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Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
VIC Arapiles	(General)	(General)	(General)	[ Arapiles Guide \| Arapiles Images ]

Topic Date User

New non-select megacrags at Arapiles 5-Apr-2016 At 4:05:32 PM Wendy

Message

You've heard the rumours ...

Courtesy of yet another shoulder injury, I spent the summer exploring obscure places in search of moderate things I hadn't done to death and not only found some perfectly good existing routes, but a bunch of new ones. So if you too have done all the select guide's routes below 24 to death, these are actually worthwhile.

Garden Wall:

https://www.thecrag.com/climbing/australia/arapiles/upper-central-gully/area/11963443

Simey is almost the only local not to have climbed there, and they have all liked it. Most of them went back a second time. If you are sick of Preludes Wall and Major Mitchell Gully, try this on a summer's day. 2 minute access from the summit. Basically everything is worth doing so it's easier to list the worst routes on the wall, they'd be Pitchfork, Blue Toes and John Thomas. And even I couldn't quite get up the enthusiasm to clean Gethsemane.

Feel free to post a trip report raving about it just to rile Simey up.

Shiralee Wall:

https://www.thecrag.com/climbing/australia/arapiles/northern-group/area/11972617

Kieran's direct on Shiralee is really good and everything to the right of it is worth doing whilst everything to the left isn't. I'll probably lob a few more routes up in the area in the coming weeks. Nice and sunny and the walk up is not even a bush bash.

https://www.thecrag.com/climbing/australia/arapiles/colosseum-wall-area/area/11962195

Ok so Comic Strip is not really an obscure crag, but it did have a broad swathe of unclimbed rock in the middle that now has 2 good routes in a similar vein to the rest of the wall. Plus Douglas did one of his famous link ups that turned out easier than any of the original routes and we rebolted Failing New Romantic and Slime Time. As the tree the FNR originally started up is long gone and it would be about 48 to free it, there is now a bolt to stick clip and batman to the first hold.

And just in case you think (along with Simey) that my judgement of route quality is impaired by new route fever, let me assure you that this route and it companion I Can't Believe it's Not Chaconne are crap and I wouldn't suggest that anybody bothered seeking them out even though I was the not very proud first ascentionist. The other routes I'm recommending are actually worth your time.

https://www.thecrag.com/climbing/australia/arapiles/central-gully-right/route/619580811