Australia Part II
The Blue Mountains
We’d
pre-arranged for
a room in a town
called
Blackheath near
where the
climbing
festival would
be held (in a
town slightly
further east
called Katoomba).
Everyone we met
was really nice
and we looked
forward to our
time here.
During the week
of the festival,
the weather was
not good and the
rain kept most
people from
venturing
outdoors to
climb. This
meant many
people made
their way into
the festival to
partake in the
festivities
there.
Mike signed up for the Men’s difficulty climbing competition but I choose not to after finding out too late that I could have signed up as well (I thought it was invite only and didn't know I could have asked to have been invited. doh!). This small glitch worked out well for me, in the end. I signed up for the dyno and speed contests, which I otherwise would not have signed up for had I actually signed up for difficulty. More on that later.
One of the route setters for the difficulty routes was Alan Pryce. He and his girlfriend were two people Mike met in Austria at the Jr. World Championships earlier that year. They volunteered to pick us up from the airport and housed us for 2 weeks (despite our initial impression that we would only need a few days.). They were awesome and took us to our first trip to The Blueys and to a local bouldering area called The Balkans. They even introduced us to their local indoor gym, The Pitch. We were set to kick off our Australian trip with their help. Now that we were back in New South Wales, we were looking forward to seeing them. We knew the difficulty problems for the guys were going to be hard because Alan is sick strong! We were not disappointed.
The woman’s
problem looked
really fun and
technical. I was
squirming and a
bit sad that I
wasn’t competing
(though, I was a
bit scared I’d
be the weakest
of the bunch!).
One of the
girl’s staying
with us in
Blackheath was a
girl from
Austria, Martina
Harnisch, who
had just left
the junior
circuit and was
traveling in
Australia to
climb for some
months. She won
the women’s
difficulty by a
long shot. Helen
Day from
Australia, took
2nd.
For the men, the first problem proved little to no separation between competitors. Garth Miller, Australia’s most notable climber, managed a high point no other could get. Mike was lucky and managed to make 1 solid move more than the majority of others. This qualified him for finals, but Alan was now aware of his ‘error’ in setting and was sure to make the finals problem more successful. It was not fun to watch a number of Australian’s finest climbers fumbling and falling so early in qualifiers.
Finals proved
for eventful
with Garth
making the
closest ascent
of the route.
Mike, who was
not in the least
pumped, made the
mid-way point
before
unexpectedly
popping off.
L I had
seen others have
the same result
so I guessed he
was not going to
place. Garth
won, but I don’t
remember how
everyone else
placed. Once
again, and
possibly because
of how the first
problem went,
many people
struggled too
hard in sections
that should have
been easier for
them. Despite
this, the
problem did
provide
separation,
unlike the
qualifiers.
After the difficulty rounds, the dyno and speed competitions were held. There were a lot of competitors signed up. For the dyno competition, I made it to the 2nd hold and I think I finished 4th, but it was HARD! They started at 1.7m, then moved it to 1.85m (a t-nut was broken at 1.8m). Then they moved it to 1.9m. For the women, some women couldn’t even do the first dyno. The handful that progressed fell away quickly at the 2nd distance. The last girl to continue was a very tall girl, who didn’t really have to dyno to reach the holds. I think she managed 2.0m before she started having trouble. Later I watched the video for how people were breaking the dyno records and decided I needed to learn how to ‘spring’ like that!
For the speed competition, Mike briefed me on his top tips for speed climbing: practice moving your hands quickly at the start, then place both hands and one foot on the start holds. Finally, climb fast! Well, it was hard! I’ve never tried to climb fast before and I can tell you with certainty that I took last in this event. J Mike came over and commented, "Were you trying to go fast?" oh well, I had fun and I learned some things about how I climb.
After the festival, we spent several weeks in-between good and bad weather climbing at many different cliffs. We scored a holiday house to ourselves for a week and even house sat one week while I started physical therapy, again. Yes, despite the good run, my body was fitting and I needed to sort it out or go home (I was feeling pretty bad). I got lucky and found a person in Blackheath who got me feeling well enough to move on to the Grampians, which we did not long after.
