Bill Hatcher Photography

Climbing the Moai, Tasmania

When people ask me why I climb I tell them it's because of the places rock climbing can take me. A recent adventure climbing the Moai in the Tasman National Park, Australia is a perfect example. This 35 meter sea stack off the coast of Tasmania has got a spectacular setting. There were three rappels to get to the base of the Moai Tower, with climbing to be done to get back out. Talk about committment!

The climb is rated 18, and is two pitches. But with the crashing waves, howling wind, and isolated location, it is full value adventure.

A bed of flowers on the summit greets the climbers. What better way to top out on one of Tasmania's classic sea towers.

 

 

 

Urban Rock in Brisbane, Australia

This past weekend I was urban cragging at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane. Brisbane is Queensland's biggest city and on my first visit to the city I discovered it has a great climbing area right in the city limits. So on my second visit to the city I brought along a rope and some draws (maybe a couple of cams or stoppers would have been nice as well). The crag is located at Kangaroo Point and the 15 meter high cliffs along the Brisbane River is in clear view of about a million office workers who occupy the skyscrapers just across the way.

 
On the warm winters weekend Melanie and I visited the crag it was like opening day of a salmon run.

Photo rigging harnesses: What works for me

It seems that lately I have been spending a fair amount of my time sitting in a harness. So I thought I should review the three harnesses I use and explain why anyone would require three harnesses.

My regular climbing harness is the Petzl Adjama.

It's a size med and the waist belt, at it's most snug tightness, just fits my 30-31 in. waist.  I like the Adjama because it's light weight, well vented for the warm climates and has adjustable leg loops for when I find myself in heavier clothes for snow and Ice. It also has 4 bomber wide gear loops. I almost never use this harness in rigging for my photo shoots. It's ok for a short hang at a belay, but not comfortable for long hangs.

 

 

 

 

For that I have two other harnesses. my light weight rigging harness is the Black Diamond Big Gun (about $115 US). There's a third party video review (here) .

Besides being light this harness  also stuffs into a small stuff sack making it my choice for an expedition and climbing rigging harness. It's well vented, has 7 gear loops (you can never have too many I say and none of these gear loops looks like they will break) it has leg loop adjustments (important for a truly versatile crag/mountain harness) and has the ever important wide belt and wide leg loops for comfort during long hours of hanging on a rope or a belay. The harness also has two belay loops. Thedouble belay loops are really important for rigging. As they make it easier for me to organize my harness rigging. I like having the safety daisy of my upper ascenders on a separate belay loop than that of my lower ascender (or Croll if I am ascending a free hanging rope). The belay loop that I use for my lower ascender on is also the loop I use for my Grigri or rappel device. I find it's easier to do the change-over from rope ascension to rope rappel if the upper ascenders safety line is separate from the loop the rappel device is clipped into. The second loop can also be used if you are using a directional rope to pull you to the side for a photo angle. But if I am doing this kind of rigging and if I plan to be in my harness all day I would much rather take my heavy weight harness.

 

The Petzl Navaho Bod Croll ($450 US) is my heavy weight choice for a rigging harness and It's the latest addition to my harness collection. I use this harness for vertical rope access, that is rope work where I will rarely if ever touch my feet to anything but my ascender feet loops. This might be for caves, giant trees or to shoot pics of someone sending a project on a massive over hang, In the Navaho Bod harness I have the smallest size the Navaho comes in and I can tell you I have every strap done nearly as tight as they will go including the shoulder strap. Those smaller than me, I am 5'8 with a 30 in. waist, will have to wait for Petzl to come out with an extra small version.

As you can see the Navaho is both a waist and over the shoulder harness set up. It comes in about 4 configurations, my harness is the total package called the Bod Croll) The shoulder set-up on my Petzl Navajo comes integrated with a Petzl Croll ascender. This is a perfect set-up for ascending free hanging rope. My harness probably weighs well over five pounds when it's fully rigged with my Petzl ascender, Croll ascender, 3 locking biners and my 12 mil 20 ft. directional line and ART positioner. What's great about this harness is it is a no compromise system. You can do anything in this all day long. Every part of the harness is tested to full strength. The harness has a main front D-ring as well as directional D-rings on both sides and back of the waist harness and a D-ring on the back of the shoulder harness. If I have a complaint it is that the main D-ring in the front will not easily fit 3 large locking biners. The only reason I would have three biners up front is sometimes I like to keep my positioner in the front D-Ring . A big bonus is you can make this harness much lighter because you can remove the  shoulder harness if you are not planning to climb vertical ropes. In this way the harness can be used as a waist system only.  The waist harness has several strong gear loops that I have no worries about clipping in gear bags with expensive cameras and lenses. The leg loops are adjustable, the gizmo that Petzl uses to adjust the leg loops is a really trick device, but I find it to be bulky, heavy and way over-built. To get in the harness you just step into the waist and leg loops and then pull together two buckled straps that cinch the harness around your waist. Getting this harness on is fast and I can be clipped into a vertical line and ascending safely in seconds. If you need to add a jacket it's easy to get out of the shoulder harness to put on a jacket while still clipped to the rope. I first used this harness for a recent assignment for National Geographic and during the two weeks on ropes I only used my Black Diamond Big Gun harness once.

 

So that covers the three harnesses that I like to use. Every harness is a hugh improvement over the old Petzl Jump harness I used to use.

 

Arapiles: Favorite Rock Pile

The best trad rock climbing in the world has to be in Arapiles, Australia. I am just back from my second visit to "Raps" where I spent a week climbing the easy grades. It's the rock quality and natural lines that make Arapiles so exceptional.  From the distance Arapiles doesn't look like much more than a pile of slag, But up close, I mean really up close, you'll find nearly every square millimeter of this pile to be beautiful, at least to the eyes of a rock climber. This time around I spent the non-climbing moments in the  morning and evenings wandering around the place, exploring the crags and photographing good looking rock. Yep, I was wishing I could climb grade 25 (5.12) so I could power-up up some of Arapilies finer climbing lines. Maybe on my next visit.

A bird pauses under the north face of Death Row Pinnacle

View of the Tasman Sea from Windjammer Wall

This isn't a climbing shot, but it gives you an idea of the steep cliffs at Point Perpendicular. The climbing here is considered the best sea cliff climbing in Australia. We have to agree that the cliffs certainly put your right over the water. We climbed at Point Perpendicular on the only day I didn't bring a camera with me. On the morning I took this photo high winds kept all the climbers off the sea cliffs. But the wind didn't ruin the spectacular views on top of Windjammer Wall. 

Compact Adventure Camera: Nikon D-300s

 

Any talented person can create a great photo from any camera handed to them, but for adventure photography you have to haul all your gear with you so you need to keep things light. I usually shoot my assignments with a Nikon D-3s or Nikon D-700. Those are big heavy do everything cameras and usually more camera than I need or want to carry on some of my adventure shoots. So I began looking for a compact camera that gave me the professional performance of an SLR. After a brief search I decided if you want SLR performance you need to get a SLR. I just got myself a Nikon D-300s.  I was in the Blue Mountains this weekend and these are the first images from the camera.

Warrumbungles National Park: What's in a name

 

This photo is of the 300 meter Belougery Spire in the Warumbungles Range of NSW Australia. The name of this park is primarily what motivated me to jump in the car with my wife Melanie and drive 7 hours north for a visit. OK there is also the parks reputation as having some of the longest rock climbs as well as oldest rock climbing history in Australia. You can find Warrumbungles National Park here. If you use the Warrumbungles latest climbing guide aptly named "The Warrumbungles", printed as an insert in Rock Magazine way back in Jan. 1994, you will quickly discover what he means when the author Mark Colyvan writes "I hope you too have the opportunity to experience their special charm". I am still cleaning the lichen from my climbing gear and purchasing a  compass is at the top of my must-do-before-I-return-to-the-"bungles"-list. Since we had only a couple of days Melanie and I spent most of that time hiking around the Grand High Tops loop trail, checking out the big bad spires and meekly returning to the valley to climb on the smaller crags below Split Rock.  Will I return? Yes most definitely! As an old desert rat the spires of the Warrumbungles are near copies of the desert spires of my home country right down to the doubtful rock quality and committing wilderness feel. 

photo details: Nikon D3s, 24-70 2.8 lens with a 5 stop split ND filter, 1/5 sec. F9 on a Gitzo tripod, clearing rain storm in the High Tops waiting for the morning light that never showed.