Evil Wears No Pants - 3rd ascent

On the weekend, top Aussie climbers Vince and Helen Day made a flying visit to the cave at Coolum.

After a quick warm up, Vince smoothly onsighted the long and pumpy Wholly Calamity 26/7, the first onsight of this route. Helen also dispatched Wholly Calamity without much fuss. Vince then turned his focus onto Evil Wears No Pants 30 (8a+). With support from the locals, Vince made quick work of sussing all the moves, before moving into redpoint mode. On the second day, it all came together and Vince completed the third ascent of the route, which he described as "The best route outside NSW I've been on [in Oz]". He confirmed the grade at "Hard 30".

It's always fantastic to have climbers from out of state travelling up to Queensland to climb our hard routes. It helps us to bed down grades, and get a bit of outside perspective, not to mention motivation!

Vince locking horns with Evil © L Cujes 2010

Young guns on the takedown!

There's been some impressive and motivating climbing happening lately by two of Queensland's young gun climbers. With 30+ degree days and high humidity, it's supposed to be the off season, but someone forgot to tell these guys.




Matt Schimke (pictured left) is 15 years old and lives within a bike ride of Mt Coolum. Unlike most young climbers, Matt didn't start climbing in the gym. He's been climbing for about two years exclusively on rock and has been steadily working his way through the cave's lines. This last month alone he has done the third ascent of Call Of Duty 28/7c+, a remarkable second shot ascent of Spoonman 28/7c+ and the first ascent of Space Oddity 29/8a which eliminates the batman start from Adam Donoghue's Ground Control. How many people climb 8a within two years of starting climbing? Matt will be broadening his climbing horizons on the Upskill Climbing Camp in Kalymnos Greece this April. Limestone look out!

Tom O'Halloran (pictured right) has just finished school and is finding more time to hit the crags. On a recent trip to the Blue Mountains he flashed Lactictoc 26/7b+ and onsighted(!) the full version of The Way Of All Flesh 28/7c+. This is the equal hardest onsight by a Queensland climber ever. He's also done a few sessions at Mt Coolum and has quickly despatched Full Metal Traverse, Gonna Fly Now and Grazed Anatomy, all 27/7c, and all second try. Both Weapon of Choice 27/8 (7c/+) and Spoonman went down in a matter of a couple of tries, A Kneebar Too Far 29/8a in five shots, and now he's set his sights on harder things.

And of course it's not just these two who are climbing well. It's exciting to see this wave of younger climbers coming through who will climb all the current testpieces, and then push standards even higher.

How Christmas killed the climber

Have you ever noticed that when you take a break from climbing (or exercise in general), it becomes harder and harder to get motivated to start again?

I just had three weeks off over Christmas. Between being out of the state, away from home, other family obligations, then being sick for a week, the time flew by. With me getting grumpier by the day (climbing/exercise is definitely linked to happiness). I told myself I didn't mind because the weather was crap (hot and/or raining). But now here I am and it's time to get moving again. And it's a struggle!

It's tempting to think "I'll just wait till all this dies down and I have some time to train again". When really, the best thing to do is go down to the gym and snatch a quick session. Something is always better than nothing. During this time, you need to mentally shift into "maintenance mode" rather than "performance mode" and realise that it doesn't take much training for the body to maintain its current level, but it does take a lot of work to increase that level.

Even if conditions are crap, you're busy, or have a face full of ham, it's better to do the odd short, mediocre session now, than let a month slip by without doing anything. Honest, you'll thank me later. Now scram - go train!