A Vertical Life review by Steve Kelly ‘It’s easy when you’re strong.’ Ben Moon So, you’ve decided to build a Moon Board, or perhaps you don’t know what one is but have heard about it. For those that haven’t seen or used one, the bare bones of it are this: the Moon Board is a 40 degree overhanging ‘woody’, built to spec. The angle, T-nut spacing and hold alignment are mapped according to the Moon Board specifications available for download…
A couple of months ago I was working in the Numinbah Valley, a picturesque locale in the Gold Coast Hinterland. Within shouting distance of the NSW border, a return journey to Brisbane takes about three hours. Nevertheless, it was worth the trip to hear about Josh Worley’s plans for 2018, even though I didn’t have time to enjoy the delicious dinner his partner had graciously prepared (…sorry, Bec!). Not long before, after a session at Frog Buttress Josh and I had…
The Blueys are wonderful: tall gums tower over a deep-green understorey filled with birds and beasts, while sinewy trails cut through those forests, leading to mighty cliffs that lift up the plateau and set it above the lowlands, where they are battered by cold winds and bathed in the soft light of setting suns. And it is all right there, on the doorsteps of a thriving community. But that access comes at a cost – proximity to civilisation. In much of the Blueys you feel as if you are…
We speak to Sam and Liam Healy, identical-twin crushers from Sydney who prove that no matter how similar two people may be they will still not climb boulders the same way. Sam and Liam have been climbing extremely well of late. At home in Sydney, recent ticks for Sam have included Double Demerit (V13; which seems to have dropped a grade of late from V14), One of a Kind (V13), Deep Blue Sea (V12; down from V13), Tyler Durden (V12)…
Ryan Siacci outlines the beauty and the (tips) carnage of the upcoming Passchendaele V2 Bouldering Festival, which is happening the weekend of 20 October. Exactly a century ago, the Allies and the Germans were engaged in a terrible and titanic struggle as they fought for control of the land around Ypres, Belgium. Some of the bloodiest battles of the Great War took place in the apocalyptic hellscape near Passchendaele, a small village reduced to a smouldering ruin by years of…
Precious Object JJO’brien – Coolum Cave Community Stick-Clip It could easily have been my knee pads: shared amongst so many of Australia’s climbing illuminati, they contain enough genetic material to breed a one mutant super climber. Or my Dr Dre’s that keep the madness at bay. My Red Chili’s, my Volleys. But truly it would have to be, and it’s not strictly mine, the Coolum Cave Community Stick-Clip. Without it the cave would be just an inaccessible stack of dangerous improbabilities….
