Day 1 of my daughter Anna's outdoor climb

It was so hot day in Sydney that one of my friends mentioned that he measured 41℃ in Penrrith around 3pm. The forecasted wind was about 25kms/h in Blackheath. I was looking for some shady easy routes without gust effect for the beginner climber. My thought was in Dam Cliffs with a swimming option.

As reaching Blue Mts it became cloudy a bit, and was cool at Medlow Bath. To save our time we popped into The Block.

The 1st climb was Ole Biscuit Barrel 15m (grade 13) in The Block. i know the grade here is hard for the number. She had some good experiences resting on rope. This south facing wall was well shaded even after 3.30pm. A gust brought our rope bag up in the sky while she was climbing. So it was the COOLEST climb.

Her 2nd climb was Manana 22m (13), west facing. So it was in the sun, however, was overcasted by that time. it was comfortable climb too.

Manana, a view from a bit back.

Trickles 21 at Narrabeen Slabs

See this video, as it's only 40 seconds. This wasn't me, but my friend. I was recording him last october. Last Saturday I went up a bit farther than him, but couldn't make it too. So its still our homework to find how to move. I hope it must not be so hard for me as its graded 21, but it probably requires the sequence that i don't move naturally. When I was on the rock I didn't have time to think much how to move as I constantly was fighting against gravity. Sounds very good puzzle, isn't it? It truely is.

camping and climbing in Nowra

I had a chance to climb at 2 areas in Nowra last week for the first time. One area was called Tompsons Point, the other side of the Shoalhaven river from Ski campsite. The crags we climbed were called Orca Area which was above those bolders left handside in the pic. That is West facing so we went there by a canue in the morning,

then a water dragon joined us.

The top of Snoop Dog was visible from our campsite.


The other area was called The Grotto Cliffline which was North of campsite and South West facing, 20 min speed walk through track. The track however never takes you to any crags unless you step into bush on your left.
Wary ticks. i got 3 bites, and my partner could not sleep for a whole night.

Nankeen Kestrel at Barden's

Last October I got the email below.

Rockies
Blue Mountains local Mitch Warren reports that there is a pair of Nanking Kestrels nesting in the cave three-quarter way up the above route. Anyone who has climbed this route will have seen the guano and bones littering the hole, which seems to have been abandoned in recent years.
It is probably best to stay off the route until nesting season has ended (mid to late summer?).
Regards

Niall Doherty

SRC President

Then I went Track Care this month.

= = = Jolley Good Fellow = = =

After the volunteer work I climbed Jolley Good Fellow which was the closest route to the nesting cave other than Hermione. I guess it's less than 3m away from the nest.
When I was at DRB I noticed one of the Nankeen Kestrels couple flew away. The falcon stayed at the most right of the wall (pic) which was above Hang on to Yourself and Lady Grinning Soul. The other was flying around, came back (pic) and forth to the nest many times. Later I feel sorry to them when i thought that if the latter was female which supposed to incubate eggs, though I was not close enough to see their nest nor eggs.
So I will stay away even from Jolley Good Fellow for a while to be a good jolley fellow to them. If you are a sport person, the warm up route would be Little Trigers (19) instead. Or Kooks (16) which is fully bolted except bottom 3m which is fairly easy.