Blackheath climber triumphant

The climb, which O’Halloran named “Baker’s Dozen”, was at The Pit on Radiata Plateau. He bolted it himself and spent at least 15 days practising on the route before he was successful on June 21.

“I saw this line that hadn’t been climbed and I went down with bolting gear and glue in 2014 and made it climbable,” the 23-year-old said.

Many times he was close to completing the route, and as the temperatures cooled and the humidity dropped, it got closer to ideal climbing weather and success was in sight.

The 20m long climb, which only took about five minutes in total, varying from steep to near vertical terrain, required many years of training. Too many times to remember, he’d get part the way up and suddenly find himself falling from the cliff. But June 21 was different. 

“The climb was really fun and great. It’s cool that everyone’s really psyched on it,” O’Halloran said.

“I’ve achieved a goal that I thought was impossible. Now it’s what’s the next thing?”

To keep progressing his goals, he has his eye on a grade 36 route in France, “Biographie” in Ceuse, he’d like to tackle next.

It was a birthday present at age 12 for membership to a climbing gym in Brisbane that set the active youngster on his way. His parents could see his potential.

“I climbed the mango tree in the backyard [in Brisbane] – I’d jump from branch to branch and climb around the house holding on to window sills and climbing on the roof,” O’Halloran said.

“Even at 15 I thought it would be amazing to one day climb a grade 30. I thought if I managed that, it would be the best.”

It wasn’t long before he was climbing around the world, and at 18 he moved to Blackheath for the climbing opportunities on offer.

And he couldn’t have found a job he was more perfectly suited to. Employed as a rope access technician, O’Halloran spends his days doing maintenance and inspection work on buildings and structures while hanging off a rope on abseil.