Arapiles in July.

“Do you think they know what they’re missing out on?” asked Katie.

An inordinate pause follows, while Chris ponders the scene. Katie and Chris are aside the stellar traverse pitch of The Bard. Rain clouds loomed that morning, Pete suggested they were crazy but Rob’s radio spoke only of cloud and Chris’ brain had whirred Bard Bard Bard since first light. Titillating up the first two pitches, Katie noted the clouds frolicking from the Grampians towards Mitre Rock; the sprawling tumblers now shimmering on the lake. Baaaah! Rain-fearing sheep huddle towards a tree as the sun’s arc bears splinters in the clouds. Rosellas preen and bob their heads in the buttresses’ alcoves. Hoppers doze in the distance. Climbers stir in the gums, far, far below. What a view. And what a week! Keyboard. The Shroud. Horn Piece. Muldoon. Tiptoe Ridge. Boomer. Trapeze. Swinging. Bouldering at night with Simey. Impromptu Yoga. Mulled wine. Fine friends, quality climbing and tasty cheese.

“No. Not a chance.”

“How could they?” said Chris.

Pumpkin, Baby Spinach and Pine Nut Risotto

*not tested on a Trangia, cooking time will vary with manliness of stove

Ingredients:

· Brown Onion - large

· Pumpkin – decent bit

· Baby Spinach – whole bag

· Pine Nuts

· Half a lemon

· White wine – however much you can spare, ideally about 1/3 bottle

· Arborio rice – depends how hungry you are, about 3-4 cups

· Vegetable stock – about a litre

· Water

· Olive oil or butter for frying - ample

· Parmesan cheese – at least a whole bag

Method:

1. Toast pine nuts until golden brown and set aside (out of reach!)

2. Cut pumpkin into thinnish chunks. Put in a saucepan/frypan with a little bit of water, and place on stove with the lid on.

3. Once starting to soften, remove pumpkin from heat and drain water.

4. Return pumpkin to stove and add olive oil and fry until cooked through. Remove from stove and set aside.

5. Heat oil in the largest pot you have access to. (5L+)

6. Dice onion, add to pot, and fry until translucent.

7. Add rice and fry until all heated through (this is important).

8. When onion threatens to burn, add white wine and burn off the alcohol.

9. When wine is mostly absorbed, begin to add vegetable stock.

10. Throw in the half lemon and continue to add vegie stock a little bit at a time (the surface of the rice should be just covered with each addition).

11. When you run out of vegie stock, continue to add water in the same manner.

12. When the rice is almost cooked, stir the baby spinach through.

13. When you’ve squished all the spinach in the pot, stir in the pumpkin and pine nuts.

14. Add all the cheese and stir through.

15. Let sit for a few minutes if possible.

16. Dig in!

-fingernails

Welcome to trad climbing.

Mt Arapiles 23-26 April.

“Water. You need water. There’s no water.”

Well, not entirely true, but it’s important to create good habits. Or what I like to call ‘best practice’. This was a term Rachel, Katie, Pauline and Troy would hear many times over their introductory weekend at Mt Arapiles.

We drove up on Friday night, having carefully packed 5 people’s camping gear, almost all of LUMC’s climbing gear, and the bouldering mat, into my just-big-enough new wagon. The drive involved lots of rain and traffic, a stop at Ararat Noodle for dinner, and squashing three days worth of shopping onto people’s laps in Horsham.

Day 1 – Introduction to lead belaying / trad climbing / multi-pitch climbing / seconding / Arapiles micro-climate / real rock

After arranging for Rachel to spend the day in RMIT Sarah’s capable hands (thanks again Sarah!) Katie, Troy, Pauline and I headed over to the Pinnacle face to climb the super-appropriate Introductory Route. During the walk to the cliff raincoats become increasingly necessary. At the base of the cliff the clouds had cleared (somewhat) and I quickly ran through the plan. The plan included an explanation of what gear I would be placing, what to do with a nut-key, how to belay a lead climber [(when to give slack, take slack, when to let go of the brake end of the rope (never!)] and the necessity for everyone to double check everyone else!

After seven hours we’d all made it back to camp with a bunch of firsts under our belts. My first’s included the route, the top pitch of the route (shared with tip-toe ridge) in daylight, not getting too lost on the walk-off, and my first lead climb in about 2 years. And taking three beginners up a multi-pitch.

Day 2 – Top-roping and First Leads

Sunday saw our intrepid adventurers head out to Deacon’s Dilemma area at Mitre Rock. I set up my first top ropes (ever). These included the single starred Deacon’s Dilemma (14) and the undeservedly no-starred Prelate (17). The severely overhanging but rather cool 17 proved too much for all but Rachel, who styled it to the top first go.

After much jumping around on top-rope I led The Priest (8), and justified my excess bomber gear placement with the idea that I would get someone to lead it after me on my gear. Back on the ground, Rachel and I gave an earnest explanation of why not to back-clip, and then Katie, Troy and Pauline led their first climbs! We then all gathered at the top of the climb for a run-down of what to do at the top of a climb / pitch, the importance of communication and how to set up a rope anchor.

While we were all busy learning the sun disappeared leaving a beautiful sunset and necessitating a speedy, mostly dark pack-up. Cheers to those who thought to bring head-torches to the cliff! True trad climbers in the making…

Day 2 (Evening) – The Squeeze Boulder

Following a scrumptious dinner of Pumpkin, Baby Spinach and Pine Nut Risotto, washed down with two litres of expertly mulled wine, our crew wandered out of lodgings in the North campground and over to the Pines in search of playmates. Finding an empty circle of RMIT chairs, we decided to befriend a nearby group of climbers. A bunch of random friends from Albury and surrounding towns, the group were unexpectedly enthusiastic about our night bouldering ambitions, and followed us and our wine to the notorious squeeze boulder.

Lots of squeezing, bouldering and social drinking ensued. Highlights included attempts to climb one armed, one armed one legged and backwards up the boulder; and me getting very stuck inside the squeeze test, twice, and Troy helping me escape by pulling up and backwards on one of my legs.

Three boulders were visited and a late night had by all. Unfortunately I was the only one to attempt the squeeze test. The rest of the…well thinner, LUMCers, declined the opportunity for squeeze glory (soft).

Day 3 – Sober bouldering / how to spot / how to land / why you should consider the descent before the ascent

(see title)

In conclusion, it was a swell weekend. And we only got rained on once.

-fingernails

Arts Students (Mt Feathertop - September 2008)

Q. What do you get when you have two Arts students with little dedication and little inclination for paid work during winter?
A. Mt Feathertop midweek madness

Mark had been in Canada for 7 months, and I’d been sitting around the whole time trying to think up exciting things to do instead of what I should have been doing (thesis) when a ripper of a trip came up on the cards. We’d been trying to tee-up something for a while, but neither of us seemed to be able to wag school or work at the same time. But this obviously couldn’t last (and I’d be worried if you were willing to keep reading about a trip that didn’t happen…even a ripper trip that didn’t happen), and a couple of calls later, we were both out of work (not permanently, just a few shifts between us) and in the car to Harrietville late Wednesday afternoon.


We managed to take up my entire Corolla with gear and food and set off with many tales to tell and chocolate bullets to consume…no, wait, the chocolate bullets come later in the story, but I’m sure we had something tasty to eat. Harrietville arrived and we decided to set up at the base of Bungalow Spur, our planned descent route from Mt Feathertop. Mark assured me of the awesomeness of his tent – but after the long set up time, cramped space and lack of pegs (he’d only brought the snow pegs) I was not at all convinced. Although I did conclude that if I was caught in a storm in the Main Range, it would be a good tent to be in.

Thursday morning saw us up bright and early, well, not that early, but it was bright – another downside to the tent, the red material makes you angry in the morning when the sun shines through it! We’d packed our packs and donned our volleys, and decided we couldn’t be arsed making breakfast that morning, so we’d buy something in town instead. Speaking of the packs – they were great; we’d managed to pack that light it felt like a daypack, albeit a rather large daypack.


After a rather tasty baguette (cue Flight of the Conchords), and playing with the border collie, we walked to the end of town, thumbs hitched in search of a ride up the mountain. “Last time I did it, it took me an hour to get someone willing,” said Mark, much to my dismay, particularly as it was mid-week and half the snow had melted already. But he made up for it by calling every car that passed us by all sorts of nasty things (more the drivers than the cars), including a middle-aged lady on a bicycle, “Stupid b#$^h had plenty of room!”

But lady luck was with us that day, and a tradie pulled over after only fifteen minutes and quickly opened his utility to get our skis, packs and boots inside. Turned out he knew Mark’s aunt and uncle, and was also a very fast driver – the two of us noticed that he was rarely out of fifth gear…going up a mountain. We must have arrived at Diamantina Hut by 10:30 – not bad considering we couldn’t even be bothered making muesli earlier that morning, and speaking of muesli, we even got some breakfast bars at the toll gate, score!


Swapping volleys for ski boots, and smothering on some pink zinc - or is it pinc zink - we were off and skiing across the Razorback. The weather was fine and the snow was just softening, perfect spring skiing by and large, and Mark was carving up some nice turns on the fist decent descent (alliteration – see, Arts students do learn something) with me ploughing behind. I think Mark took the first spill of the day with a long bum drag that could have ended up in the trees, but with all fairness, I side-stepped down the majority of that slope, and within an hour recognised that vast superiority in his skiing ability. But not put off, I struggled through the day, picking up some tips as I went and really happy I was out there and not stuck in Camberwell for the day. And I soon got over the struggling part, and started to focus on getting better, as Mark was jumping of cornices and skiing some really cool looking stuff that I wanted to be doing some time soon (i.e. next season - damn snow melting for kayakers).

Through many annoying and burnt out sections of trees, and up, down and across some tricky terrain (that time was an accident, I swear) we made it to our destination for the night – Federation Hut. Time to take off our skis – the first time all day for Mark, and probably the 20th time for me, take some snaps and relax in the hut. We soon realised that we’d carried far too much for the trip – we could have left all our food and fuel behind, as there was ample in the Hut…no, not the emergency food that you shouldn’t touch, but a big bag set up to swap and share…and share we did, finishing off a packet of liquorice chocolate bullets! Dinner was hot, the sky was clear and the snow was white (well, it was a little brown immediately around the hut). I didn’t have to remind myself why I wasn’t studying.


We decided that we couldn’t really be bothered ascending the mountain proper that afternoon, nor could we be bothered the next morning. For that matter. We both figured that we’d definitely be up there again some time, and that we still had 20 years of snow, so what would it matter if we didn’t go now?

Friday saw us walk the entire way down Bungalow Spur with skis strapped to our packs, acknowledging the wankiness of using ski poles when walking, and we were back at the car in under two hours. Eating lunch in the car on the way home (how good is home made quiche?) we were back in Melbourne by 4, giving me enough time to pack up again and head over to Footscrazy for another trip, this time mountain biking at Forrest with some other Arts students.


So the Featherpop trip was hardly a Featherpop trip at all, but that hardly mattered when you can get out for a mid-week ski in spring, when you probably should have been working, and studying, and generally stressing about the daily grind. That mountain would have to be conquered another day…most probably a week day in Spring 2009.

Pete Ay

Grampians 26-30th of September (2008)

What else would a LUMCer do on grand final weekend other than get as far away from the CBD and a television set as possible. I can boast that I did not know the result of this years grand final until the Wednesday after the event.

Alex, Pete and Myself walked, scrabbled and at times hauled ourselves to the top of Mount William from Sheep Hills and across the major Mitchell plateau and down to Wannon Creek taking in some magnificent views along the way.

Photo: View from top of Mount William looking to Major Mitchell Plateau

Driving up Friday afternoon stopping at George’s Fish and Chippery in Ararat for one of the cheapest burgers with the lot around and set up camp at Borough Huts Campground for the night.

Day one: was filled with inclines, rocks and brilliant weather as well, climbed (or walked in part along a sealed road) to the top of mount William across a few hills and up the very steep rocky side of the Major Mitchell Plateau. The campsite on top of the said plateau had everything one could hope for: a creek for water, a clear area for tent set up and a toilet to top it off! Once we settled into our tent and the wind picked up we realised what was missing. The only thing we heard for the rest of night was the sound of the metal toilet door banging against the wall. Note missing piece of the pie: a device to keep toilet door shut.

Photo: Pete and Alex walking ?? not quite sure where we are :P

Day two: involved a lovely amble and part rock scrabble across the plateau and a rather steep descent down into the Valley to camp at the Jimmy Creek Campground. This bogan sounding campsite was in fact in the middle of a reconstruction site for the new Jimmy Creek Campground and so we left the Tonka trucks to find a nice spot beside the river and set camp for the night. Here we learnt an invaluable lesson about using the club tents ultra light weight option: when leaving out the inner, the footprint aka random tarp must not poke out under the edges of the fly, else water on top of the tarp sticking out of the tent can travel into the tent and make your thermarest and other stuff wet.

Day three: Having learnt a lesson in movement of water the night before we walked along a management track to pick up the car in what was a reasonably boring and undulating track in comparison to the days before.

On our last day in the gramps we meandered up Mt. Rosea to have a lunch with a view before returning to the car to drive home. Special mention to Alex who made a valiant effort to walk with very sore feet up and down those really steep sections! And of course to the Grampians for being so pretty.

Photo: Well alex looking out towards mount Lubra from semi summit of Mt. Rosea.

Gwinear ski trip August 23-24

Its snow season again! So what else, but a ski trip with Hilary, Steph, Pete, Bonnie (MBOC) and myself headed to St Gwinear for a weekend.


We skied





Camped in the snow





Ate some yummy food




Went exploring between the trees





Then it was time to head home

Plugging LUMC

Coming to Australia was pretty scary at first - its on the other side of the world and the first time I've ever left home! But getting settled in was pretty easy; we took part in some of the orientation activities La Trobe had to offer. At the Orientation Sports Fair, we signed up on the e-maillist for LUMC.

Our first time going to the weekly kayaking sessions was a hit. We found out about the Big Weekend and immediately had to join the club. The Big Weekend was my first time camping in Australia and it was awesome! Every day was fun-filled with white water kayaking (my favourite), rock climbing, bushwalking and mountain biking. Best of all, there were so many skilled people there that even if you weren't that fit (like me) or had never tried an activity before, they would take their time and teach you just how to do it. At night and in the morning, everyone did their part and we cooked the best camping meals ever!

I met some of my best Australian friends in the LUMC, and getting involved in the activities really gave me a chance to explore Victoria; something I probably wouldn't have been able to do without knowledge or a car! We tagged along on indoor rock climbing expeditions, improved our kayaking skills, and went on an awesome hike through Baw Baw National Park. My advice to international students - if you want to get the most out of your Australian experience, take a chance and join the LUMC. You won't regret it! -Rebecca Dorris, Member 2007