Captains of Crush: H-Taping: The way of the FUTURE!

You heard it folks! The H-Tape method is the dogs balls of finger taping now. After tearing into the side of my fingers pulling on steep pocket on Saturday, the H-Taping method was put to full use. "What is this mythical method of which you speak of Al?" I hear you ask. Well younglings, I too would have asked the same thing nor but 24 hours ago, had it not been for the O Wise ones advice shared at the door of a log cabin. "You're still making no sense Al! As usual!" you continue. Well ok, time to fess up. Pulling into the Mt Zero log cabins last night with "Mr Gifted" himself Chris Trapnell, I spot the ever excitable Steve Pollard with family. Amongst discussion of the days activites, we got onto the topic of finger injuries. He told me about this secret method of taping the finger after an injury, allowing one to continue climbing, that he had learnt at the worlds snarliest finger raping crag, the Frankenjura. Anyway, this method, I decided would come in handy for the purposes of flapper prevention for the next day on the mean pockets at Between the Sheeps. This mind blowing new beta allowed for super skin protection, while still allowing full range of motion. And it worked! At least for the fingers I taped up......

Left: Can't make an omlette without breaking a few eggs..... Carnage from "Bombshell V7"

So the tape helped in keeping my skin together on the 3 finger pockets. Not so helpfull on the pinky-jug-hand-torque-flapperoo moves though.... Fortunatly this little mishap occured at the end of the session, leaving just the drive home to cope with.

I will begin from the start, just in case some of you are a bit lost with my narrative. Friday night began the drive with my old pal Trappers. It had been too long between climbs for us, so I was pretty excited to be climbing with him once more. This dude always give it everything he has. He doesn't know when to quit. Just keeps pushing and pushing, as the skin rips and the blood flows, till complete physical exhaustion. All capped off with a smile of enjoyment. He just loves climbing. Its great motivation climbing with Chris, and this weekend was no exception. Even as we pulled into the log cabins at Mt Zero, raining and cold, we were psyched for a good weekend of bouldering.

A lazy start of coffee, eggs on toast and a climbing movie lead to a break in the weather and our chance at a climb. We decided that Between the Sheeps would be a neat place given its a cave, and rain is afraid of caves.

Right: Chris all rugged up, starting the expedition out to Between The Sheeps.

We were not let down by a caves fear of getting wet either. Whilst everything on the hike up was totally saturated, everything in the cave was climbable, with just one small section of the wall running with water, but crazily missing all the holds!

After both warming up, we got started on Between the Sheeps, V6. I managed to flash this jumpy number, with Chris coming close as well, but getting a bit stumped on the weird spinny inside out second last move. So we tried Remains of the Sheep, V6. Both Chris and I flashed this one too. Pretty stoked, we tried a link-up into this problem called Bombshell, V7. This adds quite a tough start into the problem which took a little bit to work out, but soon it was sorted. But I was a bit of a silly chap and fell on the last move of the problem hahaha. A few more tired attempts and I called it a day.

Left: Me on a long pocket move on Bombshell.

Trappers started trying a rad lowball problem called Family Loss, V6 next. Too low for my lankyness, Chris put his gift of huge shoulders and massive biceps to work, coming very close to sending this tough little peanut. So, both pretty tired and beyond our best, we took off for an explore of the area. We spied some rad new projects to be done, including a terrifying highball for me (pictured right). I was conviced it was a letdown, because had it not been so short, it would have been worthy of some bolts. Trappers really had the vision, pointing out that the flat landing, great rock, and fact that I was being a little girl, meant it was a totally awesome highball, to which I hesitantly agreed. We also stumbled upon a huge awesome orange wall, maybe 30 meters high. It seems however that someone had beat us too it. Its a crag called The Plaza Strip, and is pretty fucking cool! Looking forward to coming back out here come spring and doing some of these routes, along with maybe having a sticky beak at some new lines :)

Anyway, after a good nights rest in a warm log cabin, watching the footy and another climbing movie by the fire, Chris and I were back up to Between the Sheeps to finish our problems. I knocked off Bombshell quick enough, leading to the carnage that began this blog update. Like a Quentin Tarantino movie, my chronological order is a bit messed up, but a good story none the less. Chris came agonisingly close to doing Family Loss, staring at the jug at the end just before expoding off. With skin and bodies trashed, we packed up for an early getaway back to Melbourne. I'm pretty excited to get back there soon to try When We Were Kings, V11 again. I think the last time I tried it was almost 2 years ago, and a lot of no climbing has happened between then and now. Confident all my personal troubles are behind me, I'm pretty excited to be out with mates climbing and loving it again, even when I fail miserably!

Whats most exciting though is a new outlook I have on climbing. It's now not so much about making climbing my whole life, or trying to do the things with a big number on it for the bragging rights, but about climbing the things that push me personally, physically and mentally, and having a blast doing so, whether I succeed or fail. Don't get me wrong, I still want to climb hard stuff as the years go on, but I'm looking outside the normal for things that inspire me to keep training lots, and trying so hard I think I'm gonna either faint or spew. Having had to relegate climbing to the background in order to address some of the curly situations life can put put in your way, I have come to the conclusion that I love climbing for what it is and who I do it with. Like sex! :D

Climbing is a big part of my life. But when it is taken away for what ever reason, one must be prepared to let it go. I had made climbing my whole life, but there came a point where injury and lifestyle choices had made climbing impossible, and I really struggled to cope with the idea of giving it up. That is until I realised what it was about climbing that I loved to much. The weekend away with mates, the dirty jokes at the crag, the bloody knuckles, the terrifying falls, the bush, driving too fast along the dirt roads, drifing through muddy corners, and enjoying being alive and happy.

Airy-fairy spiritually enlightening speech over....

I've also been scoping out a lot of the projects in the bouldering guide book, and see so much potential hard climbing to be done. Some still beyond me, but some not so. Just a couple of months ago I took the Raven up to project I had checked out, which he did and I almost did. He called it "The Oyster" and it came in at around V8. The top still needs a good scrubbing, but it is an absolute classic coming out a 45 degree wall. Its Project #51 in the guide at Trackside. Go check it out folks! but maybe wait a few weeks so I got time to go back there and scub the top up good and proper (and nab the 2nd ascent lol). There is so much still to be climbed around the place, and I'm pretty excited to get out there and either try them myself, or show anyone who is keen and motivated for 3 star FA's. Anyone? Anyone? Beuller? Every time I head to the Grampians, I find myself adding more to my mental list of rad new lines to climb. I think I could be climbing at this place for the rest of my life!