Model: Taylia Jordan
HMUA: Donna Kalasho
Lighting and Sets: Studio 1A Sydney
Photo: Rene Pallesen




Hard to believe that this is the same girl/model who during the last shoot was in this extravagant hair and makeup. I almost didn't recognise her.

First of many from the photoshoot I did two weeks ago.

Model: Michaela Baranov
HMUA: Roxanne Cahill
Lighting and Sets: Studio 1A Sydney
Photo: Rene Pallesen

Kim and I found a couple of hours to play 9 holes of golf on a short (mostly) par 3 course after not playing for 5 years.

It was nice getting out again after that long time even though it was very windy and freezing.

Last weekend we went to Cabramatta to have my car services and also make a bit of a day trip out of it.

Kim had a haircut while the boys has ice cream.



She also went past the show shop where they sell boots in her size.




Aiden got a new Lightning Mcqueen pyjamas that he was very excited about.




Lots of street food about to make you hungry.










So Lunch we had...





All very tiring.

One of the last days when the kids were still a bit sick we though we'd get them out of the house and go to Darling Harbour.

Aiden wanted to go on the tea-cups even though he was still suffering a bit.

A few weeks ago I was in Melbourne for work.

On the way back Kim called and said that Aiden had a really high fever (41+ degrees) and that she was going to get him to the hospital because she was afraid that he'd collapse like he did last time.

I jumped on an earlier flight and went straight to the hospital and spent the night with him. He was really miserable and it took 5 days (fortunately not in the hospital) before we got the fever under control.



After that Lucas got sick and then Kim as well....what a week!!

Here is some photos that I have taken from various places including work.

They don't really belong anywhere but it is a pity to not share them.

One day walking from the train station I walked past this pair of sandals under a tree. I don't know the story behind them or the reason why one was taped up.

Did the owner climb the tree and then vanish? Did he (I assume it was a male) walk away bare feet? Where did he come from (Bata is a big brand in Africa and India)?



This next one was taken on the train. I was bored and notices this girl with a small swallow tattoo.




One day I was at Warriewood for a work meeting a dropped past Narrabeen beach (where I used to live). It was a beautiful day to have a play with the panorama function on the iphone.



Here is another panorama. This time from Town hall in Sydney.

We had our annual conference there and couldn't resist getting some photos of the beautiful architecture with my phone.





A couple of weeks ago I went to Melbourne for work. On the way we flew over the Snowy Mountains and I could see the snow there.




Here is another one from work that I took ages ago. When we all moved to the Campus from the city we were invited to hand our own avatar on this wall (mine is hanging somewhere in the top left hand corner).




Here is a photo from the campus itself. It is a cool place to work. Just a pity it is so far from the city.

It is not often that I see Aiden engaged in painting at daycare (he used to be reluctant to get dirty, but now he loves it).

Here he is working on one of his masterpieces.

Lucas loves reading books...he can sit and look at books for hours if he is allowed.

One day at daycare all the other kids were playing loudly in another room and I found him in a separate room sitting quietly sitting in a small cardboard box reading by himself.

The kids are really excited whenever they get something with Thomas (the tank engine) on it.

Latest is Aiden's new Bath rope. He was so excited that he asked me to take a photo.

A couple of weeks ago we made a trip to Taronga Zoo.

One of the families from daycare had a spare pass that we borrowed for the day.

First we went through the bird sanctuary and the kids were not overly impressed and were more interested in the waterfalls and the leaves fallen off the trees.




After that we walked past the playground and Lucas immediately ran off (Aiden was a bit more hesitant as he is more cautious) and couldn't get enough of going down the big slide (by himself).




The seal show was more to the taste of Aiden even though he'd seen it before.





After this we went to the Australian section of the park to see some kangaroos (including a tree kangaroo) and other wildlife.

Here is some more photos from the shoot the other day. They are not my favourites, but good enough to share I think.



Model: Kerry Ann Peterson



Model: Gabriella Srage



Model: Emma Perceval

I just finished another edit of one of the photos from the open day.

Someone else had posted a photo of a dream like impression and I wanted to see if I was able to do the same with one of my photos.



Model: Taylia Lopez
Lighting & Set: Studio 1A
Hair & Make-up: Kabuki Mee Designs

I also did another photo of one of the other girls at the photo shoot.




Model: Britney Williams
Hair: Cara Leupuscek
Makeup: Melisa Tomic
Sets: Studio 1A Sydney

The photoshoot last week provided a lot of lessons...some learnt and some where I need more practice.

My main reason for participating was to gain more experience working with models and especially be able to pose models better. A secondary objective was to get some great photos that I can use for my portfolio and for this website.
I think I succeeded with both objectives although I definitely need more experience with posing.
 
 I had no idea what to expect before getting there apart from knowing that there would be a number of models, makeup artists and a number of different sets.
 
The format is pretty simple...first come first serve to a set. You use the time effectively, work quick and take 20-30 shots with each model and after that you let someone else have a turn and move onto a different set.
 
This means that you have to work very effective with the models and try and get a good photo. You cannot change the set and you cannot change the light setup so in terms of creativity this is quite limiting.
It came in very handy that I have done some studio photography and have a good understanding of the theory. This means that it was easier for me to work with the variables that I could change, mainly changing my position on the set to get different shadows and lights and then also let the models move closer or further away from the lights to change this. I definitely think that this allowed me to get some pretty unique photos, but I definitely something I need to do more of if I get the chance to do this again.
 
Also, some of the models were professional models and others had done absolutely no modelling before. They all presented different challenges, as the professional models will give you the model poses and looks and it it hard to change this without it being pretty obvious that you only have little experience. The ones with no experience required a lot more guidance and this was where I really struggled and I definitely need some more standard poses that I can pull out for these situations. That said some of the models with no experience did really good and the most of the models were rally good fun to work with.
I especially found it really hard to pose with the male models.

Another thing is how social media works. The agreement was that you would put your shots into a dropbox folder so that the hair and makeup artists as well as the model could access low resolution files and at the same time get access to your contact details if they would like prints/hires files. I also posted the photos on the groups facebook page and the response was amazing compared to what I normally get on photos. Lots of likes and suddenly everyone wants to be my friend on Facebook (they may be disappointed when they see the stuff I normally post) and most amazing is the response from the models and the hair and makeup artists...a number of them are already using the material to promote themselves (which I am fine with as long as it doesn't go beyond that) and they are leaving comments/shares saying things such as 'this is my favourite photo from the day so far'.

Not knowing what gear to bring I brought pretty much everything I terms of lenses and even a couple of flashes and grey cards. I ended up shooting with my 85mm f1.4 pretty much most of the time and occasionally changing to a 50mm f1.4 for full body shots or on the sets where there wasn't much space on the set. What I didn't bring was my 105mm macro lens. I could have used this lens for getting in close for detail type shots and wish I had brought this along.
I should also have brought an ND8 filter for shooting natural light at f1.4...even with the Nikon D800 it was next to impossible to not overexpose using that bright light.
 
They have announced that they will be holding another shoot in august which I am planning to participate in and they also have a nude workshop in July that I am trying to convince Kim that I should go to...but we will see.

Miyuki is a makeup artist and had never done any modeling before and this was the first time as a model.



She has a really nice outfit/hair piece and the makeup was done really nicely. The skin in her face is absolutely flawless and virtually no re-touching was required.



Photographer: Rene Pallesen
Model: Miyuki Tsuda
Hair and Makeup: Kabuki Mee Designs
Set/Light: Studio 1A Sydney

One of the professional models on the day was Melanie. She knows how to model and give you the looks but it also made it hard to get a unique photo. Even though I did get a lot of great photo I think the one below is the best...it is very magazine like.

At one point during my session with her she started talking to some other people down the back and she became all smiley and giggly...the modelling cover totally disappeared. I really kick myself that I didn't keep shooting while this happened.



Photographer: Rene Pallesen
Model: Melanie J Bowers
Hair: Cara Leupuscek
MUA: Melisa Tomic
Studio and lighting : 1A Sydney

Pia had a very cool red and white facepaint/makeup. It was a bit strong for the set but I think it is pretty good in black and white with a slight hint of the colours blended back in.




Photographer: Rene Pallesen
Model: Pia Prestley
Hair: Cara Leupuscek
MUA: Marie Donnell
Studio and lighting : 1A Sydney

At the photo shoot there was also a couple of male models.

I find it a lot harder to pose males than females...with females I can (kind of) tell what looks good and what doesnt and when I get a goo pose I know it. With males it is a lot harder as I never think about what looks masculine.

This day was a really eye opener that before I next time have to shoot a male I will have to do a bit of homework and have some general ideas already mapped out.

At the end of the day they were shooting inside this caged lift and I got the this shot. Later I saw another photographers photo using the same setting and it was amazing.




It was really cool to see what other people did in the same set and I learned so much just from watching other photographers as well as models.

I also did a couple of shots using a projection screen...not a big fan, but I did snap the following that turned out somewhat ok but not entirely happy about it.




Model: Sudip Limbu
Hair: Cara Leupuscek
Makeup: Melinda
Lighting & Sets: Studio 1A Sydney

I did another set/makeup shoot with Valerie in a more 50's style setting.

First I had her standing up, but just could not get the poses working for me with the makeup and the set...just somehow seemed out of place and it was my second set of the day so I was still trying to get used to the whole idea of giving posing directions.

Eventually I had her sit down and managed to get this photo which I think captured the whole 1950's style much better.




Model : Valerie Pueovska
Hair : Cara Leupuscek
MUA : Melisa Tomic
Studio/Set: 1A Sydney
Photographer : Rene Pallesen

Leaving Zimbabwe we had the experience of the aircraft (an old B737) breaking down with engine problems prior to our departure. Although this is not uncommon, most international airports would have a team of aircraft mechanics along with spare parts to fix problems.



Victoria Falls do not have all the same facilities due to the low volume of aircraft, so in our case the pilot and co-pilot stepped up and went out to fix the problem themselves. With just a two hour delay we were back underway.



I doubt a pilot from a big international airline would step up and get his hands dirty or even have the skills to fix basic and common problems....credit go to bush pilots!

The main reason why we made the trip up to Zimbabwe was that our trip to South Africa would be our best opportunity to see and experience the Victoria Falls (and also give Kim and the boys to opportunity to visit another African country).





It is an amazing sight as the entire area around the falls is completely flat. The Zambezi river is at the point of the fall over a kilometer wide and the entire river suddenly drops into this narrow gorge.







The falls themselves are on the Zambian side of the border, and most of the lookouts are on the Zimbabwe side.

The effect is that the water spray gets pushed several hundred meters into the air above the gorge and creates a perpetual plume of rain clouds and spray making it impossible to stay dry.

This also meant that it was a challenge to keep my camera gear dry. I did bring a waterproof case for my camera, but after a few minutes a stopped using it because I couldn't mount the camera on a tripod at the same time. Instead I opted for covering the camera with a microfibre towel that somewhat helped, but otherwise I had to rely on the weather sealing on the Nikon camera and lenses.

To make it easier to dry we had dressed the boys ourselves in rash and sports shirts. This dried very quickly after getting wet unlike cotton clothing. We did bring some disposable ponchos but only Kim used hers a little.

Just outside Victoria Falls there is this Baobab tree that they keep showing to tourists (behind fencing so tourists don't vandalise it). We were brought there on the way to the Boma restaurant because the other people in the bus wanted to see it.

They all went Ooooh and Ahhh by seeing it, but I must say that it is neither big or beautiful as far as Baobab trees go...even the fig trees here in Australia are bigger (and better looking).

In the evening we booked a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river.





It was a beautiful calm evening and the boat slowly cruised in and out between the river islands within Zimbabwe and Zambia. In the distance there were clouds and rain forming beautiful rainbows.



There were lots of hippos around and we also spotted a couple of crocodiles and other wildlife. This time of the year there weren't any elephants as they don't need to go to the river during the rain season.

One thing about Zimbabwe was that everything is quite expensive for tourists in Victoria falls.

Back in 2008/09 the whole economy collapsed and the local currency was worth less than the paper it was printed on. As a result the entire country started using stable currencies such as US dollars.

In Victoria falls this means that everything is paid for in US dollars and since everything is more or less government controlled they try to milk tourists for as much hard currency as they possibly can.

As a result most tourists stay for a shorter duration as they probably would otherwise which is a pity as the benefits of tourism isn't shared with the rest of the country.

The country also has all the typical African inefficiencies and illogical processes which I experienced back in my days in East Africa, but which greatly annoyed Kim.

She was however greatly amused when I came back after a walk telling her that I had made her an instant billionaire - with the note here held by Aiden with a smug on his face.

During the break we decided to make a trip to South Africa and on the way do a quick detour to the Victoria falls on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.

The first evening we book dinner at Boma restaurant. Even though it is a bit touristy (everything around the falls are) they promised a buffet dinner with various game meat and dancing/drumming.





On the menu was Mopani worms, Wort Hog, Elan, Guinea Foul and spit Lamb.






Poor little Lucas was so tired that he fell asleep in the car there and slept the whole way through.
Although Aiden was tired he did enjoy the experience (in his silly fashion).



The drumming was very interactive and the dinner guests could join in.



Good start to the trip.

It has been another year and again Merry Christmas 2016.

Following the tradition I have created another family photo for this year. Aiden and Lucas are growing older and also more naughty, so this year we decided to do something different and let the parents have a quiet evening while we let the boys 'hang out' together.

There are some interesting areas around Botany Bay. One of the is the old WWII cannon positions and ammunition bunkers along the coast line to protect against Japanese invasions.

We have been there quite a few time and here are some of the photos from our last walk there.

 

One day we went down to Boralee park to take some photos of the boys with Kim. Here are some of them.

This winter during school holidays I took a day off to look after Aiden. I asked him if he wanted to go canoeing at the Royal National Park about 30 minutes drive from our house.



It was a beautiful sunny morning with not a wind or any other people in the creek.



Afterwards we went down to Wattamolla to have a look at the waterfall and play at the beach.





At Bundeena we had fish and chips for lunch.



He totally crashed on the way home.

This year it was my Grandmothers 85th Birthday. As per the tradition the whole family went on a trip overseas, this time to Egypt.

It was my first time to Egypt so it was a different experience. I can recommend that you take a read of the Travel Journal by clicking here!


Click here to see more photos from: Egypt 2004/Slideshow/Travel Journal

2004 was the year I started working for Captaris. One of the first things I did was to visit our office in Calgary to learn about our workflow product.

My visit coincided with the Calgary Stampede, so lots of cowboys in town, indians and rodeos. I also too a bus ride up through the Canadian rockies through Banff, Lake Louise and up to the Columbian Ice Fields.

Click here to see more photos from: Canada 2004/Slideshow

In 2004 Australia was being drawn into the war in Iraq. A lot of Australians were opposed to the war, but the politicians wouldn't listen.

On a nice sunny day several hundred thousand people gathered around Hyde park in the middle of the city to demonstrate and express their opinions against Australia entering into the war.

I was of the belief that the war was a mistake in the first place and was totally unjustified, so I was decided to join the demonstrations and at the same time see if I could take a few photos.

Click here to see more photos from: The 2004 Anti War demonstrations/Slideshow

Andy and Tink had their first baby...a little (and very hairy) girl names Mia.

This was also one of those periods where I was checking out what it would be like to have a beard.

My grandad passed away in 2003.

He was getting old and was getting tired of living so he decided to end it.

With EDI I went on a field trip to visit one of the big containerships in Botany Bay.

It was facinating to see the size of those ships.

I celebrated Christmas and New Year with my parents in Thailand.

We spent the time in the Northern Part of Thailand in the Golden Triangle around Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.

We rented a car for a couple of days and got to see a lot including all the hill tribes that still to this day live in this part of Thailand.




Click here to see more photos from: Thailand/Slideshow

In 2003 Kenneth got married to Anica. I was asked to be the best man by Kenneth.

The wedding took place at a homestead in Sofala three hours drive west of Sydney.

It was a wonderful weekend surrounded by wonderful people.



Click here to see more photos from: Kenneths Wedding/Slideshow

Contents . . .

My photo collection is vast. Many of them are in my albums, others scanned as images here. I have tried to include the best of the best, and will keep doing so. Feel free to explore any of the links - it make take some time to peruse them all...

( We recommend viewing of the photos through MS Explorer )

AUSTRALIA - HOME
Cockatoos at Home	Narrabeen Beach	New car	My Jobs

MY FAMILY
Grandmother's 85th	Grandmother's 80th	Donkey Day Out	My Brother Claus	My Father

2001
New Zealand (Mt Cook)	South-East Asia

2000
Chilli Festival	Ecochallenge Borneo (Sabah)	Sydney Olympics

1999
Thailand (Bangkok)	Laos	Morocco

1998
Port Macquarie	Pete's Bite	New Zealand (Sth Island)	Denmark

Created: 11 Aug 2001 Last Updated: 21-jan-05

This weekend we again drove up to the hunter valley about two hours drive North of Sydney. We left at 7am and met the other guys up there just after 9am.


This time we went a big group of us but only three of us were tasting wine. The others were taking photos.



Kim and I have spent a fair amount of time in the Hunter Valley and have a lot of favourite wines in the area. This time we decided to try some new and smaller places that we hadn't been to before. The challenge is still to find a sub $20 bottle of wine that is really good. It is pretty hard...but not impossible.




In total we went to 9 vineyards to taske their wines. Some of the favourites this time was Gartelmann (The Wilhelm Shiraz is a good buy) and Peterson Estate (Kim loooved the sparkling desert wine).

For lunch we went to a restaurant called The Verandah. They have a tapas style menu. The food was ok but a bit on the pricey side (but most of the . My favourite place in Hunter is a place called Mojo...but they are only open for dinner.



Bimbadgen really let us down this time. They have some really good wines there, but the customer service was appalingly bad! They did not provide any assistance and were very rude (not just limited to one person there). I wanted to buy a couple of their wines but ended up walking away because there was no-one there to help.

This weekend it was Ethans 8th Birthday and his parents had organised a Birthday party for all his friends. As the last couple of years Kim and I was asked if we could facepaint the kids (We are not really good at face painting but the kids really don't care). Most of the kids had some degree of autism so just getting them to stand still while we paint them is a challenge.

The previous two years I was dressed up as a pirat but decided to do something something different this year. I wanted to come dressed as a monster (Ethan likes Monsters) but Kim though that I shouldn't scare the kids and that I should come as a joker instead. We bought a hat and some stripey tights...it looked really funny.



One of the parent though I was a paid helper when we arrived and started issuing me orders regarding that I really should be watching the kids so that they wouldn't injure themselves in the jumping castle that they had hired...he must have found it really unprofessional when I brushed him off ignoring his orders (I have a strong belief that kids should be allowed to be kids and that we in this modern age is too cautious protecting them)...and he must have felt really silly when he realised that I was a member of the family.



The rest of the day was spent playing games with the kids (They had good fun when I started spraying them with water with a water pistol...until I was told by the same parent that I should stop because the jumping castle was getting slippery).

The 'Donkeys Tail' game was a bit of a non-event...all the kids cheated and placed the tail where you would expect the tail to be. All credit to the kids...at least they know where the tail goes on animals.



After the party Kim wanted some alone time with me and we decided to go and watch a movie. There wasn't any good movies on that I wanted to watch so I let Kim decide...and we ended up watching a chick flick.

Dolls are a Necessity...

Kim and I went with a couple of friends to Capitol Theatre to see Guys and Dolls. This was my christmas present from Kim ('give me experiences instead of objects').


It was really good...I think I prefer the lightheartedness of musicals to Operas. Capitol Theatre is one of the great theatres in Sydney. In inside decor is old and glamourous. The Dancing and the singing in the show was really good.




Poor guys...the Dolls seem to have the upper hand in this story.


In one of the roles was Kenny...from a famous Australian movie 'Kenny'. I have no idea what his real name is.

This weekend Andy and I decided to explore a new climbing area in the Sydney Area (We are running out of places to climb within Sydney and sometime Sydney is too long a drive).

This time we decided on a small area called Blue Bell in the Southern part of Sydney in the Heathcote National Park.

Once we arrived we had to find the access to the cliffs. The carpark is almost on the top of the cliffs near houses, but the area doesn't get a lot of traffic so there is no good tracks. Eventually we found our way down with some a lot of bush bashing.

We decided to start on a couple of easier climbs on the Mini Wall where there was some grade 16 climbs (and 10/11's). They were far from being grade 16. The first two climbs (Anika 16 and Nathan 16) were harder than what they were graded at. Both Andy and I were finding it hard and agreed that the climbing felt more like a 18 or 19...and we were both thinking "what the fu.. is wrong there!". We then looked at who had graded the climbs and it turned out to be the same person a Jason Lammers. We decided that this may be one very dangerous Wanker and decided to take other climbs that he'd graded with caution (Next day I found another website describing the climb as being a lot harder...this guy graded it as a 6a = 19).

After this we moved to the main wall and did another climb at the same grade (Sparky 16) and this turned out to be really nice a cruisy and this would potentially be a good lear-to-lead climb for someone who is comfortable in the gym.



After this we moved onto a bit harder climb (Heathcote 18) graded by the same idiot Jason Lammers. Someone who is only just comfortable at this grade would be in real trouble here. The top move is really delicate; in fact so delicate that Andy were totally unable to complete the move and bailed after a a number of attempts (and a lot of falls).
I then tried the climb and eventually after a couple of falls managed to complete the move...and boy that is really balancy. You hand on to this slobing groove and then do a high stepup. you then balance your left hand up the wall until you reach a good hold up very high (as Andy put it: "A typical Rene move"). I would grade it as a 21 move...three grades harder that the wanker graded it.

We had a look at the climb next to it (Screaming Cookatoos 18) and decided to do this on a top rope given that the top move looked dubious and that we hadn't had much luck with grades.
Lucky that because the top move it really reachy and fairly thin. It would have taken a lot of commitment and knowing exactly where the only good hold is (which isn't great) to be able to complete it and then you still have to put a plate on the carrot bolt and clip it from this position before moving to the anchor. They really should have put a ring bolt here and they could have put the bolt a bit lover so it could be clipped from below protecting this move better.

By the way this area is a weird mix of Ring bolts, fixed hangers, ringbolts, gear, chain anchors, ring bolt anchors and topouts....great job guys!!! Anyway we had a really good day but we didn't dare try any of the many 19, 20, 21's (which is my comfortable lead limit) in the area as most of them were graded by the same guy. Without including these climbs the area is too small to return to in the near future.

Instead of a christmas present Kim gave me tickets for the opera. This year for the Magic Flute by Mozart.




It was different from most of the other operas I've seen in that no-one dies in it and it wasn't one of this big tragegies.

She had gotten us some good seats with a good view of the stage...and we had a really nice evening out.

The NSW government currently provides a rebate for anyone insulating their house ceilings.I had already considered doing it anyway as it does cool down the house during the summer and keeps it slightly warmer during the winter time.



So I spent 5-6 evenings crawling around the roof cavity spreading out the insulation bats. Some of the ceiling was really hard to get to.

What can I say? I don't like going out on Valentines Day, but I still enjoy a romantic evening out...so this year we decided to celebrate Valentines day evening before (And I gave Kim flowers the day before that...and they were so fresh that they kept for two weeks). We went to a nice little restaurant at Balmoral Beach called the Watermark.



The food was really nice, the scenery was really nice (slight drizzle), the Wine was fantastic (Canonbah Shiraz 'Drought Reserve' 2004)...and lastly my beautiful wife was gorgeous as always.

Yeah...summer in Sydney. We have fantastic beaches here in Sydney and unfortunately we don't use them enough (Water is too cold). We did however manage to get to Maroubra beach a couple of afternoons this summer.

Every year in Januar and February there is a big festival on in Sydney with different entertainment provided for free by the city and different sponsors. It is hard to make time to see everything, but we did have time to go and see the the Opera in the domain.



We went there with Berry and his wife and had a nice evening.

This weekend Andy and I were supposed to have been going to Nowra to climb Saturday and Sunday, but the Australian weather dictated otherwise with 42 degrees in the shade Saturday.

Instead we changed the plans and went to Dams Cliffs in the Blue Mountains Sunday. This area is easily accessible, mainly in the shade and had got some great moderately graded climbs.

This was great as May also could join us. She had a really uncomfortable climb in Nowra with some friends some months ago and was afraid of getting back leading climbs (from her own words she was afraid to die). Nowra cen be very different and intimidating to someone going there the first time. We had a 7.30am start and she was half asleep when we picked her up and slept most of the way in the car.

When we got to the cliffs we decided to start on an easy warmup called"The Sisters of Fatima 16" and we asked May to do the first lead and she did a really good job. After this she seemed to have gotten over her fear.



We then moved over to a more moderate climb called "Shadow of the Goat 19" where I did the first lead...pleasant enough. We continued to "Truancy Officer 20" which I also led but which we decided was far easier (probably a 17).

After this we decided to stay in the 20+ territory and moved to a climb called "Vasco Pyjama 22" and Andy too the first lead.



At the second bolt he reached the Crux (The most difficult section on a climb) and after a number of tries coming off every time he bailed. When he got down he said "This climb has got Rene written all over it, it is a move that is in your territory!', so I was up next. I got up to the same section, and had a look at it a saw 2-3 possible ways through the section, but decided to go for a very long and very balancy reach first and managed to stick the top hold in the first attempt without falling off.

After this section the rest of the climb was easy. Both and and May then toproped the same climb (This is where the rope has already been placed on the top of the climb...which I had just done) and may cruised through the same section, but Andy still struggled. I honestly think that despite it being a long reach this is one of those climbs where it is an advantage being short.

After this we could decided what to do next. I was keen on doing another climb next to it called "Friendly Fire 22" but was worried about getting stuck half way up and not being able to clean it. One of the women climbing in one of the other groups said that if I'd just climb the previous one then this would be a lot easier (Looked a lot harder to me) so I decided to give it a go and lead it.

I was glad that I did, because the section that looked really difficult from the ground turned out to be sustained but now massively difficult once I got up there...this just proved that you should just jump on any climb that looks remotely climbable and is well protected regardless of its grade...they are just subjective numbers anyway.

After this we decided it was time to head back to the Big Smoke even though we were still strong enough to do another climb....it was getting late!


Download video of Rene Climbing at Dam Cliffs