On a sunny Sunday morning, while the Sydneysiders were busy running on the Harbour Bridge, 11 SURMC members went to Medlow Bath for a beautiful day of climbing.

Medlow Bath (pix by Lyndall Hord)

The walk in turned out to be almost as long as the Sydney marathon: we walked, and then got lost. Then walked back. And got lost again. Lucky Dave Kirk was there to find a way to the climbs! He definitely deserves the title of MVP for this trip.

After this good warm up, we set up a bunch of top-rope climbs from grade 14 to 20. Everybody also had a chance to lead, and everybody did a very good job!

Rohan on a 15.

Alex on a 15, Ida on a 17 and Dave on a 20.

Lyndall on lead, happy

A special mention to Alex who successfully led a pretty long, 3 stars climb, and also to Lyndall who experienced her first outdoors climb.

John on 'The Deadly Hammock', grade 26.

Eager for the pub.

We headed back to Sydney after a quick dinner in Katoomba.

In spite of a late start and some strong wind, it was a really good day of climbing. I hope everybody enjoyed it as much as I did. Thank you guys!

So we made it outside this time but ended up going to Thompson’s Point instead of Hospital Rocks, an area on the opposite side of the river. After a late start and an interesting walk in, we finally made it to the designated climbing spot and a good portion of the group got their first feel of real rock.

Nathaniel crushing his first climb with Tim on belay

Blanca on her first outdoor climb with Gustavo on belay

After getting a lesson in outdoor belaying and warming up on a grade 14 and 15, the leaders set up a couple 16′s for everyone to try. The start for one of these was completely desperate and most of us had to pull through the first move, but it was pretty straight forward after that.

Ida watchful on belay while Jenny edges around a corner

Tim just before the crux of the first route

Overall it was a very good day. The weather was excellent and everyone was able to challenge themselves with the routes. It’ll be great to see the people on this trip develop their outdoor skills on future outings, so keep signing up to club excursions! Also a shout out to John who had a chance to practice some leading and completed the climb with ease. Good job John!

John on lead pulling the rope up to a quickdraw

And finally a big thank you to the days leaders, Mat Guenette, Alisa Rabovsky and Emma Welshman, for organizing the trip and helping teach the next generation of SURMC climbers. Great trip everyone!

So at the last minute before driving out to Palm Beach on Sunday Pete determined that the rock was too wet to climb on, so unfortunately the group was unable to go outside. However we ended up having a pretty good day after deciding to go to the Villawood climbing gym and doing some grueling indoor climbing instead. After getting an introduction to lead climbing and lead belaying, everyone in the group received their lead passes. This will be great groundwork for learning more techniques at other gyms and hopefully applying these skills outdoors soon. Congratulations guys!

Alex Groothaert clipping in

Pip Collins on lead

Thank you to Pete from the ledge for helping organize the day and sharing some of his expertise. It was great to see everyone trying something new, so even though we didn’t get to climb outdoors the day was far from wasted.

If anyone from today’s trip wants to try some more leading at St. Peters feel free to talk to me (Alisa) and we can organize a day to go there. Also if there is anyone who missed todays trip and wants to get their lead pass we can try and organize a day for that as well.

So once again the women of SURMC have successfully evaded the men of the club in order to have a climbing day all to themselves. This semester’s secret location was Hospital Rocks in Nowra. We were concerned about being rained out, but the weather ended up being beautiful in the end.

(from left) Elodie Fourmond, Elin Anderson and Alana Hill

There were a few girls new to outdoor climbing who got their first taste of real rock but hopefully not their last. Congratulations to Emma Welshman who completed two routes on lead for the first time, despite some touch and go moments. Great job Em!

Emma Welshman

Aisling Digges

Aisling Digges took the only lead falls of the day, which I know she won’t mind me mentioning because they helped make an awesome video edit and probably also means that the rest of us need to start leading harder routes. Don’t worry, when this happens I will be waiting in the brush with my camera, ready to capture the moment on film.
After filling the afternoon with climbing, the day was capped off with Anna Rogers sneaking off to a rope swing which quickly landed her in the freezing water. Brrrr. Looks like there was some testosterone among us after all.

Anna Rogers

A huge thank you to Georgi Knox and Fiona Cunningham for organizing the trip. It was a great location, awesome weather and an overall fantastic outing. I can’t wait for the next women’s trip in semester 2!

Fiona Cunningham climbing with Pip Collins on belay

So this actually happened a little while ago, but I thought I should finally get around to posting the results. As some of you may recall, the Bloc bouldering center hosted a competition on May 13. A group of club members went to represent SURMC which potentially marks the first of many other similar events for our climbers. The participants were given 2 hours to choose and complete six problems from a long list of challenges with various difficulty ratings. Each problem was worth between 20 and 60 points with an extra point awarded for flashing the problem. The top five scorers in each category went on to the finals.

Georgi Knox

Congratulations to Georgi Knox who finished second in the Women’s Open B’s and to Agnes Andre who finished fourth in the same category. The best performance of the day for the men was put in by Toby Hulf who finished sixth in the Men’s Open B’s, just out of the finals.

Agnes Andre

We’re planning on competing in more contests in the future so if anyone is interested they can come talk to someone on the committee and get more information. You do not have to be an experienced climber to participate. Thanks to everyone who came to the Bloc to support SURMC!

Lunch break, during which Sam is too concerned with his food to pose for the photo

So unfortunately we’ve been a bit slack on updating the trip reports. Hopefully everyone agrees it’s better late than never. For anyone who missed Araps this semester here’s a little rundown of what went on:

There were a fair amount of trad climbing virgins on the trip (am I allowed to use that word on our website?) but everyone was able to get a lot of climbing done. Congrats to Anthony Doig who spent the week learning to lead and was able to take several people up a variety of routes.
Although we were rock climbers by day, we became squeeze-boulderers by night. With only the glow of the moon to guide us we spent several evenings conquering various squeeze problems around the campsite. Jeremy Simes even went through one of the problems without putting down his cigarette. To witness the feat in person was nothing short of breathtaking.

Alana Hill pulling herself out of the scorpion squeeze

Sam Kissajukian in the squeeze boulder

A particularly amusing moment occurred when club president Emma Welshman decided to go through the scorpion squeeze feet first. Watching her legs wiggle out from under the rock is perhaps one of my fondest memories.
A small faction of us also broke away from the group for a day to head over to the neighboring Grampians. Here we bouldered, explored Hollow Mountain Cave, encountered an un-mantable mantle and afterwards went to the pub for the world’s largest chicken schnitzel.

Elodie Fourmond

Michael Lee

The win for the trip’s most epic fail goes to fan favorite Mat Guenette for having to bail off Salami (9), because he couldn’t get through the squeeze section about a third of the way up the climb. His struggle was both exhausting and amusing. Besides that it was just another trip that saw many routes completed and many more left for next time. Here’s looking forward to Arapiles in semester 2!

Jade Kingsley and James Henderson on Skink (18)

A place to drink, play, dance, celebrate climbing.

Date/time: Saturday, June 4th 7.30pm-2am

Address: 7 Epping Rd Double Bay

This is going to be good. We have a hammock city set up in the garden, we have amazing live music to dance to, there is a live art piece to be added to by participants and there are a plenty of interactive surprises and games to make the night quite unlike what you are used to. We are using Jimmy’s house and there will be a mix of people from outside SURMC to mix things up and keep it spicy.

The game plan of this house party:

1. Bring an item or prop that allows you to interact with others in an unusual way that brings happiness or amusement.
2. I retain the right to refuse any serious people, please check your adultness at the door. Non destructive immaturity is welcomed.
3. Bring boxed wine or a six pack.
4. I welcome suggestions.

Send me an email if life or anything about the party is confusing to you; samkissajukian@gmail.com

Sam

Dam Cliffs, March 6th 2011

Sydney University Rock-climbing and Mountaineering Club kicked off the 2011 academic year with its first beginners’ climbing trip in which new club members, alongside experienced climbers, spent the day facing some of the Blue Mountains’ challenges.

The group all together

Early each year, the club organizes a variety of trips, training sessions and club nights aimed at introducing its new members to the world of climbing, both indoor and outdoor. After an initial session at club night – held every Wednesday at the Ledge at Sydney University – new members (including some absolute beginners… me being one) were last weekend offered an opportunity to put what they had learnt about climbing and belaying into practice outdoors.

Climbing with a grin

Crimpy climbing

Dam Cliffs, situated below an old steam train dam in the middle of the Blue Mountains, has a lot of climbs in a very small area. Grades range from 12 to 22 and there are a couple of slightly more difficult climbs for anyone feeling game. The dam presents opportunities for deep-water bouldering, but regrettably, the weather made that idea unappealing. Dam Cliffs is also a good place to learn to lead climb on sports routes, so it wasn’t just us beginners who made the most of this trip.

Chris pulling hard

For me, it was an opportunity to have fun and learn as much as I could, but with so much alien climbing terminology being thrown around, things quickly got confusing. Between not knowing exactly what a crimp was, even though if I found one I was supposedly required hold onto it, not getting exactly how a side pull was supposed to be of any use, just completely ignoring any advice to flag (?) or smear (???), and being disappointed to find out a jug didn’t involve beer, I just stuck to up and down. I’m pretty sure I now have the definitions of these things down, but I’ll admit I’m still disappointed about the jugs.

The club provides all climbing gear for the trips and with the only costs being petrol money and lunch, it’s a great way to get outdoors and have some cheap thrills.

Beginners’ training continues this week on Tuesday and Wednesday nights at the Ledge.

- Rebecca

Our Lindfield trip started off as so many trips before us started off: waiting at the train station. We got a nice group of people together there, including lots of new people who I didn’t know beforehand: Chris, Anna, Agnes, Elodie, Ashley, Min Young, Alistair (sorry if I missed anyone!) and it wasn’t long before we humped across to this rather secluded bouldering spot right in the middle of Sydney.

For many of us, it was the first time we’d been to Lindfield…or outdoors for that matter. Depending on how you look at it, the relatively low walls were a great way to get introduced to climbing, or a missed opportunity to scare the beejezus out of trip attendees.

Lindfield was once described as too high to boulder and too low to climb, but I think we proved that wrong. Pete and some of the trip organisers set up a few top ropes close to the Overhang Rock and these walls were popular throughout the day. There was a lesson on how to tie-in and how to belay with an ATC which will be useful for later trips, so now there’s no excuse for not turning up on every trip I’m also confident that after today, everyone will look at gri-gris with some scorn.

The overhanging rock in the middle was fun, providing some steep and challenging climbing. A highlight of the day for me was Ashley with his freakish ability to climb in sneakers. Get this man some climbing shoes. I saw lots of people bouldering as well, which ranged from the finicky and balancy to nice and crimpy. There was one that I liked where the route was on the sloping back of a boulder. It required the use of near-imperceptible folds in the rock, a lot of balancing and some luck. That was Vamsi’s first time on actual rock, and he sent it easily. I was also amused to see Mike thrutch his way up it without using any hands.

Worth mentioning was Pipe Dreams. Pinky sent it on his 2nd ever go, but it proved a harder nut to crack from then on. It’s an overhanging, powerful problem that requires lots of technical foot placing. Topping out is fun, it involves sticking your head into a cave. So definitely a Lindfield classic that invites repeat attempts.

It was around evening when it started raining, so we called it a day and walked all the way back to the station where we went our separate ways. And that was that.

Special shout out to Sam Doss for bringing his car, Pete for the supervision and preparation and Adam/Alisa for planning the whole trip. Thanks guys!

P.S Apologies for the lack of detail, I wandered away from the main group for a fair bit and so may have missed some action. Send in your photos! At the very least, it’ll distract attention away from the state of the report.

TR: Mt Buffalo, I hope this inspires many more memorable adventures for the rest of the year.

Attendees: Mike and James.

To me adventurous climbing is where its at. It doesn’t have to be dangerous or hard. Just a full day out in a spectacular location where you can get up high. To me that’s real rock climbing. Summer brings longer days and potential for longer climbs, but the enjoyment goes down when I get cooked. Also I don’t think I look so good in red.

I’m eager to poke around the Warrumbungles but a trip in summer would probably leave me wrinkly sun-dried. Buffalo provides a cooler alpine option and granite slabbing is something I don’t get to do much. Mike had time to go on the Australia day long weekend but wasn’t able to make the trip when others had planned to go at the beginning of February, so I agreed to join him.

We left Sydney at around 4:30pm on Friday and arrived at the river near Porepunkah at about 1am. Mike slept in the car and I stretched out next to the river. With a dead rat just up the road and a lot of low ground cover I thought I might have a few furry friends that night but they didn’t come to visit.

The view from the park entrance

We drove up the mount to Lake Catani for breakfast then headed out to the Cathedral for a bit of climbing. In the afternoon we had planned to scope out the gorge and Where Angels Fear to Tread (17) before making a run at it the next day, my main reason for coming this far. I was skeptical but Mike assured me we would be back to the car for lunch so I postponed my need to unblock myself and didn’t bring much water or food up to the crag. Big mistake. Read the rest of this entry »