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Discovery by Neil Monteith after climbing at some shitty Baxter crags around Halls Gap. Numerous routes where checked out in the fading light. There was much disapoinment after it was discovered that the promising big red cave was acutally just a pile of choss.
A perfect day. All walls where rapped down and rap anchors where placed above Apollo and Sea of Tranquility. Several of the better routes where shunted to give FTRA's. Some rather large blocks where also trundled from a number of walls.
The first day of serious new routing! Neil climbed with pommy Mat Shears on the first ascents of Pommy on the Moon, Apollo and the crag classic Crescent Crack. Pommy on the Moon turned into a mini epic as Neil thought the route was going to be grade 15 not 20 so brought a crappy little rack. The first ascent of Cresent Crack was also interesting. It was so cold both climbers couldn't feel hands and feet. Placing those thin wires proved to be a greater problem than the crux! The rest of the routes on Lunar Left Side got a basic clean.
Neil returned again by himself and added bolts to Zero Gravity, Orbital Action and Lost in Space. He worked on shunt some of the moves on Armstrong and also discovered Moonscape from beneath a moss forest! It was raining so much that no further routes where toproped. Also of note was the discovery of the little Arapiles walls on the left side of Lower Lunar Crag.
Wade Stevens was the unfortunate person Neil dragged up this weekend. It was a horrid weekend of permanent rain and cold weather. They explored the walls located way above the other routes but found little potential and a LONG uphill slog. It was quite a pleasant bushwalk in the cold weather though. They decided to start camping in the cave in future.
An even more crap day which led the two to explore the nearby Promised Land crag. Not much potential for new routes but some good bouldering dots the bottom of the cliff. They also explored the obvious big slabs about 500m left of Lunar Crag. Again, these turned out to be crap choss filled walls with no potential.
Completely rained out. Neil did not get out of the car.
Perfect weather for once resulted in a bit more develpment. Without a partner, Neil added one more bolt to Lost in Space and re-shunted it finding it quite hard.He rapped, cleaned and placed a bolt anchor on Eagle has Landed finding it much harder than first expected. The highlight of the day was an attempt at aiding Mercury. The bottom half required lots of small wires in a thin seam then the crack widened accepting large hexes. The crack widened further so Neil hooked a move upwards but had to retreat as the crack widened to offwidth size. The end of the day turned into an epic when Neil got his car bogged and had to camp the night on the road.
Exploration of The Promised Land crag came up with a possible new route on a large arete. A good bouldering wall was found amoungst the rubble below the main wall.
Neil's first priority was to explore and attempt some routes on the left side of the Lower Cliffs. He shunted a slabby face, Drifter, which turned out to be much harder than expected but very un-sustained.The next few climbs attempted were on the little bouldering block which is now called Mini Arapiles. All problems were classics, involving long throws and serious overhang manoveres. Two new walls, each with at least one quality route were discovered on the far left of the crag. The best was a smooth arete with excellent polished rock called Eclipse.This was shunted and bolted. Also discovred was a cave and proper waterfall just 100m right of the main Orange cave. It has a nice sandy floor and could house at least 10 campers (or 20 kangaroo's!).
Completely rained out. Neil and partner Paul Christoffersen bailed to Black Ians Rocks.
After a lengthy absense Neil returned with three others in perfect weather to tick the bolted projects. In the space of one afternoon five classics were put up. First went Sea of Tranquility to Neil, followed by Paul Chris. on Zero Gravity, then Adam Demmert did Moon Unit (previously called Orbital Action), Neil did Eclipse and finally Paul struggled up Lost in Space. A few other newies where checked out. Nick McKinnon attempted Mercury but alas never made it off the ground! He also tried the arete left of Lost in Space but found it chossy and without good pro. Adam found a nice short flake on far left side Lunar Crag. The boys vowed to return and clean up the rest at a later date.
James McIntosh paid a visit with five other climbers to check the area out for his new guidebook. As well as repeating most of the routes they added two newies of their own. The slab betwen Apollo and Lost in Space went at 17 whilst the line attempted by Nick previously left of Lost in Space went at 18.
Neil Monteith returned with Poul Christofferson and German climber Thomas Wimmer. After repeating Zero Gravity and Crescent Crack for cameras they prepped Mercury. After top-roping and cleaning the lower corner, Neil set out for the FFA. He got it first go, onsighting the upper handcrack. After intermitant rain halted climbing the three headed over to do another first ascent. Ground up Neil climbed Cosmonaut Flake on his second go after overbalancing near the top on the first try.
29th December 1998
The new route-aholics team of Wayne Maher, Melanie McIntosh, James McIntosh and Peter Cunningham gave the cliff a visit and dispatched the obvious line of Lunar lander and somehow squeezed in Private Universe. This was research for the Mt Difficult Range Guidebook that Jame's was writing which was published in early 1999.
6th November 2000
David Jupp and Matthew Jones clean a line through the centre of the low angle wall right of the main face. Their route was named Capricorn One.
25th November 2000
Chris Baxter and Geoff Gledhill climb the diagonal crack just left of Lunar Lander to create Falun Gong.
Lunar Crag Home - History - Directions - Camping - Online Guidebook - Pictures
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