| Mt Pox & Scoop Rock - Grampians www.neilshaulbag.com 8/3/03 |
Another weekend in the Victoria Range of the Grampians. Two days were spent aiding and bolting a five metre roof route at Scoop Rocks. Skyhooks, dodgy cams and pure arm strength finally got the climb finished to have a couple of goes. It should go clean at 26 with the crux being a very bouldery move straight off the deck. Rohan gave Angry Arborist (23+) a go – and after ten tries he finally stuck the insane crux dyno and finished it off for its second ascent. Considering Rohan has ticked grade 27 recently this climb is a very big challenge for the shorter stature climber.
On Sunday Rohan and myself met up with Geoff Butcher and Mick Hampton – two of the most active new routers in the Grampians. They took us for a tour of Mt Pox – a beautiful chunk of 60m high rock above Slander Gully. I repeated Mick’s Pretty Poxy (21) which was very nice steep wall climbing on rounded jugs with a balancy traverse at the start. They then sent me up a un-climbed crack route. It turned out to be a mega classic steep pocketed layback crack up an imposing blank wall. The first pitch went at grade 23 – and the second pitch at 18. It is a great 50m of new climbing which is one of the better routes of the crag. I must thank Mick for letting me on the climb. The lesson to be learnt – there are still some amazing lines at moderate grades to do at established crags – and you don’t have to spend two days bolting them!
