Let’s start this climbing tale in January. It could be any January, because they’re usually all quite similar – extremely hot.
The countryside is literally baking. It’s likely to be 45°C during the day, sometimes more. Not a cloud in the sky for weeks on end, and during the day your vision is assaulted by the glare of white and bleached orange, and an overall sense of uncomfortable brightness and heat forces you to squint.
Welcome to Central Australian climbing in summertime. It’s beautiful, but it’s an acquired taste.
Alice Springs is a slow town in summer. The roads seem to be melting, heat haze gently rising off them. There are no tourists, even fewer locals than usual, and businesses are not just closed for Christmas, but for most of January.
It sounds apocalyptic, and it kind of is. A landscape mostly devoid of colour, water and activity. And it certainly doesn’t seem the perfect place for an Australian climber. January sees most Aussie climbers (‘southerners’ as they are known around here) either pretending to be Tasmanian, actually being Tasmanian or in the Blueys belaying a friend in a cool, shady cave – all of which are wise choices.
But the town of Alice is still here. Indigenous people are still here, as they have been for thousands of years. And yes, there are some of us rock climbers here, trying to work
