Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Arapiles and Relatives










Sat 20 dec

After having spent a few days with my cousin Shona,
Drive 340 km West to Arapilies, just near the Grampians. And Horsham town.

Amazing bumpy, canyony cliffs, like something out of the wild west. Very good for climbers – lots of pinnacles, buttresses, good rock, with cracks to place cams and other devices in case of a fall. This place is actually world-renowned for climbing. it rises out of a billard-table flat wheat plain.

Meet Friday morn with a motorcyclist at the campground. He’s a math teacher from Wollongong, 40s. we do 2 climbs of 2 pitches each – photo of 2 groups of climbers from the top of our 1st climb. It’s all “Trad” – ie you need to place your own protection, which I am still getting used to. There’s a chilly wind, the morning is icy. The air warms as the day goes on, but it temps remain reasonable. Gets dark after 8pm which is convenient.

Camp ground is peaceful, 2$ per night… and mostly comprised of climbers, including from overseas.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Until you told us, Julian, I never knew that a world-renowned climbing-venue was right here in our own state of Victoria!
An amazing rock formation. I'm glad I don't have to climb it... :)