ARHI
For our dose of vitamin D on day three we headed to Arhi. The left-side was in the sun at 9:30am when we arrived but temps were low, and the group punched out some long slabs up to 40m (!!) in length which required lowering off in two stages.
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I like this one.
Komak 6a+ gets a musical note (i.e. the highest quality rating) in the
guide and hence was on Susy's ticklist so we made a beeline to check it
out. |
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| Lowering off Komak |
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| Owen runs up Komak. That blue is unphotoshopped. Cracker of a day :) |
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| That right there is a genuine 100% LEGIT Survivor buff, from the Australian season. |
SECRET GARDEN
I am from Australia. It was instilled into me at an early age to stay out of the sun. Sun'll kill ya. So after a few hours blitzing up slabs at Arhi we (I) needed to escape and I knew just the place. This crag is relatively new, unfinished (projects remaining), and not in the guidebook yet. It is also in the shade, by the sea, and offers some routes which will be classics in the making. I'm not allowed to tell you where it is, but if you ask around it's not hard to ferret out the required beta.
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| Susy flashing an absolutely awesome 6c. |
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| Bo on the same route. |
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| Owen employing some freaky cool leg wrap skills. |
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| Now THAT is a rest! |
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| Owen shakes off the pump on a pockety 7a+ |
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| Camera 2! |
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| The team wraps up the day at SG. |
GRANDE GROTTA
[Jeff Probst's voice]
Previously, on Upskill 2010, Susy G was co-opted by a young Matt Schimke into putting the draws up on DNA 7a for his flash attempt. Since then she's been dreaming of a clean tick. Today was to be that day.
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| The Grande Grotta! Bo and Andy get acquainted. |
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| Owen on Ivi 7a+: "It was steep, and it kinda hurt!" |
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| Bo flashes Happy Girlfriend 5c+ |
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| Andy sent DNA 7a second shot. You can see the steepness. |
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| This was Susy's second shot on DNA. |
Somewhere around this time in the day the resident crag goat (everyone has their own name for her but ours is Citronella) decided to go on a tour of the unattended bags at the cliff. This resulted in most of Bo's lunch being eaten. Susy and Andy then tried wrestling the goat, which resulted in bruised forearms from horn flickage. She's got horns and she ain't afraid to use 'em.
Don't feed the goats people.
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While I was shooting Andy on DNA, this strong french guy very casually waltzed up the 40m roof Fun De Chichunne
8a.
Here he is entering the route in his 8a scorecard on his phone at
one of the rests. |
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| Someone glued a horse on and sprayed it with concrete. Now Andy wrestles it. This is climbing. The route is DNA 7a, and the end is in sight. |
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This was full on. She was sketching, skipped that clip, and then went inverted. Commitment!
Result: DNA 7a in the bag for the G-Star. TICKAGE! |
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Keep your body - and face - close Sam! The route is Panakia 6b+, Afternoon sector.
Alternate caption: "Mmm, delicious lichen!" |
Highlights from days three and four:
- Andy's redpoint of an SG 7a+
- DNA 7a tickage from Susy and Andy
- Owen ticking off two SG 7a's onsight and redpointing Bitman 7a+
- Soft catch (i.e. dynamic belay) training with Bo, with me taking multiple lobs until we got it nailed. And then a role reversal with Bo taking the falls. We spent a lot of day four on mental training, which provided a foundation for...
- Bo's five lead climbs on day four, including two 6a's - a personal best. She's making serious headway :) YES!
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