Thursday, March 24, 2011

Bloodline goes down

Sweet! Those long awaited conditions have finally arrived! After 8 days of terrible weather and heavy rain, anything I wanted to climb at Diamond Falls was not worth thinking about.....slightly un motivated and a little pissed off that mother nature would do such a thing I decided to head back to my  Nemisis Bloodline(32) at Bardens Lookout in the Blue Mountains. Teamed up with a couple of dudes Pete and German Thomas aka Hommace and decided that the cave at Bardens was gunna be our shelter for 5 days while it poured down around us. While Pete and Hommace  crushed there way along and came very close to ticking WOAF(28/26) I thought it would be a good time to familiarise myself with the moves on Bloodline and to my suprise it came quite naturally, getting awesome linkage even in the terrible conditions. I returned a couple of days later to seeping holds at the crux and lost my psych as it made it very difficult, towards the end of the day I managed to link all the way to the top of the route within an arms reach of the glory jug and fell...spewing!
Anyway I returned today with Pete,  after a little bit of a rough start I warmed up and sent Bloodline Very Happy!! I have spent a lot of time on this route and have found it significantly harder than anything else I have done....It has had few ascentionists therefore the grade seems to vary on who you talk to....dont care really! awesome line! awesome people! Thanks Pete and Thomas and whoever caught me on this one..Video will be up soon Psyched!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Five Ten Blackwings


I recieved a package from Spelean last week which included Five Tens latest Blackwing velcro shoe. Over the past week I have been wearing them in the Bluies. Although it has been a while since I have climbed in a downturned shoe I have adapted quite well and love them! The heel is quite different to the Anasazi which initially took me a while to get use to. The shoe is basically a velcro version of the Dragon (for those of you who are familiar). Check out the new shoe range @  fiveten.com   

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Boronia

While choking on red dust and churning up a pretty hectic petrol bill for those late afternoon sessions at Boronia, the pre-season has been looking pretty good.
After finding a good gap in the weather and heading to the crag I  sent a route called Big Wednesday(31), I tried this route about 6 months ago, but there was a move pre-crux that really aggravated my already injured shoulder, I decided it wasnt worth the risk and left it for another day!
As it turns out I just had a really shitty sequence for that section of the climb. After rectifying that, I sent the route quite easily about 5 shots. Personally Tripe(30) felt alot harder!
Dan X also made a quick ascent of Grape Hour(25) on the same day.
This day was good..... meaninig I could eat pizza and not feel bad!
Pulling the lip on Big Wednesday(30/31)         Dan Cross

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

New Petzl Quickdraw


Spelean have recently supplied me the latest Petzl quickdraw with Ultralight Ange carabiners.
The product comes in a small and large carabiner size.
In my opinion the Quickdraw is perfect for sport climbing, light, durable and easy to clip!
The Ange S (small) would make a great biner for your trad rack(very light).(I dont actually climb much trad but very very light and small)
Check out more info @ www.Petzl.com/