After a smooth trip, we arrived in the carpark at The Rock (near Wagga) at 11.20pm, scratched some space amongst the gravel, and crashed where we landed. As the only one who dug out a thermarest, I slept great, although only too briefly - the drunken yobbos kept us up til 1am, and dawn had us all jumping out of our sleeping bags and stretching our necks for a view of the 'arapilesian' rock.
| After a quick breakfast we were up at the cliff by around 7am, and Dave took first lead on Lest We Forget - a 40m 17 he had been recommended by Iain Sedgman (only because Sedgy was the first ascentionist!). The first half of this climb heads up a stylish orange slab with fine cracks accepting some good small wires. A tricky start eases, and then a nice quasi-mantle leads to a good stance under a 1m roof, about 15m off the ground. A delightfully exposed step right around the lip of the roof comprises the crux, and the rock then degenerates somewhat, with quite a few loose blocks making gear placement something of a trial and error process! Although described as a 2 pitch route, it was certainly preferable to lead it as a single pitch, with only one piece of gear (under the roof) needing extending. |
Dave cruising Lest We Forget
|
A characteristic of the crag we found is that the top section of the cliff has quite a few loose blocks. This is more than made up for by the quality of the rock down low however!!
Next was my turn, and after vaguely considering a grade 19 roof (Outside Edge) and a grade 20 with TWO rooves (Terminator), I wussed out and went for what looked like a good line, and looked like a very pleasant finish without loose blocks - a grade 15 route called Angie. This route heads up a slightly closed corner, which accepts a lot of good gear, especially some stunning big hex placements, and involves some pleasant easy bridging. The corner is capped by a large smooth roof, and the route traverses about 4m left, (almost to the top of the harder route Staircase), past a couple of loose blocks. In order to avoid weighting the loose blocks (which were about the size of a small child!) I stepped left below them, and pulled a very nice about grade 18 move to come up into the roof.
The rest of the traverse out to the left was absolutely brilliant, with great handholds, and interesting footwork. The route then wanders up to the final open book slabby corner which was just stunning! About 30m up, some great gear, a beautiful grade 15 move to gain the corner, and then beautiful simple rambling up the corner to the top - and no loose blocks! A great route.
Before leaving, we had a quick scout down the right hand end of the cliff, and were very happy that we did!! The Chromium Dog / Space Junk wall looks absolutely stunning! I would say it's as good as many a section of cliff at Araps! In particular, Chromium Dog looks like a classic! (Space Junk looks like the R hand variant, rather than a separate route!) We then jumped in the car again, and reached the Mt Stapylton campsite around 8.30pm on Saturday evening.
After a less than ideal night's sleep (Dave! Your tent does NOT have 'heaps' of room for 3!!!), we headed to Summerday Valley for a soft introduction to Grampians climbing. With a flat 3 minute walk in, and a nice leafy feel, this place is usually (unsurprisingly) very popular!! What WAS surprising was that we almost had it to ourselves on a beautiful sunny Sunday! Summerday Valley is basically a valley with cliffs either side, and in the middle has another ridge of rock with cliffs facing out. Main Wall and Back Wall are on this central ridge, and the Wall of Fools is one of the walls facing in.
The Wall of Fools is a whole different kettle of fish compared to the gentle friendly feel of the other walls - it is very intimidating! Soweto looks like a must, but for a day when you are confident with your trad gear placement - a 30m grade 21 protected only by small wires in surface cracks!!
Rob started the day with a lead up Waxman (11) - possibly the route of the day. With good grade 11 climbing and utterly bomber pro, it was an excellent choice of route.
Next, Dave jumped on Halfway Hotel (18), which has a great wire 7 feet off the deck. Dave then put a wire in blindly at about 13 feet and clipped it. At this point, his waist being 2 feet below the wire, if the wire pulls what will happen? Hmm lets see . . . That's 13 feet of rope up to the wire, plus another 2 feet back down to his waist, so he had 15 feet of rope out, and his previous bit of gear was only 7 feet up. It doesn't take Einstein to work out the situation he was in!!
And of course he fell off and the top wire blew!!
The moral to the story is: when belaying a fall close to the deck, SIT DOWN!! By doing so, I managed to get in the crucial 2 feet of rope (plus stretch!) and caught Dave 1 foot off the deck. So had a 3m winger rather than a 4m grounder! Anyway, next attempt, Dave got a slightly better Hex in a little higher (although he wasn't very comfortable when he had to sit on it!!), and then onsighted the rest of the route.
Finally, I led Texas Radio and the Big Beat (17), a good looking layback corner. Without too much ado I led cleanly to the final layback move, but unfortunately the quality of the rock upon which I was smearing was somewhat reminiscent of Bitch Itch on the Mortein Wall at Nowra (or tending towards the gritty sandstone which comes off as sand when rubbed!!), and of course it decided to do so as I was searching for the next hold off the final sidepull! Dammit. So a foot popped and I had a small fall onto a good cam, blowing the onsight.
After that the lack of sleep and too much sun got the better of us, and we headed back to camp.
The next day we decided something big was in order, and so we headed to Mt Rosea, the grand old man of Grampians climbing. The rock here is quite astonishing, in that it is hard smooth grey sandstone - ie almost reminiscent of granite in some spots! In general though, it tends to be quite blocky, with sharp edges and flat surfaces, and generally vertical and horizontal fractures.
| We initially aimed for Mixed Climb (12), but it looked particularly unappetising (despite Tempest and Mentz raving about it), and so we chose Debutante (15) instead. Unfortunately, Rob led the first pitch, which had fairly poor gear close to the deck, and only a small amount of good climbing for about the last 8m to the belay. So after this, and combined with tiredness, Rob decided to catch some z's, and rapped off. Dave led the good sustained crux second pitch in good style, but I didn't particularly enjoy it - I HATE seconding with bloody packs on!! It was a nice pitch though. I then led the third pitch, which was fairly uninspiring, although it did have a beautiful 4m section up a steep open book corner out on an exposed arete - groin splitting bridging 60m up, with PLENTY of air! Dave then won Rock-Scissors-Paper for the fantastic fourth pitch, which heads up a recessed corner L of the arete, getting steeper and steeper until some slightly overhung laybacks lead to a ripsnorting hand traverse out to an amazingly airy belay on the arete, 100m up!! |
Rob enjoying Debutante
|
While nearing the traverse on second, I discovered our camera was out of film, but not to be deterred, I revealed my amazing one-handed film changing ability (AND in a position where Dave had been pumping out on lead!! (some people just don't know how to find rests :-) )) and shot off some happy snaps of Daves mug poking around the arete. The final pitch was (again!) fairly uninspiring climbing, but at least I had 120m of air!! This cliff is different from the big walls at Araps in that it's vertical, and not slabby - I must say I've never felt a tenth as much exposure on the Watchtowers as I did on Debutante!! A real classic route, well worth three stars. There was, however, a fair number of loose blocks along the way, but none were dangerous.
|
To finish off the day I pulled out a particularly satisfying and challenging onsight - the first pitch of RIP corner (18). A flake leads through otherwise blank rock, and the flake only has one hold in the first 8m! This section provides very thin fingertip laybacking - Dave couldn't even get his fat digits in! So the first piece of gear was a small cam (our smallest!) placed from the single hold (at about 4m), and then a very hard move led to some easier climbing past good pro to rap off a tree. So the verdict on Mt Rosea? A classic Australian crag. An absolute must for any visit to the Grampians. To get through more than one route in a day would be pretty impressive though! (Apart from some of the single pitch routes at the bottom of the crag). The descent is the best I've seen for a cliff of this size - a huge natural ramp (it has a tourist walking track up it) up a 120m high cliff - and it's only about 100m left of most of the climbs.
|
Me pulling hard on RIP Corner
|
Tuesday we decided another new crag was in order, and went for another 'reputation' Grampians crag - Bundaleer. And to put it simply, I wouldn't bother going back there in a hurry! Perhaps if you comfortably lead 25 you might enjoy this cliff more, however we found it very difficult to choose quality routes at medium grades. We went there on the basis of Blimp (*** 20) and Scarab (** 12). Scarab was not available all day! It appears everyone else comes to the cliff to do that route too! So Blimp was the only route we did at Bundaleer.
|
Certainly a 3 star classic, but I must say I was somewhat disappointed by the rock quality. Blimp follows a 25m corner, and then traverses left under a roof at the top to a rap station. The left wall of the corner is pretty much vertical, and the right wall is slightly overhung, with face holds only available on the left. Unfortunately, the face holds are of somewhat dubious quality, with some evidence of rock crumbling off some holds, and others being fairly thin flakes. The crack itself is completely secure, and provides quite continuous and sustained climbing almost all the way to the roof. Dave led very solidly to onsight it, and Rob and I seconded. After that we buggered off!
|
Dave onsighting the mighty Blimp
|
After that experience, we almost decided to give the Grampians the flick and to head to Arapiles a few days early. Fortunately though, that night we visited Sedgy for showers and route recommendations, and we decided we should have another go, this time in the Mt Stapylton Amphitheatre.
Sedgy recommended a route called Germinal (17) on the Northern Walls, so we headed for that, and we knew Trident (14) and Simpleton (18) in the near vicinity should also be worth doing. Germinal looked particularly disgusting (in usual Sedgy style he'd raved about an offwidth with dubious rock. . .. ), and so Rob led up Trident, a two pitch 40m 14. Tempest and Mentz rave about this route, but although it is certainly pleasant and worth doing, I would give it two stars, or perhaps only one. Nevertheless, Rob led up the first pitch in good style. This route starts with a slightly bouldery move past some pockets and jugs to a good rest at about 6m. Then you traverse up and L about 4m, above the lip of an overhang, so there is definitely a feeling of air below you very quickly! The climbing up to the belay is slightly overhung and fairly poorly protected (although a serious fall is unlikely). The second pitch steps R off the belay and follows a wide water groove (which accepts #5 camalots only!) and then continues steeply up the wall past plenty of great pro. Quite an airy route, with lots of nice moves, but it is not on particularly pretty rock!
Simpleton looked absolutely fantastic - probably the best line in the entire amphitheatre - but with 3 or 4 pitches, and a girlfriend to collect during mid-afternoon, it was decided we probably wouldn't have the time. Instead we headed over to . . . . . . Taipan Wall!
We had been ogling pictures of this amazing chunk of rock for months, and had noticed a couple of sub-24 routes hiding away at the very left end of the wall. . . . .
|
So I jumped on the first pitch of Tokyo Connection (18), and fulfilled my dream of fondling some of that fabulous orange Taipan Wall rock! Marvellously frictional, and of superb quality. TC heads up a layback flake to a roof at about 12m. Surprisingly tricky first moves lead to a good stance at about 6m, and the first crux is a 4m sequence up to the roof and then stepping left to a stance. Part of the sequence was standing full weight on what looked like a horrendous sloper, but once you were on it it was a great foothold! The friction was unbelievable. From the stance under the roof, the route then undertakes a marvellous traverse for 12m or more all the way out to the very left hand end of the roof. The true crux of the route involves essentially no footholds, a squat down into a left hand pocket on the face, and then crossing through into a right hand sidepull up under the roof. Then you really feel like a rest, but there's no feet! And so you just keep trundling leftwards!! |
Me on Taipan Wall
|
The belay is a rather small stance at the very left extremity of the roof, and the second pitch starts with an extremely committing hand traverse out the lip of the roof, to pull onto the slab above - with no pro except for the highest runner in the belay! A very simple slab leads to a great airy mantle and a hairy traverse left (no handholds!), then easily to the top.
One of the greatest things about this route is the descent! You get to do an awesome 45m free abseil off the top of Taipan Wall!! This abseil also lets you eyeball your next Taipan Wall projects - Dance of Life 24M1, and Clean Sweep 24M1. I can guarantee you that the top section is very juggy!!
By this time I was extremely late to meet Nicola, and had to go the Harry to make it to Horsham 'only' an hour and a half late (oooooops . .. )(The timing of the shower the night before was no coincidence!! :-)
That evening we decided it was time to head for Arapiles, and so we uprooted camp, and drove west into the night . . . .
Thursday morning dawned bright and clear (if a touch windy), and so we decided to nab some routes on the Watchtower Slabs while the going was good. Rob and Dave headed up Brolga (16), while Nic and I went for the easier classic Arachnus (10). On the second pitch of Brolga, Rob pulled out one of his more solid leads for the week - pulling the slick, sequency and slopey crux 4 metres above a #2 RP! A lady nearby on Skink apparently took some snaps, and Rob is praying for her to come through with the goods!
Nic and I had a ball on Arachnus, except that by this point the wind was howling, so communication broke down at a distance of about 5 metres!! Our 'three tugs means I'm safe and on belay' system worked smoothly though, so it was certainly a pleasant excursion, especially the vertical juggy section on the third pitch, by which time the mega exposure has well and truly set in!
By the time Nic and I had rapped off, Rob and Dave had zoomed off to the Organ Pipes and started doing routes such as Lemmington 19 and Cadenza 20, so Nic and I called it a day. I went for a wander up central gully left side, and scoped out some of the numerous single pitch cracks. Some of the best looking routes that I still have to do include Moby Dick, Bam Bam, and Howling Wolf - this is certainly a worthwhile section of cliff for future visits. Although I did see my first snake for the trip - a little brown. I must say I always prefer to see a big snake, cause with the little ones, you never know where mama is!! (or just how pissed off she's going to be!)
Now for some reason which I'm not sure I was ever aware of, Friday morning saw us drive up to the Telecom Tower, and wander down to the Taste of Honey Gully/Kachoong area. Rob was exhausted after being forced to second hyperactive Dave up so many pitches the previous day, and Nic was also happy to snooze on a rock, so Dave and I decided to do The Golden Echo (18) and Taste of Honey (21) - if we could only work out where the hell they went!!
|
I sussed out The Golden Echo and so we started on that. This route starts about 2m below the height of the Kachoong roof (and has quite a funky (read scary) scramble up a gully to it!), and then traverses up and R all the way to the edge of the Kachoong roof. The line then heads up a 2.5m corner, and traverses out R until you are standing on the very left hand lip of the Kachoong roof. This section was amazingly sustained, which surprised me as I had expected some good bridging rests up the corner. The climb then continues up a small crack in the headwall, with wonderful exposure, and finishes up with a stunning grade 18 move about 3m above the last pro (which is bomber!). So I very much enjoyed this route.
|
Me on the lip of Golden Echo
|
Taste of Honey looked like it did exactly the same thing, but on the next roof left, so we decided to try something a little diverse, and headed for Curtain Wall area. Sensibly, we realised that approach would be best from the bottom, and so after a quick drive down the hill, and a nice wander, we came up to one of the quietest, and quite frankly one of the best, sections of cliff at Arapiles. Next time at Araps, make SURE you visit this area!
This wall is hard to see from below, as it is nestled in behind a pretty grove of pine trees, but let me assure you, this wall is as good as Arapiles gets.
Our first view of Comic Relief left jaws hanging, as we each wondered 'It looks like the best climb on the planet, it's only 21, but I'm not sure that I'd lead it . . .. . '
|
So I started up on Entertainer (18) instead, which looked just about as good. This climb is delightfully sustained at the grade, with a number of rests ensuring that it is not a pumpy route. The crux is actually quite close to the deck, being a layback sequence at about 8metres. The hardest thing was trying to place gear halfway through it!! A confident leader would perhaps continue a little higher before placing gear, but that would put you in a potential 10m groundfall situation. Anyway, after successfully slotting a good cam in behind the flake, the climbing remains challenging all the way to the roof, with many varied and interesting moves (there is a photo of this roof at about page 203 of the Louise Shephard guide) . The final tricky section is a beautiful juggy traverse about 4metres left, and then an undercut move to gain the final easy slab. I must say this was one of my most satisfying leads for the whole trip - a truly classic route.
|
Me post-crux on the aptly named Entertainer
|
Surprisingly, this climb is now equipped with triple ring bolts, so I lowered off to allow the possibility of the others pulling the rope and also leading. They decided not to, so I top roped Dave and Rob up it.
Rob and Nic then headed off to Horsham to get postcards and haircuts, so Dave and I battled on at the coalface, doing our best . . . .
After they disappeared, Dave screwed up his nerve and commenced up Comic Relief . .. . . .
And very quickly came back down again!
Unable to find any good pro before what looked like a tricky move at about 6m, Dave decided to lead Sideshow (19) instead. This climb was also very good, but involved a few moves that were 'a battle rather than a dance' . . . . particularly the crux section through a small bulge, which resulted in both Dave and I having a leg kicking around in open space, and finding out that your hip can in fact provide useful upwards momentum!!
Quite a pumpy route too, and well worth doing. After I seconded Dave up it, we decided to traverse across the top of the wall (at about grade 16 - maybe we should write it up as a new route!!) to the triple ring bolts at the top of Comic Relief, in order that we could set up a toprope. I went first, and found the route to be absolutely classic, with many delightful moves at or near the grade. Quite possibly the best single pitch route I have done at Arapiles (yes, better than Little Thor and Kachoong!), and actually very well protected. Dave also thought so, and so we decided to pull the rope and both lead it. Dave snaffled the first lead, and successfully passed his high point (isn't beta a wonderful thing??), and then placed a good cam in a vertical slot. Unfortunately, that didn't allow Dave to pull the same move, as the cam was occupying a crucial hold!! After trying some weird horizontal form of climbing, Dave gained about a metre above the cam, but his feet seemed to be going upwards faster than the rest of him, so he ended up practically horizontal (I still don't know how!!) and he found himself unable to recover the situation, and progressing downwards rather rapidly!!
A small fall was held by the cam, and Dave gathered himself and continued upwards once again, placing plenty of good gear up to the crux through a roof at about 18m, and climbing very fluidly. Oops I probably shouldn't have used that word . . .. .
Immediately after pulling the crux, the heavens opened, and it absolutely poured!!!We knew that although there was easy climbing and good pro above the crux, the top 6m, although not harder than perhaps 18, gave no pro, and was on that slick bulging arapilesian rock! And let me tell you, when its flowing with water, slick is the word!! Anyway, after a few tense moments, Dave gained the anchors, and so the only downer about the rain was that I didn't get a go at leading it!!
Darn it.
Solemn promises were made to return before the end of the holiday, but alas, I will have to do it next trip!
And so ended a great day, and a great week of climbing.
That evening saw showers all round at the Lake Natimuk camping ground (three bucks a head for a shower?? What a rip off!!), and our first pub meal. (the Nati pub chicken schnitzel comes highly recommended!) Dave then headed into Horsham to collect his girlfriend Michelle, and managed to be both early AND late!! - He fell asleep across the road while waiting, and Michelle didn't recognize the car, so when Dave finally woke up, she was the last person at the bus depot!! (The timing of this shower was no coincidence either!)
Anyway, the next morning saw us at Mitre Rock, and I started proceedings by heading up Witch Hunt, on the northern face. A pleasant 14, this route wanders up fairly easy territory for about 15m, to the base of an open book corner, which is protected by the crux. A nice undercling, push up into the corner for the first holds, and you're away again! The corner is out on the front of a buttress, and almost vertical, so this was a great section of climbing, with a real feeling of height, nice climbing, and some good bridging. The climb then reaches a big ledge (at which belay is possible), and continues up a jug infested wall to a multi-bollard belay.
Apart from a sighting of the second snake of the trip, the walk down was fairly uneventful. By this time Dave and Michelle had managed to disentangle themselves, and Dave managed to drum up some enthusiasm for Salem (18). The only other bloke at the crag warned Dave about a 10m runout section through half height, protected only by a poor cam, but Dave went for it anyway.
And after successfully negotiating the leaning layback crux, totally stitched up the "runout" section with bomber gear! (In particular a great cam in the so-called "poor cam pocket") After we got back down, the other bloke was leading it in absolutely atrocious style - falling regularly, placing gear while resting, pulling on gear to get through the crux (one of his falls was when the bit of gear he was pulling on came out!)
Assuming he wasn't actually aid climbing, this would have to rate as one of the poorest excuses for free climbing I've ever seen!
|
Anyway, The only other route anyone was particularly keen to do was Acapulco Gold (19), a beaut little finger crack on the southern side of Mitre Rock. I took first lead, negotiating the crux down low without too many problems (protected by #2 camalot), and continuing past a good wire to one of the best clipping positions I've ever found - a right hand finger lock that was astoundingly solid! The climb then passes through a small bulge on spaced jugs, to the belay. Dave also wanted to lead it, so I dropped the rope, and he sportclimbed on my preplaced gear! After various permutations of toproping/leading etc were completed, we called it a day and headed back to camp. Sedgy had invited us over for dinner and a slide show, and so off we went!
|
Me swingin' on that fingerlock
|
When we arrived Sedgy was busily discussing a new Black Range guidebook with Bill Andrews (and managed to flog off a couple of his photos for it too!)
Then after Connie's excellent dinner, and much beard stroking about the best place for the projector, the slide show began!!
Sedgy's slide show was very cool, he has certainly done a lot of climbing - most of it in flares (heh heh)! He had one amazing photo of a koala which had climbed some distance up a cliff and was sitting quite happily in a little recess in the rock!! But once Sedgy arrived it couldn't escape his camera! Sedgy has also (like Mike Laws recent article in ROCK) done some new routing on Flinders Island in the Bass Strait - it looks like it would be an idyllic spot for a climbing holiday!!
Another notable climbing destination of Sedgy's was Devils Tower in Wyoming - this looks like an absolutely stunning place to climb!! Pics of the Cathedral Range near Melbourne were also inspirational, along with heaps of other areas.
Sedgy agreed to come climbing on Sunday morning, so next morning we were all up bright and early with a few routes in mind. The Bluffs was canned as being too far for less than a full day, so we headed up to Central Gully left side. Dave Michelle and Sedgy did Stoat Steps Out and toproped Bunyip, and then also did Jackal. Rob led Nicola and I up Pedro. This route follows a good strong line for 30m, with the crux being at about 10m, involving either some quasi chimneying, or bridging, to get past a section of the corner crack that would otherwise require some serious "body climbing" (thrutching). Stiff for the grade, but it was only a 10!
I then led The Golden Fleece, which is a good face route with many fine face cracks providing good small wires for protection. The crux involves sidepulling from a good hold up to crimps, with fairly sketchy feet, and then through into jugs.
We then decided to head over to Central Gully Right Side, with an eye to doing Megalomaniac (** 14), Mari (** 17), Electric Warrior (**20) and Droop Street (**21).
Megalomaniac was wet and didn't even look that good, so Rob gave me the lead for Mari. This climb follows a fairly large R facing corner, with a small roof at about 2 thirds height. The first third is really only a scramble, and then you hit the technical crux straight away! A glassy layback - both Rob and I actually had to jam in the crack and layback off the jam! Intermittent moves then lead up to about 3m below the roof. The endurance crux of the route then heads up to the roof, through it, and continues without a rest for about 3m above the roof, with gear placement being rather time consuming! The final 8m of the route is some very pleasant easy bridging, to a belay rather scarce on gear - take some #3-4 size camalots, as well as enough sling to thread a small boulder.
EW and DS both looked excellent, however both were also damp , and Rob and Nic and I felt like something a bit easier to finish off the day.
After heading back to camp for some afternoon R'n'R, Dave suggested we head off to fire up Muldoon before Sunset, while he made dinner for us. We jumped at the chance, and after a quick slog up to the Atridae, I headed up the first pitch. After wasting about 10 minutes trying to get a really good (but too deep) thread immediately after the crux, and with the shadows rapidly growing, time started getting a little precious. Fortunately, the belay here is a ripper - two absolutely bomber wires backed up by two cams, and a great cam for upwards pull - "on belay!".
Rob rapidly seconded me up, trailing a rope for Nicola, and immediately led through, so as to lead to the top before the gloom of dusk made placing pro more difficult. As Rob neared the top of the pitch, raving about the beautiful exposure and great climbing and protection, I noticed that all of a sudden it was getting lighter again! Phew - full moon! As Rob set about making a belay, I just sat on the belay ledge enjoying the position - the green Wimmera plains illuminated by moonlight, some high thin cloud glowing in the sky, Robs (somewhat out of tune) U2 renditions floating down the cliff - sometimes it's just great to be alive!!
I then belayed Nicola up to my ledge, and she swapped onto Robs rope and continued climbing. Finally, my turn came about. Seconding this pitch was certainly one of the highlights of the trip for me - stepping right around the arete the exposure really kicks in, the cliff and the hillside lit by beautiful moonlight, and some of the biggest jugs on the planet to keep you happy!
So rapping off and walking back down to camp to Dave's tasty risotto we were one bunch of happy campers, let me tell you!
The following morning it was decided some air was in order, and so we headed up into the Bluffs. The access for this area is not as convenient as some places around Araps, but once you're up there, it is an extremely inspiring place to climb, with a good selection of climbs across all grades. After negotiating Ali's, and squirming our way through onto Flinders Lane, we were atop Tiger Wall, with the Bluffs themselves looming high above us. The first objective was to gain Blockbuster Ledge, with a view to climbing Blockbuster, Quo Vadis and Scorpion. This ledge can be gained by climbing a number of short routes. Rob belayed Dave up Scorpion Direct Start, which looked like a rather vicious little section of jamming, and Nicola and I chose the easier but bizarre Ivan. Eventually we all made it up to the ledge, and I led off on Blockbuster.
This route is absolutely classic climbing at the grade ("dinky dee" climbing, as a certain pom might say!! :-)
A slightly undercut move gains a lovely slabby open book corner, with lovely climbing and unbelievably good pro. I placed the best #4 hex I have ever seen - and didn't even need to give it a tug! About four fifths of the way up, the corner ends and the crack continues straight up the vertical 7m headwall, 150m above the base of Tiger Wall, right to the top of Bluff Major!! A stunning route - very highly recommended - take your time and enjoy it!!
Dave and I decided to head up Scorpion next, so Rob and Nicola rapped back down to Flinders lane. Scorpion starts off the very right hand end of Blockbuster ledge, and steps right, out over the top of Scorpion Corner (and above about 120m of air!!).
On Sedgy's recommendation, we decided to lead it as two pitches, so that the rope drag through the roof wouldn't escalate out of all proportion by the time we got to the top! For some weird (probably masochistic) reason Dave was keen to lead the first thrutch section, and so I needed little persuading to take the top section!
This first move can be seen on page 109 of the Louise Shephard guide - Scorpion heads through the left hand of the two thrutchy cracks above Chris Dewhirst. Your first foothold is in the base of the crack on the small 1m wall directly below the roof. Needless to say, I spent quite some time organising a solid belay!!
Dave's first two pieces of gear were a sideways surface placement of a #3 wire, and then a #0 cam, so I was feeling rather edgy as he headed up into the narrow, smooth, downward flaring chimney section! Looking strangely comfortable, Dave slotted a great wire, and then grabbed a jug and hauled ass out of the crack, to continue on to a small niche about 8m further on. I seconded in what I felt to be absolutely atrocious style - but hey, isn't that the way thrutching always feels?? :-)) I also spent a certain amount of time with my upwards progress halted by my helmet repeatedly banging into a block, and wishing that I'd remembered my bloody prussik loops!
|
Anyway, without too much more ado I joined Dave at the little niche, and racked up for my first foray into Arapilesian fist jamming. A runner off Dave's highest belay piece settled the nerves a little, and then after placing another cam almost immediately, I was away. The fist crack jags its way up an otherwise blank wall, with slight internal undulations meaning that bomber fist jams are available almost all the way, provided you spend time looking for them. The only problem with fist cracks is that the foot jams start becoming a little rattly! It was certainly quite an experience to spend a continuous length of time suspended entirely by fist jams and foot jams, including placing a number of pieces of protection along the length of the crack, and placing quite a lot of weight on fist jams in order to raise your feet and search for the next one. Quite simply, one of the best sections of climbing I have ever done. Unfortunately, I'd placed one too many cams in the longer initial fist crack, so that when I got to the final 3m fist/armbar section I had no suitable sized gear left!! But fortunately I remembered what those funky little bits of metal called wires are for, and slotted a good #7 surface wire, before pulling the final section and on to belay on the very top of Bluff Major.
|
Me pulling fistjams with 150m of air
|
Dave seconded in fine style, although he took a bit longer to get the hang of fisting - but you have that luxury when seconding!!
We then rapped down Missing Link, which looks like a worthwhile route that has seen plenty of traffic. After that we headed back down to the Pines for a late lunch, and some afternoon showers started wandering over the Wimmera. Dave and Rob tried to go bouldering at one point, but very quickly got pissed on from a great height!
Tuesday saw more of the same, with Dave and Rob making some early morning attempts at D-Minor - making it about halfway there the first time, three quarters of the way there the second time. . . . before getting pissed on again!
After which we decided to give up for the day and head into Horsham to get some film developed, and do some shopping and laundry etc.
Wednesday again saw scattered showers moving across the plains, but this time with larger patches of sunlight in between, so the rock stayed mostly dry throughout the day.
Rob finally made it to D- Minor, and after some brief rain threatened to send us back to camp again, led it in fine style, seconded by Nicola. I led Cadenza just around the corner, which goes up a wall that looks much harder than 20! A nice airy traverse caps off a good route, with a small scramble up the top to get to the D-minor chains. Dave and I then each took turns to lead Aardvark, an 18 on the other side of the D-Minor pinnacle, each rapping off and cleaning our own gear. Rob and Nicola headed up Hornpiece, a delightfully sustained 13 up the front of one of the organ pipes, and Dave and I followed, with the aim of continuing up Tannin. After a fairly heavy rain squall passed (it didn't affect Tannin because it is quite steep), I started up Tannin. This is certainly a great route, but unfortunately I'd heard too many recommendations for it (including "best route I've ever done", "best 19 in Australia", etc etc). So I enjoyed it yes, but would absolutely not give it three stars.
After inspecting the Wraith while rapping off Tannin, Dave decided to give it a go on lead, and climbed well to onsight it. This route has a big fall reputation, I think due to the possibility of a 7m runout above the well protected crux - but Dave found an excellent small peanut placement, which made me realise the potential of tapered nuts for flaring placements - this wire was as good as small wires get, but a normal wire probably would not have even held a good tug without tipping forward and out of the small groove.
I enjoyed this route much more than Tannin, primarily because I hadn't heard ANY rave reviews about it! Nevertheless these are two excellent routes, and well worth doing.
Thursday the showers seemed to have abated, and so we all planned on some big routes. Rob and Nic cruised Phoenix on Tiger Wall, and Dave and I headed to the Watchtowers with intentions of getting on Take Five and possibly Auto Da Fe if we had the time (and the balls!!).
Unfortunately, there was a fair amount of seepage on the Watchtower slabs, and so Dave and I headed for the Pharos, which has significantly less catchment above it! I started up by onsighting Coming on Chris down at the front of the Pharos, and then after barring off Pearls Before Swine (it looks crap!) we decided to do Death Row on the separate Death Row pinnacle, which Dave onsighted.
After a tricky but orthodox layback start, this route starts getting weird! A very strange sidepull move out of the bottomless sentry box combined with a bridging move comprised the crux, and then some more interesting and bizarre climbing up a good wall with some small bulges saw us at the top. And wondering how the bloody hell to get back down!
The guide says scramble down the Eastern Face, but this has major deathfall potential, and is vertical in spots, above a 40m drop! Instead, we decided to rap off a huge block down the back of the pinnacle, which was much more sedate, although pulling the rope required some ingenious rope pulling techniques!! (Ask me or Dave for the sordid details...)
We then drove up to the Far Northern Group to have a squizz at Solar City, a * 21 which looked good in the guide. Dave led a very pleasant grade 8 corner on EXCELLENT rock (Silver Bullet) to access the route, and then I racked up for the lead. After piking on the poorly protected cruxy start, I stepped into the route from the left, to find myself about a third of the way up the initial wall. I slotted some gear at the top of the initial crack, and then stepped up and started heading right about 2m to what looked like my next gear placement. As I commenced the sequence, something very strange happened - one of my footholds gave way. And the very weird thing was that it wasn't just a loose edge that came off, it was an integral piece of rock that *crumbled*! Not something you hear about too often at Arapiles....
So by this time I wasn't real happy about my choice of route and followed the line of least resistance, rather than the described "line". So I stayed about 1.5m right of the actual route (at about 19 - another new route to send in??) and then traversed left under the roof to gain a good rest in a cave.
After slotting some good gear in under the roof and depumping, I started looking at the roof I still had to negotiate. On the left and above me, a 3m blank roof. On the right, a 1m roof. Between the two, a protruding "surfboard" about 18 inches by inches, and projecting about four feet horizontally out from the cliff. I could see that I would have to reach out to some holds on the end of the surfboard, swing under it, and then pull up into the corner on the other side.
Unfortunately it sounded a touch hollow!
After screwing up my nerve, I quickly swung across underneath the surfboard, onto some more reliable face holds just above the lip. I then cut loose, and swung a heel hook up onto the top of the surfboard to gain the next holds. Aaargh - a lichen farm had obviously been planted since the last person came this way!! They were ok holds though, so even with handfulls of lichen, I managed to pull up into the short corner, slot a wire, and top out onto a goodly sized ledge.
I eyeballed the vicinity for a belay, and decided to place some gear in two vertical cracks, and also to sling the tree between them. After slinging the tree and placing a cam in the right hand crack, clipping them, and calling out "safe" to Dave, I continued building my belay, and turned my attention to the left hand crack. After taking a while to get a #3 camalot nicely slotted in some undulations down low in the crack, I looked higher in the crack for something a little smaller, perhaps a #1 camalot, and found myself face to face with a brown snake!! He was perhaps as thick as your thumb, and coiled up in the crack - probably waiting for the weather to warm up. (and in nice camalot placement too!!)
Needless to say I rapidly retrieved my #3 camalot, and scurried to the other end of the ledge and set my belay there!! After a fairly nervous period while I belayed Dave up, I finally escaped the ledge, without the little fella even raising his head out of the crack.
Then Dave and I had the delight of the eternally long walkdown - take note if ever doing climbs on the Werewolf buttress!
Friday morning we headed up for a squizz at Surface to Air in the Atridae, but eventually decided we weren't up for it. Rob and Nicola decided to do Piccolo in the Organ Pipes instead, and then after a couple of showers wandered across, we canned it for the day and went for a drive. First stop was Lake Toolondo, which looks like a great spot for a swim on a hot summers day. We then headed for Black Ians Rocks in the Black Range (Western Grampians), and walked the entire length of this great little crag - it looks like a fantastic place to hone up on your grade 16-20 crack climbing, and the rock is possibly the best in Australia - just unbelievable quality! Next stop was Buandik campground (Victoria Range - SW Grampians), where Rob and Nic barred off the slog up the hill, and Dave and I charged upwards towards the lure of the Gallery. After a hectic 26 minute slog (this would really suck carrying all your gear!) we emerged into an astonishing little cavity of rock! This crag only has about 10 routes, and is already climbed out, but the rock is amazing. A very dense conglomeration of pockets, buckets and threads in orange/red glowing rock which almost looks like the surface has been glazed in a kiln! The three routes at the left end of the crag certainly looked like goers for a day when you're "feelin' kinda sporty" - steeply overhung jughauling on awesome rock. Only one drawback - a majority of the protection is fixed gemini threads, and although they all have sheaths of sling, their quality certainly has to be under some sort of doubt after this amount of time exposed to the elements (although they are protected by the big overhang!) The occasional shiny fixed hanger relieves the mind a little though.
So after charging back down the hill in half the time (well, 14 minutes), Dave and I returned to the car exactly 1 hour later, and we headed back to Natimuk for showers, beer and dinner.
Dave's big day finally came on Saturday - a chance to get on his project . . . . . Tiptoe Ridge. Despite solid efforts last trip, Dave hadn't managed to get the redpoint (ask Michelle for the full story!!), and in fact had had to back off the route well below the crux. Obviously, he was keen to return to work this classic Arapiles route.
After some initial nerves on the first pitch (he even forgot to change out of his hiking boots and only just clawed his way up this desperate pitch, which held so many bad memories from that evil trip so many months ago . . . ), Dave's true climbing skill revealed itself, as he pulled out a solid lead of the fatal second pitch from last time, onsighting the pitch past his previous highpoint.
This pitch ends up on top of the pinnacle which gives this face its name, and to get to the start of the next pitch involves a hilarious "reverse mantle" swing down onto the ledge between the pinnacle and the rest of the cliff. - Well, it was hilarious for all of us except Rob, cause the belay loop on his harness got caught on the edge as he swung down, and he found himself suspended by his pants hanging off the back of the pinnacle!! hee hee hee!!
Anyway, without too much further ado, Rob and I found ourselves simul-climbing the mammoth 55m final pitch - and Rob only has a 50m rope . . . ..
Nevertheless, soon we were all at the top, in good spirits after conquering this mighty grade 3 classic.
Dave and Rob frantically headed off to do one last route: Yo-Yo (18), while Nic and I spent a pleasant afternoon visiting the various lookouts along the top of the Mount. Rob came back in extremely good spirits, having onsighted the sustained and tricky crux pitch approximately 60m off the deck - a good solid lead for him to end the week on a high!
That afternoon we packed the car, bid farewell to Dave, and headed back east, planning on making it to Bendigo or Violet Town for the night. After making it to Bendigo, we decided we would start looking for accommodation from there onwards. Murchison? Nope. Rushworth? Sorry! Violet Town? "Ahhhh there's that big festival on just down the road mayyyte". After stopping to check out a couple of truckstops (which looked like Ivan Milat hangouts...) we finally found a campsite in Benalla!! (A great one too - highly recommended, its on the northern outskirts) The next morning, after some bacon and eggs at Wangaratta, the day passed easily, and we found another great spot - the homemade pie shop in Yass. It is EXCELLENT!! After cups of coffee at Nic's parents house, and one with Rob at his place, we finally made it home about 6pm, weary (and probably smelly!), but happy.
So that's about it really.
The Araps lust has been sated for another couple of months, the Grampians has been tested but nowhere near covered, and the weekly pilgrimage to the Blueys resumes!!
Oh well, hope you enjoyed the story. See ya next time!
© 2000 Will
Get your own Free Home Page