New Routing in the Grose

Saturday saw a cast of thousands (well 6 actually, but that's equivalent to thousands when you're in the Grose!) head up to Pierce's Pass to do a variety of new routes. Andrew and I were keen to suss out the crack up the front of the Mirrorball pinnacle, while Martin, Giles, Gerda and Bernhard (the visiting Austrian rock god) all rapped down "Weaselburger" to do the FA of Martin's new route "Burgermeister" (23) (which got three thumbs up from everyone concerned, we found out later. It's a bit unsettling that they all have three thumbs, but that's another story! :-)

Thankfully Martin still had a couple of static ropes stashed out there, so we borrowed two of them and fixed one of them for the top rap (down to the top of the pinnacle), and another off the third belay on "WWotM" and down the front face of the pinnacle (where we expected our route to go).

The pitch up to the top of the pinnacle was up a generally low angled dinnerplate wall without many options for natural gear, so we continued down to the ledge (the 2nd belay on "WWotM") to suss out what the crack was doing.

The crack was pretty easy to find at the ledge - the top metre or so being an excellent looking splitter finger crack. We decided it was worth an attempt, so Andrew jugged back up to bolt the top pitch, while I fixed another rope and rapped down to the ground, sussing out the crack as I went. With a bit of brushing and two bolts on the first belay ledge (the crack at that point is #5 camalot or wider, so a natural belay wouldn't be much good), we decided it was ready and rapped back down to the ground to have a go. Andrew (who hadn't checked out the first pitch) commented on the apparent lack of pro...

I started up the first pitch, rambling up some large blocks below the crack itself, then moving onto the right hand wall (the crack at this point is really wide and flares downwards, so it'd be difficult to climb). I'd sussed out a line of pro and holds out right on my earlier inspection, but realised that I should've taken the brush along and given it a good going over before I'd started - the holds were all dirty and lichenous (but thankfully pretty juggy).

Above this the wall has a blank section and there isn't any pro, so I got stuck into the crack (by this time squeeze chimney sized) with relish. I love chimneys (particularly when Andrew is seconding! :-) and this one was a beauty - tight enough that you aren't going to fall out, but not so tight that you can't turn your head. And lots of chossy jugs to haul on too! I even managed to get a chossy slung thread runner which I think Andrew cleaned just by yanking on it!! :-)

A couple of good wires above this led to the narrowest part of the crack - merely #5 camalot width! :-) A couple more moves out on the right hand face and I was at the first belay ledge. So it went with much less drama than I'd expected! About grade 13 or 14 or so, and with pretty reasonable protection too.

Andrew followed up, reluctant to insert himself into the chimney, but forced to because I'd passed behind two chockstones (heh, heh, heh! :-) With the hope of saving future generations of chimney-incompatible climbers some dignity, Andrew trundled the two chockstones as he passed (I'd had a go when I rapped down, but couldn't shift them), thus ensuring that no one need insert themselves into the chossy horror in the future, unless, like me, they'd rather climb an unprotected, chossy squeeze chimney than an unprotected blank face!! :-)

Once at the belay, he quickly started up the intimidating second pitch. From the belay it was fairly obvious that this beast was a bit steeper than we thought - the rap rope hung out about a metre from the wall at the belay, and the first half of the pitch is slightly under vertical!

The first half of the pitch was reasonably straight forward, with the crack still wide (#5, #4 camalot) but with fewer face holds. Probably about grade 17 or so. At half height was a good stance at a 2 or 3 foot high shale band, below the steep upper half (where the crack narrowed right down to finger and smaller size). The first move was quite tricky, with a couple of good holds at face height, feet at waist height and a jug about 3 feet further up. A quasi-mantle solved that problem and then you're committed to the steep upper wall.

This section was pretty sustained, although Andrew found a rest (of sorts) out right that helped a bit. From the rest up was the crux (I thought) - not technically too tough but requiring a bit of endurance to hang around and place / clean gear (which was thankfully plentiful). A jug just below the final bulge gave a rest of sorts, followed by a final interesting move or two up the splitter crack. It was just a little too wide to get secure fingerlocks in, and Andrew and I both ended up laybacking it instead.

A great pitch though - I'd give it at least 1 star, and a grade of about 20 - mostly due to the steepness of the pitch rather than the difficulty of the actual moves. I reckon the final move up the splitter could see some wingers from people who are too pumped to pull through! :-)

I then launched up the final pitch, a 5 bolt + small cam romp up the front dinnerplate wall of the pinnacle. This pitch was absolutely filthy, and covered in detritus from the drilling and hammering earlier on. About grade 16 for a move or two, but generally much easier. Nice exposure though.

We then hauled all the gear up to the top of the pinnacle, and Andrew led out on the final pitch of "WWotM" (18). Given the fairly low angled nature of this pitch we had a bit of an epic hauling the gear - I ended up climbing up about 12m carrying all of it before tying it onto the haul rope (which then got stuck in a small tree 10m from the top, requiring Andrew to rap down and free it).

It was a pleasant walk out in the sunset (I didn't realise how long we'd taken!), and I spent a bit of time sussing out possible lines in the gully that the track winds up. I can't believe that none of those awesome looking slabs have been done yet!! :-)

Most of the trip home was spent trying to come up with a name for the route. The theme out there is "disco", which of course Andrew is an expert on (being a major fan of the Bee Gees!). Two of the names I came up with were "Staying Alive" and "Heebee Bee-Gees" - either one would have been good if we'd had an epic. But then Andrew came up with the perfect name - "Dirty Dancing". Not quite disco, but close enough (and definitely appropriate!!).

So the summary is:
Dirty Dancing 98m 20
P1. 28m 13
P2. 15m 20
P3. 15m 16
P4. 40m 18 (as for "WWotM" P4)

The second pitch is definitely worth a star, but the first and third pitches (third in particular) are pretty worthless. One thought I had was that it would be easy to do the first pitch of "WWotM", the second of "DD" and then either of the third pitches ("WWotM" P3 is probably marginally more pleasant than "DD" P3). This wouldn't be a bad link up at all, although it would require more than just a sport rack.