This is my story about my dad a friend (Mark) and me on Bluff Knoll

At the age of twelve my dad wanted to take me up Bluff Knoll. Bluff Knoll is the highest peak in the Stirling Ranges and is located north of Albany. He rang me up eight weeks before we were going to tackle the cliff face of Bluff Knoll. Almost every night I couldn’t sleep because I was so scared and excited.

Finally after eight weeks of almost dieing, the day came. We went on our five hour journey to a caravan park were we camped the night. On the 12^th of August we started to get ready for our 2-day challenge up this face. We literally almost had a tone worth of ropes, sleeping gear, pro, food and so on. It was ridiculous how much stuff we had so because it is almost impossible to climb with a tone of gear we brought along “The Pig” which was called this because of it’s size and weight. We used this to store all the stuff we weren’t going to use while rock climbing.

Then the big climbing day finally came, one day before my birthday, 13^th of August. The three of us (dad, Mark and I) started the hike up to the face of Bluff Knoll. The first kilometer or so is on a path but then we have to cut off into the bush to get to the climbers trail. We started walking from the car park at about 5:00 am and finally got there at about 8:00am. This took so long because of the heavy bush bashing. You literally could not see two meters in front of you.

Funnily enough the day was very cold. When climbing, you can't feel any of the hand holds when in desperate need.I was so glad it was not a windy day because of the chill factor. We would also not be able to hear each other when the leader finishes his pitch, which happened a couple of times throughout the two days.The first couple of pitches were kind of scary, as I was only 12 and because my birthday was only the next day, I didn’t want to die.

The climbing started after we had got all our gear racked. The first couple of pitches were very cold and scary, but as that day went on, the weather became warmer and I stared to get used to the fact I was going to die.

The pig is what really burned up our time on the face. After the lead climber gets to a descent ledge, sets up a belay and a pulley system to pull up the pig, about ten minutes has gone by. This really starts to add up after 10 or more pitches.

We finally got to the end of the day so we actually camped on a ledge on the cliff face. My dad and I camped in our plastic made bivvy sacks. We were under a roof that was about one meter high and unfortunately we were in a wind tunnel on a rocky slope. Mark, the other guy we were with, was behind a big rock on nice flat soft ground and he had a real bivvy sack and thermal gear, so he had a comfy night.

Tea came and we used up our entire hold of water. Dad wanted a coffee and porridge (because he loves porridge) in the morning. So my dad and I did a level seventeen traverse climbing thing for about twenty to thirty meters and we finally came to this tiny drip going down the face, so dad but a container under this drip and every five hours he had to change the bottle. What parents do for a cup of coffee

As nightfall came we watched the sun go down and in about ten minutes a fog entirely covered the whole of Bluff Knoll. Bed time finally came after hours of freezing, it was so cold that I had to put on a pair of trackies, socks, Singlet, shirt, jumper, a big thick jacket, a thermal jacket and rain coat and I still was freezing I was in a sleeping bag inside a bivvy sack and I was on a thermal mat and mattress. That night would have to be the noisiest, scariest and coldest night I have ever had.

The funny thing about that night, was every five minutes you would have to crawl up the slope we were sleeping on, because of it’s angle and because we were also sleeping on slippery rocks. I think I must have crawled about one hundred and fifty meters in that one night, and of course every time you would crawl back up the slope the thermal mat and sleeping bag would slip down leaving you very cold. In that one night I got about one hour of sleep.

The morning finally came and we got up and watched the sun come up and all the fog disappear. We even saw a few eagles in the air diving for their We got about two litres of water out of that tiny drip we had found the night before. So we had a small breakfast and coffee which dad was a bit annoyed at. After breakfast we started to pack up and prepare to start our day of climbing again. I was so cold that morning and all I wanted was to get back to the Caravan Park and get in that nice warm shower.

The first pitch for that day was the most scary thing I had ever done. I had to climb an over hanging ledge and when you looked down there is NOTHING underneath you except for air. What an experience! As the day progressed the view got better and we even saw a few more eagles.

We finally reached the top of “The Knoll” at night. The walk down was hard work because of all the gear we had. At the start of the walk down we had 3 head torches working. About two steps towards the car my batteries had run out. Half way down my dads head torches globe had blown. So all three of us were walking down this steep and rickety trail with only one head torch. Man was that funny. We finally got to the car after an hour or two of walking in the dark.

The best present that I got was getting back and into that nice warm shower and getting back home into my quiet, comfy, warm bed. That would have to be one of the best experiences anyone could ever have. After climbing the 420 meter cliff face, I am now no where near as scared of heights as I was. I now have a sense of adventure and I love to be out doors rock climbing. If I had not done this, especially at that age, I would probably not be rock climbing as well as I do today.

That is the best experience of my whole life. I would probably even climb that same route today, without all that gear.

About 3 years later, I climbed a different route on Bluff Knoll which was Coercion a level 17. This time we did it in one day as we didn’t have as much gear.

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