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Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
All NSW	(General)	(General)	(General)

Topic Date User

The Fear - North Head 9-May-2007 At 8:18:21 PM Nottobetaken

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If you think 'The Fear' is scary - you definitely stay off 'Destroy All Monsters' - essentially the direct start to it. In fact, the names should be swapped. Myself and a friend tried it about 9 years ago. On the onsight I placed 2 cams in the first 10 or so metres, both of which I had to 'dig out' placements for - horizontal breaks filled with sand. I then mantled onto a ledge, maybe a metre wide, that looked as though someone had walked along it with a sledgehammer and smacked the wall above at varying intervals. Loose rocks - some pretty big, embedded onto a sea of sand. Still thinking I'd get to better quality rock (and another placement) I shuffled right along this ledge towards what looked to be two bolts. Both looked bad, but one looked ridiculous.

Nevertheless - I got to the bolts and clipped both. Two carrots - both exfoliated - one halfway through the stem, the other down to a pin width (I'm not exaggerating). There was an old faded piece of blue tat on the 'good' one. Still thinking I was in with a chance (it's graded 19 or 20) I moved right and tried to feel the next hold. Holding what felt like a sandcastle - but was actually a crap undercling, I attempted to span the blank section of rock immediately above me to a blind hold - which not surprisingly I never found. In the end, I down climbed taking the pieces out and bailed. We ran up the Fear instead - and bailed back to Manly for plenty of beers and an appointment with a psychologist. Great days, but we never trusted the guide again!