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Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
VIC Eastern	(General)	(General)	(General)

Topic Date User

bouldering near benalla 8-Apr-2018 At 7:00:08 PM njjo

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I hope thread necroing isn't too great a sin for me to commit on my first Chockstone post!

I went up to Barjass hill on Stu's very good instructions over the Easter long weekend and had a play around. As a rookie climber I found enough things to keep me busy for the better part of a day. Definitely a nice option if you're in the area.

Echoing others' posts, there are a lot of flexing flakes (peeling eggshells is an apt description) and similarly spooky holds. There are some decent boulders on western side of the hill (closest to the road), with The Boob crowning the hill. The majority of the bigger blocks are on the eastern side (facing the lake). Being a rather inexperienced and unskilled climber I'm not well qualified to comment on the quality of the area but it looked pretty decent to me and I'd visit again next time I'm in the area.

I'd definitely recommend bringing a pad at a minimum as if you come off, most of the time you will be falling onto an uneven pile of sticks and old flakes which would be best covered with something less ankle-breaky. Huntsmans are fond of the small gaps behind the flakes so if a flake breaks (as several did for me) don't be surprised if you get showered in spiders! For some of the bigger blocks on the eastern side a spotter would be useful, especially if you're pulling on suspect holds. Phone reception and data (Optus network) was good over the higher elevation bits of the hill so you can reach out to civilisation quite easily.

I intend to write up the area and some of the (v-easy) problems I climbed on the Crag. Once I make a start I'll post a link here, if anyone knows any lines/names of lines/further history or if I've otherwise stuffed something up by all means make an edit or let me know and I'll add/fix it!