Last minute plans were made to to head south to Mt Gibraltar, near the town of Mittagong. It was an amazing day for climbing, still pleasant in the rock even in full sun.
The climbing was very slabby, only the tiniest ripples in the rock were available to smear feet on, requiring delicate and deliberate moves. Not a style of climbing that I do often, but it was nice change.
After a couple of challenging climbs we attempted an open project, a bolted climb that hasn't seen an ascent yet. We gave it out best but it was too difficult, but it was fun to try to figure out the mind and body bending moves.
It was mid-afternoon so we decided to climb a nearby multi-pitch to the summit, rather than hike out from the ground. The first pitch was a simple short slab, the second pitch started with a short section of laybacking up a decent sized crack.
It was my turn to lead so I started up the crack, making my way to the top I grabbed a hold on the arete and put all of my weight on it to haul myself over the top. The next moment I'm falling, pulling off a large section of rock, thankfully falling away from any ledges and heaving the rock well beyond my belayer.
I ended up suspended in air below my belaying, having pulled him into the air during my fall.
Undeterred I made my way back up the crack, successfully this time, before onto some more slabby climbing. The sun began to set as I belayed Patrick on the final pitch, we topped out in fading light to a beautiful sunset.
The only thing that remained was to haul our bags up the fixed line we abseiled down in, then a short walk back to the car and home.
More photos here
