Please help me with email addresses for the following people:
- Nathan Weiss
- Rene Greminger
- Phillip Meyer
- Brother Colin
- Evan Rowlinson
- Eva from Iceland
- Atli from Iceland
The other reason to time my trip back home to extend into janurary was so I could attend the Moot. I'd sent an application form, but no money, and had sent it in somewhat late. I had no idea what expedition I would be doing, or anything really. I hadn't hung out with scout type people in 12 months. It was good to be back. My parents dropped me off at the moot site and that was that. hehe, had to fend for myself again for a while. Eventually got sorted, got a place to sleep, and a name tag. So far so good. Don't have an expedition and got offered straddie adventure or something fairly boring. Got told if I could find anyone to take me I could do better, but that was it. Bumped into Bro Colin, and promptly signed up to go climbing. Excellent! I'd just taken the stitches out, and was ready for action again! It also turned out there was an icelander on the trip, which was neat. She got a bit of a surprise when I told her I was born there :)
So we took off pretty quick smart that evening, after only a brief party (god XXXX tastes horrible after a year drinking quality microbrews) and were on the bus to Minto Crags, which was a joy for me, I'd never been there and had heard all sorts of stories about it. We got put up in a lovely hall on the property, and had some beverages that Brother Colin had kindly laid on. Got to meet up with Nathan and Neil, and the other staff type people.
The first day, we covered some basics and let everyone get up, and then went up to the crag for some toproping easy and moderate stuff and let everyone get accustomed. Some people had climbed before, some a lot, and some not at all. I liked this idea, it was just a walk up to the top of the hill and we didn't have to deal with getting to know each other while dealing with people and environs at Frog. [I bet frog visitors probably liked us for this as well :)] Second day, Colin's plan for us all to break came out loud and clear. Damn crazies, getting up early. His plan was for us all to get up at 5:30ish, get quick brekky and then straight to the Frog for some climbing till it got hot. We would then come home and snooze, eat and let the heat pass us by, before heading up the hill to the crag for some progressively harder top ropes. It actually worked out well, despite being an afront to my civilised practise of getting up at 9am or so. Nathan and Neil and Colin were in charge of leading some of the moderates and setting top ropes, in as small a groups as we could manage. We'd try and have the sequence of lead, second, top, top, clean, and then relead if still lots of people interested. I also got roped into doing some leads, and got to fill in some blanks on my list of frog moderates I hadn't done yet.
I really appreciated how much I was missing in the states by not having Frog a couple of hours away. It is such a lovely crag, with so so so many fine climbs on which I could be developing my trad leading. But no, instead I have castle rock, mt diablo, and serious stuff 4 hours away, which is no way to spend an afternoon on projects. :( I would like to get really motivated next season, and spend 1 weekend away, either in tuolumne, or yosemite (yeah, that has to be done next year) and then a sat or sun locally, and then hopefully boulder/sport during the week with scott. (Note to self, must motivate scott to climb next year)
Enough of my planning the coming year, and back to the moot. We all had a great time on the expedition.
Back on site, we had new years. New years was fantastic. All us climbers now introduced us to other friends, but we were a cut above the rest. We were climbers! (All the other expeditions had gotten on swimminingly as well, it wasn't just us) New years of course proceeded well into the next morning, with iceland and england at 10am, and proceeding right through to british columbia at 5pm (by which time there were some very drunk canadians down at the pub)
Some names are missing/wrong I apologise :( Please send me a mail and correct me
![ozmoot2002--01.jpg](TN_ozmoot2002--01.PNG) ozmoot2002--01.jpg Colin showing his prowess |
![ozmoot2002--02.jpg](TN_ozmoot2002--02.PNG) ozmoot2002--02.jpg Asleep or awake, this is where the climbers lived it up |
![ozmoot2002--03.jpg](TN_ozmoot2002--03.PNG) ozmoot2002--03.jpg First day at frog :) guess we beat down some people L-R Gudrun, stinky, Mats, Brian, David |
![ozmoot2002--04.jpg](TN_ozmoot2002--04.PNG) ozmoot2002--04.jpg Nathan, Chocolate Watchband (16?) |
![ozmoot2002--05.jpg](TN_ozmoot2002--05.PNG) ozmoot2002--05.jpg Me, after Colin and Al sandbagged me onto Witches Covet (16?) |
![ozmoot2002--06.jpg](TN_ozmoot2002--06.PNG) ozmoot2002--06.jpg Gudrun, on the obligatory bash at Gladiator (16) |
![ozmoot2002--07.jpg](TN_ozmoot2002--07.PNG) ozmoot2002--07.jpg "can I come down yet?" "no" |
![ozmoot2002--08.jpg](TN_ozmoot2002--08.PNG) ozmoot2002--08.jpg "But I'm bleeding!" "maybe" |
![ozmoot2002--09.jpg](TN_ozmoot2002--09.PNG) ozmoot2002--09.jpg the dam, and the near side of minto crags. |