Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2024 i Vertical Life

Vertical Life acknowledges that we live, work, recreate and climb on stolen land, and that sovereignty was never ceded. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians across Australia and Aotearoa, and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We recognise the continuing connection of all First Nations peoples to Country and Culture across all lands and waterways since time immemorial, and reaffirm our commitment to reflection, reconciliation and solidarity. Issue #49 of Vertical Life was printed on Wangal Country.…

With its birthplace in mountaineering, climbing has historically been surrounded in adventure, commitment and equipment reliance. However, since the late 20th century climbing has taken an alternative path with newer members of the community now able to enjoy the sport without owning any gear or venturing beyond the reaches of air conditioning. The introduction of high quality commercial climbing gyms has made climbing materially more accessible, yet in this process has diluted the prevalence of more traditional forms of outdoor rock climbing. Further to this, with the inclusion of climbing in the Olympics and the subsequent explosion of modern indoor bouldering as a primary form of climbing, expedition and adventure climbing of the past seem to be growing ever more remote. Babsi Zangerl and Jacobo Larcher are walking this path…

This shot was captured while I was down in Tasmania shooting my first short film, The Totem Pole. It was my first time in Tassie, a place that has always held a certain awe and wonder for outdoorsmen. Growing up with a love for the outdoors and working at outdoor retailers, I often spoke with hikers, climbers, and adventurers preparing for their trips to Tasmania, and the island always carried a sense of mystery and adventure. I remember sitting in a little café in Hobart the day after I arrived, waiting for my friend Christian to pick me up for our drive down to Fortescue Bay. I had just started reading The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen. While this wasn’t a two-month expedition in search of snow leopards in the…

I’m climbing a route that I know nothing about, except that it has bolts and looks doable, wracked with uncertainty, nervous sweat beads on my forehead. This is one of my first outdoor climbing experiences… I sit at the top of a 300 metre wall in the Blue Mountains feeling accomplished and relieved, a few years in. I think I know what I’m doing now… I accelerate, tumbling towards the ground, my gear has pulled, as I eyeball the rocks that I’m about to land on I have time to think, “This is broken bones…” I’m flowing up a huge crack system in Buffalo Gorge, for five hours we flawlessly swing leads, locked in a flow state, now I’m climbing… I’m sitting on the summit of Mt Aspiring waiting to…

Whether you're a seasoned dirtbag living out of a van or a weekend warrior hitting your favourite crags, every climber relies on equipment for protection. Depending on the chosen discipline, climbers will use specific gear tailored to their pursuit. Boulderers use aggressively designed shoes, crash pads, chalk buckets, and beanies. Sport climbers rely on fixed protection, matching quickdraws, the latest assisted braking device, and a quiver of shoes. Trad climbers, on the other hand, require a double set of cams, nuts, hexes, a pink tricam, dozens of alpine quickdraws, a plethora of slings, several bunches of locking and non-carabiners, and a pair of neutral shoes worn in through extensive climbing. One piece of equipment that doesn’t see as much use as it could is the helmet. Equipment plays a crucial…

This is not a GriGri! It may look like a GriGri, but it’s not… The Neox is Petzl’s newest cam-assisted belay device, and although it looks suspiciously familiar it’s still not a GriGri. The GriGri has become an iconic belay device in climbing since its release 33 years ago, but not without criticism. The most common complaint you’ll hear is that belayers must learn/use a specific ‘thumb press’ technique when feeding slack quickly (or even slowly with some thicker ropes). This means newer users tend to ‘short-rope’ their climber when trying to feed slack quickly—usually right when you’re cruxing out trying to clip! This is where the Neox comes in. Petzl’s intention with the Neox was to create a device that belays like an ATC but catches like a GriGri.…

VL’s first published poem a couple of issues back received quite a positive response from readers! To continue the creativity, Adrienne shares a series of poems penned after a trip to Freycinet, climbing and camping with two of her sons and their partners. BEOWULF All night wind tunnelled in treetops,clawing, a ghostly sky dragon,tremors shook tents, fabric crackingstirring campsite dust to fine rain;by day sky belled blue, sun warmbalm on our backs as we abseiled in,a Rapunzel plait, like the princelowered from the tower or knightsdescending to the dragon’s lair;beneath our feet sea churned its song,swelling, revealing a wallof stone hung with kelp and leather,until the ledge, inches abovethe sea, room for two, roping upwith nuts, cams, jangling like armour,helmets on heads, feet in tight shoes,and I fed rope out,…

Just as we were starting to wrap up this edition, excitedly polishing it up ready to print, eager to get into your calloused little hands, the mood changed abruptly as word of the proposed climbing closures at Arapiles/Dyurrite swept through the climbing world. Climbers reacted with shock, confusion and a great sense of loss to the news that the Victorian Government planned to close more than half the routes at a world class climbing destination. This happened without any consultation with climbers. In an open letter, authored by key climbing organisations, the reasons for the closures are criticised as being “opaque”. The letter calls for appropriate consultation, emphasising that, “Climbers do not dispute that Aboriginal Cultural heritage and the environment need protection, but they do dispute that rock climbing results…

“I first realised I could juggle being a good climber with my studies when I climbed a 32 called Attack Mode in Nowra,” Rose Weller says modestly, in the same casual way I’d announce I’d smashed a family-sized bar of Dairy Milk in one sitting. Based in Canberra, Rose is just 23 years old but has an impressive backlog of sends that would make people twice her age happy. And she’s done it all while juggling intense full-time studies to become a doctor. “I’m definitely a weekend warrior,” she admits, sharing how her weekends often involve jumping in the car with her partner, Ryan, early on a Saturday morning to head to Nowra, their local crag, a two-hour drive away, then returning later that night to make room for studying…

On a sunny morning in August 2024, I was relaxing in our base camp in a cow paddock at 2,300 metres. Below camp the limestone cliffs stretched for kilometres in either direction. I was on camp duty, the main tasks being water filtration and protecting the campsite from cows. There were cirrus clouds high above, making the sky a greyish-blue ceiling. Egyptian and Griffin vultures were circling, and when they came close enough I could hear the whoosh of air through their feathers. I counted about a dozen, moving in twos and threes in different strata above me. What an awesome place just to visit, let alone develop a whole new crag. My friend Tad issued the call early in 2024, and I was one of five veterans of the…

The longer I’ve been a climber, the longer my warm-up routine has become, forever expanding to include more rehabbing, prehabbing, potentiating, and pretty much everything else except actual climbing. Naturally, the longer my warm-up routine gets, the earlier I have to wake up. And with an earlier wake-up comes the need to brew more coffee before my warmup…which leads to even earlier wake-up…and even more coffee. Eventually, this cycle continues until I have to wake up a half hour before I go to bed so I still have enough time to send my warm-up before we head back to camp. Alternatively, you can just brew coffee while you do your warmup. This recipe is adapted from one of my favourite international roasters, Sey Coffee in Brooklyn, New York. It’s all…

On 4 November 2024, the climbing community across Australia and beyond was stunned to hear about the proposed closures of climbing areas at Mt Arapiles/Dyurrite. In response to the plan by Parks Victoria to close well over half the routes at Australia’s best crag, climbers and climbing organisations from across Australia came together to request a “full and proper consultation with the climbing community and other affected stakeholders”. The request was made via an open letter to the Victorian Minister for the Environment and the Victorian Premier. The letter reinforces the national and international importance of the area as a climbing destination to climbers and the local community, and aims to clarify the immediate concerns about the draft plan. While the letter has already been widely circulated in the climbing…

The mountains draw climbers to them for many reasons, for some it is out of ego, for others it is fame. Lhakpa Sherpa, the Mountain Queen, fits neither of these categories. The Mountain Queen is a documentary directed by Lucy Walker which depicts the journey of the first Nepali woman to summit and descend Chomolungma (Everest). Lhakpa, who has summited Everest more than any other woman in the world, walks through each of her ascents as chapters in her life and describes the tribulations she has faced along the way. Despite her numerous record-breaking ascents in the Himalayas, Lhakpa’s most challenging summit was in Connecticut where she found herself fighting to stay strong through challenging personal circumstances and relationships. She explains how her perspective on the mountains and broader life…

PEGASUS DIRECT (14) The first ascent took place in 1965 by Tom Terry and Alan Cross when route development started to ramp up on the Organ Pipes after the formation of the Climbers Club of Tasmania. The route follows a chimney, which deposits you on top of the large, detached flake with a heady feeling of exposure as you stare at your last piece of protection, a slung chockstone far below, and contemplate the wide crack above. You can't help but appreciate how it was done on the original nuts and pitons and the intense adventure it would have been at the time. Here, Will Kelly takes in his unlikely position atop the detached flake. RASPBERRY JAM AND CRACKERS (18) The route, established in 1972 by G. Body, Bryan Kennedy…

Climbing ropes have come a long way in the last 70 years (since the invention of the Kernmantle construction). Still, despite the extremely high standard of modern climbing ropes, one problem has remained mostly unaddressed…cut resistance. Climbing ropes are surprisingly hard to cut when they’re not loaded (as anyone who’s trimmed their rope at the crag will know), but they become increasingly easy to cut once you load them. Even though the chances of a climbing rope breaking during normal use are statistically quite low, these accidents still occur - usually in alpine environments when a rope is loaded over a sharp edge (like during a fall over an arete). The German Alpine Association has documented 64 rope breaks over the last 60 years. This could even be a risk…