langles confronts technology: Arapiles 2007

love that arapiles rack

The anual Lorne conference was once again followed by a week of Arapiles mayhem. As well as the usual crowd (Neil, Ben and Tony), Yen, our US postdoc also tagged along. En route we perused Koalas on the Great Ocean Road, as well as the crumbling Apostles. It was then off to the pines where our dusty abode, camp scumbag, was set up. The bottom left of the pines turned out to be not so bad. Relatively flat and a short walk from the loo, but still miserable in a dust-storm. New discoveries this trip included the squeeze-through boulder (not recommended with bare feet), stumpy jerkey, daily swims in the dam (highly recommended), and rides in the halmock (a game involving ogive brine, a stomach and a halmock - not recommended). As usual, Neil (aka, The Punisher) was out to score as many route ticks a day as possible, which left the rest of us pretty trashed early on. I satiated my love of the big easy by climbing Eskimo Nell (10, with Yen), Dunes (13, with Ben), and a couple of others which I'm struggling to recall. As far as harder grades are concerned, Neil and I had a few intense sessions during which I managed to tick the much anticipated New Image (20), and Neil made valient attempts on Running on Empty (the theme of their drive down, 21) and the intimidating Cecelia (22), which involves a horrifying leap to a jug just to get on the climb. And how could I forget Neils foray onto Collision Course (22). Bees 4, climbers nil, but most amusing at times. Tony also cleaned the lovely Tannin (19), something he'd had his eye on for a while.

We were also treated to a spectacularly foggy morning, some impressive afternoon thunder clouds, and lots of interesting fauna (Yen was most intrigued), the odd goanna, echidna, and various styles of wallaby. Over the course of the week the oven was gradually being cranked up, draining us to the point of packing it in a day early. Not unusual for Feb though. We also managed a morning at the Gramps (Summerday Valley) before pulling up stumps and heading direction Halls gap to a stroll up a valley culminating in swimming in a refreshing waterfall.

En route back to Sydney, Yen and I travelled via Khankoban and the Alpine Way, strolling up Kosiousko, before the long boring drive back to Sydney.