Joe Morgan, Nick McKinnon and myself spent four days up in the Stapylton area over the Melbourne Cup long weekend. The weather was generally fairly crap for most of the time - but we did do quite a few routes and even discovered and developed an area with 20 minutes of the campground.

On the Saturday Joe and I did several routes on the small walls on the walk in to the Amphitheatre. On Bellerophen Wall we did the really nice thin face route of Hallucinations 20m 20, which was like a mini version of Soweto. Next we went up to Epsilon Wall where Joe did Crossfire ** 35m 18 which we found to be a very nice slabby jam crack and a wild hand traverse at the top. A good lower off at the top made it very user friendly. Left of it I onsighted a nice thin stemming corner of Benn Gunn * 35m 20. The top of this was a bit sandy but the lower section was very nice.

We then ran over to the Grey and Green walls and shot up Sabre ** 86m 18. The first pitch was a very tricky slabby wall with a few bolts. I led it direct at about grade 20, not realising it traversed left at the top. The next pitch was juggy wall and a hard grade 12 move to a very shitty bolt belay. The third pitch was really nice wall climbing, with good gear (the guide says its runout) and very exposed. The last pitch was a hard crank through a roof on HUGE chicken heads then about 50m of easy juggin to finish.

To finish the day off Nick had a go at redpointing Tyger Tyger (27) on Lower Taipan Wall. He got the moves all sussed on his first go - but didn't get it clean. It the sort of route which doesn’t look steep from the ground - but in fact is extremely overhung the whole way. He took a HUGE 7m+ whipper from above the last bolt just before the chain - in front of his parents and wife. This was the first time they had ever watched him climb so they were mighty impressed!

As a huge thunderstorm broke over the Grampians Joe and I headed off to our newly discovered cliff to begin bolting the first lines. I was not very happy hanging off ropes which were tied to the summit rock of the highest piece of rock in the area! We got a few bolts in before abandoning our efforts and retreating back to a very wet campsite.

The next morning we went in and ticked a nice short grade 20 which is extremely pumpy - we called it Dwarf Pumper. It will be the crag warm-up. We then added a few bolts to the left side and headed back to camp. The weather was very cold and rainy so we just tooled around camp for the rest of the day.

Next day we decided to go to Cherub Wall in the Asses Ear - but after driving for ages to get there it started raining again and our thermometer told us it was 4'C. mmm warm summer weather it was not. We retreated back to Stapylton and went bouldering at Andersons - where the best tick was some silly slabby V5 by Nick and Joe. I proceeded to show my complete incompetence at bouldering by falling off most things under V3. The afternoon was spent adding the finishing bolts to the left project at our new area.

The next day I got the successful first ascent of the left route - calling it Media Puzzle (23). The vic ranges crew of Jaq, Steve and Luke turned up and repeated the two new routes and did some track work and cliff 'maintenance' by throwing loose rock from the cave. All in all it was a fun weekend. Here is the details of the new area for all who are interested...

SENTINEL CAVE, GRAMPIANS
15-20 minute walk-in

This is a large cave of excellent rock high up in the valley behind Stapylton Campground. Hidden amongst vast amounts of choss this area will be home to some hard and very steep sport routes in the future.

From the Mt Stapylton Campsite aboriginal shelter carpark walk south east following the east side of a vegetated creek. A few minutes into the walk you will pass an isolated pillar of rock with a few ok routes on it. Keep following the creek, walking along nice kangaroo grass and ferns for ten minutes until you can see a red cave above some large walls up and too the left. Try and locate some rock cairns and follow these up hill. Follow left branch of ‘creek’ up small rock gully on the left side of the cave until you can traverse directly right across exposed rock to get into the cave. A RB is positioned at the end of this traverse to use as an anchor to belay people who may be scared of the traverse. It can also be used to abseil out of the cave when the traverse is wet from rain.

* Media Puzzle 16m 23
Starts at left end of cave at small rooflet. Good pumpy workout on nice orange rock. Out left across crux roof past two RB’s then up scoops on jugs (2 RB’s) to good rest. Step right (#1 cam optional) and thug through steep territory past RB to jugs and DRB lower-off.
FFA Neil Monteith, Joe Morgan & Jacqui Middleton 5.11.2002

Dwarf Pumper 8m 20
Far right side of cave. A Nowra style pumpfest with a tricky crux. Two RB’s up steep orange wall. RB lower off at top.
FFA Neil Monteith and Joe Morgan 3.11.2002