A group of us headed at 8:00am this morning to tackle the looming glass house mountain ‘Mt Beerwah’. From a distance the mountain looked subtly small in the vast landscape however as we neared closer, it became all the more pronounced and daunting.
I had always envisioned a bushwalk and never took into account the possibility that it was in fact ‘mountain climbing’. The mountain was preceeded by a 400m stair-clad walk which managed to tire us completely before we even began. Then, as we emerged from around a rocky corner we came face to face with the huge mountain looming over us.
The first short burst uphill was a sheer rock face and several other people were attempting to climb with limited success. I started climbing one of the harder passages of rock and find myself to be quite fast and lightfooted. I think one of the biggst challenges about rockclimbing is your mental condition, it’s not so much about your physical fittness as it is about courage and total disregard of fear.
I was the first to ascend the initial climb and within 15 minutes, was joined by the rest of the group with the exception of two members of our party who had decided to go back. Most of the mountain was in fact ‘mountain climbing’ without a short burst at the midway point of the mountain where we traversed across the range.
The peak of Mt Beerwah presented us with magnificent views of the surrounding glasshouse mountains and sunshine coast district… it was beautiful! We took the opportunity after our two hour climb to rehydrate ourselves and bring out the chocolate for a revived energy boost.
The climb down the mountain was equally as challenging for it presented our legs with a new challenge of utilising unused muscles. Much of the way we lowered ourselves down with our hands putting much emphasis on the placing of our feet on the sheer rock face. There were parts of the terrain however that allowed us to walk down, though again we had to make sure our feet were firmly secured on the rocks.
I avoided injury of any form until the end descent when I took too eagerly to the bottom 2 metres of the mountain. The rocks were very sheer and there were very few pockets on the steep face where I could secure my feet. Rather than proceeding carefully to ensure my feet were secured, I hastened to lower myself down, missed my footing – my back leg slid out from under me and I started sliding with accumulating speed down the steep rock face.
Fortunately there was not far to fall, however even by that short spurt of sliding, the uderside of my legs were painfully grazed and below my knee caps my skin was torn and bleeding. At least I can say I have battle scars from the experience even if it means I can’t walk properly for the next week! :)
A great climb, would definately do it again!
