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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 33
Author
Adelaide or Melbourne

rjc
1-Mar-2005
11:10:08 PM
Need some help and advice here. I'm hoping to move to Oz from sunny old Wales, and have already realised that Victoria is the place to be for the climbing...problem is that wife's family are Adelaide based...and with a young family I may only be able to do day trips a lot of the time.

So, what is it really like?!
1. the local stuff around Melbourne itself?! (besides Gramps/Piles) I don't like climbing indoors, so any good local buildering/bouldering for training around?!
2. the local stuff around Adelaide? (besides Moonaire?) any good local buildering/bouldering around?!
3. Is it just as easy to get to Gramps/Piles from Adelaide as it is from Melbourne? 4 hours?
4. Non climbing - how do the two compare generally?

OK, so I guess I should live in between the two, but I don't think my IT skills will get me a job in Bendigo/Natimuk and it would be great for the family to have the coast pretty close too. Don't want much, do I?!

Thanks for your un-biased :-) help.
Rob
James
1-Mar-2005
11:28:40 PM
1. 90% is granite slabs (but good granite slabs!!). Bluestone buildering is 1st class (ie fingery crimpy vertical enduro stuff).
2. ?? apparently good. Not sure how extensive.
3. Apparently. Araps is 1/2 way. Gramps & Araps are climbable year round. Forget Moonarie in summer (Araps is closer to Adelaide than the 'Moon).
4. Melbourne pisses all over Adelaide (Adelaide is '...but a country town..' comparatively)...no offence intended for any crow-eaters lurking...

The surf beach is 1hr drive from the Melbourne CBD (either east or west). LOTS of suburbs are on the bay (no surf though).
climbingjac
2-Mar-2005
9:18:30 AM
In terms of daytripper stuff from Melbourne, this should give you a bit of an idea:

Werribee Gorge. 1 hr drive from Melbourne. 30min walkin. Facey stuff and a couple of cracks. OK for a day trip but if you have more time up your sleeve you keep going to the Grampians. Offers a couple of bolted routes.

Camels Hump. Approx 1-1.5 hrs drive from Melbourne. 10min walkin. Some slabby stuff and some slightly steeper stuff. Offers a few bolts.

Black Hill. Approx 2 hrs drive from Melbourne, from memory. Slabby stuff.

In terms of Grampians/Arapiles from Melbourne:

Mt Stapylton (of The Grampians) is 3.25 hours from Melbourne and positions you close to such famous areas as Taipan Wall, Hollow Mountain Cave etc.

The Victoria Range (of The Grampians) is more like 4 hours from Melbourne. It dumps you right in the middle of an extensive range offering lots of steep crags and new bouldering development. Features areas like The Gallery, Millenium Caves, Muline Crag, Red Rocks, Mt Fox etc. Sport climbing heaven is The Victoria Range.

Arapiles is a little further again. Somewhere between 4 and 4.5hours from Melbourne depending on many icecream stops you make :-) Arapiles needs no introduction - it is THE place for tradding.

I'll email a friend of mine and request he put some comments in about climbing around Adelaide.

Eduardo Slabofvic
2-Mar-2005
9:31:14 AM
In addition to the local stuff around Melbourne mentioned above, there are some granite outcrops on the way towards Bendigo, these can be reached in about an hour or so. There is also some climbing to do to the North East, but as I've never been there, I can't really comment on it. All of it is crap in global terms.

If you look at the Grampians and Arapiles as one region, it is world class in terms of scale and variety.

People in Adelaid have two heads and smell bad.
dalai
2-Mar-2005
10:35:25 AM
Local Adelaide Climbing/Bouldering:

Morialta Gorge - outcrops in the Adelaide Hills. Quite a few routes up to grade 26? Mostly trad
Norton Summit - Routes up to 28 some trad gear required
The Hole - Quarried cave just next to Norton Summit. Routes to grade 31?
The Bachelor Pad - small bouldering area a short way down the road from Norton Summit. http://www.australianbouldering.com/guides/adelaide/bachelorpad_guide.html

Melbourne local Climbing/Bouldering has pretty much been covered by Jac.

Phil Box
2-Mar-2005
11:12:34 AM
Of course if you are sick of the cold then come to sunny Queensland where it is warm all the year round. Mind you climbing in summer here is crap but doable if you chase the shade on places in the Glasshouse Mountains. Winter is perfect climbing weather. Cool and dry, mmmmm, friction. There is one claim to fame for Queensland too and that is Frog Buttress and its cracks. But then we don`t have a Grampians or Arapilies, so that`s a negative.

Robb
2-Mar-2005
11:18:07 AM
morailta, norton sumit and the bach pad are all only 10 mins from CBD of adelaide.
what can i say - we have it all. moonaries is 4 hours and araps is 4 hours, gramps 5 hours. reasonalble beaches too and not the traffic of melbourne. melbourne does have better gyms though (if you are keen to get injured!) . wont really matter where you decide on, if you are keen you'll meet other dedicated climbers and have a blast.
by the way you can only join the VCC if you have a big crankin beard and a pair of boreal classics. ha

no offence taken james.
dalai
2-Mar-2005
11:28:19 AM
Still kicking myself for not travelling back to Adelaide to develop the Bachelor Pad. After ever so nearly snagging the FA of Madball just after competing at the SA titles back in 96...

Beefy - I hope I covered the local SA stuff adequately... good stuff in those Adelaide hills.
simey
2-Mar-2005
11:58:38 AM
I tend to agree with Beefy. Adelaide has a fair bit to offer a climber. It's local crags really are local (unlike Melbourne's) and they offer some quite good routes. And Moonarie is arguably one of the great crags of the world.

Nevertheless I would still rather live in Melbourne.

nmonteith
2-Mar-2005
1:24:53 PM
On 2/03/2005 climbingjac wrote:
>Camels Hump. Approx 1-1.5 hrs drive from Melbourne. 10min walkin. Some
>slabby stuff and some slightly steeper stuff. Offers a few bolts.

Camels Hump features the best modern harder routes near Melbourne. The Omega Block features several good quality sport routes between grade 17 and 29.

>Black Hill. Approx 2 hrs drive from Melbourne, from memory. Slabby stuff.

The drive to Black Hill can be done in an hour. Maybe a little longer in rush hour.

Don't forget the other two 'mega crags' of Melbourne!

Catherdral Ranges - 2 hour drive from CBD. Quality multipitch sandstone slab climbing in the mid grades.

You Yangs - 40 minutes from CBD. Endless tiny granite blobettes with bolts. A lot of crap but also many spread out classics.

Johan Vonshizzle
2-Mar-2005
2:25:44 PM
Wollongong or Sydney are much better options. Weather is much more stable for year round climbing.

Blue Mts - 1.5 - 2hrs - lifetime worth of climbing
Nowra - 1-2hrs away - best winter sport crag in OZ
Pt Perp - classic sea cliffing
Bungonia Gorge - 1.5 - 2.5hrs - multipitch limestone with loads of potential and loads of new bouldering

Plus tonnes of quality sandstone bouldering in Sydney.
gfdonc
2-Mar-2005
4:02:38 PM
On 2/03/2005 nmonteith wrote:
>Don't forget the other two 'mega crags' of Melbourne!
>
>Catherdral Ranges - 2 hour drive from CBD. Quality multipitch sandstone
>slab climbing in the mid grades.
>
>You Yangs - 40 minutes from CBD. Endless tiny granite blobettes with bolts.
>A lot of crap but also many spread out classics.

Hey, but you both forgot to mention the supercrag that dwarfs all of these with its reputation .. Ben Cairn!

nmonteith
2-Mar-2005
4:12:24 PM
the word 'super crag' can only be used for the true 'supercrag' of Victoria - Lodden River Supercrag. It's thsuper!
climbingjac
2-Mar-2005
4:33:38 PM
Just to clarify for our Welsh friend... in this thread, "supercrag" actually means "crag not really worth visiting!!"
gfdonc
2-Mar-2005
5:39:38 PM
On 2/03/2005 climbingjac wrote:
>Just to clarify for our Welsh friend... in this thread, "supercrag" actually
>means "crag not really worth visiting!!"

Not what I meant!!
OK, now you really do need some context to understand all this .. in Jac's mind "not worth visiting" means "does not have wicked overhung sport routes of gr 23-29" or "mainly has steep slabby routes with not much in the way of holds". Ben Cairn qualifies admirably on both counts.
Steve ;-)

nmonteith
2-Mar-2005
5:58:08 PM
On 2/03/2005 gfdonc wrote:

>OK, now you really do need some context to understand all this .. in Jac's
>mind "not worth visiting" means "does not have wicked overhung sport routes
>of gr 23-29" or

Revise to read - "not worth visiting" means "does not have wicked overhung sport routes of gr 28 - 31.

RJC
3-Mar-2005
12:23:55 AM
Bit of a time delay going on here, but thanks a lot for the info, really helped me out. I think! Being from the small place that is Cardiff, I kind of like the idea of Adelaide cos it's quieter and perhaps better for the family. Just paranoid that there are not too many climbers there and I will have to go bouldering on my lonesome all the time! But Melbourne sounds cool too! Guess I'll just have to check both places out when the time comes. Do you guys have your own word for Welsh people, or are we all Poms?

nmonteith
3-Mar-2005
8:50:26 AM
ya all Pommies to us!
dalai
3-Mar-2005
9:16:00 AM
No, not the same. The Welsh continue to fight for independence from the English occupiers.

Eduardo Slabofvic
3-Mar-2005
9:59:24 AM
Sorry to inform you of this RJC, but the First Fleet sailed 200 years ago, and you missed the boat. Forget about Melbourne or Adelaid, and instead try looking for links that talk about "Baxter Detention Centre" or "Ashmore Reef". That's wherre your more likely to end up. We Australians have a thing about people from other countries comming over here unannounced.

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 33
There are 33 messages in this topic.

 

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