Humanality...the EPIC.

[i've been instructed to replace a certain word... i assume it deeply offended the person who asked me to do this... so just for you...]


On friday the 30th (my last day of actual climbing) i did some multi-pitching with some random guy called shane, who isobel met two nights before. we climbed something called 'humanality'.

Originally the climb is meant to be started by climbing 'tarzan' which is not even rock, but a large and very cool tree which seems to be growing tendrils. however, as we were making our way to start the climb we were stopped (very politely) by a guy called Bob, who tolds us how the tree was actually worshiped by the buddists and requested that we use the ladder instead. And, yes, there was a ladder. Apparently from the weddings which take place hanging from the rocks over Tonsai beach.

I led every pitch, and i led the hardest pitch thinking it was a 6a (it was actually a 6b+) i had to sit rest a lot on the crux but i eventually made it, which was cool. My efforts were even met by some cheering and applause by some people spectating from the comfort of the ground right by the bar. which was nice.

We took a rest after this pitch to take some photos, eat some rasins and drink some much needed water.



The Melting wall and Fire wall that we climbed the previous day. yes, it's called the fire wall for a reason. It was very hot. i had to lie down for an hour to recover from each climb.

View from the 3rd belay point of the long tail boats below us.

Veiw to the right of our little belay point.View of the the climb with the stalagtite that nearly conquered me.

The worst part, was on the pitch with a large stalagtite, because i had to transfer from the wall, backwards onto the stalagtite then back to the wall and i managed to climb too high, then i got sooo scared to leave the sanctuary of the stalagtite that it tooke me about half an hour to get back on to the wall again.

So on the second to last pitch i was physically and mentally exhausted from that, and so was soo tired that i sat on every bolt on the last part of the climb. but i had to keep going, because we had happened to borrow a 60m rope from the pair of climbers who had gone up before us (we were sharing the ropes...me and shane took up a 60m, and the other couple took a 60m too so that we could share the abseil). so they were waiting for me to finish, and the sun was creeping up on them (they had little shade to stand in, and i was still stuck half way up the last pitch...absolutely exhausted) eventually i finished...and i abseiled down to where the other couple were waiting. then, shane, abseiled to us from the belay point he was at (so that he wouldn't waste time climbing the last pitch). the other couple then abseiled down to the ground, and i made shane go first. while he was abseiling, i was having a chat to the next pair of climbers who had been following us. the guy who had led the pitch was belaying very close to where we were doing our abseil from. and his seconder didn't seem to be climbing...complaining that there was too much slack (shane told me later he was actually having a spliff)...but i could see the belayer, and his rope was tight...so i figured their rope was stuck mid way. anyway, the seconder couldnt be arsed to climb (they looked as though they had 2 half ropes) and despite the guy who was belaying from the top point, not being too confident with abseiling, the seconder insisted in crossing over to our abseil rope to get down. completely abandoning his buddy to sort out the mess. (what a dick head) anyway once the evil lazy seconder was off the abseil rope (which he didn't even bother telling me he was off) i offered to abseil down to have a look, which involved a sideways abseil (i was still knackered from the climb and had been roasting in the full glare of the sun due to waiting for ppl to get off the abseil. i managed to get to near their rope by clipping a safely into a nearby sling and then forcing my way across to another bolt further off to the left by kinda traversing then clipping another cow tail into the wall to keep myself on the right side. I could see that one of the ropes had been back clipped (but the other was fine) but i couldnt' reach the clip to sort it out, so i had to haul myself up (which was very hard because i was soo tired) using quick draws to get myself closer to the higher bolt. then i kept shaking the rope until i freed both ropes for the offending quickdraw...so the guy could haul the rope up to abseil.

anyway i finally got down, ran into the shade and lay down on the floor to recover from the heat. not before ordering a coconut shake, then promptly collapsing on the floor in a heap, after removing my shoes and harness. which caused a bit of confusion when they couldn't find me to give me the shake. Anyway, it made the Thai guides laugh.