Three Days in the Gramps

Weekend Report of the 27th February 1999

I spent the week moving house and cleaning the old flat so was rather tired by the time Friday came around. I cleaned the bathroom, almost dying of toxic chemicals, early on Friday night then picked up Thomas from his Elwood 'trainspotting' squat flat. His place is straight out of the movie, old busted TV's, computers and assorted furniture piled in heaps. The kitchen has multiple dead fridges and lots of rubbish. It has a very homely feel about it!

Poul, Nick and Adam bailed on us at the last minute and headed instead to Arapiles. The Mt Difficult Guidebooks deadline was approaching with a vegence so we needed to tick a few more routes at Centurian Walls. The drive up was interesting. I couldn't handle driving the entire way so Thomas had a go for a few hundred kilometres. He freaked out at first as he has only driven left hand drive cars! His initial problems with the gear stick and headlights were quickly solved and I got a few minutes of sleep before it was my turn to drive. We bought a ridiculous amount of food in Ararat and continued on to Troopers Creek campground. We awoke late and was immediately hassled by the local wallaby tribe. The now know the whole family of pettable wallabies. This time they needed no coaxing or bribery, we could easily pat and scratch them without them running away. I even played a little round of kangaroo boxing with one half grown youngster.

The sun was already pounding down by the time we got to the walk in to Centurian. We had a little disater on the drive over, a pasta sauce bottle came unopened in the back of the car coating everything in rich tomato and mushroom paste. There goes our dinner! The walk in was rather brutal - lots of thorns and some very hot sun.

Once we had caught our breath from the hike I set about placing some chains at the top of an obvious flake and wall left of Centrifugal Force. I eventually warmed to the idea of handrilling once again and soon had two good bolts and some big chain in place. I rapped down, finding the wall surprising clean. The chain would service two climbs, the flake Sandpit and the arching cave route left of it. I had played around on both of these routes when Nick and I first started developing Centurian. My original attempt at an onsight of Sandpit had been cut short when I ran out of pro above the flake. This time I wanted to place a bolt at the blank section. We set a toperope through the chains and I cleanly top-roped Sandpit and worked out the bolt placement. I also discovered the lack of other descent protection, the bolt will be the only reliable protection in the entire 20m length! The flake at the start creaks when you layback up it.

I then toproped the undercling roof lip left of Sandpit. This climb is very cool. It starts underneath an undercut roof which you pinch and throw your feet way back onto a pocketwall. In a full roof stance you then hand traverse left on good holds to some jugs. From there you get a small rest (mid roof) and keep traversing left and up along the lip to eventually crank onto the vertical. The transition move is very hard and balancy. From the small corner you gain you then crank up a superb three star face on little pockets and flakes. Some of the rock in the lower roof isn't that great but there are so many holds it won't matter if something pulls. Thomas and I did a good job of cleaning it so hopefully it will all stay together. I chalked up five potential bolt placements. After sculling some water Thomas also worked the moves on both climbs. I placed the single bolt on Sandpit then, with great difficulty, hammered home the first bolt on the roof route. The first bolt had to be good as you scramble up a short ramp for about five metres before you get to the start. If the bolt pulls it would be bye bye daddy-o. I lowered to the ground and refreshed with food and water. I checked my bolt kit and discovered I only had three more bolts. We had planned for five bolts on the roof but now we would have to eliminate one. I studied the line and found some good small cams in a fair way above the third bolt. It would have to do as we both wanted to tick the first ascent today. Thomas placed the second and third bolts (handrilling like a big wall master) and I finished the bolting with the last one on the upper headwall.

In between the bolting I roped up and jumped on Sandpit for its first ascent. It is certainly a scary lead. The first moves are up the before mentioned creaking flake which takes two fairly good wires. From a small stance above the flake you clip the bolt then face climb up to a small hanging flake. Stuff a #0 cam underneath this and a wire behind it and you can continue. This block also sounds hollow so its best to treat it with some care. Iwas fairly pumped at this stage and the next moves are the phycological crux. About five metres above the bolt and sketching on sloping holds I began to feel panicked. It didn't help that my pre-racked 'vital wire' was completely the wrong size! I just managed to throw a good stonker wire in a slot and crank to a jug before my arms gave way. Luckily it was a no hands rest and the ledge from which the chain lowers from! It was a good scary route which felt very bold. I don't think it will get many ascents. I gave it grade 20.

It was nearing dark and we only had a couple of chances to tick the first ascent of the cave roof route. In true hardman style Thomas ticked the route easily and named it 'Ton Steine Scherben ' and gave it grade 24. The name translates roughly into loose rock in German. I then had a redpoint attempt of the climb but took a few falls at the lower roof crux and also on the thin pocketed face above. I think I could get it clean if I had another try. The lower crux is actually quite scary. Because of the continues nature of the moves you climb horizontally a few metres away from the bolt then crank the crux and finally have to do a few delicate moves left to gain the good cams. It is a fairly intense sequence.

As the last of the light slipped behind Mt Difficult Thomas cranked a quick onsight of Left Hand Black. He really enjoyed the climb and loved the pocketed stuff near the top. The top half of Centurian has rock that is very different to the rest of the Gramps. It is black air bubbled stone with heaps of quartz crystals poking out. The upper crux of Ton Steine Scherben uses a crimp on a big (5cm across) quartz pebble embedded in the rock. Where these pebbles have fallen out it leaves a perfect rounded pocket.

We stumbled back to the car in near darkness. The red tape marking the track is practically invisible at night so we were thankful when we reached the car before complete nightfall. Dinner was a strange mix of food that we found in my food box. It actually turned out to be really tasty. A mixture spaghetti, tuna and vegetables mixed up in a cheese sauce.

The next morning was raining. After severe procrastination we eventually dragged ourselves out and packed our stuff. By the time we got to the Mt Zero picnic area the weather had fined up. We had planned a day on Taipan Wall, it was Thomas first time. After the necesory but very evil hike up 'flat rock' we finally got to the wall. Already there was two parties climbing. One group was ticking the first pitch of Sirroco whilst another was setting in for a siege of Professor Hidieach Smidich (26). Also, Julian Saunders was bolting a new line up a steep section of Spurt Wall. The route looked really hard and sustained. The days climbing was constantly interrupted by his petrol drill roaring into action. He had spent an entire day rigging his ropes into position for bolting the line and then spent all of the Sunday bolting it. I got the warm-up pitch (21) of World Party onsight but got scared shitless. Every time I play on Taipan the exposure and plain slopyness of the holds makes me panic. It didn't help that the crux was about 5m above a crap cam placement which was five metres above a ledge. You had to do a very dicey traverse left onto a sloping ledge with no handholds and crap feet. My gumby boots were not the precision footwear required either. The good thing was watching the local hardmen crank the 26 next to me. Thomas seconded and then jumped straight onto the crux second pitch that goes at grade 27. He dogged his way up but was stumped by the crux move. He eventually yanked on the draw, clipped the next bolt and did the awesome exposed traverse to the belay bolts. He lowered and gave me a go on lead. I thought I would have no hope but amazed myself by getting all the moves and getting most of it clean. The top traverse is especially wicked. You hand traverse right above the bealyer on big slopers with the last bolt getting further and further away. Just when you think you will pump out you reach a big jug and can clip the belay bolts. A truly wicked piece of climbing. The angle on this wall is so steep and all the moves are really strange pinches and sideclings. The second pitch is only about ten metres vertically high but it is still a major effort to get back to the belay when lowering off. Thomas had another crack on lead but couldn't get the crux. I then seconded and cleaned the gear. We had forgotten to bring two ropes so sadly we couldn't do the third three star grade 24 pitch.

One guy next to us got the redpoint of the 26 and another guy fell from the last move trying the flash. He was not a happy monkey with that effort! After a little rest I went over and tried an old nemesis of mine, the first pitch of The Seventh Bannana (23). My last effort was very feeble, I had just finished dogging Mr Joshua and fell all the way up it. This time I managed to crank the pocketed roof but pumped off on the desperate layback high step near the top. I used the old crusty piton and fixed wire from the eighties to rap back down. Someone really needs to place a few bolts at this belay.

To finish off the Taipan day Thomas almost onsighted a 25 on Spurt Wall. He fell a few times near the top but it was still a great effort. The sun on the wall became too much so we headed back to the car very early. We got to Ararat by 8pm and munched down some burgers. The next several hours events were very reminiscent of the Oliver Stone movie U Turn. As I got back in the car I snapped off the key in the door lock. I rang the RACV who turned up promptly and we managed to remove the tip of the key from the lock. The young RACV guy then decided to put the broken off tip of the key into the ignition keyhole. The logical thing happened and it disappeared into the lock never to be seen again. He then proceeded to dismantle my dashboard in the vain attempt to retrieve the bit. When he asked me if he could remove the steering wheel so he could un-bolt the steering lock I knew we were in trouble. I told him to stop what he was doing and get a locksmith. Of course none were available in town at midnight. Whilst sitting around waiting I counted one yellow bev car that did 21 laps of the centre of town!. We eventually got put into a motel and sat up watching movies until late. It was a very surreal experience. The next day we got up early, rang work to say we weren't coming in, and then contacted a local locksmith. We walked back to our car and built up a little camp on the grass nearby. By the time the locksmith arrived we had the full break feast feast happening and Thomas was almost asleep. It took the locksmith several hours to remove the ignition, take it to his workshop and finally re-install it. After he finished Thomas and I decided we should get a few more climbs in before returning to Melbourne.

We headed back to the Gramps and went straight to the First Dial. The classic of this little wall is the three star Intermission (25) which has been featured in assorted mags and guidebooks over the years. It climbs an overhung orange wall on horizontal breaks. When we reached the wall we were a little disappointed. The climb is fairly close to a juggy grade 18 corner, the first ten metres is complete choss and it was only about 30m high not the 40m as quoted in the guide. For a warm up I onsighted a terrific (and loose) grade 19 wall climb called Diamonds which I found to be quite a sandbag. It took me several attempts to work out the crux sequence which was protected by an RP 2.

Thomas got on Intermission first but got freaked out by the amount of natural gear he was required to climb with. I then got on and dogged my way upwards, placing heaps of cams and several good wires. The highlight of my attempt was near the top. I was cranking up a thin crack, right on my pumpiness limit and reached for a wire and quickdraw. Just as I feel off I shoved the wire into the crack and it slotted home perfectly. I screamed off down the wall but left behind a perfect piece of gear. Thomas tried the route with several falls on the preplaced gear. I then had the final go and climbed most of it clean but was stumped by a hard balancy crack section at the top. I eventually worked it out after many falls and scrambled up the juggy top to finish. With pre-placed the gear the climb would only pre grade 23 but the crux would defiantly be placing the gear on lead. A lot of the pro is cams in horizontals that you hand traverse along. To actually see the placements you have to chin up on the horizontal and study it. Very pumpy indeed.

Our drive home was non-eventful apart from getting pulled over by the police fifty metres short of my house. They just warned me about my broken front light again. oh well.