and shaking out I re-positioned my feet and made a high grab for a small sing pad (meaning you can get just the tips of your fingers on it) ledge which allowed me to move up over the lip of the roof.  I was now on very solid footing standing above the roof, but my next clip was still a few feet above me and a fall now would cause quite the heart attack let me tell you, so I carefully felt out the rock for the most promising ledges and slowly pulled myself up the 70 degree slab face until I could clip the last bolt.  With that done the worst was over and I was able to make it to the final anchors without much stress.  In all "Mr. Orange" was definitely worth the work, it had amazing views the whole climb and a lot of really fun moves (minus the wind factor).  We also got away without any serious injures although Leighton's soft hands got chewed up pretty bad by the coarse sand stone.  I would highly recommend this rout to anyone coming to the blue mountains to climb.

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