MOUNT ARAPILES

Last time I wrote, I was getting psyched up about our trip to Mount Arapiles. I think I explained this last time, but having been there I can say it again: Mt. Arapiles is the most awesome place around for climbing trad! Basically, it's this giant lump of rock sitting in the middle of a seemingly limitless flat plain. When you climb to the top of the rock, you can see for miles and miles and miles. It's completely flat, something that I haven't had too much experience with and that is really quite weird. It's so flat that the world just seems to end, except for a dim outline of the Grampians a fair way off.

The trip itself took about 13 hours of driving, which Tom and I split and broke up with small (sometimes big) diversions like a ramble through the birthplace of Black Caviar (a race horse), a gawk at the dog on the tuckerbox, a giant merino ram, and a reflection on the exploits of Ned Kelly. It was a pretty cool little trip, actually. No wait, make that a big trip. 13 hours is a long time to sit on one's duff.

The Big Merino, conveniently located near a petrol station and a McDonalds. Road tripping in Australia is more of an art, and apparently is taken very seriously.

Once we got there, we picked a camp spot, set up our tent and our mess area, whipped out one of our 20 liter jugs of water, pulled out the sleeping bags and Therm-a-Rests, and BAM! Our home for a week was established.

Home sweet home! If you look closely you can see our scrambled eggs ready for the pan in the tupperware on top of the cooler. Nom nom!

On a side note, I love camping! I like falling asleep around dark-time and waking up at light-time, and not really worrying about how many hours (and days?) have passed. I even love not having to shower. It was so dry out there that any sweat was instantly evaporated, and there was none of that sticky oppressiveness that is common in Sydney and Virginia. At night, the temperature plunged so that we needed our fleecy pants and puffy jackets, which was a dream to sleep to. Also at night, this weird noise would occasionally sound, and we spent 3 days trying to figure out what it was. Finally we noticed a tawny frogmouth sitting in a tree and the pieces came together. Falling asleep to crickets and birds is so much better than neighbours' muffled television sets, road noise, and airplanes...

Anyway, we lucked out with the weather and got 3 solid days of sunny, mild weather. We also got 1 day of hot weather and 1 day of really effing hot weather. It was so hot and dry that I didn't know how much I was sweating, just sitting there in my folding camp chairs, until I shifted slightly and felt a cool patch rapidly disappearing as my sweat evaporated. I read a fair bit of War and Peace that day as it was too hot to climb until the sun sank a bit lower in the sky. Sharing our shady spot with us was the tawny frogmouth mentioned earlier and a big, fat dragon, both of which looked miserably hot. Every now and again the tawny frogmouth would protest about the weather and shift position. We knew it was time to go climbing when both of them decided it was cool enough to move.

As for the climbing itself, it was pretty fantastic! On our first day there we hired a guide to teach us a little about the rock in the area, and also to critique our gear placement skills. He also showed us some nifty tricks for setting up anchors, which were immediately useful and appreciated (we forgot to bring enough slings on one of our first climbs!). I had never really placed gear before, nor built anchors, so it was all very new and exciting. I also had only ever done one "big" climb before (see Sweet Dreams), so putting it all together at once was a bit scary, to be honest. I'm lucky Tom has had lots of practice guiding from his previous exploits or it might have been really scary.

That's me in a high place! 

For those of you who are interested in the more technical bits, the hardest grade we climbed was a 10 (Australian grade, don't even ask me what that means in American and European grades) and that was enough for me! The climbs we completed included:

• Guiding Light Variant (4) [eh...]
• Hammer (4) [my first trad lead ever!]
• Exodus (6) [AWESOME!]
• Marshmallow Sea (7) [not my favourite climb!]
• Revolver Crack (7) [AWESOME!]
• Trooper One (7)
• The Deviant (7) [Loved it!]
• Diapason (8) [SO GOOD!]
• Spiral Staircase (8) [long one!]
• The Deacon (8) [AWESOME!]
• The Nude Ballloon Dance (8) [AWESOME!!]
• The Priest (8) [SO GOOD!!]
• Holdup Line (10) [Spicy bits!]

 The hardest I led was a 7, but I led bits on most of the climbs we did which added up to lots of practice! Every climb had some sort of 'spiciness' factor, whether it was exposure, coming out over a bulge, or even stepping over a void. We used heaps of small cams, lots of small nuts, a few RP's, and even a few hexes and tricams! Tom managed to place 3 hexes in one pitch, and I managed to place two solid tricams in one of my pitches (granted it was more of a scramble than a climb!). Natural protection abounded, and there were quite a few instances where all you needed for a bomber anchor was a bit of creativity and a few slings. I definitely would recommend Mt. Araps to anyone who is looking to have a good time climbing and can stomach a big long roadtrip. I am committed to keeping up my strength and fitness so that next time we go back I can explore some higher grades and try some of the routes recommended to me. I've got the bug it seems! We are already scheming about which routes we will try when we go back...

***

In other news, the time for my visa assessment has arrived! According to my calculations, yesterday was the first day that the Department of Immigration, henceforth Dimmi, would have even looked at my file. Assuming maximum efficiency of both Dimmi and Australia Post (a big ask, I know), Wednesday will be the first day that I can start looking in the mailbox with bated breath. The stakes are high on this gamble: six more months of my life gone to waste in retail plus the loss of a scholarship (alternately, if I decide to just eat the cost of international tuition, a buttload of cash). So, yes, I am a little stressed. Thinking about it makes my stomach ache. I will let the world know via this and other outlets when I am done with this silly waiting game, and quite possibly throw a party, so keep your eyes peeled and your fingers crossed if you please!