Mt Stapylton Amphitheatre - Spurt Wall

Guidebook(s): You need several - and even then you inevitably won't have all the info!! They are: Northern Grampians (Andrews, 1990?) pages 174-198; Northern Grampians Update (Andrews, 1994?) pages 25-34; Grampians Select (Mentz & Tempest 1998); pages 28-59; Grampians New Routes (VCC/Monteith 2003 - online) page 2-3; Stapylton Amphitheatre (Loughran 1997?).
Described L to R, facing the cliff.

A view of Stapylton Amphitheatre from the Stapylton campground road. Marked are Flat Rock (not so flat is it?!), Hollow Mountain, Central Buttress, Grey and Green Walls, Taipan Wall, Lower Taipan, Mt Stapylton, and Windjammer Wall.

The view from the top of Flat Rock, showing Grey and Green Walls, Taipan Wall, Spurt Wall, and Lower Taipan Wall. From L to R, the initialled routes are: Tokyo Connection (* 18, 18), Sirocco (** 21, 26), Serpentine (*** 24, 29), Snake Flake (** 26), World Party (*** 21, 27, 24); Mr Joshua (*** 25, 26).

And here's a view of the Amphitheatre from the other direction, from below Lower Taipan Wall.

A view of Spurt Wall, Afterglow Wall, and Lower Taipan.

Spurt Wall

Sun/shade: Shade until 1-2pm, then dappled shade for the arvo. Wet weather options: The whole wall stays bone dry, but the raised humidity makes the routes get pretty spoogy! Style & Length of Climbs: 8-15m, slightly overhung sport routes. One rope and half a dozen draws'll do ya. Available Grades: 22-32 The Details: The short section of ok rock beneath the obvious large patch of horrendous choss which ruins the R end of Taipan Wall. The routes are not great until you're up to grade 24, and the best section of the wall has nothing below 28. But still, its convenient as a Taipan warm-up or as a safe haven if your nerves get too frazzled on Taipan! Unfortunately the base is an unstable slope of gritty dirt (to trash your rope and gear - bring a large rope mat) and rolling boulders (to crush your feet or send your belayer toppling when you're mid-crux), which has lead to the nickname "Dirt Wall". Another problem is that this wall has a knack of capturing any skerrick of moisture in the air, which means it can get amazingly spoogy even on some sunny days, so the other nickname is "Spooge Wall". Still, don't let this put you off because it's a great little wall for clippin' and crankin'.

A view of Spurt Wall through a good zoom from near the top of Hollow Mountain (Loopey's to be exact). From left to right, the marked routes are Acadaemia (* 31), Who's a Naughty Boy (* 31), Not Too Bad (* 28), Menstrual as Anything (* 24M1 or 25 via LHS), Dial-a-Lama (** 24), Fabio's Route (30), Spurt Girl (cruxy 28), This Sporting Life (* 26), and Spurting Mildly (* 22). The chalked water groove at top left is Venom (28), on Taipan.

Access: 25-30mins walk. As for Taipan, walk up R along the base until you're below the horribly choss roofs. You can also walk further R from here to re-join the tourist track which goes to the summit of Mt Stapylton. This is well worth doing, it's an excellent walk and only takes about 20mins to the top. Descent(s): All routes have their own rap stations. * Menstrual as Anything 15m 24M1 (L) Now that the tree is gone, you can't do the stemming start. The "direct start" (3m to the left!) ups the grade to 25 or, like me, you can do a monster stick clip and batman to the first bolt. I have to say the batman really sucks and really detracted from any enjoyment of the rest of the route. Anyway, it's nice consistent 22-ish climbing for a few bolts, then a clear crux layback up a thin fin of rock. The last bolt is shit and the anchor is in a silly spot too.

A view of the left half of Spurt Wall, from the Taipan lunch platform. The chick is on Dial-a-Lama, while Menstrual as Anything is marked, finishing with thin crux laybacking up the chalked fin of rock. The chalked routes in the centre of shot are probably the best on the wall, and include Who's a Naughty Boy (31), Lifestyling (31), Not Too Bad (28), etc. Naughty Tickle Town (28 w/ double-dyno) and Acadaemia are at far left of this shot.

Splutter 15m 25 (TR)
Toproped this one day before it got bolted, I never worked out the start so didn't bother to go back. I probably would have bolted it a little differently though, in its current form I reckon its too close to Dial-a.

** Dial-a-Lama 15m 24 (RP)

Probably the best Spurt route I've been on. It's a bit stop-start, and doesn't "flow" the first time you're on it, but after a few laps you appreciate how much good climbing there really is on it. Consensus has it as being quite a solid 24, not least because you can fall off several different bits! Anyway, the key bits of beta are (1) to use a R hand 2 finger pocket/crimp through the bulge at half-height (see the shot of Dan on the R), (2) traverse L to a L hand sidepull at the upper bulge before grabbing the crimps above it, and (3) dial in the final mantle so you don't f*&# it up on repdoint! . Young Dan moving into the first crux on Dial-a-Lama

Young Dan shows the girls how it's done on the first crux of Dial-a-Lama Jono trying a ridiculously reachy approach on the upper crux of Dial-a-Lama, with Taipan looming in the background.

* This Spurting Life 10m 26 (TR) Got on this "just to finish myself off"...and got totally spanked. Remarkably sustained, though there's no move which is particularly hard for the grade. You certainly need to like crimping though. Some dude working This Spurting Life on a chilly day Lord of the Jerks 8m 23 (OS) 3m R of Spurting Mildly. While it's described as "absolute garbage" in the guide and I'll admit it ain't great, but still, the crux sequence in particular ain't bad (undercling, crimp, match, throw up R). Pussy Galore 8m 22 (OS) Quantity over quality if you're after this sort of skanky 'route'. It's about 10m R of Spurting Mildly. Bouldering direct to the first bolt is V3-ish, and would make it 24+ if it wasn't the first move! Starting 1m R is still bouldery but not quite as desperate. I quite liked the moves up to and past the 2nd FH, but still, I'll never be doing it again!

* Spurting Mildly 10m 22 (OS) After a few years of too much work and not enough play, this was my first 22 onsight in about 4 years (not counting a few which I don't think are 22!), so I probably like it a little more than most people. Having done about 20 repeats since then, I still think it's a fairly nice route, about 2m overhung overall. The best way to do the start is using the mono over on the right (seriously!) then step up on jugs to clip FH. Steeply off big sidepull to small sharp crimps then to better 'ear' of rock for a pumpy clip. More sharp crimps plus a sloper move lead up past several chalked sucker holds to juggier territory and chains. Spurting Mildly - me cranking the lovely sidepull, the start of a lovely section of climbing. Check the angle of Afterglow Wall in the background! Spurting Mildly - made it! It's pretty much all over once you snag these jugs. Gotta love all that choss above eh? Steve Crimpshaw Spurting Mildly. Pussy Galore (8m 22) is about 10m further up to the right.

Afterglow Wall

Up right of Spurt lies these very nice little walls. On Afterglow Wall I've marked the two bullshit projects on the left (it'll need Sharma to get up these but they're already bolted so help yourself), Bossanova (* 30) in the middle, and Chicane (27) on the right. Bouldering Buttress at the top looks really good but only has one or two doable lines, and Between the Sheeps bouldering area is at bottom right (if that's what floats your boat).

Another view of Afterglow Wall, this time from the tourist track down in the Amphitheatre on the walk-out from Windjammer Wall. Same routes marked as above.

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