All in all 2010 wasn't a bad year for me, after a Short climbing trip to Tasmania in January my psych levels were through the roof! Training was high on the priority list for the remainder of summer as it was difficult to hit the crag because of work. However I managed to climb most weekends, ticking several routes ranging from 27-30. In June I quit my full time job with Arctic Airconditioning to help build SICG Villawood, where I now work as a casual staff member.
The winter months were spent hanging out at Nowra with the likes of Local Will Watkins, South Australian (Beta king) Mick Wells, Rob & Carlie Lebreton, Matt & Bryson and (of course) Gav Phillips aka GAVATRON. In late June I ruptured an A2 pulley in my left ring finger, which slowed my progress drastically throughout the season. Fortunately the pulley didn't tear completely, so after 2 weeks rest and a bit of TLC i taped it as hard as I could and returned to the shoalhaven to send Dude Food(29) and a couple of weeks later Non Dairy(30) & Dungeon Master(31) fortunately all of these routes have big slopey holds!
In October/November I spent time trying to improve my onsighting abilities(as this is a weakness of mine), targeting lots of routes around the 26 to 28 grade. This was a good learning curve, onsighting is a totally different ball game! And something I need to work on! Also spent a bit of time at Bardens on Bloodline (31/32) thanks Amanda and Mitch. I got quite frustrated on this route(only managing to tick the 29/30 variant), but I am certain It will go when i return.
In late November we spent some time doing some photos, (thanks Scotty Pritchard & Dan X) that was fun! A lot more effort goes into this than I thought! In fact I think it is actually more intense than trying to redpoint a hard route.
In December I was very fortunate to become sponsored by Spelean (Five-ten, Petzl & Blue Water).
In my opinion the equipment I have been supplied with is second to none. Im very happy with the products.
What better way to end 2010 than a trip to the Grampians!
On the 13th of December Myself, Gav "Gavatron" Phillips & Byron Glover aka Mountain Goat or just MG. Headed down south to the Wimmera in search of some hard red sandstone. This was my first time at the Gramps so I guess you could say I was PSYCHED! Unfortunately we did not tick anything awesome, as we were very limited for time and had our fair share of casualties along the way. (Gavatron nearly cut his pinky off with a leatherman, I blew a tip on the first day & MG was sick for half the trip).
MG and I are planning on spending a long period of time down there in March/April :-)
So in a nutshell that was pretty much 2010!
