In ‘Free Solo//(s)He Solo’, Emily Rudling tracks the differences between her surfing and climbing experience and examines gender in the film Free Solo ‘I love the twinkling sound of a trad rack.’ ‘Same,’ replies Sinead. ‘It’s soothing.’ We’re at a local crag and Sinead’s teaching me how to lead sport climbs. It’s raining, and no one else is about, and we’re talking about all the things we love about the sport we met through. We look up at the route…
Getting Organised: a Sport Climbing Victoria proposal – an open letter from Philip Goebel, president of Sport Climbing Victoria. With access issues in the Grampians front in mind within the Victorian climbing community, important questions have arisen about the governance of our sport and the community organisations with claims to represent climbers in Victoria. In fact, the access issues have highlighted our weakness in Victoria to get organised and present a coherent and unified voice to Grampians National Park stakeholders, in…
Moonarie is a special place, offering excellent climbing in a dramatic and lonely setting. Gerry Narkowicz spent Easter there leafing through the newly released guide to the Moon and ticking off classics Moonarie is a world class crag situated 450km north of Adelaide in the Flinders Ranges, Miles From Nowhere* to most people, but a place that every Australian climber should aim to visit at least once in their lifetime. Climbs such as Outside Chance (16), Pine Crack (19), Downwind…
Love climbing? Get your subscription to Vertical Life here. Natimuk local Mark Gould has established one of the best cracks in the Grampians. In late 2018 he freed an old aid line, originally teetered up by Neil Monteith some time in the distant past. Located in the Northern Grampians, Desert Crack goes at about 27 or 28, leans from right to left, is overhanging and constricts to thin fingers at the crux – what more could you want?
Right around the time that the ‘eight focus site’ bans were first declared by Parks Victoria I was driving into the Victoria Range. I had pulled over on the side of a dirt road, just off the Henty Highway in the shadow of Red Rocks. I was on the phone before I risked dropping out of reception when a dusty white ute rumbled to a stop. I was clearly on the phone but the driver looked at me waiting, clicking…
Love climbing? Get your subscription to Vertical Life here. In ‘The Pain The Pain!’ Ben Buckland asks why climbers seek out and embrace suffering and maybe finds it consuming a humble can of Orangina A few years ago I got really lost on a route in Chamonix. It wasn’t meant to be an especially big day out, just ten or so moderate pitches (with a long traverse section in the middle, just enough to make retreating a bitch) on a summer afternoon. Somewhere high…
