Finally some progress

Progress in the form of a highpoint. The next best thing if there is no red point when you have been on a project for what seems like a lifetime. I have mentioned on my blog a few times about a route which has given me grief since I started to work it. The classic, very inspirational, awesome route Poopherator, 31. I have NEVER worked a route for so long, I have never even thought I’d be motivated enough to work such a route for this period of time, but here we are 4 years into the saga. Now it’s not like I have been on it consistently for those 4 years, in this time a lot has happened. In fact I actually received a call from Charles Sturt University with my acceptance getting into my degree under neither the route. Now I have finished the degree and yet here I am. Feels like time has paused, a very peculiar feeling where everything and everyone has changed somewhat, yet this is surprisingly so familiar. I returned to this route about a month ago, since then it had probably been close to a year since I had jumped on it. Yet tying into the route, climbing the awkward log to start, and initiating movement on it, BAM everything was the same. I had not forgotten anything, weird. I returned to the route 2 weeks after that only to find a waterfall coming off the top and flowing across some of the crucial holds. There was no drying it out, it was a right off for the day, a training day. This route originally done by Steve Grkovic in 2002 has had many people struggle to complete it. One of those routes where you do the moves easily and say, “yup I got this”, only to have your arse handed to you. I started working this route with no less than 5 people, none of which have done it since. Though I am positive all of us will complete it eventually! I have done it a million times with one fall at the “driveby” crux, only to pull up the rope, do the move and go to the top. I had never done the move on link before. That was all about to change! I returned to the Mountains last Saturday. Conditions very humid as you might have guessed due to all the rain and heat. Anyway, that day I managed to do the driveby move on link 3 times. Awesome, I fell a few moves after on two occasions due to snatching a crimp wrong and therefore not being able to get my body in the correct position. My last go of the day when a storm was brewing and the temp had probably dropped a few degrees I managed to fall off going for a good gaston. If I had latched this move there is a little rest followed by one more committing move. So whilst I have not done the route (yet) I am happy for progress on it. Ill do it one day, and as it’s been so long for me to get this far I cannot even speculate how long it’ll be, though I now KNOW I can do it. That’s climbing huh. Thanks for reading. See you out there. Pete.