My First Outdoor Climbing Expedition
Caption: Me on a boulder in Burbage West
An unexpected journey to Burbage with a seasoned climber would be the start of my outdoor climbing saga.
I hope you enjoy this glimpse into how I lost my outdoor climbing v-card. I knew this day would come sooner or later, but I didn’t think it would pan out quite in the way that it did.
Change of plans
I have been indoor climbing regularly now for almost a year and a half. In my time doing so, I had always been fascinated by the idea of climbing out in nature.
I was chatting with a friend who was a long time climber. He and I had plans to go indoor bouldering later that day. In passing, I mentioned my interest in climbing outdoors. He said that we could go outdoor climbing instead if the conditions were favourable. So we pivoted our plans to climb outdoors instead.
Hello Burbage North
We arrived at Burbage North with the sun shining high up in the sky. As I was admiring the vista, I noticed one hand, then another, and eventually a whole human belly-first on the rock. They had just finished a route and were trying to mantle up the boulder.
Caption: Making our way to the boulders of Burbage North
We changed from our work attire out in nature before heading into the crag. We were carrying a crash mat each on our backs and were browsing the natural catalogue of bouldering options in front of us.
My friend suggested a boulder and we made our way there. I had a look as well and thought it looked pretty good. It had well defined ledges and shelfs, perfect to grab and to stand on.
Route 2 ascent
We settled down next to the boulder and started warming up. I watched as he made his way up Route 2 which I could tell was not too technical. It did seem slighly taller than some of the others nearby.
After warming up and changing into my climbing shoes, I established myself on the starting holds and began my ascent of Route 2.
Immediately I could tell how easy the route was, with generous jugs for my hands and spacious shelfs for my feet. I slowly and methodically made my way up towards the top in a zen-like flow.
After I reached the half-way point, I felt confident enough to make the next couple moves that got me almost within reaching distance of the top.
Caption: You can just about see Route 2
Suddenly I froze … it felt as though the buddhist monk controlling my mind was hijacked by an anxious deer. I could no longer think straight and it felt like there was no way for me to make it up any further.
Thankfully, my friend was very patient. He simply encouraged me to take whichever action I felt most comfortable with. He validated my desire to simply down climb.
I realised very quickly that down climbing was going to be a whole lot more challenging than to simply finish the climb. Somehow the buddhist monk took over my mind once more. Almost immediately, I spotted a perfect shelf to place my left foot which would give me the reach need to grab the top hold.
Slowly and methodically, I mantled up the boulder in much the same way as the the person at the start of my journey. I heard cheering and words of encouragement from my spotter standing down below.
Looking down at him, I could not find any words to say. All I could do was to breathe an exasperated sigh of relief and thank the universe for allowing me more time in my mortal coil.
And way up we DON’T go
After messing about a few more boulders with ridiculous grading, we packed up and headed to Burbage West. As a passing climber remarked, the rock formations at Burbage North were literally (aka figuratively) baking.
The shade provided by the setting sun at Burbage West meant the temperature would be a lot cooler, which apparently means better grip on grit (the type of rock at Burbage). I was stoked to try a couple more climbs and hopefully top them as well.
The trek to Burbage West, which was on the other side of a gorge, was short. But due to the weight of the pads, my backpack and the dodgy terrain, it was quite the workout to make the short walk.
We settled into a nice spot where there was a route allegedly graded well within my ability.
Spoiler alert … it most certainly wasn’t!
I made multiple attempt on a very technical boulder involving full crimping and rock over-ing, and heel hook-ing, and a whole lot of try hard-ing!
I decided to give up after five or so attempts. There are better ways to spend a peaceful evening than faceplanting on the mat over and over again.
I was then given a lesson on being the spotter for the first time. “Make sure I don’t boink my head against any rocks … no boinking.” Understood capt’n, no boinking.
Hyper-focused, I witnessed as he began his attempt of a route graded around 6c (correction, it was 7a!). I made sure no heads would boink any rocks. After a few cancelled attempts due to a misplaced crash mat, he eventually topped the boulder!
Caption: (Top to bottom) Views of the gorge; Sun setting on the horizon
We eventually winded down as the sun gently approached the horizon. Overall the trip was an overwhelming success.
Hope you enjoyed reading an account of my first outdoor bouldering experience. As always, feel free to leave a comment on Mastodon or email tony(at)tonytriesstuff(dot)com.
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Until next time,
Tony
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