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Lord Gumtree - Newsflash

climbingjac

22-Mar-2004
1:50:57 PM

Afternoon, all.

I'd like to report that last week, Steve Monks freed the last of the remaining aid pitches on "Lord Gumtree" at Mt Buffalo. He has now officially proven it is possible to get from the ground to the summit of that thing - without using aid.

For those of you not familiar with the route, it's a stupidly hard multipitch... at Mt Buffalo. Land of the hard routes. Steve has been toiling away with freeing the various pitches... spanning a 5 year era! He is now most pleased that he never has to the bottom of the gorge (where it starts) again!!

Well done Steve!

Jacqui

mousey

22-Mar-2004
2:15:15 PM

bloody nice work Steve- i salute you
is there a FFA planned for the future, or is that up to someone else?

nmonteith

22-Mar-2004
3:00:55 PM

I think that IS the FFA. Might have to wait for the first continuos free ascent though. Any idea on which is the crux pitch - and how hard it is?

climbingjac

22-Mar-2004
4:52:31 PM

My understanding is that he's quite had enough of the climb to be bothered with a continuous FA! Maybe Kieran could grill him on the grades?

mousey

22-Mar-2004
5:28:15 PM

neil> yeh i did mean continuous but if I say any more about that I'll no doubt see swarms of righteous climbers posting here to say that the 'send is invalid'

jac> haha fair enough- i find it hard to see myself getting tired of Lord Gumtree, but having said that I havent been working it for 5 years...

Kieren> that sounds like an offer :)

gfdonc

22-Mar-2004
9:22:51 PM

Prob'ly means it now has some bolts in it and can be tackled by mere mortals with a triple rack of RP's and some et's .. hehe .. wharrs me box of aiding gear again?

Paulie

23-Mar-2004
2:29:33 AM

Nice one! 1st Ozy, now L.G, impressive to say the least...I believe those 2 little C.B aid routes below the disabled lookout could do with free ascents too...

BA

23-Mar-2004
12:29:22 PM

The crux pitch is probably the one shown 0n page 7 of the March issue Argus (above Big Grassy and below the roofs). Steve thought it would go at 29 when talking about it afterwards.

climbingjac

23-Mar-2004
3:07:39 PM

Apparently it goes at gr28. Found out this morning.

IdratherbeclimbingM9

23-Mar-2004
10:32:52 PM

Thanks for the newsflash climbingjac.
This is almost unbelievable news, and my heartiest congratulations to Steve Monks for this fantastic achievment, and also his patient belayer/s.

Paulie 23/03/04
>I believe those 2 little C.B aid routes below the disabled lookout could do with free ascents too...
They are good fun routes but really they are chickensh*t by comparison to Lord Gumtree.
I'd even go so far as to say its almost sacriligeous (sp?) to even mention them together in the same thread as Lord Gumtree!

Isn't it good that there is so much out there still to be freed though!!

Paulie

23-Mar-2004
11:21:02 PM

On 23/03/2004 A5iswhereitsat wrote:
>They are good fun routes but really they are chickensh*t by comparison
>to Lord Gumtree.I'd even go so far as to say its almost sacriligeous (sp?) to even mention them together in the same thread as Lord Gumtree!

True...but they are close, would be hard and you don't need to rap into them ;)

A5...Closer to (your) home...have you looked at that potential (aid) route above the 'cave' and to the right of Doughboy at the Bakery Wall?

IdratherbeclimbingM9

21-Jun-2004
6:43:20 PM

On 23/03/2004 Paulie wrote:
>A5...have you looked at that potential (aid) route
>above the 'cave' and to the right of Doughboy at the Bakery Wall?
How far right?
There is an incipient line thereabouts, but I thought it might be someones 'free' project ??
Can I assume that if it doesn't have hangers and natural protection is minimal (just about groundfall potential all the way), then its open slather even if some holds seem 'brushed' ???

climbau

23-Jun-2004
10:10:55 AM

I'll join you on that project A5, If you want to give it a go this winter let me know.

IdratherbeclimbingM9

24-Jun-2004
6:05:33 PM

On 23/06/2004 climbau wrote:
>I'll join you on that project A5, If you want to give it a go this winter let me know.
Sounds good. I will contact you off-line.

There are 14 messages in this topic.