Final Weekend in the Grampians

Another update from Horsham Public Library.  I just ate possibly the best roast chicken sandwich and sausage rolls I have ever had, though the fact I've been living off dehydrated rice and pasta meals probably helps haha.

The image above is me climbing the highball V4 called Volume 1000 I mentioned in my previous post.  The highest wall you can see in the background is Taipan Wall, which has been described as the "mythical life blood of Australian climbing" by Julian Saunders.  Readers of Rock and Ice magazine in the US will recognize Dr. Saunders from the "Ask Dr. J" columns.  I've learnt on this trip he was actually an Australian professional climber who helped develop the Grampians in it's early days as a climbing destination.

So today I'm just resting and recovering for a final weekend of climbing here.  I climbed Rave Heart 3 days ago, which is a V8 in the famous Hollow Mountain Cave.  The cave is a ridiculously improbable feature near the top of a mountain.  It stretches for around 60 to 70 feet and is probably more than 30 feet wide at its widest, but it never rises more than 6 feet off the ground.  The crazy part is there are climbable features throughout the cave from one end to the other, and every individual portion is very difficult.  So much so that climbing the whole cave was for a long time the hardest boulder problem in the world, called The Wheel of Life at a grade of V16.  If there was even one 4 or 6 foot section that was blank The Wheel of Life would be unclimbable.  Rave Heart is one of the easiest climbs in the cave, but I was still psyched because it is my hardest climb of the trip so far, and it's just super fun movements.  I also slipped off the finishing hold on Cave Man which is a V9 in the cave and the middle section of The Wheel of Life.

I head back to Melbourne on either Monday or Tuesday depending on whether I decide to get a ride back with some climbers driving on Monday or stay an extra day but be stuck with public transport on Tuesday.  I'm leaning towards the car journey (it's shorter) but if I have unfinished climbs to do I might have to stay to climb them.  On Wednesday I fly to Perth for just under a week there before flying to Vietnam and Climbing in Ha Long Bay :).

For those who are interested there are more pictures from the Grampians on my facebook page.