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Published: August 27th 2007
loving the chimney
Damo leading the way, and wishing he had Nowra jugs to work with instead!Jono and I decided this weekend to get off the beaten track and climb some where quieter that we had not been before. Last time we tried this, we ended up sleeping in a gravel pit and climbing underneath someone who was throwing chunks of cliff on top of us. This time we opted for a secluded forested valley with towering granite gorges on both sides. Dark, damp, mossy, eerie. Perfect.
After about a 30 to 40 minute walk we found ourselves in the valley of Shaddai looking up at a 10.C (Aust. 19) finger crack. We both had a go on it and deemed it worthy of setting up a top rope so we could have a few goes on it. (I know, non-climbers think we are strange enough to want to do things like this once let alone spend hours on it. But, horses for courses etc) Anyhoo (that is anyhow with a Canadian accent) we set up a top rope and I was belaying Jono while busily trying to convince myself that all those sticks breaking and rocks rolling down the gully were being caused by a bunch of people. Though they were not talking, and were
managing to make quite a bit of noise. I was still happily playing my denial game when Jono looked down and said “Dahna, it’s a f**&in bear. Get up here now.” I did not even turn my head. I just knew instantly that it was no use continuing to play games with myself. I have NEVER climbed so fast. A stretch of about 6 meters that took me maybe five minutes to climb the first time took me about five seconds! And without climbing shoes! I was just climbing and tying knots behind me, and then climbing more, not looking back, and feeling like my heart beat was going to burst my head. I do not think I have been that scared for a long time. This was a similar level of fear to that time that a Sydney gang come and broke up our beach party with knives and karate - but that is a different story from a different life - when I was 16. When I was safely out of bear - reach, we started yelling and making noises and it ran away - in the direction that we had to walk to get home. Black bears
are generally more aggressive than grizzlies, and although most of the time they will still run away, there are some times that they will get aggressive instead. Unfortunately it is those times that you read about, and that run through your head when you are having an encounter. We made so much noise on the way home, clapping sticks and stones, reciting the alphabet - A is for anxious, B is for Bear, C is for casual, cool, collected, courageous… etc. I was feeling pretty wiped out and tired when we started walking from the car, and the bear definitely woke me up! It also made an end to our climbing, for that day.
That night we managed to squat in a campsite under the Chief (Damo had camped with a couple of guys from the States, who were happy to share their spot for a bit of money). The next day we were still all feeling a little weary (may be partly due to the two jugs of beer consumed in the pub to accompany the bear de-briefing session!) and the weather prediction was for rain, so we abandoned the Grand Wall multi-pitch idea for a day of
cragging under the Chief. We still got a full day in of climbing, and did one five pitch climb, which was awesome. That night we ate burritos and salad on the wharf with Damo. Talking to Damo and Jono I temporarily thought we were back home, until I cast my eyes over the glacial-turquoise ocean to that grand wall of granite and remembered where we were. We slept under pouring rain, waking up to wet rock and a kinked neck (Jono), so we went home Sunday morning, gave Jono a massage with some deep heat and watched movies. Now for another work-week leading up to another weekend, filled with rock, sunshine and no bears (hopefully). Actually, I hope there are lots of bears happily existing, just not quite so close!
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