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10-Mar-2010 3:50:21 PM
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I'm currently working on the Black Hill section of the Rockclimbs Around Melbourne guide and have a couple of routes I can't identify. The first is on a vertical good-looking orange wall about 10m or so right of Pull the Ripcord on Mushroom Rock. It looks bloody difficult, has 3 rings plus a pair of lower-off rings on top. The other route is on an isolated tor about 20m west of Mushroom Rock. It takes a featured arete on what looks like fairly good-quality granite (at least for Black Hill). It has a ring then 2 fixed hangers and then another ring. Four bolts in all. The route looks fairly technical.
If anyone can identify either of these routes (and any first ascent details) I would be grateful. By the way, has anyone repeated Pumping Ugly Muscle or Bon Voyage of late? Apparently the final moves on Bon Voyage are still possible even though one of the (supposedly key) holds came off a few years back.
Finally, on the steep face around right of Milawa etc. I can identify Havoc (24) on the left side of the wall (it has a three newer rings and an old fixed hanger) and The Cult Master (24) (which utilises the top two rings on Havoc). There are also four old fixed hangers going straight up the hey diddly diddle starting as for The Cult Master and Acid Rain. Anyone know about this 'line' and has anyone repeated any of the other routes on the wall and maybe wants to comment on them? Cheers.
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10-Mar-2010 5:06:07 PM
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On 10/03/2010 gtempest wrote:
>The other route is on an isolated tor about 20m west of Mushroom Rock. It takes a featured arete on what looks
>like fairly good-quality granite (at least for Black Hill). It has a ring
>then 2 fixed hangers and then another ring. Four bolts in all. The route
>looks fairly technical.
Is that Ultra Violet Grade 23?
Edit - checked the rebolted DB and this matches Ultra violet with the bolts described
>There are also four old fixed hangers going straight up
>the hey diddly diddle starting as for The Cult Master and Acid Rain. Anyone
>know about this 'line'
Direct line with the old hangers is an old Scott Maloney project. Lindorff has had a play amongst others. Not sure if its had a FA yet...
Photos for both of these I'm pretty sure were on Wills geocities site which is no more...
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10-Mar-2010 5:36:51 PM
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Thanks Dalai. You are right. It is Ultra Violet. The guide describes Ultra Violet as northeast of Mushroom Rock and this is obviously wrong. It actually looks like a good route. As for the 'old Scott Maloney project', this looks very hard indeed and the hangers (and therefore the bolts?) don't inspire any real confidence.
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10-Mar-2010 8:59:03 PM
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Old Matt Brooks home made hangers, needs to be rebolted for sure! Suggested around the grade 27 mark... Though given Kev didn't do it as far as I'm aware it could be harder!
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10-Mar-2010 11:54:59 PM
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i think Steven Wilson did the ringbolted wall 10m R of pull the ripcord. he gave it 26-7 from memory. Ask him or steve chapman
Havoc is realllly good, among the best black hill routes imo, though quite a tips tenderizer. tough move onto the slab. i'd say more 24 than 23
Kevin and I both played on the line just R of Havoc. first half is 24ish, top half at least a couple grades harder. from memory kevin got all the moves on toprope but it took a fair while and zero linkage.
Ultra Violet is also really good by black hill standards
edit: Robin Holmes knows the area very well, try to get in touch with him
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11-Mar-2010 10:49:43 AM
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Yes, echo that, I was up there with Robin a few weeks ago and he seemed to know about those routes, but I wasn't paying much attention.
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11-Mar-2010 12:22:49 PM
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Thanks for the info so far. The pieces of the Black Hill jigsaw are slowly coming together. The wall right of Pull the Ripcord certainly looks impressive, easily one of the more appealing pieces of rock in the area. I've now talked to Steven about it.
A few years ago I met some guys who had just done Havoc and claimed it was the best climb at Black Hill. They felt it was grade 24 and worth 2 stars! They were, when I saw them, laying siege to the evil finger crack right of Half Man Half Biscuit (which a few of us had played around on quite a few years back). I don't know if it has ever been led. About grade 25 or 26 from memory.
I'm leaving out of the guide a bunch of routes which have never been popular (most have probably never seen a second ascent) and have now grown over with thick moss. These routes include Animal Husbandry (21), Maid to Undress in the Wilderness (21) and all those routes on the Shredded Evidence (17) boulder. I'm also leaving out my own Toxic Shock and Razor Blades (26) (which now looks like the Amazon jungle). Its next door neighbor, Gumboot Diplomacy (23), looks a fair bit cleaner and may still see some traffic. Maybe if I leave it in the guide it will have a better chance of getting clean again.
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