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Crag & Route Beta

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Big Time Trundle at Rosea 1-Dec-2008 At 3:23:58 PM SimMad

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On Saturday Mark and I wandered our way up to Mt Rosea and after some head scratching and vague "it must be up that way" kinda route finding, made it to the top of the fourth pitch of "Into the Wild" where I plonked myself down on the wonderfully exposed belay ledge feeling generally good about the world and enjoying the breeze blowing up my skirt at about 100m off the deck. Mark came across the hand-traverse and after a quick gear swap took off up the final pitch described as "easily to the top". He was only just above the belay when the serenity was broken by a squeal like a stuck pig and with a string of indecipherable expletives he was back on the ledge, wide eyed and white. He had pulled down on a couple of holds and was stepping up a move or two off the belay when he felt a gentle wobbling, swaying sensation - nice in the breeze not so good up a cliff - it took a moment of confused 'this doesn't feel right' to realise that the holds he was on were not solid cliff but that rather they were part of a massive shield and the whole thing was rocking out away from the cliff. Had he peeled it off it would have turned over my head, severed the rope and both my legs just above the knee as it bounced into my ledge and then provided me quite the view of Mark clinging to it as it slowly spun ground ward. After taking a moment to compose himself he moved way right to give it a wide berth and quickly topped out and after a brief discussion we decided it was best to remove the beast. We knew that there was no one else at Rosea other than another pair who had come with us and they were out of harm's way climbing a route way down the other end plus we had a great view of the base of the cliff so I got up above it and saw that it was balancing ok but that the top had separated by about 15cm from the cliff proper. I rocked it with my foot but being the size of a fridge, and considering the awkward position with only little leverage, it took a bit of effort until I could get in between it and the cliff and employ the brute power of my ample ar@e, all the time Mark giving helpful instructions like, "Push harder". I had a moment’s hesitation for dramatic effect before a final push dislodged it and sent it over. After it popped off It looked like it was falling in slow motion turning lazily over itself like something in space and it made a very calming whistling whoosh just before it exploded in an almighty boom, flattening trees and snapping branches as its broken bits shot out from the impact and a big plume of dust billowed up. Quite the spectacle. (The photos of the rising plume of dust were taken at least a minute after the impact.) When we got down the Staircase all our gear was covered in dust and branches though we were happy to see that none of it had been squished by an errant boulder.

Where it ended up

Where it used to be.

Ground level, my pack is under the branch.

We reckon it was the biggest trundle the Gramps have seen for a while.

Not counting our contribution there really was a huge amount of what looked like fresh debris and newly knocked over trees along the base of the cliff and it looked as if there had been some large bits fall off up above Fringedweller/The Ascension though from the ground it didn't look as if there was any damage to the routes themselves. Anyone know if this was fire-related or know about any long term mass wasting at Rosea?