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General Climbing Discussion

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Traveling and climbing in Victoria 17-Mar-2012 At 6:33:44 PM singersmith

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Dude,
Oz has gotten quite expensive in the past 5-10 years. If you live here you tend to not notice gradual increases but Aussies who have left and come back are stunned. Currently, you could find yourself getting as little as 90¢ on the dollar but that's a long ways out so it can't be predicted. If you're trying to churn up partners, in that season especially, you're almost certainly going to be Arapiles-based unless you pick up someone super eager early on.

Rocks: Arapiles is quartzite, not sandstone to which it is sometimes inexplicably referred and hasn't been for half a billion years; I point this out b/c rock type is on your criteria list and you're likely to log in time there. Most of the Grampians is bona fide sandstone, and some really good, but it is quite spread out and if you climb in the Red it's possible you're not missing out. The Taipan Wall is a totally cool feature but is very old (Ordovician) quartz-feldspathic sandstone and could even be partially metamorphosed as it is really hard. While much of the good stuff in the Gramps could be said to resemble parts of the Red, the Taipan doesn't at all and if you camp out on 5.12's and up you're likely to really enjoy it.

I don't think much of the surrounding area in the Wimmera is going to interest you on rest days unless you have a keen interest in canola farming.

The Great Barrier Reef is 1500 miles from Horsham; same as Kansas to the West Coast - factor that in.