Busy times. I’m back from a fast but good trip to the Grampians and Arapiles. Gee, it was good to get back to visit some of God’s own stone, it has been way too long between visits down there even if I didn’t get time for much climbing. I took some photos of James Kassay oh so close to sending Mana (V13) and Ethan Pringle very nearly making a one day ascent of Punks in the Gym (32) and also falling off the last hard move of Ben Cossey’s Taipan Wall masterpiece The Groove Train (33/34). Ethan sent The Groove Train a few days later for the second ascent. About the route, he said to me that he thought it was difficulty wise, at the very least, at the hard end of the grade (Ben graded it 33). But what’s more, he said The Groove Train was the best really hard route he’d ever been on. Given Ethans track record that’s a double thumbs up for Oz climbing right there.
Some other news from the Grampians already reported around the place is Ethan’s very quick job of nailing the third ascent of the ultra-long boulder problem The Wheel of Life (V16). Ethan proposed a route grade of 9a for the problem, saying to me that he found it easier to think of it that way having found several good rests. Here are some of my shots of Ethan on the Wheel, it’s a very cool problem which starts way back at the left side of the window of light at the back of the cave. These are all the photos I’ve had time to edit so far as this week I’m working on filming a TV commercial at Point Perpendicular; an interesting job with a crew of thirty(!). More soon.
