'Tis the Season

Winter is almost upon us here in Tassie. That means one thing: good conditions at the Star Factory. The past two weekends since the Grampians have been spent up on the immaculate granite of the Factory, which has been pretty rad.

About to pull on to Back Yard Surgery (29):

Before the Gramps trip I fell off the second last move of Back Yard Surgery (29). So I was pretty keen to get back to it and get it done! It is a V6ish boulder to power-endurance redpoint crux at about 26/7. Motoring up with a psyched crew, I warmed up and knew it was game on. Putting the draws on I got the tricky groove + mantle at the top dialed, and came down. My first redpoint shot I got super flash-pumped and bungled it just before the big rest.

After that I belayed Mark on his successful redpoint on Astro Boy (30) and knew it was time to get on the send-train. Falling off the boulder once more I took a moment on the ledge to gather my thoughts and then sent. Foot high, hand jam, clip, punch, lock, crimps, deep lock, underclings, cross then throw, rest then last groove. Clipping the last bolt I beach-whaled the top and knew it was done. It is one of my favourite routes because the climbing is on immaculate rock, and is just sick!

A few shots on the route, many thanks to Alex for the photos:

Grant came really close that day, and the weekend just gone we all headed up again. He and Alex traded shots, with Grant managing to send it late in the day. A triple shot expresso was then had by Alex and he came ever so close to sending! I spent the day on Simply the Best (28) which I am going to try again tomorrow with Grant, another amazing route on rad rock.

Alex on the start of Back Yard:

Grant crushing it:

Many more weekends will be spent up there in the coming months and the plan is for some of the harder stuff. A lot of hours have been spent training recently in preparation for the season that has now started, hopefully I can transfer this to the rock. An absolutely stunning sunset on the walk out: