New Project at PC

Gav very kindly bolted me the a great line at Planet Clare. I had spied the line earlier this year but hadn't made any effort to clean or bolt the route so Gav got motivated did two routes for himself and one for moi. Thanks mate.

The route is awesome. Delicate footwork in shallow pockets, balancy sidepulls and two cruxes. The first crux is a cross through move into a shallow two finger pocket some tricky foot moves and a long reach to a sidepull. The second crux is an uncling into a crimpy sequence reminiscence of Paddington at Centennial Glen.

The route didn't go today as we only had an hour at the crag - not enough time to warm up, learn the moves and then redpoint - maybe next time. I did have one redpoint but fell at the top crux twice, then went to the top. I have edited the footage together to show what the route will look like and put the falls on at the end (some of the hard moves are well above the bolts). It is bad footage - sorry hard when there are only two at the crag and you have a stills camera with a grainy video function. I will try and get better footage when I tick the route.

No name yet and grade to be announced - around 25 I think


Gav's new routes are a blank slab and an extension to great little 23, both look very hard maybe 26 and 24 respectively. Plenty more new routes to come aswell on natural gear.

I See Red

We woke up to the most awesome red sunrise yesterday, the result of a sandstorm. Red dust from the heart of Australia had travelled thousands of kms to cover the East Coast in a blanket of fine red dust.

The people (and media) of Sydney carried on about this all day yesterday with some people saying ridiculous things. I heard one old man on the radio claim the seagulls were flying backwards to avoid getting dust in their eyes and Sharon from Bogansville was going to stock pile canned food for the Armageddon. Here in the Jones' house we just enjoyed natures best light show in 70 years.

Lachlan Climbing

Lachie is learning to climb, check out his moves on the video below. He says "when I older I climb rocks with Daddy" - let's hope so!!

How times have changed!

How times have changed! The other night on my way to the kitchen, I saw a huntsman! Once upon a time, not that long ago, it would have been sprayed with fly spray until it was all foam. But now that my little boy has a bug catcher, my first thought was, do I have the courage to catch it?! It was all up to me as everyone else was in bed! Anyway, I was very brave and this is the result Lachie found the next morning.


Ryan turned 6 months old last Thursday! He is growing so quickly. He's still an absolute delight and smiles pretty much most of the day. He has just started shuffling backwards and trying to get up on his knees, so I don't think it will be much longer before he's on the move - oh dear! Sprouting some cute fluffy hair now too. Still not a huge fan of food but we'll get there eventually I'm sure.

Lachie continues to be a gorgeous, fascinating and delightful little boy. His vocabulary has improved even more recently and his latest 'thing' is reading all 36 Mr Men characters from memory on the back of one of his Mr Men books. Baz & I are really quite over reading about Mr Nonsence these days though! Toilet training has been put on the back burner for the moment - he just didn't seem too phased about not using the potty / toilet even though he knew when he should etc. So in a few months we'll bite the bullet again.

Lachie still loves his little brother and now Ryan follows Lachie around the room with his eyes and lights up with a big gummy smile when his bigger brother comes near him. It's really lovely to watch. This morning I captured the following video which pretty much sums it up between the 2. Lachie was stroking Ryan's head absentmindedly while watching a cartoon.




Also, this one shows Ryan starting to try and move around...




Lastly, here is a recent photo of our beautiful boys

Work & Working Routes With Gav

I have done some work with Gavin for his new business Eurosafe. This a company that installs the best and latest roof and fall arrest systems from Europe. I have done a few jobs this year and hope to do plenty more as the business grows, below is photo of a job we did in 44 degree heat last January!Yesterday we looked at another job at a local TAFE and then found ourselves with a free afternoon so headed up to the Blue Mountains for a quick climb. The weather was looking like a change might push through so we headed for Centennial Glen.

We started with a warm up on a grade 20 -Dr Foopsickle (photo below), a newish route that we had never done before. It was a nice little number on sinker pockets a little sequency so I was happy to get the onsight. Next up was a bouldery little number called Horrace Herrod (25). I missed the onsight and then took a few goes to finally get the red point.
We traveresed the top off the crag and set up a top route on the mega classic Paddington. Both Gav and I got all the moves on first up so we pulled the rope and tried to redpoint the route but with no luck. I am sure with more time and better commitment this great line will go clean next time out.

With light fading fast we headed over to Wave Wall to try the technical and bizzare route Jaquiline Hyde (24). Gav but the draws in and I had a go at flashing the route. I got through the crux and the roof but feel on a monster jug above the last bolt after missing a huge side pull. I was dissapointed at missing the flash and falling ofa grade 18 move one move below the chains but that was all we had time for so it to will have to be on the list to finish off next time.

All in all a great way to spend 4 hours, now if I can only coerce some belays up there for a full day to finish off those routes and maybe try a few others.