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General Climbing Discussion

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Lengthy Approaches 14-Jun-2008 At 6:36:36 PM Andrew_M

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Jagungal certainly grabs the eye and would make a good little target. Coming in and out from Munyang can definitely be done over a weekend and if you want to test yourself you could go light and do it in a single push, but it would be more comfortable to take a tent or bivy and split it over the 2 days. Alternatively you could go soft and get a 4WD in close from the Eucumbene side but that would kinda defeat the purpose. Another one that I've wanted to do is to do Watson's crags, either by skiing from Guthega, then down the crags and climbing out, or to come in from the north(?) through the Lady Northcotes (I think-don't have a map here). Either of those would be a solid day trip with a bit of everything.

As for long walk ins...does alpine count? A few years a go we got out to the Olivine Ice Plateau on the W coast of NZ. It took 8 days to walk in (with a few days lost waiting out bad weather). After doing no climbing whatsoever because we were running out of food, it then took 5 monster days to walk out the other side. Most of the trouble was caused by the craaazy west coast scrub. In one valley it was so thick it took us maybe 2 or 3 hours to go a single km. Add to that some serious height gain and loss, route finding, river crossings and bad weather all squeezed into back to back 12-16 hour days and it was, well, a bit of an interesting trip.

Below the plateau in the Joe Valley there is a really wild looking 300-400m overhanging granite(?) prow. I was perving on it through the tent flap one morning and fantasised about having the skills (and balls) to climb the thing, but couldn't for the life of me work out the logistics of getting enough aiding gear and food in. That would be a true mutha of an approach and a challenge for any hardmen reading...