Work!

...At last! I am now officially employed as a fundraiser, aka street pest. First time working in a position even remotely related to sales/charity donations so it will be interesting to see how good/bad I am at it. Initial signs from the training session on Friday are fairly positive, I talk fairly confidently about the charity in question and don't get as self conscious or tongue tied as some of the other new recruits. Time will tell whether or not I am capable of bullying, ahem, persuading people that signing up to donate to charity every month is a good idea.

Well, I have climbed at four different Melbourne climbing centres in the last couple of months and they are quite a mixed bag. The first, and worst, was Hard Rock (CBD venue) where the routes are repetitive, unimaginative and generally unpleasant, new route setting is non-existent and almost all the walls are at, or very close to, vertical angle. The second location was the Lactic Factory bouldering wall which is quite reasonable if you are into that sort of thing, but bouldering and I tend to studiously ignore one another which is probably mutually beneficial. Lactic could also do with some longer problems, some that traverse a bit perhaps and a few more volumes to add some angles and variation. Next up is the Cliff Hangar which benefits from twenty metre high walls so a climb feels like a proper undertaking and quite satisfying to finish off. There are a good, no, wait, excellent range of angles at Cliffhangar with some good route setting and really friendly and laid back staff, the entry price is also superb at just ten bucks (I know that might not sound good but in Australia, it's revolutionary). My favourite centre however is Bayside, which has good route setting, wonderfully rough wall surface and beautiful holds that were all designed and made in house _and_ air conditioning, the place just doesn't stop giving. Bayside also has a superb variety of wall angles including a lead wall I am just itching to get onto (retard rule: You must pass a leading test in every centre individually before you are allowed to lead there and half ropes are verboten) which sort of resembles a massive prow overhang into a horizontal roof into a very steep wall. And the very best thing of all about indoor climbing in Melbourne? The ease of travel to each centre is inversely proportional to how good it is. Thus Hard Rock is actually in the middle of downtown while Bayside is about ninety minutes drive away :(

Me on Ergonomics (26)

Right, enough about indoor shenanigans, the weather has been more than cool enough (seriously at odds with the seasonal expectations) for some proper climbing out at Arapiles and I have had the good fortune to climb a fair few trad lines and redpoint Station to Station (25) and Ergonomics (26) sport routes. I have had a brief play on the superb continuation of Station which is Final Departure (27) but after doing ergonomics the same day I failed pathetically and only just managed to pull myself to the top with the aid of the rope, ho hum, will have to return with a shunt and a good block of time.

No post would be complete without a rant about something so today's rant will be directed at Melbourne City council, or whichever part thereof is responsible for the 10 foot high barricades being affixed to the sides of the West Gate bridge. The justification apparently being that it should stop people throwing themselves or other people off said bridge....
WHAT
THE
FUCK??
Hands up everyone who thinks its possible to fence off every single high place a person can walk or scramble up to? What, no hands? Ok, now we have that established, assuming one actually wants to reduce suicides, can anyone give me a single reason why the money for said barrier should not have been put into counselling services for the suicidally possessed? No again? Final question, if I can figure this out through idle musing in about 5 minutes, why can't a large group of people whose job it is figure it out? Well done Melbourne city council.

Couldn't resist :)