I lined up my cuzzi bro Brett to climb with me on the Sunday. He'd just spent the last six weeks on the couch (literally - for two weeks over Christmas he didn't even move to his bed to sleep), so it was time for a bit of a weekend workout. As it turned out, it was a perfect day for it too. Calm, clear skies, and not too hot.
Gibraltar Peak
We drove into Gibraltar from the Corin Road side, but where the map notes pine forest, there was nothing but regenerating bush. The 2003 fires had obviously creamed the place, and it has not been replanted since. The road wasn't too rough, but the recent heavy rain had carved some good sized ruts into the road surface. We managed to get the Hyundai Getz go anywhere vehicle through most of it, until we got to one that was just not crossable, so we had to leave the car and walk in for the last few kilometres. A large four wheel drive would be highly recommended if you don't like walking uphill in the full sun with a heavy pack on your back for a few kilometres.
The final walk up to Gibraltar Peak is a good warm up. The peak is a prominent pile of very large boulders, so it was almost impossible for noobies like us to get lost. The fire trail starts to rise steeply up to the top of the hill, then a solid set of granite stairs lead into the guts of the large granite boulders.
Even if we hadn't gone climbing, the walk would have been worth it. The view from Gibraltar across the Brindabella Ranges and the ACT is brilliant. The mega pile of granite boulders that make up Gibraltar Peak are very impressive. A veritable feast for any lover of granite climbing. We had a bit of a poke around, and over the first rise, there it was. The Nailbiter Spike. We bashed around in the bush a bit, trying to find the paths through the boulders. As with the base of Booroomba, the regrowth after the bush fires is really thick, making many of the well worn paths obscure to start with. We made it to the base of Nail Biter without any problems, and made a good inspection of the climb.
Brett in front of Nail Biter
The start of Nail Biter is quite accessible. An easy slab slopes up to the start of the crack. On first view the crack itself looked very climbable, just wide enough for hand jamming, but on further inspection I noted that the face on the left hand side of the crack stuck out about six to eight centimetres more than the face on the right hand side. I could see from the start that the approach would be to layback up the crack, with hands grabbing the right hand side and feet firmly planted against the left hand side. Even though the climb looked relatively easy, it had the extra benefit of exposure, being on a big granite spike stuck out on a hill with slabs dropping away from the base.
I hummed and hawed a bit, trying to get my brain into climbing mode, when Brett suggested that he lead the climb. I was impressed with his eagerness, but I wasn't impressed that he had never led on trad before, and that he had spent the last six weeks on the couch. He was adamant though, so I offered to set up the first bits of pro just to make sure that the start was safe. He started strongly, and made it up to about a third of the way up the climb, where the crack has a prominent wedgy 'V' in it that you can wedge your foot into for an easy resting point. The crack then thins a bit, and the face bulges out, forming the crux of the climb. Brett placed another couple of pieces of protection, stuffed around for a bit, then the lounge lizard training started to take effect. Brett got pumped really quickly and started to loose strength. He hung off a cam for a bit, then had another go, but to no avail. I lowered him down, then suggested we take a break and that I would lead the climb from there on.
Brett on lead
After a break, we changed gear around and Brett got on belay. Laying back up the crack worked beautifully, and I made it to the 'V' section quickly. I checked Brett's pro placements, then reached up as high as I could and placed a nut and clipped the rope in. At first I attempted to climb the crux face-on to the crack, but I wasn't getting very far. I then thought "what the hell am I doing?" - the crack is made for laying back. I changed my stance to laying back, and I blasted up and through the crux. I was going so strongly that I didn't stop and place any pro, and by then the face was starting to round out, so I was fairly safe. The only problem though was being in the lay back stance as the face started to flatten out. I was grovelling a bit as gravity took over and started to smear the right hand side of my body against the rock. A few more moves and I was at the top. I clipped into the belay bolts on the top and was elated.
On top of the Nailbiter Spike
After some water and a look around, I set the belay to bring Brett up. He moved fairly strongly, had a bit of a hang before the crux again, got laying back under control for a bit, then as he came over the bulge where the face backs off, he changed to a front on hand jamming technique and moved up strongly. "That's the trick!" I thought. Instead of grovelling over the top in lay back mode, change to a front-on hand jam. Brett made it to the top and we shook hands and marvelled at the view for a bit. I then lowered Brett back down so that he could clean a couple of the bits of pro that had been left in place. One thing that we had to be careful of while doing this was getting the rope caught in the crack. We had to unweight the rope a couple of times and flick it out of the crack. I cleaned up and had an easy abseil back down.
Brett on top
The day was starting to move on by then, as we had made a late start. We thought about the long walk back to the car and the cold, homebrewed fermented yeast health drink and ready to barbeque pork spare ribs that awaited us back at the house, and decided to call it a day. We had achieved our objective - climb Nail Biter. It may not have been in the finest style, but we had learnt a lot and would climb it with style another time.
Nail Biter - classic crack
No comments:
Post a Comment