Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

Author	Easter Epic - can you beat this?
bluey 27-Mar-2008 4:40:02 PM	Ok can you beat this? Day 1: benighted on Agamemnon, rap down to chains on clytemanaestra buttress, rope stuck, climb back up and down climb back in dark. Day 2: benighted AGAIN on Debutante, Mt Rosea. Last pitch climbed in full darkness. Worried mate waiting for us at the top of the Giant's Staircase descent, we missed him and his apparent yelling, took the scenic route down the tourist track - 2 hours walking in climbing shoes after 5 pitch multi-pitch. We collect stuff, make it to carpark and find no friends, no car. Parks Vic turn up looking for us cos our worried mates had gone to the police. Police give us a lift to Halls Gap and tell us the SES search was in the throes of being co-ordinated for the next day. Pulled over by police for speeding on the way back - let off after sob story of being lost in the grampians all night. Get back to camp at 2am, in bed 3am. Day 3: decide it's time for a short approach, short climb, no possibility of being lost or benighted day at Summerday. Send my mate up Waxman. Clear skies turn sour halfway up and massive thunderstorm rolls in...lightning and all. I second my way up the waterfall and we both make like lightning rods on the top of the climb. We return to camp laughing maniacally and wondering who we pissed off prior to the weekend..... If you can beat that amount of adventure in one weekend, i'll be impressed....
Fish Boy 27-Mar-2008 4:45:20 PM	Rap cleaned wizard of ice in a blizzard hand jamming the whole way down no assistance from below...off a rotten piece of weetbix with a 8mm dyneema sling attached, probably pissed and bent, I can't remember...
IdratherbeclimbingM9 27-Mar-2008 4:53:04 PM	I braved a potential flaming by logging on to Chockstone over Easter ... ~> quickly became addicted ... ... It was epic trying to wean myself off while my rope was securely stuck in its locked metal trunk.
wallwombat 27-Mar-2008 5:00:31 PM	Widewetandslippery and I almost ran out of beer at Lake Catani.
IdratherbeclimbingM9 27-Mar-2008 5:04:15 PM	Blerrie heck, that pales me! You 'almost' had an unbeatable Easter epic then ... ... Unless on the third day you rolled out the Stones green ginger wine? Heh, heh, :)
D.Lodge 27-Mar-2008 5:10:38 PM	Worked all day friday and Monday
wombly 27-Mar-2008 5:29:50 PM	Not nearly as epic as bluey, but... Went to kaputar for the first time. Climbed at Mt Lindsay, Kaputar Pinnacle and the Governor. Backed off numerous climbs due to lack of pro and/or choss. Avoided the entirety of West Kaputar because nothing looked a) reasonable for the grade, and b) more solid than Shai Halud. Somehow managed to avoid falling due to rock breakage. Avoided being fallen on due to rock breakage. Avoided any of the missles being thrown down by the masses above. Avoided being struck by lightning in one of the many thunderstorms. Avoided falling off the Yulludunida ridge traverse (1800m grade 3, quite exposed in parts). Didn't manage to avoid a grade 2-3 sprain of my right ankle on the walk down from the traverse, and had to hobble the 3 km back to the car with a stick for a crutch, but did manage to avoid most of the drive home - for some reason nobody wanted me to flinch when using the brake!
WM 27-Mar-2008 5:58:19 PM	Starting at the crack of noon tends to invite epics... but still, nice TR :) By the time that rain hit you on day 3, I'd had 7 hours of prime temps at Taipan, gone for a 3km run, done some shopping at the olive farm and was back at the digs with feet up and beer in hand watching the action!
bluey 27-Mar-2008 6:17:20 PM	Well actually, we started at the crack of 1pm....then had to wait for people on the route before us AND were multi-pitching with 3. Yes, I'll admit we may have invited a bit of an epic...... Speaking of the olive grove....we bloody well went searching for that on the summerday valley epic day hoping for a nice relaxing lunch and couldn't find it! I could have sworn it was almost impossible NOT to end up there around that area but figured the gods were laughing at us AGAIN.
Phil Box 27-Mar-2008 6:53:51 PM	Hey wombly, we musta crossed paths up at Kaputar over Easter. That was me who whistled up to the masses and yelled for them to stop chucking rocks over from the top of the Governor. How awesome is the Skyline Traverse. Did the whole thing ourselves on the Thursday. How speccy is that one balancy spike of rock that you have to clamber over. The Governor resembled Frog on a long weekend, heaps of climbing parties swarming all over the cliff.
kieranl 27-Mar-2008 7:39:57 PM	On 27/03/2008 Fish Boy wrote: >Rap cleaned wizard of ice in a blizzard hand jamming the whole way down Wondered who that was. Rare sighting someone on that climb. We felt the first spits of rain, headed for the car and got there just as the sky fell in.
Fish Boy 27-Mar-2008 7:59:21 PM	On 27/03/2008 kieranl wrote: >On 27/03/2008 Fish Boy wrote: >>Rap cleaned wizard of ice in a blizzard hand jamming the whole way down >Wondered who that was. Rare sighting someone on that climb. We felt the >first spits of rain, headed for the car and got there just as the sky fell >in. Twas fun...no where near as weird as I thought it would be, just mad jamming...as you'd know of course...the wind up ag chimmny was blowing my 35cm hair straight up in the air...
Eduardo Slabofvic 27-Mar-2008 8:17:10 PM	Did 4 first ascents, ground up, on sight, no bolts.
Shmalzy 27-Mar-2008 8:24:23 PM	On 27/03/2008 bluey wrote: >Ok can you beat this? > >Day 1: benighted on Agamemnon, rap down to chains on clytemanaestra buttress, >rope stuck, climb back up and down climb back in dark. Idiot > >Day 2: benighted AGAIN on Debutante, Mt Rosea. Last pitch climbed in full >darkness. Worried mate waiting for us at the top of the Giant's Staircase >descent, we missed him and his apparent yelling, took the scenic route >down the tourist track - 2 hours walking in climbing shoes after 5 pitch >multi-pitch. We collect stuff, make it to carpark and find no friends, >no car. Parks Vic turn up looking for us cos our worried mates had gone >to the police. Police give us a lift to Halls Gap and tell us the SES search >was in the throes of being co-ordinated for the next day. Pulled over by >police for speeding on the way back - let off after sob story of being >lost in the grampians all night. Get back to camp at 2am, in bed 3am. > Idiot. Didn't learn from first idiocy - put everyone else out >Day 3: decide it's time for a short approach, short climb, no possibility >of being lost or benighted day at Summerday. Send my mate up Waxman. Clear >skies turn sour halfway up and massive thunderstorm rolls in...lightning >and all. I second my way up the waterfall and we both make like lightning >rods on the top of the climb. We return to camp laughing maniacally and >wondering who we pissed off prior to the weekend..... Idiot. Look at the weather forecast > >If you can beat that amount of adventure in one weekend, i'll be impressed.... > I had more adventure in bed on Saturday night, and the only c--k-up was........ Sorry for the harsh tone Shmalz
kieranl 27-Mar-2008 8:43:31 PM	On 27/03/2008 Fish Boy wrote: >>Twas fun...no where near as weird as I thought it would be, just mad jamming...as >you'd know of course... Yeah. I must actually lead it sometime. Followed Mr Egerton up it many years ago but have never had a lot of confidence with my crack technique. Did you use hexes? I could hear them tolling from that direction but it may have been Agamemnon.
Sabu 27-Mar-2008 9:18:03 PM	On 27/03/2008 kieranl wrote: >On 27/03/2008 Fish Boy wrote: >>Rap cleaned wizard of ice in a blizzard hand jamming the whole way down >Wondered who that was. Rare sighting someone on that climb. We felt the >first spits of rain, headed for the car and got there just as the sky fell >in. Tim made a decent ascent of it on monday, fell once but didn't thrash nearly as much as expected (or hoped?!), can't say the same for his seconder though, great entertainment!
cruze 27-Mar-2008 9:36:37 PM	So that must have been your group of three sitting at the first belay on Debutante at 5:00 pm on Saturday looking a little chilly. As my partner and I headed back to our car we mused that by the time we drove back to Melbourne you guys would probably be topping out...in the dark. Oh, and by the way, we were the first group on the climb that day - starting at around 11 and amazed that there were five groups behind us by the time we topped out ;)
wombly 28-Mar-2008 9:50:07 AM	>How awesome is the Skyline Traverse. Did the whole thing ourselves on the Thursday. How >speccy is that one balancy spike of rock that you have to clamber over. The traverse would have to be one of my favourite moments in climbing - my mate commented that I looked like i was riding a horse when climbing over the boulder! >The Governor resembled Frog on a long weekend, heaps of climbing parties swarming all over the cliff. It was indeed a circus ... I'm amazed nobody got clocked by one of the rocks that was continually raining down.
prb 28-Mar-2008 12:52:38 PM	I can't beat bluey's epics, just had several of those "I could be getting into trouble here" moments on a new route. I rarely plunder Victorian crags for new routes, I just don't feel it's my turf, but last weekend we were staying in a valley about 10k NE of Myrtleford for a mate's birthday. Across the valley, on the western slopes of Mt Jack I believe, was a sunny little granite crag known locally as Bum Rock with a couple of useful looking lines on it. We wandered over for a look. The "hard" line was a clean wide hands crack with an undercut start. We had a quick feel but decided to do the "easy" line first which the birthday boy had insisted was about grade 11, having toproped it some time ago. It looked pretty steep and slick for an 11 to me but it was an excellent line, up a leaning inset corner-crack to a roof then a wall crack to the top, about 25m in all. Well the first half of the climb ate medium stoppers and 0.75 cams, placed while laybacking in a semi- pumpy fashion with good smears. Then the corner straightened and the angle relented a little which was good because I'd run out useful gear. I walked up the crack about 4m and thankfully found the crack in the roof widened a little and took a good #1 cam. Nevertheless that was going to be the one piece keeping me from getting hurt until I topped out. That's can be OK it you know the climb but trad new routing is a different ball game. I found exiting the corner the crux, stepping onto the R arete and then R again onto the wall. The top crack went OK once I'd gotten a foot up and in, but topping out was pretty delicate with collapsing ankles from standing sideways in cracks for too long. It all sounds dramatic, but Mt Buffalo veterans would fly up it: Burkey's Birthday Bash Corner (18). Paul & Chris 21/3/08 Easter was our first (climbing) visit to Buffalo, a good 10 hours drive from Adelaide. Certainly no shortage of impressive rock. The highlight on Saturday was Maharajah with the Flake Start, on Sunday we were at Eurobin falls for Mother of Pearl and Llafnwod (hmmm, I'd lead the latter but might get a few more Buffalo routes under my belt first).
Bluey 28-Mar-2008 2:25:41 PM	On 27/03/2008 Shmalzy wrote: > >Idiot >Idiot. Didn't learn from first idiocy - put everyone else out > >Idiot. Look at the weather forecast > >Sorry for the harsh tone Hey Schmalzy, thanks for your constructive criticism. Good to see a chockstone contributor, who out of 4 posts ever, devotes one of those to repeatedly calling someone an idiot. Charming. For the record, we were extremely apologetic to the Parks Vic and Police who were entirely unphased - I believe the phrase they used was "shit happens". Which it does. We made a few mistakes, which we analysed to death and with great humour afterwards...just wanted to give you lot a few laughs and a bit of diversion too.

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