Simon Madden finds out that just when you hubristically think you’ve heard all the stupid questions a message out of the blue can trump them all ‘How do you get the rope up there?’ ‘Why don’t you just walk around the back?’ ‘What are you carrying those mattresses for?’ ‘Do you wear gloves with hooks on them?’ I never tire of the stupid questions that non-climbers ask you when they find out you are a climber. They are also almost shockingly…
Jed Parkes solos every route in Arapiles Selected Climbs graded 16 and under WORDS: Jed Parkes, IMAGES: Simon Madden It has been argued that the preponderance of really high-quality easy routes at Araps is responsible for infantilising generations of Victorian climbers. The reasoning goes that you can have so much fun bumbling around very moderate grade routes as the movement is fantastic, the rock exquisite, the spread of different route types akin to the biodiversity of the Amazon basin, the exposure…
‘Hook, Line & Sinker’ Simon Bischoff trips the light fantastic on Flinders Island, where dreams come true and everybody lives The ferry to Flinders Island is about as sophisticated as vomiting on your own pants. It’s a cargo vessel, transporting everything from cattle to cantankerous fisherman. It’s not set up for regular tourists and when it finally docks on Flinders you feel pleasantly far from home. This trip – my third to the island – I travelled with photographer Olivia…
Angus Taylor reviews The Dawn Wall, which is currently showing around Australia. At first light, the Dawn wall is illuminated on the towering ship stern of sheer granite that is El Cap, and it holds all who see it in awe. The Dawn Wall film, in a similar way, shines with the brilliant light of Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson’s burning desire to climb it. The result is much the same – awe. In what some called ‘the moon landing of climbing’,…
Ross Taylor on why running and climbing are a match made in heaven. When I run I often think about climbing. When I am climbing I never think about running. There is something about this dichotomy that makes running and climbing perfectly complementary – the yin and yang of exercise. When I run my mind is like the washing machine that noisily bangs away in the laundry, constantly rotating with the dirty smalls of my day, thoughts roiling around in…
The Highest and Mightiest of all the Land – we tap into local knowledge to unearth the contenders for the best big blocs in Oz Here they are, ten of the most tremendous highballs from around Australia, one from each state and (nearly every) territory (except the Northern Territory because it’s a land of mystery and should remain so). This list is not like other lists, which are completely subjective, instead this one is filled with FACTS. Because, as people…
