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Mt Buffalo - She

Fish Boy

1-Oct-2010
9:53:36 AM

So I had three days off, a nice weather window and an aching for some adventure. I didn't need to succeed, or attempt something with grandeur, just to quell my post Yosemite depression before it consumed me whole. I called out, and She beckoned me over...

She ascends the blank face left of the impressive Ozymandias/Lord Gumtree area, utilizing a filthy, grassy and very traversing 1st pitch to gain some features down low. Hooking is the name of the game on several pitches, both natural and drilled, and whilst the falls would be safe, some good mileage can be gained onto old carrots, some with terrible homemade alu hangers.

I was solo, having left my dearest wife at home to feed the cats and earn money, much to her disgust and my excitement. I hadn't soloed for a couple of years, and was not only rusty now, but unfit. Nice!

The plan was three days which would allow me to be super casual and spend each day just doing 2 pitches and lounging on the ledge. It worked, and here are the pictures.

The rack

Beginning the raps down Defender, 4 in all (or three is you walk the dodgy gully like I did)

A bolt ladder to get started

1st pitch shrubs and awkward gear/free climbing

Rope drag doesn't matter when you are soloing, thank God. Dirty 1st pitch.

Top of pitch 2 in the beautiful sunrise

The blank pitch 3

The fun begins

I took a good fall and bent the hook that I needed! The cliffhanger morphed into a grappling hook....

I spent a few hours getting through this pitch as the drilled holes where hard to find and I ended up hooking lot's of natural stuff. Pointed Leeper and bent Cliffhanger there...

Meant to nail up this, I ended up hand placing 5 peckers and it went clean, so to speak...

Nice vegetation, still pitch 3

That is the pitch 3 belay where I came back to sleep. I'm heading off on Cleo, a variant that meets Ozy pitch 7 half way

Grotty! Ozy roof up there

Getting there!

Nearly at the anchor, someone placed a lost arrow on Ozy? Tossers..

Big day...time to rap down a pitch and set up

There were lot's of these hangers stamped RJM (Reg Marron?), not sure what made me hang the ledge off one...

This was nasty to do solo...I only had 3 cams that fitted, so run out cam jugging tas the only way

Short but not sweet...

Me getting my ropes all twisted

Shitheap of a gully to haul up

Nice views though

Yay

The weather came in just as I got off.....

-peace-

egosan

1-Oct-2010
10:16:41 AM

You ready to sell those crack n ups yet?

Nice work, Nick. Great pics.


ajfclark

1-Oct-2010
10:37:56 AM

Looks sweet. Thanks!


nmonteith

1-Oct-2010
10:48:10 AM

Your photos reminded of why I don't think Buffalo is a world class destination.

Fish Boy

1-Oct-2010
12:48:25 PM

Well i didn't travel around the world for it Neil. Every area has it's charm, I just got back from climbing at Yos, Lake Loise, Squamish etc and still think Buff is great, I just chose a rarely done route. I was on it a few years ago and my bolt plates and biners were still on it (I sucked at cleaning back then...)


nmonteith

1-Oct-2010
1:13:55 PM

Don't get me wrong - it looks like one hell of a fun adventure - but all that vegetation and seepage just doesn't make it look like quality. I've had a blast on that wall clumping up mud, but i don't think i'd send an international climber onto it! (apart from Ozy which is nice and clean)

mikllaw

1-Oct-2010
1:23:49 PM

terrifying, it looks as bad as bolting with none of the fun.....
Why the pink rock shoes, and how long will they last aiding


gordoste

1-Oct-2010
1:32:13 PM

cool photos but i have to say it doesn't make me want to turn to the Dark Side :)

technogeekery

1-Oct-2010
2:32:30 PM

Nice work, thanks for the TR. Can't say I'm inspired to get on it tho...

simey

1-Oct-2010
3:48:46 PM

On 1/10/2010 davidn wrote:
>On 1/10/2010 One Day Hero wrote:
>>P.S., nice work with the self photo thing, but that route looks like
>the
>>biggest lump of shit in the universe!
>
>It occurs to me that your increase in diatribe may correlate with someone
>mentioning you'd been quiet recently. Did you ever consider just posting
>a few random expletives every week or so? Might be just as satisfying.

What is wrong with a bit of honesty? The route looks spectacularly horrible. Good effort by Fish Boy to fight his way up though.


cruze

1-Oct-2010
3:58:29 PM

On 1/10/2010 One Day Hero wrote:
>On 1/10/2010 nmonteith wrote:
>>Don't get me wrong - it looks like one hell of a fun adventure - but
>all
>>that vegetation and seepage just doesn't make it look like quality. I've
>>had a blast on that wall clumping up mud, but i don't think i'd send
>an
>>international climber onto it! (apart from Ozy which is nice and clean)
>
>Spot on Neil!
>
>Have recently had a friend out from Colorado and he inquired about Buffalo.
>I told him to go get fuched. You don't visit Austalia from North America
>and get on our granite, its just total shit compared to what they have
>at home. For any aussies who wonder why granite is refered to in climbing
>lit. as "the rock of the gods"...........well may you wonder! They ain't
>talking about our fcuking granite, by a long shot!

ODH setting ACT/NSW/Vic crystalline granite to the side for the moment, I reckon there is reasonable granite in WA (Willyabrup), Tas (Freycinet) and some areas of N. Qld (Townsville). It isn't quite the same quality as the granite I have climbed on in NZ or Argentina but how does it compare to the glacially carved buttresses of N. America?

Fish Boy

1-Oct-2010
5:31:08 PM

Funny stuff, the route does look like junk, but I like to go aiding to travel along cool bits of terrain I couldn't free climb. That blank face is a fun bit of rock, a mad place to sleep and easy to haul on.

I wont be rushing back in though ;).....

Mikl, I wore the shoes cos there are a bunch of free moves on the route. I always aid in free shoes, it's still climbing. The first two pitches I mostly freed, I freed Cleo into Ozy and freed the last two pitches as well....plus I like pink.

brendan

2-Oct-2010
8:05:55 AM

>I took a good fall and bent the hook that I needed! The cliffhanger morphed into a grappling hook....

was the hook taped to the wall? screamer attached? i have always wondered about duct taped hooks for pro and if they are worth the effort,

nice trip report Nick, the hooking section with the drilled hooks, is it a couple of hook moves then gear/bolt?

gfdonc

2-Oct-2010
8:24:56 AM

Nice report, thanks. I've always wondered what that route would be like. A bit of vegetation never hurt anyone eh?

Yes those hangers are Reg Marron's, I have one from Knocking on Heaven's Door (TR in my profile). I wasn't keen to hang much stuff off it though .. fatigued aluminium .. erk.

Fish Boy

2-Oct-2010
10:07:34 AM

Brendon, there are multiple hooks in a row. I'd say there were sections where you have to do 4 maybe 5 hooks then clip a bolt, then repeat, then clip a bolt. I fell on the hook because I had just got on a talon that was average and off the cliffhanger. I normally leave the last hook on the wall until i drag my etts up. I wouldn't leave a hook for pro, even though people do...maybe with a screamer, although there is an excellent thread on supertopo about how ineffective they are.

Mark R

2-Oct-2010
10:33:02 AM

Ha ha ha... you got to shred tips at black hill!!! Worse rock quality, tip destroying crystals and only 10m high... luxury. Makes buff look beautiful. For what its worth the first holden caulfield is also pristine clean but its hard to deny the quality of the Darrens and the Valley.


gordoste

4-Oct-2010
10:39:23 AM

On 1/10/2010 One Day Hero wrote:
>Squamish rock is for granite like Taipan rock is for sandstone.....which
>means Squamish is better than Patagonia, which is in turn better than Tassie,
>which is better than Booroomba, which is better than Buffalo......which
>isn't surprising as Buffalo has the worst granite I've ever climbed on.

You need to come climbing at Mt Pilot or Felltimber!!


gordoste

4-Oct-2010
3:37:22 PM

Haha Felltimber is pretty poxy but it's only 5 minutes from my work so can't complain too much! Some of the problems are very nice, but you wouldn't travel to get there... local crags overseas are just as poxy, we just don't hear about them! But even though I've climbed at Arapiles, Thailand whatever - the local crag still holds a special place, it's more about the memories and many good times with friends just talking crap and falling off things.

P.s. i never understood lamingtons... laziest cake-maker ever!


IdratherbeclimbingM9

5-Oct-2010
1:17:42 PM

Excellent trip report FB. Thanks for posting it.

Route / Cliff quality is very much like art, as it is largely in the eye of the participant/beholder. Personally I am stoked to see the beauty of the lichen/moss untramelled climbing in FB's photos. Yes other places granite is different climbing, and many would say better, but I would say 'not better, just different', as it is all good.

Regarding the route allegedly 'seeping', the photos show it looking basically dry to me. In fact surprisingly so, since it was only a fortnight or so ago that the place had 256 mm (10") rain over a two day period with subsequent intermittent rain since, and on that topic I was also surprised to find Noblesse Oblige dry on Sunday as well, which considering it has upper slab catchment festooned in moss to weep after rain I did not expect this.

The left rising traverse crackline (Pitch 7 of Ozy Original) that you found runout on three cams and leapfrogged, is pretty much the standard way it is done. Interesting that that pitch gets graded both 19 and 21 in the latest guide depending whether you read the route description or toppo! Imagine how that went on hexes ... ~> would be more gnarly!!
You probably also found it less enjoyable due by then you were on the third day of your climb and mental fatigue would be starting to take a toll, this possibly evidenced by the rope tangle you experienced there, which would have added to the negative vibe.

Re the bent hook &
>I normally leave the last hook on the wall until i drag my etts up.

Your fall was caught by the static aspect of your daisy?
Presumably the hook held the fall to end up like that, ie it didn't bend then let go, to release you further into the void?

I am glad to now know they bend like that, as the longest fall I have taken on a hook that held, was while free climbing & that I had left for pro in a solution hole in limestone. The hook pretty much conformed to the lip of the hole, but I fell from about 1.5 metres above it, so all up 3 to 4m with rope stretch while being belayed, ie a soft catch, and it didn't bend. I did not know that they would do that, and assumed the steel to be so hard that if stressed enough would crack or break.

>The fun begins (pic)
&
>The cliffhanger morphed into a grappling hook....(pic)

~> pics are the same placement. Is this the placement that held the fall that bent the hook?

Well done on your successful solo.

An enjoyable read/picture viewing, that I find inspiring, ... and bending a hook from a fall is an impressive effort, ... that is made all the more so for pushing on afterwards!!


IdratherbeclimbingM9

5-Oct-2010
1:48:30 PM

As an aside...
I notice from your photos that you sling your hooks differently to the way that I do.
Have you considered that if you sling through both the upper and lower holes that the mechanics of doing same when loaded in a placement, tends to lever the hook closer onto the rock (depending which part of the loop is pulled through and clipped), instead of away* from it?
(*As happens with your method, though your slings are long enough to help counteract this effect).
This can make a difference for them holding on the less than suitable placements...
;-)

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