Blog from May, 2011

Howdy, 

Not sure if anyone is planning a trip to Victoria, Australia in the near future, but if you are you might be interested in learning that there is a fantastic new guidebook for the best climbing there! See details below. 

Sublime Climbs is a brilliant guidebook to the very best rock-climbing venues in Victoria. This 380 page full-colour extravaganza covering Mt Arapiles, Mt Buffalo and the Grampians includes:

• over 700 rock-climbs, meticulously described
• 123 stunning action climbing photos plus evocative panoramic photos
• 32 ‘locator’ photos (including a dazzling array of aerial photos)
• 158 photo-topos, incorporating a colour-coded grade range system
• 36 maps
• GPS info for camp sites, car parks and many cliff locations

http://rockmaster.com.au/

Enjoy! 

Monkey Cage take two
Hi all, 

There is some interest in the monkey cage still happening, and with gym down hopefully there is more interest out there....

So far we have seen a couple of possible venues, trouble is knowing keenness levels

1 - such that we can pay the rent
2 - so that we can get all the right approvals etc. to get this happening properly

So a meeting is proposed for Tuesday 24th May 5.30pm at the New Sydney hotel, Bathurst St. If you are interested in a general sense come along, if you are keen to do some work to make this happen, then please come along.
If you are keen to use the facilely but are unable to help out come along anyway or register your interest at hobartbouldering@gmail.com
Pass this message along to anyone that’s keen. Summer is still a long way off so a community not for profit training facility for those long winter nights would be awesome.

UPDATED: ALL SOLD

I bought a pile of new climbing gear and shortly after our daughter was born and that ended my climbing career! So here's some mint climbing gear for sale.

Black Diamond Camalot C4 -- Never ever used!
#3 50-87mm Unused $80
#4 66-114mm Unused $100

Or $170 for both.

The gear is located in Hobart. I will post at buyers expense. 
Send me an email or call after hours on (03) 62391727

Black Diamond size 4-13 stopper set plus extra 6 and 10 and nut tool $200ono new condition

Gri Gri $100 new condition

Please Call 0428 565 198

Apparently Lorano has found a new venue for "the climbing edge". There is a post on his site (http://www.theclimbingedge.com.au) saying that it is going up in Moonah Sport Center (17 Gormanston Road, Moonah). Being the sleuth that i am and not trusting everything I read on the internet I found an email address of a secretary of the Moonah Sport Center. I asked her to confirm this. Much to my surprise she confirmed and also said that there are plans for it being built in July of this year. I was, as i say, surprised about this. Has anyone else herd of these plans or any other relevant information?

Apparently Lorano has found a new venue for "the climbing edge". There is a post on his site (http://www.theclimbingedge.com.au) saying that it is going up in the Moonah Sport Center (17 Gormanston Road, Moonah). Being the sleuth that i am and not trusting everything I read on the internet I found an email address of a secretary of the Moonah Sport Center. I asked her to confirm this. Much to my surprise she confirmed and also said that there are plans for it being built in July of this year. I was, as i say, surprised about this. Has anyone else herd of these plans or any other relevant information?

See the following link to the Ben Lomond Guide update, for the 9 new routes done last summer. Some great photos of Ingvar Lidman on the Wizard (28). http://osp.com.au/?p=1897

lost gear in chasm crack, Northern buttress, forced to leave in situ after epic (rope jam) please give me a ring 0427 079 408 thx Chris

I'm going to be in Tasmania (from the United States) for a few days in May and am looking for someone to go climbing with on May 23rd (Monday). I will be in Hobart and I will have a rental car. I mostly do sport climbing although I do some bouldering and a bit of trad.  I climb up to about grade 22/23, but really am just looking to get out and have some fun.  I've been climbing for about 7 years so I'm safe and experienced.
 
Email me if you are interested.alan_grau@yahoo.com
Thanks!
Alan

For those not on the mailing list:

So the CCT is now incorporated, ready to take on the world! Ok so not the whole world but we’re back on our feet again!

So to celebrate, how about we go have a drink by a nice warm fire! John Middendorf has kindly agreed to show us some of his slides. If you’ve never heard of him just google ‘big wall climbers’ and you’ll soon learn what a priveledge it will be to see his pictures.

I’ve booked the same upstairs space at the New Sydney Hotel for Friday the 27th of May. Come along at 7pm, some of us will be ordering a meal and that will give us a chance to have a chat before the slideshow kicks off at 8pm.

If you could RSVP to Simon Young at climbing.simon(at)hotmail(dot)com it would be appreciated but not at all essential.

Please spread the word as the more the merrier!

Take care and look forward to catching up with you all soon!

You guys may have noticed a 18 year old kid from Belgium ripping up Tassie lately? That would be Merlin Didier. Great kid. I met him at Arapiles in December. One day I was lounging around the Pines nursing a hangover when Gandalf comes running up (remember the guy who wanted to climb the totem pole a month ago? Painted Green? Ed the Scottish giant? We called him Gandalf because when he sat in camp on those little chairs with us he looked like Gandalf sitting with the hobbits!) and stutters out, "Do you know CPR?"
This is never a good question to be asked outside of a job interview. That said, it is NEVER a good question to be asked.

Apparently Gandalf was belaying Merlin on an old crappy climb on the front of the Pharaohs to get up to Aftermath Roof. Somewhere up the middle of this chosspile Merlin dislodges a boulder the size of the Balrog which crashes down the cliff, with Merlin close behind! Gandalf dives out of the way, narrowly dodging the Balrog boulder. This time, he let the Balrog pass. Gandalf was unscathed, but what about our other conjurer of cheap tricks? Merlin took a bouncy little 15 metre tumble and was lying in a pool of blood when I got to him. Fortunately Merlin did not need CPR. With the help of Gandalf and the rest of the little hobbits from the Tas Uni Climbing Club, we called in The Great Eagles to fly Merlin's soul from the lady of the lake and sent him riding through the air into the healing arms of the House of Elrond (000, helicopter ride to the Alfred, if ya dont speak Tolkein).

Anywho, turns out Merlin just had a swollen brain. My hangover that morning was actually quite a bit more serious. So after a $20000 helicopter ride and business class tickets back to Camalot/Brussels, Merlin came back to Oz to finish his little trip. Long story short, Gandalf moved out of my little Hobart Hole and Merlin moved in. Lucky for Merlin, as you all know, April's weather was amazing. So he filmed all the climbing he did and made a movie about it and then entered the movie in a film festival via my wireless internet account (which cost me more than the prize money). And he won! The link is below. Its pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4yTRdnZQEA