Monday 2 May 2011

First steps...

With a fresh and rather moderate supply of food and of course coffee!  We returned to the Pit to erect 'Tobius'.  (Tobius is our new tent and home for next couple of months, he cost us a whopping $25) and after some thought, caffeine and improvisation we added a few much needed stabilizing additions, just to keep him up! He know stands tall and proud in our little patch! We waited for the sun to lose it's midday heat and headed to the Happy boulders.

The Happy boulders home to many'er classic problem like the hulk, atari, rave and pathway to heaven are just over 3 miles from camp, a bumpy journey following Owens river brings you to the bottom of the area.  My first impressions were 'wow' as they sit in an inverted small valley type affair which looks out onto grassy meadows and the surrounding mountains.  We headed straight up to the shaded side and started matching blocs and problems to the guidebook.  The first few problems we did that afternoon seemed tough for the grade, we know that April is not ideal for conditions so carried on knowing it would just take time to adapt to a new type of rock.  It's a mixture of features with heuco's, crimps and very pocketed walls...kinda like Kyloe.....kinda.  We had a cautious afternoon and spent more time finding the classic problems than climbing them, Steve was still on a different time zone and I was just hot, tired and weary of doing too much too soon.

Then next day the sending began, armed with a single Metolius pad and bundles of excitement we started to warm up and hit the classics


The Happy Boulders in the early hours

Hitting the heuco on Serengeti

Steve making the most of 'cooler' conditions on the Classic Rave
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