Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Author

Whats happened to chocky?


billk

9-Nov-2005
5:05:38 PM

On 9/11/2005 Mike wrote:
>Here's a little tit bit... I had a crack at that 17 at Weeribee Gorge
>recently. The one at the end of the catwalk. Wide crack. Too wide to jam,
>to narrow to chimney. Looked bloody impressive from the ground, at least
>by Weeribee standards. Anyway, 17 my arse! I'd accept 20 at least. Got
>3/4rds of the way up okay with nice rest stances, then suddenly it was
>seriously pumpy with no let up.
>
>The one big cam I had was on tips and the crack just got wider above.
>I knew I could probably get a fair way by laybacking, but I'd need to rest
>before long, and without any pro or stances that could lead to bigger fall
>than I was prepared to accepted. So I grabbed the one big cam below me
>and repositioned it higher. Laid back into a couple of moves... now what?
>Still no where to rest. Chicken wing it? Getting pumped silly now. Reach
>down, pluck out the cam and move it up. Thrash up a few more inches, half
>kind of jammed in now, at least my arms are. Feet on nothing but smoothness.
>Shit that cam's gonna wobble out! No pro below for a looooong way. .......Back
>down we go, dog it, rest up.
>
>The remainder turned into a full on aid session. Silver jugging mere centimeters
>at a time. All of this just to win the last few feet to the top. I finally
>flopped over the brim so worked I couldn't grip the rope for a while.
>
>I highly recommend this "17" for anyone wanting a workout.

There's a discussion topic: Golgotha - why does anyone go near it?

I thought at first you were going to finish the story with you taking a 12m fall upside down, pulling up just 4-5m above the deck, and miraculously only getting a cut on your head.

I was human traction for that guy for 90 minutes (we didn't know for sure that he wasn't seriously injured and were treating him as a potential spinal injury case). This was during the Intergraph debacle. Someone was on their mobile phone shouting: "I can't tell you the nearest cross streets, we're in the f---ing bush!" Someone else rang the Bacchus March Police, who were there in no time along with the Ambos and SES. Eventually Intergraph dispatched an air ambulance that rained stones on us while the paramedic was lowered down. Two news choppers flew over too.

It made the news that night. For dramatic effect the fall was upsized from 12m to 20m, which would have had the guy cratering a good 5m.


nmonteith

9-Nov-2005
5:14:09 PM

On 9/11/2005 Sabu wrote:
>lol one of friends bought a size 6 friend specially for golgotha!! he
>had a size 4 friend as well and my 10 hex. we were ready then decided not
>to...!

so you had one piece of gear for the crack - and two useless bits of ballast!


LouK

9-Nov-2005
7:19:13 PM

Back to topic... has anyone thought that when people are redirected to old topics that have been posted, other people don't look at that topic, therefore removing alot of new thought, conversation etc, that could be generated especially from new members. So while the "old faithfuls" who have been around since the figurative birth of chockstone might not want to hear about it again, i'm sure there are plenty of new users who would. And considering how many posts move away from the original topic, a topic that has already been brought up could turn into something interesting. That's just my 2c


tmarsh

9-Nov-2005
7:31:49 PM

That's all well and good, but it would be good if new uers at least made an effort to check the archives before posting. A lot of posts are purely factual, and are basically lazy: it's someone who is too lazy to do the research themselves who wants a quick easy fix made by other people who do the work.

It's hard not to get a little fed up with bottom-feeding beta seekers, when 30 seconds with Google or with chockstone's search function would obviate the need to have the question asked in the first place.


LouK

9-Nov-2005
7:42:48 PM

Agreed... and I do, however... that has left me with no reason to post, or start a new topic on numerous occasions; hence a lack of interesting reading for old posters. that's all i'm saying. and i think that the number of genuine "help required" posts far outweighs those of bottom-feeding beta seekers, as tmarsh so succinctly put it.

James

9-Nov-2005
9:10:14 PM

hey tim do you know if the Millenium road is open yet?


adski

9-Nov-2005
10:14:16 PM

On 9/11/2005 LouK wrote:
>Back to topic... has anyone thought that when people are redirected to
>old topics that have been posted, other people don't look at that topic,
>therefore removing alot of new thought, conversation etc, that could be
>generated especially from new members. So while the "old faithfuls" who
>have been around since the figurative birth of chockstone might not want
>to hear about it again, i'm sure there are plenty of new users who would.
>And considering how many posts move away from the original topic, a topic
>that has already been brought up could turn into something interesting.

I totally agree.

Telling newbies to look in the archives is like locking schoolchildren in the library at the start of the year. I reckon we're here to have a conversation with each other, not exist under cones of silence in the same room. There may be a whole new discussion to have about these things with a change of context. different time and different active members.

I don't know about how anyone else uses this site but I haven't gone anywhere but the "current topics" since the first few months of using this site! What about others?


Sabu

9-Nov-2005
10:23:52 PM

On 9/11/2005 nmonteith wrote:
>On 9/11/2005 Sabu wrote:
>>lol one of friends bought a size 6 friend specially for golgotha!! he
>>had a size 4 friend as well and my 10 hex. we were ready then decided
>not
>>to...!
>
>so you had one piece of gear for the crack - and two useless bits of ballast!

lol pretty much, we were all psyc'd up to do it then we decided we'd (i'd) had enough thrashing about after taking on androcles!!! i reckon he would have spent a lot of time screwing around trying to get the hex in!! it's saved his skin soo many times on those cracks at werribee!


Climboholic

10-Nov-2005
1:10:49 AM

Golgotha and Androcles. In my opinion are both sandbagged/under-graded climbs at Weribee. I used a fist jam to get through the slightly overhanging crux of Androcles, dunno if there is another way to do it but it felt like the hardest 16 I've ever led.

I've only done Golgotha on top rope, but the thought of trying to place pro from the strenuous layback scares the sh!t out of me.

Have other poeple found the same?

10-Nov-2005
7:48:02 AM

>Golgotha and Androcles....

Nice to see you guys are still appreciating the finer points of climbing in the olden days when cracks ruled and cams didn't exist and a solid skin-grinding jamB of any description felt soooo good! ;-)


wombly

10-Nov-2005
10:18:12 AM

billk's post gave me the willies - i've also had a near miss on golgotha - fell from a couple of metres above where the crack starts to off-width, catching my leg around the rope on the way down (my belayer had waaaay too much slack out as he wasn't used to using double ropes and was busy dodging the missles being dropped by some f---wit on the clifftop). I pulled up in a horizontal position about 50 cm from the deck...


Sabu

10-Nov-2005
10:24:55 AM

On 10/11/2005 skip wrote:
>Golgotha and Androcles. In my opinion are both sandbagged/under-graded
>climbs at Weribee. I used a fist jam to get through the slightly overhanging
>crux of Androcles, dunno if there is another way to do it but it felt like
>the hardest 16 I've ever led.
yesssss it's sandbagged to hell i've never lead anything on trad so hard before !! i had to retreat the first time i tried it: we had a cam placed just above the step roof so i was way to scared of accidently kicking it out! i came back and used hexes instead which made me a little more confident i still ended up dogging move. i got it by laybacking off the right getting foot and finally manteling the last section!! CRAZY for a 16 only a few meters above the ground!


Climboholic

10-Nov-2005
11:13:44 AM

There is a bomber hex placement at the step then I got a #3 Camalot in from a fist jam. But as you said Sabu, before the mantle I was scared I was going to kick the cam out. If I fell from there onto my bomber hex i would have had enough rope to deck on to the VCC's 'saftey rail' behind my belayer.

Everyone likes a good sandbag (apart from the person being sandbagged), but as is demonsrated by billk's story it can be dangerous. At least some qualification in the guidebook would be nice.

Or maybe we soft young climbers just don't know how to jam.


Sabu

10-Nov-2005
11:33:47 AM

i got two bomber hexes in and managed to fall on them several times!!
im terrible with jamming so i wasn't game enough to commit to it!! the layback and mantle is friggen scary!! the rest of the climb isn't worth much!


shaggy

10-Nov-2005
11:50:35 AM

On 10/11/2005 Sabu wrote:

>yesssss it's sandbagged to hell i've never lead anything on trad so hard
>before !!

Skip wrote:
>Or maybe we soft young climbers just don't know how to jam.

Bingo, welcome to the world of oldschool offwidths!


nmonteith

10-Nov-2005
12:10:31 PM

I didn't think it was that bad. You should have tried Resurrection Corner (17) at Frog - before it got
upgraded recently. 25m of enduro jamming.... it certainly spanked generations of newbies...

gfdonc

10-Nov-2005
12:20:27 PM

Androcles - yes fell off that seconding a few months back, bloody hard for 16, even for an old-timer.
- Steve


Phil Box

10-Nov-2005
3:29:14 PM

Resurrection Corner is an awesome climb if you can jamb.

Now Venom right beside it is one nasty climb. That thing will spit you out, classic overhung offwidth. You definitely get a full body workout on that. Heh, I`ve managed to sandbag two climbing partners on it. Scalps for the belt eh. Bad thing is that once I`ve managed to sandbag them up it I have to second.


shaggy

10-Nov-2005
3:42:44 PM

Now, putting aside this thread hijack, I haven't seen chocky this active in ages!
I didn't realise I was opening a can of worms!


adski

10-Nov-2005
4:36:13 PM

On 10/11/2005 shaggy wrote:
>Now, putting aside this thread hijack, I haven't seen chocky this active
>in ages!
>I didn't realise I was opening a can of worms!

Yeah nothing like the promise of free schwag or interest from a member of the opposite sex to spark some activity!

There are 101 messages in this topic.