Grounders and Running on Empty

Weekend Report of the 21-22 November 1998

Location: Grampians & Arapiles

Climbers:

Neil Monteith

Nick McKinnon

Adam Demmert

Gareth L...

NZ Dude

Calum ?

Nick managed to arrange a company car for this weekend trip. He works for Holden as an engineer so gets to take out brand new big V8 Commodores with all the extras for weekend 'tests'. It was Adam, Nick and I that drove up on Friday with the intended mission to do some more new routes at Centurion Walls. The cruise control on the new car meant we got up to the Gramps in record time! We camped at Troopers Creek camp ground, which was really crowded. I haven't had any sort of mattress for ages as my dodgy $12 Kmart foam thing blew away off the top of Lunar Crag so it was another uncomfortable sleep.

For some bizarre reason we all awoke really early and were walking into the crag by 8am. Having done the walk now several times we have finally found a good no thorn corridor which we marked. Hopefully with a few more walk ins and outs it should turn into a good track. The sun was belting down, the temperature has finally clocked over 30 degrees. In standard Neil fashion I jumped on my project from last week Centrifugal Force and got the first ascent first go. I did it via the right hand variant and graded it 23. The direct start still awaits some campus board fiend. The route is awesome and quite sustained. I only just got the top crux, I was dragging my feet up bit by bit as my arms started pumping out. I think it was because I was faced with a 5m fall that I didn't come off. The climb is really nice. It only has three bolts in its 18m height, it overhangs about 3m overall and has several key wire placements. It is in a similar style to Minotaur @ Serpent but obviously a lot harder. The rock is amazing orange and black streaked polished sandstone. Adam jumped on and seconded the route with a couple of falls down low and a couple more up high. Whilst we were doing this, Nick had rapped down his project Killer Wolf in the hope that some instant erosion in the last week had created a monster jug where the sloper is! Alas, nothing of the sort had happened and it looked just as hard. As he set about rigging the hellish anchors so we could toprope it (it overhangs about 6m in 30m)

Adam and I went off new crag hunting. We trekked off on the far right of the cliff discovering a few interesting slabs and faces but nothing exciting. Lured by some steep orange walls above the slabs we decided to check them out. I chose an obvious easy corner to solo up to reach this higher ledge and we were soon both up. I was disappointed to find that the orange roofs were in fact really small so had no potential. We decided to downclimb what we had just come up. Adam set off swinging down on a handing tree branch and grasping the first of the jugs at the top off the corner. I was following close behind. As I stood waiting for him to do the first moves something bad happened. A large chunk of rock that Adam was holding onto suddenly detached itself from the face and he was instantly without a hand hold. Poised for a moment with a look of pure terror in his face he fell backwards off the top of the cliff. I saw all this happen only metres above him and it was truly one of the scariest things I have ever witnessed. I was convinced he was either going to die or be completely smashed up. He free fell fifteen metres down the cliff and crashed through the branches of a gum tree. I looked over the edge to see his body lying in a crumpled heap at the base with leaves, rock and dirt all over him. I screamed at Nick who was about 300m away and still on absiel to 'get the fuck down! Adams taken a bad fall!'. I called down to Adam to see if he was conscious. He groggily answered he felt OK. I couldn't believe it! I told him to lay still whilst I came down to check him out. The worst bit for me was having to downclimb the piece of cliff he had just fallen off. I climbed slowly, testing every hold on the way down. By the time I got down Adam was sitting up and feeling his body for injuries. Amazingly, he had only sustained a few large scratches, some bruises and a slight chopped off end of his toe. Thank god for the tree! Adam was feeling quite 'shocked' at this point so I ran over and got some water and the first aid kit. Nick was till on abseil and didn't really know what had happened. He had just heard lots of screaming and a big rock fall down the hill. He couldn't believe it when I told him what had happened. He rapped down and joined me as we ran back to Adam. He had managed to get up and walk several metres down the ledge to a nice flat rock and was lying in the sun. He said he was feeling fine, he just needed to extract the assorted bits of tree that had got stuck into various parts of his body. We bandaged his toe, stuck some antiseptic lotion on the cuts and walked back to the lunch cave. That was a close call!

Funnily enough, Adam decided to rest for the day so it was up to Nick and I to continue our new routing adventures. I showed Nick how to handrill and he was soon up the rope on his project and drilling away. It took him forever to drill the hole (more than an hour!) but at least it was a good bolt and well positioned right at the crux sloper move! He also checked out the top half of the climb above the sloper and found two variants, The left one goes up an overhung featured juggy but spaced wall with all natural gear whilst the right variant was very thin pocket pulling finishing up a diagonal crack. Both lines looked stunning and will complement his classic route when done. The left line would mean the entire 30m climb would only require 1 bolt. At the same time he was doing this I rapped down the very steep wall and roof about 50m right of Left Hand Black. From the ground it looks like a completely blank grey wall leading to an obvious weakness in a big roof. On rap I was very happy to see several small pockets in the blank wall and some good jugs through the roof. This route would be another mega classic hardy. I down aided the roof with great difficulty using some dodgy half placement cams and wires to the blank wall then continued down aiding and swing in to get to the rock. The climb veers left from an already established natural pro 19 at around 25m height and climbs a 10m wall then a 3m roof to finish. At the start of the traverse I uncovered a fantastic short finger crack which breached the first of the mega steepness. It took two super solid wires. From there some very small pockets are reached which with the aid of a big rock over move gain you a very vital two finger pocket. The wall at this point is about 10' overhung and really nice grey frictional rock. Crank the pockets and you do a tricky slabby move to gain the base of the roof. Crank through this kachong size roof to a very juggy lip and you are home. I placed a bolt near the vital two finger pocket as well as one at the base of the roof. The roof bolt was a nightmare to drill. Imagine hanging off dodgy aid gear, trying to get tension into the rock and upside down hammering above my head to drill. very pumpy indeed. I was suprised though, I placed the bolt within half an hour. The move from the bolt to the lip will be scary, it's at least a full body length away from the bolt when you get to the lip!

After placing the bolts I headed over to Nick's climb to belay him. He cruised the start using my direct start at the bowl and found a good small wire to protect the moves. This was lucky as it may have required another bolt (and another hour for Nick to drill it!). He cruised up to the sloper move, fell off and lowered down. The move was still very hard. I jumped on and broke a key foothold off at the start bowl. In doing so I took a massive pendulum fall which luckily didn't end in tears. I climbed back up and found an alternative for the foothold and continued up to the crux sloper. Yep it was hard, 'lower me please'.

My mission for the day was to attempt my new bolted project which I have dubbed 'Damage Done' in relation to Adam's fall. The start goes up Shades of Black (16), a climb described by the choss master first ascentist as 'Superb steep climbing on outrageous holds- well protected'. We only had seven quickdraws and my new section had five pieces of gear so that left me with two 'draws for the first 25m. I hoped it wasn't that hard! I attempted the start but backed off as it was extremely chossy and without protection. I walked around and traversed in from the right and gained the first piece of steepness. An overhung flake was above which looked un protectable. I placed a sling at the base of the steepness and laybacked up. Five metres up this I still couldn't see any pro, so much for well protected! I grovelled onto a bird shit covered ledge (superb climbing?), found a very crappy #0 cam placement. Hunting around I also found a placement for two wires stacked against each other. Not very inspiring. From this ledge my new route starts. Instead of continuing up a juggy wall you swing left along a break to gain the overhung pocketed face. I got two bomber cams in the break, removed the dodgy wires and cam leaving only two pieces of gear in the entire climb. I prayed the cams were good! I stepped left, used a funky flake to do a hard layaway move to gain the first of the bomber finger locks. From this stance you can place a vital wire #7. I then moved up to gain a big rounded hold. I rested here as the moves above looked mega hard. I started considering that this route was grade 26+. The vital two finger pocket was a good 2m above with no intermitant holds obvious. I checked out the little shallow pockets located left of the jugs and hatched a plan. Many falls later I managed to use the pockets to give me a chance to step up on the big sloper and just reach the two finger pocket. It's a crazy m0ve (24?) and quite committing above the good wire. I took heaps of falls onto the wire so I guess its good. The wall at this point overhangs at least 10' so is very pumpy. Once I got the pocket I clipped the bolt next to it (phew!) and cranked up on a serious of good pockets, edges and breaks to gain the stance under the roof. I rested once on the bolt, freakn out at the exposure. I then lent back, grabbed the jug midway along the roof, hauled up to horizontal body position, cranked to the next jug further along, got my feet in my old handhold and finally lunged to the lip jug. Feet swinging out in space and pumped stupid I dismissed the opportunity to place gear on the lip and heelhooked up to summit! These last moves are amazing roofing on super jugs. Quite alot harder than Kachoong I guess (22?) but easy to onsight if you have the guts. I belayed Nick up who took multiple falls confirming this climb was hard and mega sustained. It was freaky belaying him as he did the roof. He had to unclip the bolt at the base of the roof then do all the roof moves with a serious horizontal fall factor. Luckily for him and me he didn't come off! My fingers were raw again from cranking so hard so there was no chance for a redpoint attempt. Next time!

We then drove to Arapiles so I could meet up with Gareth who has come down from Queensland for another couple of months. I had a big chat with Calum who has been climbing all the death offwidth and gnarly hand jams routes. He is one sick dude. Nick and I decided to jump on a few 23's to see if we could get some onsights. Sadly we choose two very tough mini routes which screwed us right up. I was up first attempting Iron Void in the Organ Pipes Gully. The climb sucked badly (because I couldn't do it!) and I had no hope of pulling off the crux move. My fingers were raw and the crux involved some hideous crimps in little pockets with a huge reach move across to a non-existent hold. I took lots of falls and eventually lowered off. That climb sucked. Next Nick got on Finger Prince and also fell up it (at least he got to the top!). I seconded it with two falls and found it quite technical. I think I would have a chance of getting Finger Prince clean if I got on it now. There is no way I could do Iron Void though...

Giving up on the whole 23 thing we went to the fantastic little area, King Rat gully were I go the onsight of the sensational face crack route Skydiver (21). It was really nice with lots of big reachy moves to gain huge jugs. I loved it and thought it should get more than the one star given in the book. Nick then got the onsight of a route I did earlier on in the year, Cruel Consistency (21) which is really pumpy. HB spent the day lying at the base of King Rat gully sunning himself. I think he was warming up for some super hard route (?). I didn't see any 10m roof climbs around so maybe he was lost! I then did the three star super classic face climb I'm a Little Asteroid (19). It gets one star in the guide but hey, that's Arapiles for you. It was one of my favourite climbs of all time, an awesome face with good edges and pockets and great medium placements. I didn't use a single cam or large wires on the whole thing. Very nice.

I found Gareth and we headed over to Castle Crag with him to watch his friend attempt Procal Harum (26). Lots of grunting and falling off resulted in a bout 5m vertical height. He lowered off and Gareth jumped on and climbed clean to his friend high point. It has some super funky knee bars (above your head!) and crimps. Very hard indeed. I agreed to meet Gareth in two weekend's time for some new route action at Centurion Walls. He might get the FFA of Killer Wolf.

On the drive home we almost ran out of petrol between Natimuk and Horshum. The red warning light had gone on just as we had left Horshum on the drive to Araps. Amazingly the car did over 80km with the red warning light on!

That was it!