Friday, July 16, 2010

Reprobate

This morning I went for my annual East end of Rundle tour and soloed the classic Reprobate. I must have done this outing at least 10 times over the years and although it might sound boring, it always presents the necessary challenge for me. It's not like you remember every move or even pitch, since there are probably 12 or 14 of them on this 400 meter wall. I actually never climbed the route on a rope so I can only guess. This time it took me 2.5 hours from my house to the top, riding my bike to Whitemans Gap, which is 20 minutes longer than a few years ago. I'm not getting any younger and the cigarettes certainly don't help either, especially on the ride up.What I really don't get is that classic routes like Reprobate don't get climbed more often. In my opinion EEOR offers longer and better climbing than Yamnuska with a shorter approach and faster walk off. Or have you seen water runnels like this on Yam before? Eeor's Tail, the route just to the right of Reprobate, is another one of my favorites up there, go check it out, you will not be disappointed!
When I took of my climbing shoes on the top my mind was wondering back 7 years. At the time I did not have kids and I came to this wall more regularly. One afternoon I was able to solo the 3 routes side by side each other, Reprobate, Quasar and Eeor's Tail, 1200m of good limestone climbing. Today I was quite happy to go home after one route, got to have melt cheese sandwiches for lunch with the family and crazy Aussie Simon Bew (if you don't know who he is, it's probably better anyways).

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