4 Days To Go...

It's the final countdown to the 24 Hours of Power at Nowra! 

The weather forecast is good! Keep your fingers crossed.

Nowra Pioneer and Retreading Guru, Big John has come on board as BBQ Chief. He has donated a mountain of sausages and rolls and will don the apron and assemble a cast of Nowra legends to sizzle the sausages and hopefully put some meat on the bones of a few skinny climbers. The BBQ will be held at Shoalhaven Caravan Village (see below) on Sunday afternoon from 4:00pm. Scorecards are to be submitted then and the cake prizes will be awarded. We have allowed for a stack of snags, but as we have no real idea about who's coming the catering has been guess work. We will have a 'Bolts and Barbie Bucket' there and ask that people make a donation of around $5 to cover the costs of holding the event. All left over money will be used for rebolting.

In addition to the 6 categories (points-male, points-female, volume-male, volume-female, junior-male and junior-female) there will be a Nowra Trivia Competition attached to your score sheet. The first mostly correct entry drawn will win. There will be a couple of random prizes awarded too. A 'best single day effort' prize has been suggested, but we'll see what happens on the days.

Bring a pen, we won't be supplying any!

See you there, Rob and Carlie

The start of a second golden age?

With the winds from the south last Saturday came renewed hope and massive tickage. Gone was the wetness that had plagued our beloved crags for weeks. Chalk magically appeared on the previously sodden rocks and a lucky few were there to reap the rewards. 

First cab off the rank was Carlie LeBreton, who floated up the stunning line in the middle of the Hood to make the first ascent of Funky Gripsta 27. Meanwhile just across the river, Graham Fairbairn was clipping the anchors on his first new route at Nowra in 16 years. Feisty Little Thing 29 is an elegant diagonal line up the wall on the left side of the Fossil Cave. 

Those of us not blessed with a new route to tick, had to settle for repeats. I repeated Pimp Behind The Wheels 30 at the Hood and Funky Gripsta. Grant Stewart prised a couple of monkeys off his back, ticking Rabbit Trap 25 and Stone Roses 26. On Sunday, Thomo's was the place to be, and the route to be on was the much neglected and maligned Young, Dumb and Full of Cum 25. Now, contrary to what the guide might have you believe this little gem is not called Young and Dumb, it is not runout, it does not contain a big dyno and is not a slur on Rod! It did however receive ascents from Carlie, Tim Booth, me and it's creator G Man (Fairbairn). So get on it!

Only 11 days till the 24!

- Rob

24: Lots of Info

We've added heaps of info to the blog as plans for the 24 Hours of Power at Nowra come together. Checkout all the information below about; camping and accommodation, the after 24 barbeque,  the points competition, bonus routes, trips to hospital and more.

Ultimate Bonus Route Announced!

Married and Mortgaged 28 a route climbed by Steve Bullen in 1990 and yet to be repeated (as far as we Know) is the Ultimate Bonus Route at the 24 Hours of Power at Nowra! M&M is worth a whopping 100 points, making an ascent equivalent to climbing two routes graded 32. Start crimping kids!

Other bonus routes are:

Say You Don’t Want To Slip It In

Enter Sandman

Renovators Dream

Squeeze the Trigga

Bachelors Ball

Supersize Me

Mega Death

Dungeon Master

No Grease

Dick Cheese

Lipstick Funky Gripsta

Interested in the points competition?

Below is a list of how many points each grade is worth. Remember, in the points comp, only your best 20 routes count and routes under grade 18 are worth nothing!

There are also bonus routes which are worth more than other routes of their grade.

GRADE	POINTS
18	1
19	2
20	3
21	5
22	7
23	9
24	12
25	15
26	19
27	23
28	28
29	33
30	38
31	44
32	50
33	57
34	64

24 Hours of Power at Nowra Update

Only 2 weeks till the 24! 

Shoalhaven Caravan Village have agreed to offer a special deal to climbers camping there for the weekend. The price quoted is $16 per night for a double, camping. If you're traveling solo, just have a chat to them when you get there. They do have cabins/on-sight vans available too. Give them a call for prices.

They're at: 17 Terara Road, Nowra 

Phone: 02 4423 0770

To get there, coming from the north, turn left  at the second set of lights (Moss Street) after the bridge, just after the speed camera. Follow this road past Nowra High and after it curves right Shoalhaven Caravan Village is on the left.

Click here for a map

The after barbeque on Sunday afternoon will also be held at Shoalhaven Caravan Village. Camping and the barbeque will both be down the back on the big grassy area overlooking the ethanol works.

The rules have been amended slightly, check them out below. Basically, we've decided to be less anal and just trust people to stop climbing at 8 pm on Saturday and 4 pm on Sunday and not start before 6 on Sunday. We will still start at Thompsons Point at 6 am on Saturday and we'll hand out score sheets then. After finishing for the day most of us will probably want to crawl up into a ball and die, but for the hard-core there's plenty that Nowra has to offer. Amuse yourselves.

Ticks Before the Deluge

Before the heavens opened a couple of notable ticks were achieved on the hallowed Nowra stone. Christina Bedard cruised through Ain't No Sunshine 28 at South Central and her better half, Al Price pulled off a repeat of El Maco 31. Over at Thompsons Point Justin Jefferson chose to smash his own skull into the rock rather than risk an altercation with his lovely wife Anika. The final score card; he lost a bucket load of blood, gained 2 black eyes and spent an afternoon in Shoalhaven hospital!

Thomo's Point Most Popular!

Results from the latest Nowra Rocks poll have been tallied and confirmed with electoral officials and Thompson's Point is the most popular crag at Nowra. 51% of you agreed with PC coming second with 33% of the vote.