A Big Day Out

G'day everyone!

Having had a really busy week last week, I didn't end up thinking about climbing until about 5pm on Friday evening. I'd had a rain check with Hayden to go and do some big easy things somewhere in the Grose, so I decided that'd be the go. He was keen as well, so we made a plan to meet up at his parent's place in Leura on Saturday night and have a full day somewhere on Sunday.

Hayden arrived about 15 minutes after I did and set out the plan: we'd attempt a new route he'd been meaning to check out that went up the guts of the Fortress (between the existing "Grand Central Direct" and "Black Snake Gully" routes). Seeing as 200 odd metres of new routing was a little tame, he'd also decided to make it a bit more interesting by coming up to the crag from the bottom (which would also give us a better chance to scope out the line, since the crag is extremely difficult to check out from the base).

Hayden's a big one for travelling light and fast, and on this particular trip he seemed to be taking it to a bit of an extreme - at one point while we were packing I noticed him trimming an inch or so off each of his shoelaces. "It all adds up" his expression seemed to say! :-)

Anyway, bright and early the next morning we headed off to do the car shuffle (we had planned on doing a through trip from Govett's Leap to the Mt Hay Rd).

I didn't realise anyone but climbers and canyoners (and lost tourists!) headed out to Mt Hay, but as we neared the Fortress Ridge track we came across a group of about 20 cars poorly parked along the sides of the Mt Hay Rd. As we got closer it became apparent what it was - the remains of a large "back to nature" (ie. hippy) rave / dance party thing.

Dance music was still pumping through the trees, and there were still a lot of dazed youngsters drifting aimlessly about (including one young "lady" who twice walked right out in front of the car!).

We dropped my car off in the small parking area at the start of the Fortress Ridge track (removing or hiding all valuables in the process) and started on our speedy way back around to Govett's Leap. We only made it about 100 yards before we came across a stuck car, packed full of hippies. It seemed the rather out of it young man behind the wheel had decided to attempt a 3 point turn on the narrow road, rather than driving 100 metres further to do a U turn in the parking area. Of course the road was too narrow and he'd managed to wedge the nose into one bank, while not having enough room to reverse without hitting the bank behind.

Hayden, Dave (who was helping us with the car shuffle) and I all jumped out and organised the docile crowd into helping us to lift the back of the car around. Damn it was heavy!! And then we realised why - the car was still full of bewildered hippies! They piled out and we got the thing turned around without too much more hassle.

Off we sped, trying to make up for lost time...

I'd never been to Govett's Leap before, and man is it spectacular!! Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) the sun was still quite low in the East (it was about 8am) so the entire Eastern side of the valley (which is where the Fortress lies) was hidden in shadow.

Hayden and I charged off down the Govett's Leap descent - a really spectacular track hacked into the side of the cliff. It gives some fantastic views of the waterfall, and has some really impressive 100m high, dead vertical walls rising directly above it. Impressive because they are totally encased in thick mats of seeping vegetation!

The track follows the creek that is fed by the waterfall and heads quite steeply down through dense wet jungle and thick bush until it meets a more major creek at Junction Rock. Hayden and I took a bit of a breather at this point, and lightened our load somewhat by drinking a fair bit of water and eating some food. From here the Fortress was obvious - looming up over the valley to the East. It reminded me quite a bit of the campsite in the Wolgan, except that the cliffs seemed a lot higher and more intimidating.

From here we left the track and started what we expected to be a horrendous bush bash up the scree towards the base of the cliff. In fact the worst bit was probably the first 250m or so, which involved steep bashing through thick scrub to gain the top of the ridge that the guidebook describes as "the usual way up". From here it was surprisingly easy going (although really steep in a number of places), with the bush generally not that thick and a lot of unusual flat areas recessed into the crest of the ridge (lots of great camping spots!).

We took it pretty steady and rested quite a bit (by this point it was getting pretty hot) and made it to the base of the cliff by about 10:30am or so. About 2 hours from Govett's Leap - pretty good going I thought!

With the day getting hotter and hotter and our energy levels slowly dropping we decided to bail on the new route idea and do a repeat of one of Hayden's earlier routes instead - "Butt Crack". It's one of the shortest and easiest routes on the cliff, so will make a good escape route if we have to bail while new routing at some point in the future.

We'd come directly up to the start of the route, so without much mucking around we got started. Hayden wasn't interested in leading since he'd already led every pitch (he'd backrope soloed the route on the FA), so I got the sharp end for the day.

We soloed up a series of ledges for about 20m to the start of the wall proper, where we roped up. A bit of a tentative start, what with a couple of broken holds and false starts, but then I was into it and off up the pitch. The first pitch turned out to be really pleasant - nice rock and enough pro to keep me happy. About 35m to a large, steep ledge dotted with trees. Hayden came up and continued on up the ledge to the base of the next pitch, including soloing an 8m wall that I would have asked for a belay on!

The 45-odd metre second pitch starts below a squeeze chimney, but thankfully you only head up it for a move or two before moving out onto the right hand face. By this point we were deep into dinnerplate territory and although the jugs were plentiful the climbing was actually really engaging since you had to choose your holds extremely carefully. Good but spaced pro led up to a tiny ledge perched above a bottomless arete. I continued up a wide, steep crack above this to find myself standing on top of a small pinnacle, perched miles above anything. Great stuff!!

A small scramble led down the back of the pinnacle and across to the main wall, with the belay ledge about 15m further up. Although it was rather pleasant, this wall had some of the most friable dinnerplates I've ever climbed on. I twice had both footholds snap off, and knocked off quite a few holds while scrabbling for handholds as well. Thankfully the pro was good (even if the drag over the top of the pinnacle was ridiculous).

The belay ledge was perched on top of a much larger pinnacle resting back against the main cliff, with 180 degree views of the valley. We could almost see Arethusa canyon around to our left, while away around to the right was Pulpit Rock and the walls beyond that. Carne Wall dominated the scene, with the twin corners of "The Longest Day" and "The Big Loose Corner" prominent in the centre. They are truly massive!!

The next pitch was the last, and by this time I was quite looking forward to getting out of my climbing shoes. This pitch follows a rather dirty chimney system for about 40m - right to the top of the cliff. With all the recent rain it was quite wet at the back and in quite a few spots I was forced to climb right in the middle of the wet stuff. Despite this it was a surprisingly fun pitch, with a great variety of chimney moves (back / feet, stemming, hands / feet, etc.) and enough gear to keep me happy as well. The chimney ends in a steep dirty gully (hence the moisture and dirt!) and I fearfully balanced my way up this with the inevitable rope drag threatening to send me hurtling back down the slot.

About 20m up the gully I finally made it to a decent belay - a small gum tree with a bomber #5 camalot in a block to the left.

It had been getting increasingly cloudy throughout the afternoon, and just as I sat down to start taking in the slack, it started rumbling with thunder and large drops started falling sporadically from the sky. Once on belay Hayden screamed up the pitch, doing it in about a tenth the time it took me! I think the thunder and droplets spurred him on!

We finished off our water, packed up the rack and headed off. The Fortress Ridge track runs about 250m back from the edge of the cliff and we picked it up straight away.

Although the thunder was getting louder and closer there still wasn't much rain visible so we decided not to try to find a cave and just kept on walking instead. With the dark clouds swirling about and the sun streaming in underneath it was really spectacular! Fortress Hill is quite high and we had an uninterrupted view of most of the Southern arm of the Grose, Lockley's Pylon and Mt Banks and Mt Hay off in the distance.

The rain was slowly getting heavier, but what was more concerning was the thunder - it continued to get louder and louder and closer and closer until we decided to split up and walk 50m or so apart, to try to reduce the chance of getting struck by lightning. The bush up there is all quite heathy, and the ridge is quite flat, so people walking along stand out like sore thumbs.

Soon after the rain really got going and drenched us in no time flat. More concerning was the thunder which was scarily loud and close, even though we hadn't seen much actual lightning.

All of a sudden there was a bright flash and an almost immediate crack of thunder - lightning had struck the next ridge North, about 500m away. After a bit of nervous laughter we picked ourselves up (we'd both reflexively thrown ourselves flat to the ground) and kept on walking. Although there were some more loud crashes and a couple more minor scares thankfully there were no other strikes nearby.

The walk back takes about 45 minutes or so, and by the time we'd got back to the car the sun was out again. We piled in and took a brief look at the damage the hippies had done on our way past. One of the trees near the "dance floor" looked like it had been struck by lightning, but since there were no burn marks we decided it must have been caused by the hippies instead.

An uneventful trip back to Leura, a quick clean up and change of clothes at Hayden's parents' place and I started the slow traffic jammed trip back to Sydney.