On my first day in Brisbane, I hooked up with a local climber, Dan Roe. He's put up a few first ascents down at Mt. Graville and he took me a long. Here he is at the start of Lobster Boy and the Purple Krabs (12, 5.6)

The next day, I took a bike ride from Toowong along the river, into the city centre and back. Passing by Kangaroo Point, I ran into a local climber, Brett. We chatted for a while and I watched him and his buddy tackle some of the routes there. Brisbane is lucky to have such a rock resource right in the middle of the city.

The next day, I went down to UoQ to use the acquatics centre (need to keep my surfing/paddling muscles in shape). Sitting at the cafe, who do I meet but Sal! He was up visiting his girlfriend at the Uni. With time to kill, Sal took me on a grand tour of the campus, especially the Engineering school where Sal, Damo, Karl and Mike used to run around.

One of the labs where my mates spent a lot of time during Uni. I can just picture Karl running around, long hair flying wildly as he seeks the right resistor for his circuit. Those were the days.

Itching for a hike, I set my sights on Mt. Beerwah. It's the highest (~530m) of the Glass House Mountains, about an hour and a half north of Brisbane. Ancient volcano plugs, they are quite impressive, rising above the mostly flat topology.

The first half of the "trail" is actually a scramble up some pretty slippery slabs. The sign said "experienced climbers only," There were definitely a few spots of greasy class 4. These girls have picked the hardest way up-- but they made it.

Looking down the first segment of slab.

Climbing the slabs gains elevation quickly

I printed a copy of this pic and set it to Karl as a postcard. He was there with me in Spirit. Can you make him out on the left side of the frame?

Couldn't make the summit of Mt. Beerwah without a beer! XXXX is the "official" beer of Queensland. Their brewery is a few k's from where I'm staying here in Brisbane.