BRC ARAPILES TRIP 2013
Well the club had an awesome trip to Arapiles ...again, this year. This trip saw 7 newcomers to the magical place of climbing called Arapiles and all of them want another trip next year. Lots of 3 star climbs were climbed along with many many metres of enjoyable climbing.
One could list a cavalcade of climbs done in the 2 weeks such as Scorpion, Thunder Crack, Eurydice, Watchtower Crack, Resignation, Lamplighter, The Shroud - sort of ha ha, Missing Link, Eskimo Nell, Muldoon, Checkmate, Little Dinosaur, King Rat, Hot Flap, The Bard, Dirge, Piccolo, Conifer Crack, D Minor, Surface to Air, Agent Orange etc etc. We climbed everyday except one really wet Wednesday and that was spent at the Grampians under a dry overhang :) .
A special congratulations goes to Annette who cruised her first trad leads there. Not often your first trad leads are multipitch climbs in such an awesome location. Everyone loved the climbing on solid jugs with mega exposure and the campfire talk resonated with " OMG it was such a bomber wire placement. This place is AWESOME and there was so much air below me ha ha ha."
The lads cooked up a feast every night in the camp oven - so much meat with chilli. Nick would put chilli with icecream! Lewis became the frenzied axe man when allowed to chop wood for the fire and folk enjoyed his banjo playing around the fire aka Deliverance :) , while Nick never stopped smiling both at camp and on every climb. Julian and Mark had an organised epic which had everyone else a tad worried by 830 pm, well after dark.
Annette and I walked up to the bottom of Alis to see if any help was needed. Annette's question up to slow moving headlights of "Are You Guys OK?" was met with the dry Julian reply of "Of Course". Classic Julian! Terry Forbes has finally fallen in love with trad climbing and is now addicted.
Narelle and Derek supplied endless entertainment carrying 2 almost identical racks up climbs then having to sort them out back at camp. Patrick absolutely loved the long multi pitches. Daniel finally got his work plans sorted late and was amazed at the majesty of Arapiles - so many amazing lines at so many grades. And thoughts are with Dave Young who returned from Japan with a horrendous head cold and still managed to get some climbs in. Soldier on Dave. Amazing how beer around the campfire and climbing at Arapiles helps the immune system :) . I have no idea where to mention shoulder aid moves ... :) but everyone enjoyed it!!
The drive down allowed tarps to be erected, helping with any overnight showers which never stopped any climbing. They also aided in attracting a couple of friendly kiwis bearing beers who enjoyed the cover and hospitality. Thanks for the fun times Jimmy and Chris.
All in all a pretty incredible trip with a fantastic bunch of climbers. I for one enjoyed ticking so many new climbs this trip and a huge thanks to Annette my belay partner. I thoughly enjoyed climbing with you and your company on the long drive.
What else to say . Nothing really, except that those who didn't come ... you missed out on another AWESOME Arapiles trip. And to the club member who said "Is it really worth a 2 day drive to climb low grades? ha ha ha. You will have no idea untill you lead The Bard. And then you will understand the magic of Grapples.
