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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

climbing protection 23-Mar-2015 At 11:32:45 AM DMWdesign

Message

On 6/11/2014 Timfreddo wrote:

..........Don't look at the
>climb at the end as a rock climb, look at it as survival scrambling. Do
>what you need to make it easier ie pulling/standing on bolts, hauling packs...

Thanks again Timfreddo for your advice, and here is some feedback.
Four of us finally came up from Melbourne last week and did Kanangra, Butterbox and Arethusa over 3 days.
We managed to survive the Arethusa and Butterbox climbs and for us your term “survival scrambling” was apt.
On Butterbox, one of us went first and belayed the others. We ran the abseiling rope directly through karabiners and free climbed both pitches using a karabiner on a couple of the belay plates as a handle. But it was comforting to have the rope. We pack-hauled both pitches.
On Arethusa, we free climbed the first pitch. On the second pitch we ignored the bolts and went further left, managed to flip the rope around a small tree and used an etrier to get up. The third pitch was very straightforward but we clipped into a safety line on the ledge to help bring people & packs around.
The climb out of Alpheus started via a 4m vertical HOH before the first pool/waterfall. This one I found hard but the etrier helped to get a leg up. Glad I brought the etrier! The route then generally zigzagged straight up via a well-defined track and further HOHs. The route, the initial part at least, bore little resemblance to the track notes on the Immortal Outdoors website and different to what was described in a Fat Canyoners report.