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1/01/2010
Clean 2nd 'Trundle Fun' (19), but sadly doesn't count as not lead! Had a great day with Logan learning the dark art of aid. Who would have thought pulling on gear could be so hard and dangerous!? I certainly have more confidence in supposedly poor placements now though.

2/01/2010
Onsight 'Shitsky Variant' (18). Sweet climb. Learned how to place expansion bolts.

5/01/2010
Lead 'Roar Pleasure' (16) with Brian 'la machina' Tan, but I went off line a couple of times so climb doesn't count as clean lead. Intimidated by fall potential (on a 16!!). BT showed me how real climbers do it. Note to short climbers - you won't be able to reach the carrot at the end, so you will have to do the dyno unprotected. If you miss it and roll off the ledge, good luck! 'Roar Pleasure' and the neighboring 'Ride of the Valkyries' (18) are Truscott and Rosser carrot specialties with carrot anchors at top, so you must walk off. They have more of an adventurous, trad-like feel than the usual p-bolted clip-ups.

6/01/2010
Led 'Penthouse' (18), 'Mortal Wombat' (20) and 'Running With The Bulls' (24) all cleanly all placing runners. First time I have lead RWTB placing draws, so pretty happy with that. My plan to stop Brian reaching his target of 100 climbs is coming along nicely. I short-roped his clip on RWTB, stealing his ascent away from him. Mwu-hu-ha-ha-ha!

11/01/2010
'Blah Blah Blah' (16): easy slab with one tricky move; 'Real Life Ambition' (21): always a little tricky to start; 'Chain Reaction' (23): so soft for the grade (RLA is probably harder!) Can do the crux static now with new beta from Brian / James. Had a good boulder session with Brian and Mark, but then blocs don't count do they? :)

16/01/2010
Finally lead 'Roar Pleasure' (16) properly! That standing jump at the end just has something to it. Good route by team Truscott/Rosser. Also did 'Frustration & Contempt' (16)

17/01/2010
'Stolen Glory' (22) is a bit of a fingery warmup, but Brian had placed the draws and talked me through the crux (after he told me about his upside-down fall on the crux!), so it was pretty straight forward. 'Kid Rock' (17) is always a fun little route. 'Morning Glory' (17) has some spice even now, especially at the top! 'Mt Everest' (16) and '20 Easy Steps' (17); good routes in their way. Yay almost up to par for the challenge!

18/01/2010
'Hang Ten' (24): doing so many laps on this route makes it seem so easy these days. No worries placing gear on lead on warmup in full sun, chalking up in the middle of the crux, doing the crux static. Definitely an onsight 24; leads such as 'Star Wars' and 'Running With the Bulls' are much harder routes to repeat, even though SW is probably an easier onsight than HT for those who o/s that grade. Had another redpoint shot on 'Choad Warrior' (26/27?), but it is still beyond me. Need these raw tips to heal, but more importantly I need the headspace to do the end sequence. Maybe Brian and I should do more falling training together!

23/01/2010
Weekend trip to West Cape Howe with Logan and Rob to work on freeing 'Zues' and it's variant, try (again!) to send 'Dancing the Deep Blue', and get so cool photos. I tried to free-climb the grade 26 (?) first pitch of 'Zues', but I couldn't even pull of the deck. Not sure how to attack that one. Couldn't pull any moves but the topout, so that was frustrating. Logan had a crack at the hard 2nd pitch variant, but it is proving to be tougher than originally thought. Rob got some shots of the attempt, but the light was pretty bad.
Onsighted 'Vulture Street' (17) to finish the day off, which was fun and not too stressful. I did use most of my gear in the first 20 or 30 metres, so had to be economical (runout!) for the finish.

24/01/2010
Had a crack at 'Dancing the Deep Blue' (26) while Rob took shots from the mainland. Fell at the crux trying to do the big move, so took the opportunity hanging on the rope to try Logan's beta. Very cramped and a little more complicated, but it worked so I topped out, brought Logan up so he could get the gear out, then rapped in for another clean attempt. Rob rapped down the face to get some closeup shots of the crux, and I managed to send it this time with the new beta. Awesome! Possibly soft for 26, although I found it tough going (5 or 6 shots over the past couple of months?). Definitely recommend the route but make your own call on the condition of the bolts. There is great gear below and plenty of room for a winger, so both bolts failing at the crux wouldn't mean sharkbait. There is a good cam immediately above the crux to make the bolts redundant anyhow.

28/01/2010
Mountain Quarry with Brian after work so do some easy lines. 'Bumble Sea' (11) is so far my easiest tick - let's see if I can't beat that! Had trouble on 'Crazy Horse' (21) for no good reason. Brian even showed me how easy it was before I attempted it! 22 down over 28 days, so I'm only a week behind.

30/01/2010
Shark Rock with Brian on a hot day. 'The Fin' (17) is a nice route to do, and I enjoyed the slab 'Defining Moments' (18) before trying 'Ethical Meltdown' (21) without the cheat stone. Doing it thus makes it maybe 22/23, and it is a worthwhile move. Quite bouldery. Corporate Commandos was quite tough for me, so Brian showed me how to use technique instead of grunt. Handy. Got 'Phalanx' (19) second shot after taking a nice fall before the 2nd clip. Bleeding knuckles! Had a shot at 'Fatal Rivalry' (18) but couldn't get up it clean.

11/02/2010
Early morning session at Mountain Quarry - ticked off a couple of the easier routes in 'Bumble Aye' (16) and 'Aerobics with Alan' (15).

13/02/2010
Darlington Boulders with the hardcore crew - you know who you are! Did a few ok routes there, despite the hot conditions.

15/02/2010
'Hammer & Tongs' (25): such a great route! Technique is the only way up, so if you're not strong it doesn't matter! Looking forward to trying Kate and Neil's line off H&T sometime soon. Looks nails.

27/02/2010
Down South - many of the easier routes ticked off. 'Shaved Cat' (20) is always the highlight. A friend broke off a low undercling years ago so it is harder now - especially if you are short! Still 20 though I think. I was quite knackered by the 7th route, and the beach was calling.

28/02/2010
Down South location 2 - tried a couple of the old carrot routes and found them easy climbing but terrible bolting. 'The Hired Gun' (22) is actually a great route, and it deserves rebolting. 'Kyle' is always the joke 23 down there. "I can only redpoint 22 but I flashed this 23 down south!" I fun gym climb that doesn't give you time to get pumped. 'I'm Too Sexy For My Python' (24) soft at that grade, and taken over by bees, but such a classic climb. Easy first 2/3 to get you warmed up, a massive rest before the crux, then there are a couple of ways you can do this before another massive rest. 2nd crux is really cool with a little bit of headspace. Took a victory jump off the top for the tourists, then had to climb the top half again to clean!

4/03/2010
Couple of leads on 'Sweet Pea' (27) but fell both times at the redpoint crux. 2 more toprope laps for training. I've done 45 routes in 64 days, whereas Remi is up to 40-something but had 40 DAYS of injured! If he gets more climbs than me by the end of this challenge I will be so embarrassed!