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Mystery Mt Rosea multi-pitch sport route WIP? |
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25-Jan-2005 10:13:34 AM
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Here is an amusing story... mainly because some people will think I am being hypocritical.
On the weekend I took a visit to the rarely visited left hand end of Mt Rosea. Mike File and I led the excellent Bubbles Dinosaur Direct combo route to the top of the main cliff (100m), From this top you walk left along a terrace with a small 15m cliff above you for about 100m to a sling rap anchor which gets you back to the ground. This rap anchor is directly under the 'bridge' on the Mt Rosea Summit tourist track. Halfway along this upper terrace I spotted a line of large shiny u-bolts heading up a nice piece of rock above me. The bolts were sticking out a fair way from the rock which mildly concerned me. The climb looked fun so i racked up and scrambled up to the first bolt. Being paranoid I decided to check this bolt so I pulled on it. It fell out in my hands. It had not been glued in. This is a HIGHLY dangerous thing to leave behind. Not everyone will test bolts like I do. I also noticed a small corner half a metre to the left which looked like it had good trad gear and would join up with the rest of the bolted 'line'. I decided to take the challenge and climb the route ground up on trad. I did this quite easily - it was enjoyable grade 18 climbing with bomber trad every metre or so. No 'vital' RP's or any other such nonsense. As I climbed this 14m pitch I pulled out three more u-bolts which I turfed over my shoulder. A very bizarre experience! The route had no recent evidence of drill dust - so i can only presume the bolts were placed at least a few weeks ago. This pitch topped out on the tourist track above - and the last u-bolt was visible to anyone standing on the lookout.
Lesson learned - don't leave bolts un-glued in their holes. You never know who will turn up!
Mike and I continued across the terrace until I spotted another u-bolt stuck into the lip of the cliff below me (the main cliff). Again - this bolt was not glued in. I peered over the edge and spotted a further five u-bolts below this 'belay' u-bolt. I was intrigued and had a bit of a look around. Mike made the comment that it felt like we had discovered a dope plantation! I found two shopping bags full of u-bolts under a rock. There was at least 30 of them ready to be placed.
On the walk back at the base of the main cliff we found the 'impact' crater of the rock turfing and cleaning that had gone into this climb. The trees were scarred from some serious rockfall.
My hypocritical rant is this - Mt Rosea is an adventure cliff. It is not a sport crag. A line of u-bolts up an easy trad protected wall is not going to make the 'old guard' happy. I would recommend that the first ascentist reconsiders the style in which he/she is doing this route. Bolts have been placed at Rosea but usually sparingly. It is not the Grose Valley in the Blue Mtns. Spread the word peoples - the bolts did not look familiar to me - they were 8mm large homemade u-bolts - i have not seen this style placed by any other Victorian.
End of rant.
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25-Jan-2005 10:19:11 AM
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Yeah but what did you name your new grade 18 trad route?
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25-Jan-2005 10:31:20 AM
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"Hypocrite" of course!
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25-Jan-2005 10:58:18 AM
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Quite an effort to do something so stupid *and* dangerous in one hit.
I heard there was some bloke called Trent Paterson looking for a Rosea sport route to gridbolt....
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25-Jan-2005 11:21:52 AM
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There was also another new route estblished on the day, goes about 5 metres left of the "Hypercrite". The route "Travesty" is approx 15 metres grade 19, protection looks unlikely but is excellent, interesting face climbing with a few slopers thown in for good measure.
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25-Jan-2005 2:55:12 PM
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So did all the bolts go into the Rebolt victoria fund??
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25-Jan-2005 3:06:08 PM
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I have the four that i removed from the pitch i lead. If the owner wants to own up they can have them back!
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25-Jan-2005 4:23:06 PM
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awesome. bodyweight placements that rarely hold. that's make it an A5 sport route.
good thing you didnt trust em neil. ive seen you you sketchy on an 18 hehe
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26-Jan-2005 9:54:21 PM
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I don't consider myself "old guard" but I was pretty upset reading this story. Anyone thinking of making Mount Rosea a sport crag obviously has no idea. Even worse to put in bolts right next to the tourist track. Pure stupidity!
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27-Jan-2005 9:54:26 AM
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On 25/01/2005 beefy wrote:
>awesome. bodyweight placements that rarely hold. that's make it an A5 sport route.
No bolts or enhancement holes are allowed on A5 according to the definition, so what NM found is an abomination (!), ... though it certainly sounds like dangerous leading with death fall potential.
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27-Jan-2005 10:58:09 AM
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yep very very unimpressive effort by the bolter(s). im a bit surprised they didnt bolt on a few plastic holds too (with blutac). i dont think you were hypocritical neil. there is a time and a place for bolted sport routes. rosea aint it.
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29-Jan-2005 11:57:45 AM
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not being a victorian or even living in victoria i cant really comment on wether Mt Rosea should or shouldnt be a sport or trad crag (but from comments it sounds like it shouldnt..and a new router should take local ethics into consideration).... but that aside to drill the bolt placements and just leave the bolts stuck in unglued ..is a death waiting to happen..either dont place the bolts, or glue them as you place them i can just see some poor bastard climbing there, getting 3/4 of the way up and having all the bolt pull on them....
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29-Jan-2005 12:43:31 PM
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Not condoning the practice, but its one of the things with U's that you normally drill the holes and leave the U in until you ready to drill. U bolts can have slight variations on width and its easier to make sure U bolts fit first before you whack glue in them. so once you drill the holes the proper fitting U is left until it time to glue (normally the same day).
At the very least there should have been a tape on the first U showing its a project and could be unsafe...which is standard practice on all unfinsihed bolting attempts.
But before we all condemn in this forum maybe we should get some facts first....an emrgency of some description may have happened or something causing the sudden abandoment of the bolting process ...who knows???
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26-Jan-2009 10:41:14 AM
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Does anyone have anymore information about this bolting activity.
Yesterday, on an outing (for want of a better word) in Big Chimney I came across a stack of these U bolts.
First, there appears to be a U about 15 metres above the ground in a grotty-looking chimney-gully just left of the start of Rise And Shine.
Then, just below the chockstones at the end of the big chimney I encountered a solitary U-bolt. I probably made a mistake and went out and up to it and clipped it. Remembering Neil's experience I checked that it was actually glued in. From a stance on top of the chockstones there were a few more going up the left wall.
From the little terrace above, about 40 metres below the very top of the cliff, there was another line of U-s up the wall right of the final chimney. Strangely, the bolts didn't go right down to the terrace. A few metres up the exit chimney I balked at the prospect of 15 metres of totally unprotected climbing on the edge of the chimney and traversed around right on a ledge and climbed past the U-s. All were glued in, and with the natural gear it made a sane finish at about 12.
There appears to have been a lot of bolting done and some existing climbs have had bolts added. The one in Big Chimney is actually quite dangerous as it leads people out into a wider more insecure position on a sizeable runout. The final section that I climbed is almost certainly a retro-bolt of Greg Lovejoy's variant finish to Big Chimney - grade 12 done in 1964. The U-bolt I saw from the ground indicates that there may well be other U-s all the way down the cliff - possibly placed during an abseil inspection but maybe there are other bolted sections. It isn't at all clear whether the existing bolted lines are simply incomplete or if they also require trad gear. The pitch I did certainly required trad gear.
I would say that all of this bolting activity dates from the original development that Neil stumbled across. A good nut placement which was the obvious gear between two widely spaced U-s was full of twigs and dirt. Any information, even anonymous, about this would be welcome.
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26-Jan-2009 11:13:44 AM
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Particularly in the light of the recent tragic death in the Blueys it is important that people know what the situation is with these bolts. So please, if you know anything let us know. If you want to use an anonymous email account, email information to me : kieranl (at) aanet dot com dot au
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26-Jan-2009 3:29:48 PM
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Retro-bolting a Rosea grade 12 done in 1964? Surely they should be chopped. Shame they are U's - will require some work to remove them without leaving a mess.
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26-Jan-2009 3:49:37 PM
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On 26/01/2009 NMcKinnon wrote:
>Retro-bolting a Rosea grade 12 done in 1964? Surely they should be chopped.
Not necessarily. It all depends on whether there is protection available with modern gear.
Alternatively consensus might determine that Rosea would be better as a bolt-free cliff.
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26-Jan-2009 9:01:18 PM
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Kieran, I don't know who has been doing this, but I just tried to PM you and your inbox is full.
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26-Jan-2009 9:22:52 PM
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Steve, I'm being told that your inbox is full. Mine is empty.
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26-Jan-2009 10:01:05 PM
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Emailed you the culprit Kieran.
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