Carrie takes the sharp end

I am happy to say that Carrie has caught the rock climbing bug! She doesn't exactly lust after new gear or stay up late researching new routes on internet forums like some people (ahem), but she was keen to climb on Saturday, and even more keen to lead.

Climbers normally work in pairs. One person leads the pair, installs gear in cracks for protection against a fall, does all of the route finding, and makes all of the decisions. The second climber just follows the leader and enjoys the climbing. Leading is harder, considerably more dangerous, but also more rewarding. Carrie wanted to lead. In climbing parlance, she wanted to take the sharp end of the rope.


The approach hike

So we woke up early on Saturday morning and made for Mount Hay- a climbing area in the Blue Mountains. We planned to climb Tom Thumb, which is a grade 13, 6-pitch, 150 m tall, moderate climb. With a 1.5 hour approach and return hike, this would make for a long adventurous day out with easy climbing.


After gearing up, we hiked through some beautiful dry forest and mallee scrub. Hiking 1.5 hours to get to a climb isn't too bad when you have such beautiful country all to yourself.

We weren't completely alone. We stumbled upon this red-bellied black snake sunning itself on the trail. Red-bellied blacks are pretty tame by Aussie standards (i.e. a bite isn't immediately fatal), but you still don't want to mess with them.

 This was Carrie's first snake sighting down under, so she was appropriately scared.

Down

You may have heard that some things are backwards in Australia, like the seasons and flushing of toilets. Well, rock climbing here is also a bit backwards, in that you often start at the top of the climb, rappel down to the base of the climb, and then climb out. Every time we climb this way it feels strange to me. I'd much prefer to look up at a distant peak for my goal and motivation, rather than start at the top, rappel to the bottom, and climb back up to the starting place. Oh well- "when in Oz".

At the top- ready to go

Carrie- mid rappel

We had a bit of a scare between the first and second rappel, as we managed to get our rope stuck in the anchor of the first rappel station. While I contemplated climbing the rope using friction hitches, Carrie just pulled hard, and freed the rope.

After three long rappels, we were at the base of our climb. This had the true feeling of an adventure; we were now in a secluded valley of the Blue Mountains National Park, with no man-made structures in sight, and there was no way out other than to climb.

Up

We found the small cairn marking the bottom of Tom Thumb, and prepared our equipment. As Carrie would lead the first pitch, she took all of the protection gear, while I took the backpack with our sandwiches, the water, and our spare rope.

"Hey Carrie- show me your rack!"

Carrie lead the first pitch, clipping bolts and placing gear with ease.  I was impressed. She finished the pitch, established a solid anchor, put me on belay, and I climbed up to join her.


The second pitch was a different story. It started with a particularly burly grunt of a move with no possible protection- a nightmare scenario for a beginning leader- so I lead the pitch. I didn't exactly show off my leading skills, as I managed to get lost for half an hour trying to find the non-existent bolts for the next belay station. I found a ledge that would do, built an anchor with gear, and belayed Carrie up.

Carrie took the lead for the next pitch, which finished in a cave with a nice view. It was a hot sunny day, so we enjoyed the short reprieve.

Shady caves are nice on hot sunny days

After a few more pitches of climbing, we made it to the top, collected our cache of shoes and water, and hiked back to the car.

It was a fun and fulfilling day the mountains. There's nothing quite like the feeling of standing at the top of a long climb, hands on your hips, and surveying what you've done.

Science, suspended from a crane

I keep a mental list of the unexpected and memorable experiences that I've had as a biologist, mostly as a tool to survive the boring tedium that is a part of science. I've netted bats at night in a tropical rain forest, accidentally set expensive electronics on fire, blasted tree leaves out of a forest canopy with a shotgun, been held at gunpoint by the police for shooting trees with a shotgun, given presentations to hundreds of people at international conferences, and traveled to places of incredible beauty.

I added to my list last week.

I had the opportunity to cruise around a forest canopy, suspended 20-30 meters off the ground in a crane bucket, and measure the photosynthetic rates of some Eucalyptus trees.

There are three scientists in the yellow bucket suspended from the crane.

We are exposing plots of a eucalypt forest to elevated concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, in an attempt to understand how these forests will respond to the continuing increase in global CO2 concentrations caused by human activities. The large pipe structures are the infrastructure used to deliver the additional CO2 into the forest canopy. You can read more about the experiment here.




These are tall and mature trees, so it's challenging to actually get to the leaves. Here's how we do it:

First, one of the site engineers uses a remote control to drive the crane and sets up a bucket to hold the scientists.

Then, we harness up, load the bucket with instruments and sampling equipment, and get inside. the engineer gets inside with us and moves the crane by remote control. The crane picks up the bucket and takes us for a ride into the canopy.

Top-down view of the relatively sparse Eucalypt canopy.
The central structure is a walk-up tower- an alternative way to get into the canopy.

There are six experimental rings, each with its own crane.

We go up and over the ring infrastructure, and then down into the canopy to find some leaves to measure.

Vinod and Kristine

Once we arrived at our target tree, I had to put my camera away to do some actual work. Crane time is expensive and limited, so we had to make the most of it. 

Measuring leaf  photosynthesis from a canopy crane

Science is awesome.

Dark Colors for Fall - No Thank You!

Clothes

      I finally did it. After being here a month and a half, I bought some clothes. I had hoped that I would last longer, but everything I own seems too hot. Also, I have a feeling that I stick out like a sore thumb in town wearing the majority of my clothes. I have yet to see Chaco sandals anywhere! Don't worry though, I am not giving those up... How could I with my wonderful tan lines.

       I know, I was talking about clothes and here I go mentioning shoes. It's all relatively similar; and my tan lines are getting outrageous and worth documenting.

      Back to the point. I gave in today and bought some clothes from the 80's. No, I did not get these from a second hand shop. They were brand new. Does anyone want to get me a phone the size of my head to go with it? I'm afraid if I get John any shirts, I will have to nick name him Zack Morris. Of course now that I am looking for an example everything online looks normal. I promise though, you need sunglasses to walk into clothing stores... Lots of pastels and neon!!!
Here is what I got:

Be advised - Shirts are much brighter than they appear.

The pattern on this one is made up of little flamingos!!

I exaggerated a little bit about the 80's. The clothes are super comfy and cute on. However, here is some useful information for when you come visit. Fanny packs, brightly colored wife-beaters, short shorts (for men), and ridiculously patterned leggings are definitely in fashion.


Cheers,
Carrie

Rock Climbing at Mt. Piddington

We were treated to a cool reprieve to the Aussie summer heat on Sunday, so we headed back up to the blue mountains for another day of climbing. Three of us went on the trip; Carrie and I took our new friend Markus along for the adventure. Markus is a visiting scientist from Austria, and he was excited to get out on some rock during his stay in Australia.

On the way up, we stopped for pie. Who wouldn't stop for pie?

Rock climbing with a party of three introduces some logistical challenges which slows things down, necessitating a lot of chatting and lounging at the bottom of the wall. Markus took a time-lapse video of our first climb, which nicely illustrates how three people climb a route. See his video here (thanks Markus!).  This was a relatively easy route (grade 13) named Joseph, at Mt. Piddington.

First, one person leads the route, placing pieces of protection in cracks to protect against a fall. Another person belays, and the third person sits about, looks pretty, and takes lots of pictures. The leader finishes the climb, builds a solid anchor at the top, and is lowered to the ground. Second, another person climbs the route, collecting the pieces of protection. Third, the third person climbs the route. Fourth (and most redundantly) the first person re-climbs the route, takes down the top anchor and rappels back to the ground.

Here are a few photos of Markus on the route, learning to hand-jam like a champ.

We climbed a few more routes, had a grand ol' time, and scrapped the hell out of our knuckles and ankles playing in the wonderful sandstone cracks of Piddington. Carrie even did some leading, which was fun.

Look Ma! I finally got a proper helmet!

I lead a fairly hard (for me- grade 17) route called Flack Crack, which started with 20m of heart-pumping strenuous lay-back climbing. Thank you, random stranger, for letting me borrow some big cams on the route. Have I mentioned that Aussies are friendly? They are.

Flake Crack

In the waning evening light, we trudged back to the car, only to find a flat tire. It was a small price to pay for an otherwise wonderful day in the mountains.