I arrived back from my overseas adventures
and found myself in the Blue Mountains again. I assumed I would find a job and
spend a lot more time in Oz basing myself in the mountains but that was not to
be. After a half-hearted effort to find work it was obvious there was nothing
around with the whole exploration geology industry falling in a heap. Many
friends were made redundant and hadn’t had any luck finding new positions. I continued to climb sending my latest project
at the new crag called The Pit in the Blue Mountains. After some joking around
the name Ebola Noodles was decided
on. It’s meant to be stupid.
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| Ebola Noodles. Very bouldery. Photo: William Chan. |
I flew back to Perth for Christmas with the
family and continued to send out resumes. It never takes long for me to be back
in Oz before plans start to hatch and this time it was no different. During
previous trips to China I had heard about a new traditional climbing mecca
called Liming and had always wanted to go. The problem is it isn’t very user
friendly yet with the language barrier and an epic amount of travel
required. Luckily for me I heard Mike
Dobie, the main developer of Liming and guidebook author was travelling around
Oz and would be heading back to Liming for February and March. I convinced myself
that no work meant I should live cheap and go climbing. Soon enough I was back
in the Blue Mountains hanging out with Mike and with the same flight to China.
The travel was epic. We could have flown
straight to Lijiang in the Yunnan province but instead we travelled overland
from Hong Kong via Yangshuo. After flying Sydney-Singapore-Hong Kong we caught a
bus and train to the border of China Mainland and then a night bus to
Yangshuo. We spent a couple of days
climbing in Yangshuo where I picked up a box of new gear from Kailas and had a
quick go of Chinaclimb 8c. Chinaclimb
is a route of significance for me as I bolted it at the end of my first visit
to Yangshuo but never really got to try it. My friend Liu Yongbang (Abond) sent
it creating Chinas first 8c. It’s a great line and I hope to be back to send it
one day.
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| I managed to fit in this great climb on the right side of White Mountain during the quick visit. Unsure of the name or grade. Photo: Andrew Hedesh. |
A bus to Guilin, night train to Kunming, a
day in a café, a night train to Lijiang, bus to a hostel where Tracy the trike
was stored and then a 3 hour ride in the back of the trike. Finally I laid eyes
on the cliffs of Liming. The travel was
worth it. In front of me were massive
sandstone buttresses with endless potential, an adventure climbers paradise.
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| The Faraway Hotel. Our palace for the trip. |
I generally always have goals when I travel
to a climbing destination and this trip it was all about the hardest route in
the area and first ascents. The hardest
route is called Air China and was put up by Matt Segal over a few weeks in
2011. He tried to make it all traditional but after taking a huge fall due to
his protection pulling from the rock breaking he decided to put in a bolt. You
can read about it here http://www.climbing.com/climber/to-bolt-or-not-to-bolt/.
Matt gave it 5.13d R. Now that the route has received some attention the
experience it gives has changed. Holds have come off the easier initial crack
section meaning you are a little more tired entering the crux but the chalk,
the fact that the bomber gear placement before the run out to the crux has been
fallen on without breaking, and the knowledge the route has been done makes
everything easier on the body and mind. The
route is still a bit heady to lead as it is insecure with very slippery feet
even in clipping positions but it probably doesn’t deserve an R rating. I never
took the fall from the bolt without clipping but I am sure it is safe. It does
however still feel like a traditional pitch. I worked the route for about two
weeks in headpoint style. That means I top roped it until I had done it without
falling (10 shots) and then only had to lead it 4 or so times placing each time
until I sent it. It felt good to get this one out of the way as I felt it was
necessary before I could go on to put up harder routes in the area.
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| The not so bad runout on Air China. The bolt is just above my head. Last bit of gear is a yellow cam a third of the way up the picture. The climbing and clip is insecure though. |
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| The crux move is just below this involving compression between the arete and some small crimps on the left while having no feet. This and photos below: Alexa Flower. |
During our time working Air China, Mike had
injured his shoulder. Your right arm takes a lot of strain holding the arête
during the crux. We decided to mix things up a bit and try a route equipped by
some Swedish climbers earlier in the season. They had found a long corner of
clean red sandstone, which went on gear except for a short section where the
crack in the corner was fused and unusable. They placed two bolts here along
with an anchor at the top. Mike and I had to pull out all the tricks to work
out how to climb the corner with no crack and no holds. It came down to very
poor foot smears and push-pulling on either side of the corner. Above this was
easier climbing ending with a final crux section of endurance crimp laybacking.
I managed to get the first free ascent at roughly 5.13a and kept the name the
Swedish climbers had given, Symphonie de
Liberte.
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| Mike and I aiding our way up the unclimbed wall of the Diamond. Photo: Leah Pappajohn. |
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| The main street of Liming with the Diamond in the distance. |
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| The Diamond above Liming. Photo: Alexa Flower. |
