Point Perpendicular

is not a geometric term you've never heard of before, but rather a large headland about 3 hrs south of Sydney, known for
a) being a Navy bombing range
b) spectacular sea cliffs

So, if one calls ahead, and makes sure the Navy is not using the headland for a), they're fine with allowing people to come in and climb on b). They'll even come look for you if you're not back by end of day (there's a gate you have sign in/out at). Try that at Moffett...

We actually came down to camp at Kangaroo Valley the night before, so we can get to the cliffs earlier in the morning. While there were no kangaroos around, the campground had quite a few wombats grazing around.

There are no words that can really do justice to climbing at this place. Go see pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/olegace/PointPerpClimbing

Oceania Cup climbing competition

A few videos from the finals of the Oceania Cup climbing comp. These are the difficulty finals, where competitors must lead climb a route they never seen before (they're kept in isolation up until their attempt), whoever gets further on it wins, as nobody was able to complete the entire route.

The men's route was Aus grade 28 (12d), women's 26 (12b), and they joined at the very top for 30+ section (mid 13).

Young Kiwi guy doing the first mini-crux of the men's route:


Same guy, running out of strength and ideas, followed by excellent airtime:


One of the better attempts, *awesome* no-hand rest in what looked like a very awkward position, only the wall smack looked a bit painful:


Women's winner, fantastic roof climbing technique and inhuman strength, in case orientation is hard to tell, look at the dangling chalk bag to see which way is down:


I have much to learn :)

Trains and Flash Mobs

So, went to watch a climbing competition at the gym I climb at out here. On the way back, waiting for the train, which only goes once in half an hour or so. Maybe 2-3 more people on the platform, Sunday afternoon, this is in the suburbs. Sitting on the bench, GTalk'ing off of the BlackBerry to kill time.

Then over the course of a few minutes, a whole bunch (15+) of youths show up, loud and obnoxious, sitting around me in all directions, talking/yelling in some language I don't understand, playing with ringtones on their mobiles, and generally being a nuisance. I swear, it looked like something out of a prank TV show or something. In the meantime, another spontaneously formed group of different youths (also non-native) is sitting on the stair to the platform watching? this chaos.

Long story short, if someone finds this on YouTube or something, send me a link.

Peace out

(Videos from climbing comp tomorrow)