Neil Monteith, Marcel Geelen and Jaq
This area is amazing. The lush alpine feel (1400m altitude), its wonderous collection of boulders and the best looking campsites I have seen anywhere in Australia. We spotted many short bolted faces which all looked impossibly blank. On closer inspection some of them revealed rounded slopers, tiny edges and sharp crystals. We aimed low trying the easist lines with the most bolts. This did not prove to work, as we floundered around on the damp and mossy rock, clinging to the smallest of holds. We eventually got up one line by making a wild traverse left to another route and lay-awaying up the round edge of an arete. It is short but gripping climbing! We aimed even lower, trying what seemed like a 45 degree ramp. This proved to be harder again, forcing a retreat above the first bolt. For the apparent quantity of routes there was little we could do. The climbs felt more like balancy grit routes than the typical Mt Buffalo slab climb. We finsihed the day off with a protracted siege of a fine hand crack/offwidth.
Marcel on the delightfully ferny 30 minute walk in.
Mushroom rock with the grade 25 seam visble on the lower right side.
Marcel ponders footholds on Take Me to Cuba (20); a fine friction route. The rock is very gritstone in feel and protection!
The best campsite in Victoria?
Sometimes the only way up is to cheat. Neil about to discover that easy angled doesn't mean easy. Tall Order (22)
Marathon Man (22). A steep and bouldery hand and roof crack.
Neil struggles badly on the nice steep handcrack, Marathon Man (22). The problem was the roof start and the offwidth finish...
Rock 1 Neil 0. Neil loses skin and pride attempting Marathon Man.
Neil boulders the tough 2.5m roof at the start of the Marathon Man. Training for Passport?
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