Monday, April 10, 2006

Blabber Mouth - 200 metres of fun - sanook mak mak

Just yesterday I embarked on one of my hair brain journeys. My friend and I travelled out to the Glasshouse mountains to send the classic Blabber Mouth. A nice grade 16 multipitch climb. It has 7 pitchs with bolts most of the way through the climb. Like many other easy climbs at Tibro there are sections of limited protection. Places where a fall could really mean trouble for your day half way up a 200 metre climb. But to me this all adds to the excitment.

I woke late at 0730 and quickly grabbed all my gear I had prepared the night before. My excitment was building as it had been many months since I had visited Tibro. I was looking forward to the adventure and fascination of being half way up a mountain. It is a sureal expirience and really puts you out of common surroundings. Humans were never meant to survive in a vertical environment. I got to My mates place by about 0830 and waited for him to ready himself for the days endurance activity.

We reached the mountain by about 1030 and started climbing at 1100. I did the first 3 pitchs and my mate did the next 2. I did the 6th and he did the 7th in true style as there is no protection at all for this 25 metre pitch. A complete solo but the grade is only 10 so it's not so couragous. That being said, you never know when a rock will come off in your hand and send you packing down to your demise. I love it more than you can imagine. Living out there on the edge. It keeps the blood moving.

We were behind scheduale and true Nengi form we completed the climb just as the sun was going down. It gives a great opportunity for some nice sunset photography at 200 metres above the ground. The real issue at hand though is that we have to climb down about 300 metres of 50 degree rock on the other side of the mountain to get back to the bottom. We had 1 head lamp between the 2 of us but managed to reach the bottom unscathed.

All in all it was a 12 and a half hour day from start to finish and now I am back here working my little butt off as usual. I can't wait till next weekend. I'm heading back to Mt Maroon. Should be very interesting. Hopefully I don't have the same results as my last trip to Maroon (traversing the side of the mount, searching for the tourist trail). Should be great anyway.