Will's Rock Climbing Page > Crags > Mt Buffalo > The Cathedral
Last updated: Mar '07

The Cathedral

The Word: Stacked with classics.
Sun/shade: Plenty of sun, though Sultan gets afternoon shade.
Wet weather options: No.
Style & Length of Climbs: 15-90m. Take as many as 10 bolt plates plus a rack.
Grades: 13-28

The Details: An absolutely superb crag. The 3 star routes here are the absolute best Buffalo has to offer, and are among the best routes in Australia. The rock is also as good as granite gets.

Access: 8-15mins walk. Drive 10mins further up the hill from the campground until the totally obvious Cathedral rears up on the R side of the road. Try not to crash while gawking at it!! Park up at the saddle from where an obvious trail heads up towards the saddle behind the Cathedral. Follow this until the last switchback before the saddle (about 30m before the saddle), from where you break R towards the Southern side of the crag. Drop back down R to the base of Sultan on the Eastern side, then continue back up to the base of Maharajah which faces North. To access Bloodnok, The Dreaming and Edge of Pleasure continue steeply down the Eastern Side of the platform below Maharajah, then along the Northern base which at first requires walking through a chimney. Here's a shot of the road-side of The Cathedral. Notice Kevin on the 1997 route Caravanserai (21), and just to his R is Sultan p1 which follows the beautiful large corner, then traverses around R and up the obvious flakes.
Granite at its best

The Cathedral as first seen when driving up. The climbers at the highest point are atop Sultan (*** 20) (which comes from the left) and Maharajah (*** 17) (which comes from the right). The cleancut corner at centre bottom is Compulsion (13), and the major smooth arete at far right is Substance Abuse (*** 24) - 90m high! Edge of Pleasure (*** 21) is 15m beyond that, but mostly out of sight except for the start.
The Cathedral

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And here's a shot of James also on Caravanserai, just L of the corner of Sultan. (C is described in the 2000 Buffalo update, linked to from my overview Buffalo page). King For a Day (* 24) follows FHs up that steep arete on the right - looks hard!
Granite at its best

*** Sultan 60m 20 (OS)
A bloody brilliant route, and coming from me (who'd usually rather swallow a fork than climb on granite) that's saying something! In fact this and Edge of Pleasure are the best routes I've done on the whole mountain. The whole route can be seen in the first photo above. 1) (*** 25m 20) An awesome corner. Sitting below it's fearsome offwidths you're likely to tape up, but it actually goes to extremely elegant laybacking, smearing and underclinging! The only time I actually jammed was to stop to place gear! 2) (** 15m 15) Steep juggy flakes to roof then traverse 12m round R to a SHB at base of flake system. A great airy traverse which stays interesting the whole way! 3) (*** 20m 19) The stunning flake system up the airy headwall. The start is quite strenuous, but well protected so no need for factor twos! Then continuously lovely laybacking and underclinging around rooves leads to the short nice airy slab finish shared by Maharajah pitch 4. Pitches 1 & 2 can be combined without too much drag by using double ropes and going direct up the vertical crack just after the crux - reportedly closer to 19 than the 15 given in the guide!

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Looking back down the hard section of pitch 3 of Sultan to Ben still on the same belay.

Granite at its best

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A view across the second pitch of Sultan, with Ben on the semi-hanging belay 30m off the deck, and the beautiful alpine plateau stretching off into the distance.
Granite at its best

*** Maharajah 42m 17 (OS)
Originally done in 4 pitches, but it's a great single pitch if you take care to extend gear, or have double ropes. 1) (* 9m 17) The flake start is a nice little problem (place a high #4 camalot in the original to protect the start), med wires and small cams. 2) (*** 15m 17) Up to the twin cracks, apparently the L (grassy) one is off-route. Awesome (crux) moves lead up the R crack for 5m to a nice step L into the V-groove and through the bulge. 3) (* 9m 17) A lovely undercling/smear problem around the first block (there are several good lumps to smear on) deposits you on a ledge, then some easy moves past a good thread to the top of the flakes. 4) (* 9m 14) The short slab succumbs to good footwork, then back to the chains.
Here's a shot of Ben on pitch 2 of Maharajah, avoiding the "proper" way up the right hand crack.
Granite jamming

And here's a shot of all of Maharajah, with Ben "3 pitches" up it.
What a summit

And here's a view of Geoff seconding pitch 2 of Maharajah, about to get to the lovely twin cracks.
Granite jamming

I caught up with Geoff so got this shot of him after doing the nice undercling move on pitch 3 of Maharajah.
action shot

* Strange Angels 20m 20 (OS)
A nice little number, quite solid for the grade but it's a short and well protected crux. Take a #4 camalot to preplace high in Maharajah as a side runner, otherwise the start is quite bold. Tough to get off the deck then nice moves lead up to sinker wires in the obvious grooves, then thinner moves up the shallow corner/flake past a FH. The crux is past the 2nd FH, get tiny crimps either side of it, and run your feet up the flake to get your R foot on top of it, swing your L foot onto a high crappy hold, and delicately stand up to snag some little crimps at full reach, then to the jugs on top. Rap ring.

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James enjoys the shallow flake and approaches the last-move crux on Strange Angels
Thin!

* Bastardos Inglesis 18m 24 (TR)
Starts 2m R of SA and is better than SA, despite no stars from the guide, with 3 sections at the grade and the remainder being 21+. A great exercise in pushing the boundary of granite friction. A small wire can be placed to protect the first clip, which is easy anyway. Also easily toproped off the rap ring.

A view of the North face of The Cathedral. From left to right, the initialled routes are: Contact Sport (** 23), which takes the rounded arete just L of the shaded corner of Compulsion (13); Maharajah (*** 17), both top and bottom; the base of Strange Angels (* 20) and Bastardos Inglesis (* 24) which both finish at the half height ledge; the top of Bloodnok (* 17) which finishes up the thin crack (the wide crack just R is Bloodrot (18)); the top of The Viking (19) which ascends the obvious corner system; the base of Huns Don't Cruise (* 21), an attractive short arete; The Dreaming (*** 23), which blasts up the left side of the awesome 90m buttress, Woodpecker Wall (* 22) which takes the major icky offwidth then blasts up the prow above; Substance Abuse (*** 24), following the short thin cracks down low then the incredible R arete of the main buttress; and last but not least the stunning Edge of Pleasure (*** 21), taking the grooved front of the low buttress then taking the soaring thin arete on the 2nd pitch.
The Cathedral North Side

*** Edge of Pleasure 90m 21 (OS)
A total megaclassic!! This and Sultan are head and shoulders above all other Buffalo routes I've done. Baxter/Tempest: "They come back raving and drooling after this"... ooohhhh yeah - and then some!! Brilliant, brilliant route. My partner culled his rack down to 3 cams and a set of wires..... then pitchforked me into leading the trad pitch! Luckily the gear we had was all that was needed (#1.5-2Frs and small-med wires)! (Yes you require a rack despite the guide's lack of clarity on this). 1) (*** 45m 20) (gets 21 in the Baxter/Tempest guide). An awesome sustained and varied pitch with lots of hard moves all the way, following a series of disconnected grooves/cracks up the front of a steep narrow buttress, then smearing to glory past 3 bolts. Being so sustained, in a way it's at least as hard as p2, but no single move quite got to 21 IMO. Scramble up wherever to the bolt below the first groove, one tricky move to get into the groove then easier moves up to where it fizzles out. Steeply step L into the next groove (small-med wires and #1.5Fr), and motor up to awesome moves into the next groove - which has no pro and no holds! Continue delicately up this until possible to step R onto the slab and a very welcome BB. No rest though, so pad up the excellent continuous slab past 2 more BBs to a commodious ledge (take slings for chockstone and horn, plus optional #4-5 camalot if you can face carrying it!). 2) (*** 45m 21) (gets 20 in the Baxter/Tempest guide). Steep stemming up the 3 ribs for 8m using the L and R ribs at first to gain the horn, then the L and centre ribs to a bolt where the ribs on either side fall away. A lovely short crux onto the middle rib and up to the next bolt, then followed by 35m of unbelievable gr16-18 sustained smearing up the rib, with perfect bolting protecting each hard bit and leaving easier sections a bit runout (8 bolts in 45m). Stunning! Walk 15m L (E) over to the rap chains above Substance Abuse (only 25m if you go down towards Maharajah and tension a bit to the ledge - this allows a single rope rap which saves using a knot which is a sure way to trash your rope when you haul it down).

A view of The Hump (on the right) and The Cathedral (on the left). Initialled routes on The Cathedral are: M = the base of Maharajah (*** 42m 17); TD = The Dreaming (*** 90m 23); SA = Substance Abuse (*** 90m 23); and EoP = Edge of Pleasure (*** 90m 21).
The Hump

A view of The Cathedral from up at The Horn, also showing The Hump and Ariel Area.
The Cathedral

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