TEN-YEAR-OLD Bodhi Miller woke up one morning and said to his dad Garth, ‘I want to go climbing.’ Two years later Bodhi sent his first grade 30. A year after that, his first grade 33.
Garth Miller is one of the best climbers Australia has ever produced, and probably still Australia’s best ever onsight climber. He was famously the second person to onsight 32/8b+ with his ascent of Cannibals Direct at American Fork, while he also onsighted Better Than Life (32) at Centennial Glen and numerous grade 31s. No ordinary climbing partners.
Both father and son say there was no pushing, no cajoling. ‘Naturally you hope that your kids might partake in the outdoor adventure activity that is your passion but I would never push it. We did loads of other outdoor activities; camping, mountain biking, canyoning, the works.’ Garth says, ‘It’s the same with my daughter, they climbed from four years old, but didn’t overly like it so I didn’t push it in any way.’ The reality of a tennis-parent is an unattractive one – the caricature is one of a pushy, overbearing parent forcing the child to practice, practice, practice, practice; a parent foisting their unrealised hopes and dreams upon their suffering progeny
Bodhi simply awoke as if from a dream and the two of them went to a spot lots of people get their climbing start, the Dam Cliffs in the Blue Mountains.
At that time Garth had hung up his harness and it had been gathering dust for ten years. Instead of using his famous crimp strength to bone down on minging holds, Garth had focused on other priorities, ‘Work, business commitments, family, having two kids, I’d climbed a long time.’
Sometimes it’s difficult to unpick motivations and Bodhi doesn’t recal anything having changed between one day and the next’I just wanted to try.’ He says.
It was a very patient start. ‘I was super out of shape,’ Garth says, ‘and Bodhi was a total beginner, so we could spend that time at the beginner crags really going through the foundations.’ There was no training or overarching plan, they just went out climbing together, starting down at the bottom of the grade pile, where everyone does, but they did not stay sloshing around on 15s for long.
, Blue Mountains, May 2021. A slight wind catches the spray from the waterfall and floats it in the air, carrying it around the corner and sprinkling it across the crag. The rock bites into skin, the temperature quickly plummets as the afternoon lengthens and the setting sun splashes warm oranges and yellows on the wall, as if it sucking the last of
