Climbing with the fam

After getting back from Cairns, Jess and I were greeted by my relatives who were here to see me (and, as it turned out, my new fiancee). I endured much cheek-pincing and "my, how you have grown"'s, but all in all, it was nice to see my extended family after such a long time.

The next day, I decided on a family-oriented climbing trip to Werribee Gorge. Did I mention the forecast was for 38 degrees? It did not disappoint. We arrived at the dry and dusty gorge all set with our picnic-ing gear, chairs, umbrella, esky, etc, and started down the track...only to find out it was a hilly 40 minute hike in the midday heat. Oops, my bad!

We actually did quite well, considering we didn't have a guidebook. I found what was 10b-ish (I'll let report what it is actually rated when I find out, I promise!) part-face, part-layback finger crack, part-off-width 28 metre climb to start off with, and my every member of my family apart from Mum had a good go. This being my family, I don't have any natural giftedness to fall back on...my siblings, and even my Dad, did almost as well as I, with far fewer sessions at Rock Oasis under their belts!

I then set up another top-rope at a 14-ish (around 5.6) climb that all my family was able to get up, even Mum. Yeah fam!

I then suprised myself by managing to get up what looked to be a tough sport lead. In the end, it must have only been around 10b, given my current state of feebleness, but it was so great to be getting back on the rock!