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Successful trip to Werribee! 5-Sep-2005 At 10:20:22 AM absala

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It has been a while since I have visited Chockstone (or really been abseiling, for that matter as I have been out due to injury - solo abseiling accident) but last weekend I had a very successful trip to Werribee Gorge.

I began the morning off with a few pretty straight-forward abseils off some climbs called SPQR 13m 10 and Ebony 14m 20 (I know what the first of those numbers means - it's usually close to the length of the abseil - but don't know what the second number's for, however a climber friend said they're important). After these I headed across to a route called Snatch and Grab 14m 20 and then a little further down to a climb called Tina the Ballerina from Pasadena 18m 22. I wanted the second of those two abseils just for the funny name!
The highlight of the day was, without doubt, Nero on the Rampage 24m 24. The rock face was almost completely flat (a key indicator of a good abseil route) and there was no one at the bottom waiting to try and climb the route at the time I ticked the abseil.
All in all it was a great day!

The only down-side to the day-trip was possibly the lack of good things to set up my abseil anchors to. There were some small, green poles sticking out of the ground that the climbers seemed to use, but they didn't look that strong to me. I managed to equalise some trees near the edge and some boulders. There were even some boulders big enough that I couldn't shift them so I used them especially for my achors as I thought they would be strong. I think it would have been better if there were some abseil anchors set up at the top of the cliffs at Werribee so that others, such as myself, could be a bit better protected when ticking these abseil routes. I have heard around the place that nmontieth does a bit of bolting? Maybe you could look into the abseil anchor situation there for people like me?

Not as good as Araps, but definately worth a visit if you can't get away from Melbourne for the whole weekend.