having not climbed out doors for about six years, i was a little apprehensive about this trip to Portland, everyone else has been climbing indoors at least once a week over the winter and tales of grades far harder than I can even dream of have been filtering down to me.

the weather was awesome, (i’ve been saying awesome a lot in the last couple of days) and having only ever climbed granite and sand stone I was amazed at just how grippy the rock was, that certainly adds a lot to your confidence.

there were definitely times on some of the dodgy walk-ins that we did where i would have wanted to be roped in! carting around all that gear and walking down steep hills is no fun at all.

we stuck mainly to easy stuff, (grade 4) but i did have a crack at leading a climb called “ben” which was a grade 5, and had a fairly ominous write up in the book. I ended up getting to the top without any resting on the rope or falls, which i was well pleased about. On turning around on the top ledge i was rewarded with an awesome (that’s where it came from) view of the whole south coast and bright blue sea. I think it must have been adrenaline enhanced, because it didn’t look anything like as good from the cliff path above. the end of the first day provided the only chance for avoiding the “does my bum look big in this” climbing shots as we found an arete which the start was way below the rest area, so the photos were from above. the sun was setting behind us as we climbed and it was just so photogenic. it’s a shame that the pics make the climb look so easy!

the big battles of the weekend were definitely fought in the head, there isn’t the comfort zone of the coloured holds telling you where to go next, and falling off can hurt a bit more than your ego, so I’m sure when the mental battles are won I’ll be back at the bottom of the pile.

more photos after the fold… when they appear