More Pooch Photos

Lia and Taisie chillin' during the last heat-wave


Tessa, who is Lia's Mixed Martial Arts training partner


Lia and Tessa "sparring" in the backyard

The new Ride

Preparing for my last climbing trip to the Darrans in New Zealand, I did alot of endurance and anaerobic endurance training on a mountain bike. What I really noticed, when comparing cycling to running, was the difference to my knees: a two hour endurance session on the bike still spanked me aerobically, but my knees were fine afterwards, not sore for days. And besides, ripping down Norton Summit at 70km/hr on a bike sure beats jogging as a descent mode.

So I am now officially bitten by the cycling bug, and have got myself an "off the rack" aluminium roadie:

This Summer I'll be working on the finer points of cycling, and maybe even some pretentious Euro Styling. I'm also going to be catching up on some rock climbing - I've only been on the rock once in the last 6 months!!!

Mental Challenges

Route: Classic Hits and Memories - 3+, III (which is a Darrans winter grade)
Location: MacPherson Cirque, the Darrans
Fun Factor: Intense cerebral mind f#ck for the first pitch, 5 out of 5 for the second pitch
Photo: Pete Amos

This was an amazing experience - we were buzzing wildly afterwards.

My reward for working out a sequence past the first 5 metres of protectionless off-width, was being in an un-retreatable position with no gear to lower myself down to safety.

Pitons and stubbie ice screws dangled uselessly at my harness as I got acquainted with the small blobs of frozen turf and edges of the slab, hidden somewhere under the dusting of snow. Having come to the realisation that the clarity and focus climbers experience in difficult situations wasn't going to happen, and the voices in my head were not going to shut up, I decided to take things one move at a time towards the thin ice out right.

Pete provided just the right amount of belayer encouragement - I guess he realised the seriousness of my predicament.

Around 12 metres off the deck, I pulled away a few loose pieces of rock from a protrusion from the slab, hoping to find a crack solid enough for a knifeblade. It went in, but way to easily, and it was still a few more body lengths to the ice. Bugger. I clipped it with a screamer and just kept on moving right, managing to find a better blade placement on the way.

Once on the ice, I felt great relief. It was thin, steep and offered only one stubbie screw and an ice thread for the rest of the pitch, but my tool placements were bomber. The voices in my head quietened. It was all smiles from there.

Recipe for a Darrans Winter Climbing Meet

Ingredients
20 climbers
20 pairs of cramp-ons
40 ice tools
Skis and one snowboard
An assortment of screws, pitons, wires and cams


In Homer hut, roughly combine all ingredients. Stir furiously with nationalistic taunts, practical jokes and a good splash of "taking the piss".

When thoroughly melded apply to thin, brittle ice over seamless granite, dusted with powder snow and a smattering of frozen turf. Alternatively, rise to a significant height then either descent rapidly on skis / snowboard or slog your way home via torch-light.

Season at night with the scent of smelly socks drying over the fireplace. Enjoy with gin, single malt or dark ale.


Random Photos
Afternoon alpenglow on Barrier Peak (viewed from the Homer hut balcony):


A class 2 slab avalanche releasing from Mount Talbot, down into MacPherson Cirque:

Steph enjoying the steep and funky second pitch on Gabites-Rogan (photo by Ron Dempster):

Enjoying another perfect day, this time it was lunch on Gertrude Saddle (Milford Sound is in the background):

Taisie (posting updated August 8th)

Things have changed for Taser. We're now calling her "Taisie", and she has got a permanent home with us. We had her de-sexed last Monday, and she is adjusting well to life with a bucket on her head.

Lia, our first dog, and Taisie didn't get along famously at first. There were a few fights and flying fur, however they have managed to sort their pack positions out and now peace reigns in the household. Life is good.

Lest We Forget

Back in high school days I used to march with the school brass band. It was one of the few school activities that made sense to me at the time, and I did it with pride. I didn’t know why I was proud to be there, it certainly wasn’t school boy war heroism. But I had an overwhelming feeling of conviction nonetheless.

Every year the media has to find new angles and stories to get our attention. This year the back-yard make over and ANZAC cake for a Kokoda track digger takes the first place award. Admittedly though, I usually read the newspaper. Our heroes this time were Victoria Cross recipients Keith Payne and Mark Donaldson, and rightly so. The Advertiser ran a pretty good story on what you would call an “ordinary soldier” by the name of Graeme Cornes (who also happens to be an old SANFL legend). We also read about the atrocities committed by ordinary men living in the brutality of war, including the “alarming” court martial statistics from WWII (it says a lot about the general public when the media uses history to shock us).

Last September I visited the Gallipoli Peninsula. I actually paid attention at school when we studied Australia at war, and surprised myself with how much information came back to me. But what amazed me, to the point of being overwhelming, was how small the battle grounds actually were. The battle at Lone Pine cost 2274 Australian and at least 4000 Turkish lives, and the area of the ridge is less than two soccer fields. I could walk around the battle ground faster than I could count to 6274.

Wandering around the cemeteries at Gallipoli I finally realized why I go to ANZAC day ceremonies. For me, ANZAC day is about remembrance: I remember the people whose lives will never be the same again, be they soldiers, civilians or those at home. I attend ANZAC day ceremonies so that we don’t forget the futility of war or the devastation it causes.

Drum Major, Saint Patrick's College Brass Band, Sydney ANZAC Day March 1989, wearing miniatures of my grandfathers WWII medals.

Canada - Random Shots...

I suck at skiing. Going uphill and along lakes is fine. Going down anything steeper than 10 degrees is bad for my freckle, and extremely hilarious for everybody else. I managed to get down the tree-lined trail from Healy Pass with only 2 crashes. Luckily Dan wasn't able to get any of the spills on film.




Skiing is one of the few outdoor activities I like doing when the temperature is 20 below. Craig at Kananaskis Village:


Enjoying sunshine and tucker after 850m elevation gain up Heart Mountain:


Slight problem with the windscreen squeegee:


This VW combi has been sitting in a paddock near Cochrane for decades. Apparently a couple living on the farm back in the sixties got divorced, and all she wanted was the van.

The myth was he built the roof, decking and walls around it, but later filled the van with concrete.

We jumped a fence and hiked up to check it out - there is no concrete, just a few hundred mice. Myth busted.


Thomas' first hike: