After watching just one minute of this Tasmanian climbing documentary, one thing became very clear: I need better friends.
Well, maybe I needed two life improvements: better friends, and better drugs to ingest in my dreams.
The central climber of this sweet little documentary is Andrew “Squib” Cubbon, and he explored Tasmania’s endless possibilities for rock climbing while living in a friend’s house. The residence in question is right outside of Freycinet National Park, which Squib describes as “one of the most beautiful parks in the world.”
It only takes a few drone shots of the so-called “Star Factory” crag to prove that point, which leaves me pondering why I lack friends living in gorgeous international climbing destinations.
Squib climbing on one of the dozens of quality sport and trad climbs in Freycinet National Park.
Perhaps it’s because I can’t climb an 8a+ trad route like the first ascent in this breezy 11-minute video from 2014. Squib, originally from the UK’s Isle of Man, had been working his way up through the area’s hard routes, he says, before finding the line that would become Augmentium. At the time, it was considered Tasmania’s hardest trad route.
“For ages, I thought, I can’t do this route, you know,” he says. “It’s too hard for me, because the top is really sustained.”
The route mostly follows a crack through the national parks’s beautiful, multi-hued sandstone, and the climbing looks fun, technical and challenging.
But it turns out, all Squib really needed to complete his project was a trippy dream and a mythical drug delivered by his subconscious.
Eating ‘metal spaghetti’
Tasmania’s weather nearly derailed Squib’s plans to finish the route. As the rain started to pour for days on end, he started to believe that the season had changed and he wouldn’t get another chance to try for a send.
Then one night, he had the dream.
He remembered every detail of this vivid dream the following morning. In his description, Squib felt he had a mission, though he didn’t know what. That’s when he spotted some superheroes drinking cocktails by a pool. They handed him what looked like “metal spaghetti,” then told him it’s called augmentium and would give him super powers.
Dream state. Photo: Screenshot
So dream Squib gamely eats the metal spaghetti, which causes green foam to come out of his mouth.
“Anyway, I woke up in the morning going, ‘what is augmentium?'” Squib says in the vid.
Cue the second half of this documentary, which accompanies Squib (with unsettling techno music) as he sends the route that would become Augmentium.
There’s no denying the beauty of the rock, the line or — most importantly — of the place itself. This portrait of a climber in Tasmania ends with a drone shot slowly panning outwards from the Star Factory, where gorgeous rock formations flow from the sea to the horizon.
Tasmania’s Freycinet National Park. The Star Factory is just below and right of center, the orangest and steepest rock in the shot.
It’s the only explanation needed for why more climbers are coming to Tasmania with ambitious goals of exploring this one-of-a-kind island.
