Arapiles, Sept 2016
A loosely affiliated ANUMC trip, with a constant battle with the elements and the flakiness of people.
Following a wet spring, the weather just never let up, the long range forecast was concerning going into the pre-trip, half the group was non-commital, the rest of us were keen to go to Araps in particular, and were prepared to wait and see on the weather.
A week out the forecast was ok, getting better for a few days in the middle, and certainly good enough for me to risk it. Apparently Bonnie, Jin and Paul felt the same. We committed to going down, I tried for a friday evening departure, but we weren't able to make it work, I did manage to wrangle an early start saturday morning, meeting at Bonnie's at 6:15 in the hope that we could get a climb in in the afternoon.
Apparently I pitched my tent where it got morning sun... I wake at dawn and get up finding nobody stirring, grabbing breakfast out of the esky I go for a walk up to Pilot Error to reaquaint myself with the area - it's been 7 years since I was last here, after finding my way up to the Organ Pipes and around to Pilot Error, I climb the squeeze and sit on top watching the first signs of movement in the Pines.
I wander back down to camp to find Paul up, and the girls still in their tents, we start to discus plans, and eventually we convince them to get up. The plan for the morning is the Pharos, two parties means we don't need to carry double ropes to rap off, and there are a few easy routes to do. The plan is that Bonnie and Jin will do the Shroud, and I'd lead Paul up Hurricane Lamp Cracks. It was good as far as plans went, unfortunately it soon met with reality. I had my '76 guide book, much smaller and nicer to carry, but it lacks photo-topos. Having been told that it was "just around the corner there" by Bonnie, we eyed off a likely looking corner to start. It seems we started about 20m off route, up a gr 20 with an offwidth crux. The second pitch saw me leading through much harder ground than I expected (I was later glad to find that I wasn't fighting up a 12, but rather a 20), and at the next anchor we read the guidebook again , and decided to do a short traverse to join the right route in time for the top pitch.
Despite struggling a little at the crux, Paul was a good sport, and didn't refuse to climb with me again, we just decided to pay a little more attention to the start of routes in future. We joined another party on top, and rigged the abseil to get off as the wind had picked up and it was getting a little cold.
We grabbed some lunch back at the Pines, and with the weather closing in we decided on some short climbs close to camp. Neta and Mesa fit the bill, both fairly easy climbs at the Pilot Error cliffs. They were quite nice, despite the fact that we topped out in the drizzle, thankfully Paul and I had moved the bags under an overhang before we left the ground.
I try to talk anyone into doing Pilot Error, but don't have any takers today, while the roof stays dry, the topout might be a little dodgy in the wet.
Plans for the next morning are hatched, Bonnie and Jin want to do Syrinx, Paul and I are undecided, we'll go with whatever is available on that wall.
Paul and I wake earlier and after a quick breakfast head down to the wall. Seeing Syrinx with no traffic on it, we decide that we should have time to start it before the girls arrive. Sadly I somehow forgot my shoes, and after trying to start the climbb in approach shoes quickly retreat, handing the climb over to Bonnie and Jin, and going back for shoes. Paul and I then wander along the cliff, finally settling on 'The Dribble', a quite nice ramble, which I led as three 50+ meter pitches, I think I added on a short wall above in the same style, really enjoying the easy, long pitches.
We can't find the descent down Ali's, or any anchors, so it's a long walk down central gully barefoot. After a short lunch we headed up to the pipes to climb D Major - I recognized it one we were on it, but as always it was quite nice. The rain picked up, so we headed back to the pines, the girls aren't there, so we reset the tarp, grab rain jackets, and walk around the bottom of the cliff, and try to spot the girls on the wall. We can't see them, so decide that they must be on the way down central gully.
We take the car and head into Natimuk to acquire some water, finding most of the town's taps are non-potable, we eventually find a bubbler at the showground and fill the water containers.
We arrive back at camp to find the weather cleared. I 'go for a walk' and solo Tiptoe Ridge in 45 minutes campground to campground. The most exciting part was when someone considered collecting the jacket I had left on the ground, as I watched from 50m above them. I also tacked on the top pitch of Green Singer, a very pleasant, if slightly harder pitch, that is actually somewhat safer than the usual walk off.
The discussion over dinner turns to the routes we most want to get done on this trip, as it is fairly evident that the rain is going to stay off and on for the entire trip.
Mine is Skink, an 18 traversing right across the right watchtower face. Jin wants to do Mantle in the same area, so the starting plans for tomorrow are set.
We head out to the watchtower, and walk up to the base of Skink to find a group racking up, and a few more people milling around, I ask what they are planning, hoping they'll say Watchtower Crack, and we'll be able to follow them up the first pitch and then veer off. Sadly they are doing Skink, I'm still tempted to wait until I find out that they are planning on having 6 climbers, in one party, with one leader, on a climb with a semi-hanging belay. Nope. No way, I'm not waiting all day to get on the rock.
Jin is also behind a group on Mantle, and we grab a guide book to look for alternatives. Jin settles on Chameleon Connection, and I take a look at Brolga, another climb that my guide book (which used to be Dad's and has annotations of his spread throughout it) recommends, and was also on my list for the trip. It follows 'the orange waterstreak' straight up the slab. Of course, with all the rain, there was also water in the waterstreak... But the gear looked to be solid, and the pockets looked to be ok, the sun was hot and I figured it was worth a try.
It's a tenuous lead, the first 15 metres is easy enough, but then I need to step left into the water streak to continue. There may be placements in the pockets, but I don't trust my shoes enough to stop and try to place anything. Several moves require me to dry my shoes on the cuffs of my pants before continuing. I continue past the typical belay ledge as it's under water, and find a small ledge halfway up the second. I bring Bonnie up, and we decide to bail off left to the anchors of Auto De Fe/Salamander and then either rap off, or finish up Salamander rather than attempt the next 20m which appear to go straight up the middle of the water streak. In the end we skipped 20 meters of the Route, and Bonnie got to lead an easy, but hideous chimney come corner in the wet. At some point I asked her how it was going and recieved a curt 'Awful' in return ... There's no way to respond to that... She made it to the anchors anyway, and I took the top pitch uneventfully. I'd welded a piece in on the bottom pitch (I wasn't sure any of it would stick, so I'd given it a pretty good tug.), so I cleaned it from the rap, unfortunately this meant a pretty large swing, and I'd taken my shoes off, so I acquired a blood blister as I kicked the wall.
We just miss the ride back with Jin and Paul, watching them drive off as we are walking down the track, so we wander back to camp and meet them there.
Declaration crag is the venue for the afternoon, we figure it's time to teach Paul to lead as he's had a bit of experience seconding now. I run solo laps up a number of the easy things while Bonnie and Jin teach. I attempted Problematic, which proved to be so. The climb goes up a few meters to a ledge, then up through a very short roof, a headwall and topout. I get to the ledge and place a few bits of pro above, the highest of which is a no. 4 RP, I return to the ledge for a rest, then proceed up, through the roof, and onto the face above. I spend a lot of time looking for holds that aren't there, before finally accepting that and throwing for the final hold. I can't quite hold the intermediate long enough to bump to the jug, and I fall. I kick out far enough to miss the ledge, but the RP holds and I come in to the wall hard, and Bonnie meets me in the middle. Thankfully the sprain is minor, and Bonnie is fine.
I'm taping it and keeping it on ice for a few days though.
Despite the weather forecast for tomorow being bad, I ask what our plans are if it turns out fine. Bonnie wants to do Iphiginia, a climb also on my list for the trip.
Bonnie starts up and I chat with a group of older climbers starting up Muldoon. I admire the old school hexes and rigid friends, and we discus climbing all across the country, and their regular trips to Araps and other areas. Some of them are jokingly offended by the swearing as Bonnie pulls the crux and sets up a hanging belay 3m short of a massive and comfortable ledge.
As I pull the lip to join her at the belay, Bonnie says 'I don't think this is where the anchor is meant to be'. The rest of the climb is uneventful, despite the strong cold wind.
We return to the pines for lunch. Lacking in motivation we watch people lob off Pilot Error for a while, then head out to Bushrangers Bluff to give Paul a little more practice. In the time it takes Paul and Bonnie to climb Trooper 1 Jin and I solo it, and a pile of other sub 7 routes. I also do a 16, with the crux at 2m. It's essentially a V1 with a grade 5 topout.
To complete the set of Troopers I follow Jin on Trooper 2 .
We head in to the Nati Pub for Dinner, joined by Paul's parents and Phil and Kate.
A windy and wet night, but again it clears by morning. The promised wet weather hasn't really eventuated.
Jin and I were discussing the merits of Lawrence last night, much to the disgust and amusement of the others. A "horrific" first pitch, leading to good pitch 2 and 3. In the fine-ish weather we decide to give it a go, figuring that as an adventure route, a little rain won't hamper the experience. We packed rain jackets, belay jackets, and I had gloves and a beanie. All of which came in handy. Somehow the rain stopped every time Jin started climbing, only to start again as I followed each pitch. The first was as bad as indicated, possibly worse, but the rest was rather nice, even in light drizzle. We rapped off the anchors into Major Mitchell gully. The first rap was right on 30m, so we figured the next would be too... nope. about 45m, on a doubled 60. Fun times. We made it down with a bit of help from a cordellete and the other person counterweighting the rope. I ended up dropping the last meter, onto a sloped and slippery landing, but at least we weren't stranded.
Bonnie and Paul had a somewhat less interesting time out at Mitre Rock, another area I've still yet to visit.
It's grey, the weather has rolled in, and seems reluctant to move. It's not we enough to rule out climbing, but it's pretty demoralising. We'd all been keen for a rest day, but reluctant to take one, as a forced day had seemed imminent the whole time. We head out to Bushrangers Bluff again, Paul and Jin rope up for Little Revolver Crack, while Bonnie, Matt and I mope about in rain jackets, I half-heartedly eye off Repo Man (25), but I'm not going to try it in the rain.
When Paul and Jin come down we decide to head to the Grampians, it's only an hour away, and with luck the caves will be dry and we can get some bouldering done.
We head to Kindergarten, with the cloud clearing as we drive down. The rock is mostly dry, the sky clear. It's nice to climb on something different, and to get some bouldering on something other than granite.
After a few attempts on a few V3-4s, I settle in to the lower friction, and precise movements needed. We move up to the area around Wheel of Fortune and watch a few people working it. I take a shot at The Nevin Rule, and true to form the onsight attempt is my best, I make it through what is apparently the crux, and end up high above minimal pads, with no real idea where to go. I hadn't planned to get this far.
I take a few more attempts, well interspersed with spotting the others on A Horse is a Horse, and admiring the other hard lines. Despite the long breaks, I still can't make my highpoint, Bonnie tries the alternative approach, attempting A horse is a Horse a dozen times, with only a few minutes break between attempts.
We head back to the pines, and arrive to more rain and drizzle, talking to a few people it sounds like it did that all day. Very glad we went elsewhere, and despite not being a full rest day, we're all motivated to climb trad again.
The good weather returns, and my ankle is good enough to start leading again. We make an early start to the Watchtower Faces. This time we manage to get the climbs we want, Bonnie and I on Skink, and Paul and Jin on Siren.
Bonnie takes the first pitch up the corner shared with Watchtower, it's pretty easy in the dry, but unfortunately it wasn't at the time. I talk her out of the low gear placements, that won't actually offer protection, and just make the pitch take longer, after some more swearing, we make it to the first belay, and I take over for the traverse pitch. After a quite grovelly chimney, and a few moments where I tried to decide whether to lead on twin or half ropes (8m off the belay, with gear in, but neither rope clipped) the line breaks right through a seam. The holds are good, and it makes for some fun moves. Unfortunately several of the pockets were filled with water, and I wasn't able to find a stance to get any gear in on the second half to protect the potential for a fall on second.
I proceeded up to the anchor, clipping a few abandoned pieces on the way, they were strangely loose considering they'd been abandoned.
Bonnie makes short work of the traverse, before reaching the 'fixed' nuts, she pulls the first out easily, and then fumbles it, it rattles down the slab and we lose sight of it. The drizzle comes and goes as I set off up the third pitch, as does the sun. After a bit of a struggle with damp rock I pull over the top and set the anchor. Bonnie has a frustrating time, mostly with the gear - the expansion of the rock in the sun has welded several pieces tightly into the crack, especially where they were used for the hanging belay. I had the LittleHammer spring loaded nut tool in my bag, at the bottom of the cliff, so we decide to drop down, come up Arachnus, and then rap down to try to retrieve the nuts.
We grab some muesli bars, and startup the wall again. We discuss how few pitches might be feasible (it's written up as 5), but the pitch lengths make me think that 3 is going to be the best we can do. I place about 3 pieces on my first pitch, stopping when I hit about the 50m mark on the rope. It ends up being the end of the second, the lack of gear meant a lot less rope was used than would have been with the traditional lead. Jin and Paul are starting up Arachnus behind us, along with another group. Bonnie rapidly joins me, and starts up the next pitch. As she climbs a Wedgetail eagle soars through the valley, only 20m or so away. Bonnie places a few more pieces than I did, but still feels a little run out trying to make the gear last to the top. We finish it in 2 pitches, find a convenient boulder, and I rap in to clean the pieces off Skink. I had a quick bash with the classic nut-tool and no 10. wire, but no luck, the littlehammer made quick work of all of them though. It may make it to being a permanent piece of gear yet. I make myself safe on the Auto de Fe anchors, and let Bonnie pull the rope up to rig the usual descent.
I want to get a few more meters in today, so I try to convince Bonnie to join me with a solo on Tiptoe with the promise of a shiny new cam, but don't get too far. Instead I solo Ordinary trees and Introductory Route, ordinary trees was quite good, but I found introductory tedious.
I wander back to camp and meet up with Paul and Jin, who I manage to talk into heading back out and doing a night lap of Tiptoe Ridge. We jokingly tell Paul to say that he has no idea where we are if anyone (Bonnie) asks.
It's a nice night for it, but I'm glad I did it in the daylight a few days ago, finding the route at night is a little harder.
We head up to the Organ Pipes to get a few more climbs in. Paul want's to try leading something a little harder, so I follow him on Piccolo, he has some moments, but sees it through and we arrive on top.
The only unfinished business is Problematic, and the weather hasn't turned yet, so we head down to Declaration Crag. There are top ropes all over it, but the school group is nowhere to be found, just a single teacher. I ask to move the rope hanging over problematic, and clamber up the top to do so. Jin and Paul run laps on a few slightly harder things while I line up what I need for Problematic. I know I need a higher piece, and I know where the holds are (and aren't). I take my time on the ledge, skipping one of the low pieces that wouldn't catch anyway. I put a cam in to keep the rope out of the way, the critical RP, and then climb up another move or two and set a pair of No. 5 RP's in the crack above the lip, one sideways, one straight, 20mm apart, but 40cm above the No. 4. I think they'll stay, but I'd rather not test them.
I continue up to my previous highpoint, commit properly to the hold that I now know is there, and hit the jug. A moment later it's all over.
Bonnie seconds it to clean, admiring the moves, but not liking the removal of gear, or the idea of placing it.
We get a group photo on the top of Declaration, with the cliffs and grey clouds in the background. The rain picks up again and we turn our heads for Canberra. Paul and I make the call that we can get home by about midnight, and that setting up tents in the rain seems like a lot more work than just driving through. No-one argues.
Following a wet spring, the weather just never let up, the long range forecast was concerning going into the pre-trip, half the group was non-commital, the rest of us were keen to go to Araps in particular, and were prepared to wait and see on the weather.A week out the forecast was ok, getting better for a few days in the middle, and certainly good enough for me to risk it. Apparently Bonnie, Jin and Paul felt the same. We committed to going down, I tried for a friday evening departure, but we weren't able to make it work, I did manage to wrangle an early start saturday morning, meeting at Bonnie's at 6:15 in the hope that we could get a climb in in the afternoon.
Saturday 24th
Paul and I swapped shifts on the uneventful drive down, reaching Araps at about 4:30, with just enough time to setup camp before the rain came down. A trip into Horsham to acquire some additional food and dinner under the tarp completed the day.Sunday 25th
Apparently I pitched my tent where it got morning sun... I wake at dawn and get up finding nobody stirring, grabbing breakfast out of the esky I go for a walk up to Pilot Error to reaquaint myself with the area - it's been 7 years since I was last here, after finding my way up to the Organ Pipes and around to Pilot Error, I climb the squeeze and sit on top watching the first signs of movement in the Pines.I wander back down to camp to find Paul up, and the girls still in their tents, we start to discus plans, and eventually we convince them to get up. The plan for the morning is the Pharos, two parties means we don't need to carry double ropes to rap off, and there are a few easy routes to do. The plan is that Bonnie and Jin will do the Shroud, and I'd lead Paul up Hurricane Lamp Cracks. It was good as far as plans went, unfortunately it soon met with reality. I had my '76 guide book, much smaller and nicer to carry, but it lacks photo-topos. Having been told that it was "just around the corner there" by Bonnie, we eyed off a likely looking corner to start. It seems we started about 20m off route, up a gr 20 with an offwidth crux. The second pitch saw me leading through much harder ground than I expected (I was later glad to find that I wasn't fighting up a 12, but rather a 20), and at the next anchor we read the guidebook again , and decided to do a short traverse to join the right route in time for the top pitch.
Despite struggling a little at the crux, Paul was a good sport, and didn't refuse to climb with me again, we just decided to pay a little more attention to the start of routes in future. We joined another party on top, and rigged the abseil to get off as the wind had picked up and it was getting a little cold.
We grabbed some lunch back at the Pines, and with the weather closing in we decided on some short climbs close to camp. Neta and Mesa fit the bill, both fairly easy climbs at the Pilot Error cliffs. They were quite nice, despite the fact that we topped out in the drizzle, thankfully Paul and I had moved the bags under an overhang before we left the ground.
I try to talk anyone into doing Pilot Error, but don't have any takers today, while the roof stays dry, the topout might be a little dodgy in the wet.
Plans for the next morning are hatched, Bonnie and Jin want to do Syrinx, Paul and I are undecided, we'll go with whatever is available on that wall.
Monday 26th
Paul and I wake earlier and after a quick breakfast head down to the wall. Seeing Syrinx with no traffic on it, we decide that we should have time to start it before the girls arrive. Sadly I somehow forgot my shoes, and after trying to start the climbb in approach shoes quickly retreat, handing the climb over to Bonnie and Jin, and going back for shoes. Paul and I then wander along the cliff, finally settling on 'The Dribble', a quite nice ramble, which I led as three 50+ meter pitches, I think I added on a short wall above in the same style, really enjoying the easy, long pitches.
We can't find the descent down Ali's, or any anchors, so it's a long walk down central gully barefoot. After a short lunch we headed up to the pipes to climb D Major - I recognized it one we were on it, but as always it was quite nice. The rain picked up, so we headed back to the pines, the girls aren't there, so we reset the tarp, grab rain jackets, and walk around the bottom of the cliff, and try to spot the girls on the wall. We can't see them, so decide that they must be on the way down central gully.
We take the car and head into Natimuk to acquire some water, finding most of the town's taps are non-potable, we eventually find a bubbler at the showground and fill the water containers.
We arrive back at camp to find the weather cleared. I 'go for a walk' and solo Tiptoe Ridge in 45 minutes campground to campground. The most exciting part was when someone considered collecting the jacket I had left on the ground, as I watched from 50m above them. I also tacked on the top pitch of Green Singer, a very pleasant, if slightly harder pitch, that is actually somewhat safer than the usual walk off.
The discussion over dinner turns to the routes we most want to get done on this trip, as it is fairly evident that the rain is going to stay off and on for the entire trip.
Mine is Skink, an 18 traversing right across the right watchtower face. Jin wants to do Mantle in the same area, so the starting plans for tomorrow are set.
Tuesday 27/9
 |
| Leading Brolga, the water makes things interesting |
Jin is also behind a group on Mantle, and we grab a guide book to look for alternatives. Jin settles on Chameleon Connection, and I take a look at Brolga, another climb that my guide book (which used to be Dad's and has annotations of his spread throughout it) recommends, and was also on my list for the trip. It follows 'the orange waterstreak' straight up the slab. Of course, with all the rain, there was also water in the waterstreak... But the gear looked to be solid, and the pockets looked to be ok, the sun was hot and I figured it was worth a try.
It's a tenuous lead, the first 15 metres is easy enough, but then I need to step left into the water streak to continue. There may be placements in the pockets, but I don't trust my shoes enough to stop and try to place anything. Several moves require me to dry my shoes on the cuffs of my pants before continuing. I continue past the typical belay ledge as it's under water, and find a small ledge halfway up the second. I bring Bonnie up, and we decide to bail off left to the anchors of Auto De Fe/Salamander and then either rap off, or finish up Salamander rather than attempt the next 20m which appear to go straight up the middle of the water streak. In the end we skipped 20 meters of the Route, and Bonnie got to lead an easy, but hideous chimney come corner in the wet. At some point I asked her how it was going and recieved a curt 'Awful' in return ... There's no way to respond to that... She made it to the anchors anyway, and I took the top pitch uneventfully. I'd welded a piece in on the bottom pitch (I wasn't sure any of it would stick, so I'd given it a pretty good tug.), so I cleaned it from the rap, unfortunately this meant a pretty large swing, and I'd taken my shoes off, so I acquired a blood blister as I kicked the wall.We just miss the ride back with Jin and Paul, watching them drive off as we are walking down the track, so we wander back to camp and meet them there.
Declaration crag is the venue for the afternoon, we figure it's time to teach Paul to lead as he's had a bit of experience seconding now. I run solo laps up a number of the easy things while Bonnie and Jin teach. I attempted Problematic, which proved to be so. The climb goes up a few meters to a ledge, then up through a very short roof, a headwall and topout. I get to the ledge and place a few bits of pro above, the highest of which is a no. 4 RP, I return to the ledge for a rest, then proceed up, through the roof, and onto the face above. I spend a lot of time looking for holds that aren't there, before finally accepting that and throwing for the final hold. I can't quite hold the intermediate long enough to bump to the jug, and I fall. I kick out far enough to miss the ledge, but the RP holds and I come in to the wall hard, and Bonnie meets me in the middle. Thankfully the sprain is minor, and Bonnie is fine.I'm taping it and keeping it on ice for a few days though.
Despite the weather forecast for tomorow being bad, I ask what our plans are if it turns out fine. Bonnie wants to do Iphiginia, a climb also on my list for the trip.
Wednesday 28/9
Good thing I insisted we have plans, the morning dawns clear, and we set off for Ipiginina, I plan to have Bonnie lead all f it, so I can't hurt my ankle in a fall. We start to rack up and she looks for any excuse ... something something hardest thing I've attempted here ... But we look at the potential for gear from the bottom, and it looks to be fairly safe, with the ledges protected, and the crux moves have a fall into space.Bonnie starts up and I chat with a group of older climbers starting up Muldoon. I admire the old school hexes and rigid friends, and we discus climbing all across the country, and their regular trips to Araps and other areas. Some of them are jokingly offended by the swearing as Bonnie pulls the crux and sets up a hanging belay 3m short of a massive and comfortable ledge.
As I pull the lip to join her at the belay, Bonnie says 'I don't think this is where the anchor is meant to be'. The rest of the climb is uneventful, despite the strong cold wind.
We return to the pines for lunch. Lacking in motivation we watch people lob off Pilot Error for a while, then head out to Bushrangers Bluff to give Paul a little more practice. In the time it takes Paul and Bonnie to climb Trooper 1 Jin and I solo it, and a pile of other sub 7 routes. I also do a 16, with the crux at 2m. It's essentially a V1 with a grade 5 topout.
To complete the set of Troopers I follow Jin on Trooper 2 .
We head in to the Nati Pub for Dinner, joined by Paul's parents and Phil and Kate.
Thursday 29/9
A windy and wet night, but again it clears by morning. The promised wet weather hasn't really eventuated.
Jin and I were discussing the merits of Lawrence last night, much to the disgust and amusement of the others. A "horrific" first pitch, leading to good pitch 2 and 3. In the fine-ish weather we decide to give it a go, figuring that as an adventure route, a little rain won't hamper the experience. We packed rain jackets, belay jackets, and I had gloves and a beanie. All of which came in handy. Somehow the rain stopped every time Jin started climbing, only to start again as I followed each pitch. The first was as bad as indicated, possibly worse, but the rest was rather nice, even in light drizzle. We rapped off the anchors into Major Mitchell gully. The first rap was right on 30m, so we figured the next would be too... nope. about 45m, on a doubled 60. Fun times. We made it down with a bit of help from a cordellete and the other person counterweighting the rope. I ended up dropping the last meter, onto a sloped and slippery landing, but at least we weren't stranded.Bonnie and Paul had a somewhat less interesting time out at Mitre Rock, another area I've still yet to visit.
Friday 30/9
It's grey, the weather has rolled in, and seems reluctant to move. It's not we enough to rule out climbing, but it's pretty demoralising. We'd all been keen for a rest day, but reluctant to take one, as a forced day had seemed imminent the whole time. We head out to Bushrangers Bluff again, Paul and Jin rope up for Little Revolver Crack, while Bonnie, Matt and I mope about in rain jackets, I half-heartedly eye off Repo Man (25), but I'm not going to try it in the rain.When Paul and Jin come down we decide to head to the Grampians, it's only an hour away, and with luck the caves will be dry and we can get some bouldering done.
We head to Kindergarten, with the cloud clearing as we drive down. The rock is mostly dry, the sky clear. It's nice to climb on something different, and to get some bouldering on something other than granite.After a few attempts on a few V3-4s, I settle in to the lower friction, and precise movements needed. We move up to the area around Wheel of Fortune and watch a few people working it. I take a shot at The Nevin Rule, and true to form the onsight attempt is my best, I make it through what is apparently the crux, and end up high above minimal pads, with no real idea where to go. I hadn't planned to get this far.
I take a few more attempts, well interspersed with spotting the others on A Horse is a Horse, and admiring the other hard lines. Despite the long breaks, I still can't make my highpoint, Bonnie tries the alternative approach, attempting A horse is a Horse a dozen times, with only a few minutes break between attempts.We head back to the pines, and arrive to more rain and drizzle, talking to a few people it sounds like it did that all day. Very glad we went elsewhere, and despite not being a full rest day, we're all motivated to climb trad again.
Saturday 1/10
The good weather returns, and my ankle is good enough to start leading again. We make an early start to the Watchtower Faces. This time we manage to get the climbs we want, Bonnie and I on Skink, and Paul and Jin on Siren.Bonnie takes the first pitch up the corner shared with Watchtower, it's pretty easy in the dry, but unfortunately it wasn't at the time. I talk her out of the low gear placements, that won't actually offer protection, and just make the pitch take longer, after some more swearing, we make it to the first belay, and I take over for the traverse pitch. After a quite grovelly chimney, and a few moments where I tried to decide whether to lead on twin or half ropes (8m off the belay, with gear in, but neither rope clipped) the line breaks right through a seam. The holds are good, and it makes for some fun moves. Unfortunately several of the pockets were filled with water, and I wasn't able to find a stance to get any gear in on the second half to protect the potential for a fall on second.
I proceeded up to the anchor, clipping a few abandoned pieces on the way, they were strangely loose considering they'd been abandoned.
Bonnie makes short work of the traverse, before reaching the 'fixed' nuts, she pulls the first out easily, and then fumbles it, it rattles down the slab and we lose sight of it. The drizzle comes and goes as I set off up the third pitch, as does the sun. After a bit of a struggle with damp rock I pull over the top and set the anchor. Bonnie has a frustrating time, mostly with the gear - the expansion of the rock in the sun has welded several pieces tightly into the crack, especially where they were used for the hanging belay. I had the LittleHammer spring loaded nut tool in my bag, at the bottom of the cliff, so we decide to drop down, come up Arachnus, and then rap down to try to retrieve the nuts.
We grab some muesli bars, and startup the wall again. We discuss how few pitches might be feasible (it's written up as 5), but the pitch lengths make me think that 3 is going to be the best we can do. I place about 3 pieces on my first pitch, stopping when I hit about the 50m mark on the rope. It ends up being the end of the second, the lack of gear meant a lot less rope was used than would have been with the traditional lead. Jin and Paul are starting up Arachnus behind us, along with another group. Bonnie rapidly joins me, and starts up the next pitch. As she climbs a Wedgetail eagle soars through the valley, only 20m or so away. Bonnie places a few more pieces than I did, but still feels a little run out trying to make the gear last to the top. We finish it in 2 pitches, find a convenient boulder, and I rap in to clean the pieces off Skink. I had a quick bash with the classic nut-tool and no 10. wire, but no luck, the littlehammer made quick work of all of them though. It may make it to being a permanent piece of gear yet. I make myself safe on the Auto de Fe anchors, and let Bonnie pull the rope up to rig the usual descent.
I want to get a few more meters in today, so I try to convince Bonnie to join me with a solo on Tiptoe with the promise of a shiny new cam, but don't get too far. Instead I solo Ordinary trees and Introductory Route, ordinary trees was quite good, but I found introductory tedious.
I wander back to camp and meet up with Paul and Jin, who I manage to talk into heading back out and doing a night lap of Tiptoe Ridge. We jokingly tell Paul to say that he has no idea where we are if anyone (Bonnie) asks.
It's a nice night for it, but I'm glad I did it in the daylight a few days ago, finding the route at night is a little harder.
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| The Tiptoe Ridge pinnacle |
Sunday 2/10
The rain is meant to come in tomorrow, so we make the call that this will be our last day. we pack up the tents in the morning so they don't need to be dried too much, and we're ready to go whenever the rain starts.We head up to the Organ Pipes to get a few more climbs in. Paul want's to try leading something a little harder, so I follow him on Piccolo, he has some moments, but sees it through and we arrive on top.
I continue up to my previous highpoint, commit properly to the hold that I now know is there, and hit the jug. A moment later it's all over.
Bonnie seconds it to clean, admiring the moves, but not liking the removal of gear, or the idea of placing it.
We get a group photo on the top of Declaration, with the cliffs and grey clouds in the background. The rain picks up again and we turn our heads for Canberra. Paul and I make the call that we can get home by about midnight, and that setting up tents in the rain seems like a lot more work than just driving through. No-one argues.
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