ClimberMayJune2020

44 may–jun 2020 http://www.climber.co.uk

feature

a Blue mountains DirtBag

Macca was cast from pre-computer

Australia and stems from Scottish

heritage. He is a political lobbyist,

he swears by the good of the grass,

is a social agitator, old school tough

and plainly spoken. Well, he speaks

non-stop really. In his middle years, it

is easy to determine that this guy has

spent a fair bit of time in the sun, his

face is lined with experience and his

hair is matted. Macca has an iconic

grey beard which grows errant across

his face and down his neck like a pit of

baby vipers which have had a current

of electricity zapped through them.

Bare feet stretching he rolled a smoke

as a climber started up Psychodrama (22)

at Mount Piddington. As his eyes followed

the climber he shared with me that he

had returned the previous night from

some ‘hell yeah’ ice-climbing trip up to

Blue Lake in the High Country with his

mate and climbing partner, Zac Vertrees.

His voice went up an octave recollecting

his ice climbing foray: “I’m sharing a

tent with Zac we were getting a bit smelly

eh, but the climbing was...” Macca’s

hands were waving down beside him

and his roll-ups smoke was wafting

around his beard in the afternoon sun.

“I got on an ice line I’ve looked at in

previous seasons. It’s a 45m ice smear

on The Boulder which I top-rope

self-belayed on a single 6.9mm rope.

I hope to go back and lead it soon.”

This guy has an appetite for adventure.

As a kid, Macca was a keen Boy Scout

and Venturer, a common entry point to

climbing back in the day. He learnt the

Boys Own Adventure techniques of

classic abseiling, he used three-strand

ropes and made harnesses from seat belt

webbing cut out from smashed cars he

and his mates found in the bush in the

late 1970s (warning – don’t do this!). 6

You meet a few characters when you’re out climbing and some stand out more than others.

The Blue Mountains in Australia have several but there is a contemporary character that is

hard to confuse with anybody else, Macciza Macpherson more commonly known as Macca.

Those eyes full of life tell
it all. Macciza Macpherson
enjoying shenanigans during
yet another wild day in the
Blue Mountains.

By Dave Barnes Photography by Kamil sustiak

MACCIZA

MACPHERSON