It was a quiet Sunday in Mountain Quarry. We were futilely pawing at the base of Skywalker Wall finding out that climbing in Thailand doesn’t count for anything on Perth granite. Most of the day the only other climbers were MatandJim. There was a small commercial or semi-commercial group of seven or eight abseilers. Their leader was the only one with the gate combination . We asked but he wasn’t giving anything away. He didn’t try and throw us out, we hadn’t booked or anything , may be he was being kind to the peons.

We waited for the shade and climbed in the West Bay. An old bloke with a friend drove into the quarry and climbed. When the abseiling group left they locked the old guy in. It seemed a cute thing to do. Don’t know if he got out.

So what’s the current ruling? If insurance and indemnities are required then individual climbers are for practical purposes banned? Is that why there were so few in the quarry, or was it too hot? Does a group of seven abseilers exclude everyone else?

Happy New Year to all those commercial people out there.