The north wall of Mt Buffalo. |
Poul starts up pitch 1 day 1. |
We decided it was Poul's lead first as it was only A1 and he needed to get his climbing legs back after taking a month and a half off. I set up a comfortable belay (the last one!) under a shady tree and as far away from the shit as possible. We had a newly acquired GriGri for belaying which is a godsend for aiding when each pitch can take up to four hours to do. It is amazing how easy it is to fall asleep even when just hanging off a few bolts! Poul shouldered up the gigantic rack and started up the first pitch. Two aid bolts led up to a slabby juggy wall which Poul freed to a stance. The next move was tricky and Poul decided to aid it. He spent ages trying to whittle in a piece of reliable gear with a groundfall possible. He finally got a small cam in and stepped up on his aider gently. He reached up and clipped another bolt with his next aider. The moment he did this the lower piece of gear blew out of the crack and he slumped onto his newly clipped bolt. This pitch was supposedly A1! It was a very close call for the start of the route and a wake up reminder of the seriousness that lurked above. From the bolt a good A1 crack emerged and Poul aided this easily to a stance on top of a large flake. I woke up and set up the haul bags for their maiden vouage. As Poul hauled I jugged up cleaning Poul's gear and arrived at the belay. A quick exchange of gear and a big swig of water and I was up the second pitch. It follows a perfect 90' corner for over ninety metres and the crack in the middle is very, very thin. The biggest gear you can get in is about rock #1 size and mostly it is about RP #2 size. Poul has a set of HB offset copper nuts which work brilliantly in the piton scared crack. It certainly is scared. Every foot or so is a big notch taken out of the fingernail thin crack which has been caused by old timers bashing knifeblade pitons in and out. Without these scars it would be almost impossible to aid on wires and more importantly impossible to free. Steve Monks freed this pitch at 28. This was mega sustained aiding, every move was tenuous and the pitch was over 40m in height. Being rated A2+ meant there were several big runouts above lots of crappy RP's. The piton scars are really shallow on the bottom so don't take solid placements just weak hanging on the edge RP's. The temperature at this point was beginning to cool down as the sun passed behind the north wall. Poul was lying on top of the big flake relaxing, listening to the small portable radio we had brought along. By the end of my pitch Poul looked like a little ant far below.I settled in on the hanging belay, trying to get comfortable. My last belay experience on Defender was mighty uncomfortable so I vowed to minimise the pain. I gave myself heaps of slack so I could swing around and contort myself into weird different body positions to stop harness burn. I set up the haul pulley and dragged the thirty kilo 'pig' up the cliff to my stance. Poul arrived shortly afterwards after removing the gear. This belay position was about halfway up the corner, another fifty metres stretched up into the distance. Poul started up the continuation of the corner using a fixed pin then moving back onto the RP's. I lazed back and took out the novel we had brought along. About forty pages later I heard the faint sound of 'safe' from up above. Poul had disappeared from view more than an hour ago and I had no idea how he was going. His pitch was described as the crux aid so I expected it to take some time. The light was fading fast, it was around 7pm, and I hoped that he had reached the famous Grassy Ledge. The haul rope went tight so I unhooked it from its anchors and helped push start the bag upwards. I clipped my jumars into the line above, dismantled my belay and started jugging. Poul's pitch was a fantastic varied corner which became easier the higher you went up. The top half especially would be great to go back and free. It would only be about grade 22 and well protected. At one point there were three consecutive fixed wires and also several bolts. I dragged myself over a bulge and onto Poul's belay ledge which was indeed our bivi site, the Big Grassy Ledge. The ledge itself was huge compared to the cramped rocky seat that we had slept out on during Defender. It would comfortably sleep two people and had ample room for our gear. It was still an amazing position however, about one hundred and twenty metres up and with a perfect view over the south side of the gorge.Poul was lying down exhausted and looking like he would fall asleep at any minute. I manage to get him up and we unracked and started unpacking the haul bag. It took a lot of convincing to get Poul to help me set up the tarp. We eventually got our thermarests out and started dinner. I was a little worried about our water situation, we only had about eight litres left and anther two days to go. Poul attempted to get the MSR stove working but yet again it broke down. The pump was not working at all so we completely dismantled it and tried to find the problem. I couldn't find anything wrong with it and amazingly when I put it back together again it worked! Another near disaster averted. We had chilli bean mix on pocket bread which turned out to be very messy. We got food all over our mats and the ledge, it didn't help that we had no cutlery! As soon as the sun dropped behind the horizon we were blissfully asleep. It was the complete opposite of the freezing bivy on Defender, it was a humid 30 degrees.The night was unbroken by rain and dawn was a spectacular sight. We both needed more sleep but when the sun hits the wall it starts burning. The tarp turned into a sun protector. We decided to hide from the sun for as long as possible to save water and climb in the shade. Three hours of stalling later I decided it was time to move on. The second day would be fairly easy as we were doing three pitches then fixing ropes and rapping back to the bivi ledge. That meant we didn't have to worry about the haul bag! Poul got comfortable on the ledge with the shade tarp and I started up an angled A2 corner. This pitch goes free at 24 so I even managed to free bits of it in my Cons. I took a small fall halfway up when a piece of gear blew that I had been hanging off for several minutes. Luckily I had a fixed piton clipped below it. I ran into trouble near the end of the pitch when I decided to free a few moves. I stepped up in my aider for my feet then did a layback move to a big flake. Just as I did the move the piece of gear I had stepped up on fell out leaving me hanging on to a flake about four metres above some dodgy wire. It took me quite a while to place another piece of gear and trust resting on it. The flake I was holding onto was creaking and every time I placed a cam behind it and started weighting it the flake moved. Very scary stuff. I eventually got a good wire in up high and pulled up to the bolt belay. We had begun water rations as we now only had five litres left. I drank a few mills of water and set up the rope for Poul to jug. It was another awful hanging belay stance with nothing to stand on. I did manage to do a sort of bridging move with my back against one side of the corner to get comfortable. I settled in with my book for another long belaying session. In the book the climber says he passes time on belay by trying to form 'cloud shapes' out of rock crystals. I tried it for a while but it was very boring. Poul's pitch was more corner climbing but very thin. It was yet again A2+ and very sustained. The last third was a manky bolt ladder which led up to a spectacular hanging belay on an arete directly below the start of the Ozy Direct roofs. By the time it was my turn to jug his pitch I had finished the novel, all 200 pages of it!At this point it was impossible to see what lay ahead as the large roof loomed over head. I headed up the next pitch, A2+ again. A small bolt ladder got me to below the roof, which had a few fixed wires across it. This was one of the best bits of the climb, I was swinging out with an amazing view below. The climb was beginning to take on Yosemite proportions, huge sweeping sheets of granite and Poul hanging far below. Rain started pouring down but we were so far under the roofs that it fell about twenty metres away from us. Luckily Poul had packed away our sleeping bags before we set out for the day. I snapped off a few photos and pulled over the lip. Above the roof was a magnificent orange corner, as featured in Simon Carter's shots of Steve Monks, which started out easier enough but got harder and thinner. The last several metres was all small RP's with not much chance of anything holding a fall. It was the craziest most committing aiding I have ever done. Every move was on a shallow RP or offset which was just on the tendorhooks of falling out. By the time I got to the belay bolts I was dehydrated and exhausted. We had long run out of water for the day. Communication was difficult, but after numerous echo messages Poul started jugging and re-aiding the roof to clean it. I passed the time by examining the crusty bolts that were left behind from the first ascent. Once Poul got to the belay we dismantled and cleaned up the rack and left it hanging off the belay bolts so we could pick it up the next day. We tied our two ropes together and rigged the seventy metre abseil back to the bivi ledge. Poul went down first, scarying himself shitless as he dropped over the edge of the roof we had just climbed. The exposure was gob smacking. He pulled himself into the anchors below the roof and started off down to the ledge below. The rope free hanging from the high belay stance would have been out too far from the rock to make it safe to rap straight down to the bivi ledge. I rapped down to under the roof, it was tricky as you had to rap further down the rope than you needed to, tie yourself off, then pull yourself into the halfway anchors. Once there and with Poul safely on the Bivi ledge it was time for me to dismantle the halfway anchor under the roof. I looped a sling through a bolt hanger and clipped onto it, then pulled apart the belay anchors. I then unclipped from the sling and pendulum swung out from under the roof in a huge arc. This was super scary as the ropes grated along the lip of the roof about ten metres above me. If you have ever experienced rough granite you will know that it was a scary sight seeing your rope above ripping along a knife blade roof lip. It didn't help my confidence that there was a 200m drop below! I hurriedly continued the rap downwards and finally reached the bivi site. It was going to be one hell of a jug tommorow!Feeling like old men of the mountains we unpacked and reset-up the bivi ledge. Our water situation was getting desperate. We now only had 2.5 litres of water left and we had another whole day of climbing the next day. We let ourselves drink 1.25 litres that night, spacing the mouthfuls half an hour apart. Its amazing how quickly your body gets used to feeling dehydrated. We had planned to cook pasta and mix it with tinned curry but because of the current water crisis we only ate the curry. I was not feeling that hungry but I still forced myself to finish my bowl. The food was very salty and not that nice. The highlight of the evening was another tin of fruit. We both scoffed this down, treasuring each drop of the sugary sweetness. It was another balmy hot night in which we were forced to sleep on top of our sleeping bags. We made plans to rise on first light and finish the route as soon as possible.I awoke as the very first hints of light stretched over the distant Snowy Mountains. I sat, mesmerised by the dawn until I could wait no longer. I had completely lost my appetite. Breakfast was only a mere few mouthfuls of museli and a few precious mouthfuls of water. We spent the next hour crushing cans, rolling up sleeping mats and re-packing the haul bag. When we were finally finished I attached the now considerably lighter haul bag to my daisy chain and started jugging up the fixed rope. It was tough work, especially with a heavy bag slung between my legs and a blazing sun baring down. I had to pace myself, ten jumars hauls up then I could take a rest. It seemed to take forever, probably close to an hour, to finally reach our high point from the previous day. The hanging stance was all too familiar, I clipped in and sat back on my harness. The tape around my legs was really digging in and my body was bitterly complaining about yet another day of circulation cut off. Poul followed up the fixed ropes with the lighter day pack. Luckily the rope had not been damaged from yesterdays pendulum swing so we still had two good ropes. I set up the radio and Poul led off around a blind arete. It was a good thing that I convinced him to bring up the big cams and hexes. The next pitch was in fact a large fist jam to offwidth size crack which blasted over two considerable bulges. The rock had suddenly taken on a courser, crystal like texture which made it very hard to comfortably climb. Poul found it quite painful to stuff his hands into the crack to place the protection. This pitch was very similar to the second and third pitch of Defender of the Faith. From the top of this pitch I could see down the entire length of the route and also see the ever present and tormenting waterfall and creek far below. The waterfall had begun to haunt us as we got ever higher and more dehydrated.The eighth pitch was mine. The guidebook described it as A1 with a free climbable chimney up higher. I took the advice and donned our backup set of rockboots. The climb had begun to angle off to a slab which showed the top was getting near. I aided up a thin crack finding the rockboots more of a hindrance than a help on the sharp crystallised rock. When you stand in aiders your feet are constantly forced against the rock and this gets mighty uncomfortable after awhile. At the top of the crack I did a short free move onto a grassy ledge then scrambled up a loose series of dirt ledges (classic!) to gain the bottom of an easy angled chimney. This was not the best pitch of the climb that was for sure. With a mountain of gear hanging off me and considerable rope drag I squirmed and squeezed my way up the chimney to a spacious ledge. Above was the final short pitch to the top! The ledge was considerable so I hastily threw off my rack and started to set the anchors. Communication with Poul was difficult and the haul bag was near impossible to drag up. The rope ran down inside a chimney, across a series of ledges then down a corner so the rope drag was horrendous. Poul had to push the bag up half of the climb until it finally was on a clear path for me to haul it. I was absultely screwed by the time Poul arrived at the ledge. We had drunk the last of the water more than an hour ago and the sun seemed hotter than ever. I slunk inside a crevice and started to belay Poul up the final A2 offwidth crack which led to the top. It was slow going as the crack only accepted three of our pieces of gear so Poul had to leapfrog protection up the crack until it finally thinned down about twenty metres up. After an interminable time I finally heard the words 'safe'. I quickly cleaned up the ledge, positioned the haul bag and started jummaring. The haul rope had again got stuck from too much friction so I had to push the bag above my head the entire pitch. This was the toughest, most exhausting pitch of the climb and completely hammered any feeling of elation that I might of had when I reached the top. I dragged the bag and myself up the last slab and started ripping the mess of gear off me. Poul was lying on the ground, obviously feeling as bad as I did but was sculling from a full bottle of water! He had found two full water bottles at the top of the climb and was hogging into the first. I grabbed the second and started drinking the warm water inside.Seizing the chance for a summit photo I scrambled onto a nearby boulder and pressed the shutter. Alas we were both out of film so we missed out on a final photo. We hurriedly scooped up the mess of gear and trudged off as fast as possible towards the closest creek. I walked like a zombie, the gear weighed a tonne and I had no energy to try and sort it out. I passed a few bushwalkers who quickly got out of my way. They could see I wasn't deviating from my path for anything! We finally got to the creek and I stripped off, unbuckled my harness and jumped in. It was freezing and I lasted about ten seconds. I was soon out sunning myself on the nearby rocks and occasio0nally gulping down the flowing water from nearby. I submerged the last remaining Mars bars from our food in the creek and soon enough we had ice cold chocolate. The view of our climb was fantastic. We sat and relaxed for the first time in three days.
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Neil on pitch 2 day 1.
Poul belays pitch 2 day 1.
Neil reading and belaying pitch 3 day 1
Poul rests on Big Grassy Ledge at the end of day 1.
Poul belays pitch 4 from Big Grassy Ledge on day 2.
Poul heads up towards the roof on pitch 5 day 2.
Neil coils rope on the belay above picth 5 day 2.
Poul belays pitch 6 day 2. Notice bivi ledge far below!
Poul jugs up pitch 6 day 2.
Poul raps down the fixed ropes at the end of the 2nd day.
Morning jugging on the 3rd day.
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Neil belays pitch 7 day 3.
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Poul on the final pitch day 3.
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