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Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

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Topic Date User
Buffalo Aidfest November 2014. 1-Dec-2014 At 7:02:16 PM phillipivan
Message
On 1/12/2014 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:
>
>PI, if you get around to doing an un-abridged version of your 17 hr ascent,
>I would be particularly interested in your gearlist taken, ie what you/Scott
>reckoned you could have used more of (or left behind), etc.

Im not sure if I will find the motivation to write a longer version. I find it quite satisfying to do so, but it takes me alot of work. I like to (try to ) do a good job, but good story telling doesn't come naturally to me; Or spelling, or grammar or puncuation. None of which I have done a good job of below. It's largely stream of consciousness, and completely unorganised.

1x 60m rope.
No tag line.
If I was short fixing (which we didnt) I would make it a 50m

Followers rack, on shoulder sling:
2x ascenders
gri gri
nut key
kong duck (didnt need)
lightweight belay seat
Light back pack with water, very small qty food, and large cams (until higher up).
We took a very lightweight puffy each.

Leaders rack:
Reverso (in case of balilng) - didnt use
2 x tiblocs (in case of fall at overhangs into free space) - didnt use.

1 x 3 - 5 camalot
2 x 000 - 2 camalot (perhaps the odd triple, a mix of Dragon cams, totems,C4s, C3s, Power Cams, Master Cams and Metolius TCUs)
Broken Down:
5 Totems from 0.3 to 1 Camalot
Dragons from 0.4 to 1 Camalot
C3s Full set + double of Green
TCUs Grey to Blue (00 to 1) - hardly used
C4 #2
Powercam #7 (Blue one, 2 Camalot sized)- only used on fang pitch.
Mastercam #4 - Not sure if used, can't have been much though

+ a few offset master cams (I remember finding these more handy last year than this; perhaps because I led different pitches). Smaller ones are most useful.

1 size 1 red tomahawk (unused)

1 moses logan hook (its smaller and lighter than other hooks, which is good because it only gets used twice at most)

3 cam hooks (1 each: micro, normal, wide) The actual sizes are not that important. I got one or two placements with the micro which would not have worked with the others, but otherwise it doesn't really matter. The Normal is probably best / most versatile.

1 set of nuts WC/DMM mix up to 9 or 10 (The largest I definately remember placing is an 8)
1 set DMM offsets (peanuts + large DMM alloy offsets)
1 set WC superlight rocks
Handful of RPs/Metolius work alikes. Nothing smaller than a 2RP (of which there was one, placed once).

Half dozen or so bolt plates.

13 or so (a guess) Runners, 2/3rds 18cm 1/3rds 60cm. If you don't link pitches, and are happy to clip cams direct, then you could take fewer.

2x 120cm slings for anchors.

General thoughts (if I wanted to go light as I dared): I would take singles from .75 and larger (perhaps even .5 and up), and back cleaning extensively, like almost every 0.5, 0.75 and many #1 placements would be back cleaned. All the larger cam placements are bomber.
That is the main area where weight can be saved.

I don't like the TCUs for aiding on, too stiff and too wide to work in shallow awkward placements. The C3s however work very well, as do the totems. It is my preference to take as many smaller cams as I can, in place of nut placements, because they go in and come out faster.

At the larger end of the nuts it is not necessary to have both normal and offsets.
The WC Superlight rocks work very well, however can be harder to clean than some. Scott got one welded when he fell on it (it was a weird placement however). I could stomach leaving the normal nuts behinds completely, as the super lights will fit in the same spots (plus slight flares).

With some confidence on cam hooks, the smaller nuts can be cut down as well. However this wont really save much weight or bulk.

Tomahawk is unnecessary, and has a tendency to get caught on stuff during the walk in. The hook is handy, but probably only used twice on the route; so not that handy. A few free climbing moves and you could leave it behind completely (slab move past the 2nd bolt on P1; traversing left from the carrot to the small ledge below BG at the end of P3.

Short fixing would necessitate a tag line (or at least some rope shenanegins). I'd be happy with something even skinnier than my 7mm cord I sometimes use, since it would only be for pulling the rack up to the leader. At which point a microtraxion would help on the leaders rack.

Last year we used a microtraxion as a self minding back up for the follower whilst jugging. We tried this with the kong duck (its lighter and looks cute); it didn't work nearly as well.

I'd be happy with fewer bolt plates, perhaps two. It would be faster to climb the bolt ladder below the roof with a nut on each ett to hook the bolts. The cable rivet hangers would be better as they are faster to place and clean than a bolt place, and get you higher than a nut.

I'm still too lazy and stupid to haul a pack.

There is no gear I wished I had more of, though Scott may have liked more runners for linking P1s & 2. He left a number of small nuts not clipped to anything.

As always I could have taken less food. 1 Banana (had at base of route), perhaps 80 grams of chocolate and 250 grams of home made date & cashew logs. Im guessing here; it was probably less than that.

We had about three L of water each, plus a bladder in the leaders pack, with another 1.5 to 2L. Scott ran out before me, but I still had enough for a drink before leading the last pitch. Whomever leads from the ground to big grassy at this time of year will inevitably consume more water as they are leading in full sun (if its sunny).

Considering the well placed, bomber bolts for the anchors, a pair of quickdraws or single length runners would make a faster to place and breakdown anchor than a 120cm sling with a fig8 in it. Any runner longer than a sport draw is probably fine. Or I should just use a sliding x...

More important that what gear we took, wished we took, or imagine we'd have the balls to leave behind, which i think is mostly small fry (how much slower are you going to climb from the weight of an extra 1 camalot? (vs being scared from big fall potentail)) is having dedicated leaders and followers racks which make transitions faster and easier, and makes everything less bulky.

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