Yesterday I got up at 5am had my breakfast , got my stuff together , loaded the car and hit the road . I had plans to meet Phillip Higgins in Pukekohe for 7 . My last few climbing sessions have involved climbing with Phil , whom I had spoken to on occasion a few years back at the Quarry . Recently i had some climbing shoes for sale and Phil purchased them through Trademe . We ended up staying in touch and with both of us having the goal of stepping up our climbing , we made some plans .
The trip started well with only one short stop for coffee at the Ngaruawahia BP . We must have got to Froggatt around 09:30 , after a quick looksy at LAD a 24 i was interested in trying we headed to Animal biscuit valley to get warmed up . I didn't have an agenda in the end ... I thought I did , but I was still very relaxed from sending my long term climbing goal on Sunday And I decided it would be good to be a bit aimless .
Our first climb was Supertwitch 18 ish . It was my first time on it and i was finding it pretty difficult , mainly due to moist and sloped footers ... Not ideal . We then did the next two climbs to the left , so far Phil was climbing first placing draws with me climbing second and cleaning . We then headed over towards the cave , I was quite keen to figure out a V7 boulder traverse which Daniel Krippner showed me my last time here . I Tried a few ideas out but nothing felt easy so I moved on pretty quickly , I did climb Zoomers though before moving on , a powerful and varried 20 that climbs the entrance of the cave . We then carryed on in the same direction to two climbs called - Bother - and - Don't Bother a 16 and 20 ( likely harder ) next to each other . After bagging these Phil declared he was finished climbing so I starting thinking about something that would give me a bit more of a challenge .
I tried this . Brontosaurus Theory - 24
I took a lot of time trying to imagine a successful sequence from the ground , I wanted to go for the onsight ( Climbing it with limited knowledge ) The start was looking pretty unreadable and I nearly had second thoughts but being pretty relaxed I wasn't going to let fear of failure turn me away . I blew the onsight and second go but by that time I had found what turned out to be a crucial hold . Once I pulled the starting moves I was away on a fun journey that took 20 mins to complete . I really enjoyed this unique looking climb that I had always noticed but never attempted in the past .
After my success on BT I decided to keep the ball rolling with an attempt to onsight Swell a 23 directly to the left of BT .
Success ! I was happy to top out but I wasn't such a fan of this one ... Finding it hard to read and very sharp , also I might not have given myself enough time to recover from BT after only waiting 20 mins or so ... But I came through the battle as the victor .
I was feeling pretty good after this , but the day was now coming to a close ... Phil went to get some coffees while I tried out a few more boulder problems , one of them being - Mossy Menopause V7? I think - which I made some progress on ( lots of pads are recommended ) I also tried Stretched Out a V7~ that has some pockets that don't dry ... I thought I would wrap this one up but dealing with the wet pockets killed my psyche , I might try again perhaps if I can find a way around the wetness ...
Phil returned but there were no coffees to be found , so we decided to pack up and call it a day , stopping at Subway for diner and coffee at Te Awamutu . Picking up my car at Puke i then made my way home for some well earned rest .
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