Worthless Wall, with a name like that, how could I not visit? My mission in the Vic Range today was shut down by closed roads and I found myself at the closed gate at the east end of Matthew's Track. I actually turned the vehicle around but decided that if I wasn't go to walk in to this cliff now, when would I ever? So, out of the car and into the bush.
When Baxter visited here in 1980 he approached along a 4WD track and had a 20 minute approach. This track was no longer obvious but I kept stumbling across it's archaeological traces as I bumbled along through the light, burnt-out scrub.
About 10 minutes in and the ground steepened. There was a band of boulders scattered around this level, mostly great rock but not a lot of good problems. I could see one or maybe two problems on each of the bigger ones but probably not enough to warrant a visit - but then who am I to judge?
I reached the most obvious possibility in about 30 minutes and am pretty sure I got the right spot. There was one line that seemed to fit the description, such as it was. No cairn at the base but I was only half expecting one.
The charmingly-named Roaming Hands appears to be the crack just right of the orange rock. Doesn't look too bad but nothing special. The grey face to the right doesn't look too bad. Might need a bolt of two but looks like there are enough features to take a fair bit of gear. The crack on the right side of the grey face looks like something you might do because you were in there.
The surrounding area is quite uninspiring. There's a small patch of beautiful orange rock about 100 metres to the right but it's too small. There are some big overhangs high up but getting to them would be tedious.
Worthless? I've seen worse; I've climbed at Barbican Wall. Call it very limited.
Roaming Hands 35m 12 trad
Only worthwhile crack and is on left side of a steep, clean wall. Scramble up to a terrace to start. Climb crack and abseil from tree.
FA: Chris Baxter, Mike Stone - 1980-02-24