Kyle Addy and I are usually out on adventurous terrain exploring bigger walls or building nests of wires and RPs built on sheer optimism. Sport is not our usual Saturday. 

Today was different though. I had taken a particularly brutal fall on a slackline in the park a few days earlier and was feeling worse for wear to say the least. So after a bit of faffing and important things like Coffee first we headed down to Kangaroo Point to do a casual morning rebolting. I’ll do a post on the climb later. It is a special addition to KP as one of the more quality mixed routes on the cliff.

After a late finish Kwan picked us up and we drove for a couple hours North arriving at Coolum around 3pm. A gentleman’s start to the day. 

Watching the strength and style needed to even have any a fighting chance of climbing anything at Coolum is an impressive thing to see. I think that when I am feeling sorry for myself in the heat on Queensland I am going to give some of my time to being humiliated by this cave. Strength is inevitable. 

Kyle celebrating getting to the top! Hooray!

Qwan is a great friend to have. Generous, smart and reliably excited about climbing. He has been to Coolum in the order of 50+ times working on some projects. It is inspiring to hear his insights and perspective on progress. Here are a few words from our drive back together.

“Coolum is a unique crag. When you walk in you’re greeted by a huge swath of overhanging rock that looks like a frozen wave ready to crash down on you. It’s hard to not be intimidated by the scale and difficulty of the rock. When I first climbed at Coolum I couldn’t make it past the first bolt of the easiest climb there. I’ve been to Coolum around forty times since then. One of the joys of Coolum is slowly turning the impossible into the possible. It can be a frustratingly slow process process but that’s the nature of projecting. Some days I’ll only make an extra move and others I’ll be completely shut down and I’ll realise my entire sequence needs to be reworked. When I first started climbed I told myself I would be satisfied if I ever climbed a 24, I’ve now climbed two 28s Spoonman and Call of Duty. I now warm up on my projects.” 

The photo is of Kwan on holy calamity, grade 26.
 

Thanks for all the stoke and insightful conversation, Kwan!

Thanks for the bolting experience and getting me out, Kyle!

Love you guys! XO