Mt. Araps trip

Woo!

Just got back from Mt. Arapiles, and was there for about a week just learning the basics of trad climbing. It's been a really interesting week in just seeing whether or not I'd pursue trad climbing, and was definitely worth the time away.

It's also confirmed that trad climbing is certainly something that I'll be chasing - I haven't really come across anything more satisfying then a couple of cute trad placements, and it's wonderful to think that you've finished a route and not left anything on the rock face (unless you start losing gear)...

I'm pretty sure that the trad climbing will also really help push the mental limit with my sports climbing as well, seeing as there's a bit mental game to it. I'm feeling like I'll be able to get some of the grading of my sports climbing better over this coming year.

To sum up, I didn't really do anything in the last week that was harder then a grade 10 climb; the only exception were a couple of grade 15 single-pitch routes that we were attempting to see if we could do on trad lead, which we did! Most of the time was learning to set bomber placements and just get confidence in our skills of setting pro and the anchors at the top.

We also went and did a bunch of the boulder problems down there, but I ended up complaining about the conditions associated with the quartzite rock; it gets super slippery real quick, which is annoying to say the least.

A quick list of the climbs we ended up doing; by no means complete as I don't have the guidebook on me:

• A whole bunch of climbs around bushranger bluff, which were mostly introductory routes to trad. Amongst them that were slightly notable were ... the one I led (which I keep forgetting the name of), something like ... nope I can't remember -_-. But it was right next to Revolver Crack (on the right of it) and was grade 15. Also did Ghost of Melville (15).
• Our first multipitch ever! Was Arachnus (8), 4 pitches, 120m. So beautiful.
• And our second multipitch was Siren (10) which we did just two days ago :) Really proud.

Anyway; that sums up the week down at araps! Since I didn't really do much intense climbing over the last week or so, I'm getting back into training from today onwards :) I've got a few things in mind to get myself stronger for the coming year, and am coming back with renewed focus! Beware world!

Keep training and stay strong! I think I'll go for a big bike ride now ;)

1st week of December Update

Bleugh the training's still much of the same, and since we're aiming to have a few trips outdoor we're working on endurance and making sure we can get through a whole bunch of climbs when we go up there. As a result we've been working on 3-4 hour sessions of nonstop climbing close to our grade, and we've stopped projecting for a little while on some of the harder routes as well. It's mainly been at St. Peter's, and I've also gotten some campus training in as well.

I've also been biking a lot more since I had another ankle injury in the last week, and biking's definitely a fine way of getting about with the cardio. So far I'm doing 40km bike rides every even day, and it's a killer circuit in terms of the hills that I go through. Having said that, the hills are beautiful and I very much enjoy the ride every time I go, and I'm thinking of extending it early next year. I'm not really looking forward to when the weather warms up significantly but I'll see how my training changes once that happens.

I'll also be off to Hong Kong at some time later this month which'll be great fun as well! Looking forward to it, and will certainly get some climbing done there as well!

That's it for the time being; keep training and stay strong!