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Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

Area Location Sub Location Crag Links
All TAS (General) (General) (General)  

Author
Sydney Route, Frenchmans Cap
mikepatt
20-Jul-2005
12:20:07 PM
Hi folks,

Has anyone got any beta on the Sydney Route? I've got the Rock guide but I'm after individual pitch grades, gear requirements and a topo if possible. I'm also having trouble opening the links to the various Tassie pages.

Cheers.
bones
4-Dec-2008
12:40:40 PM
*bump* Anyone able to help out with this beta? Keen to have a crack at this in the beginning of Jan (given perfect weather) and would love to know the individual pitch grades and any other tips....
Thanks all!

nmonteith
4-Dec-2008
1:02:34 PM
Is there more info in the glossy new Climb Tasmania - A Selected Best Guide (Gerry Narkowitz)? It was only published a few years ago and had some topos from memory...
Winston Smith
4-Dec-2008
1:11:35 PM
Topo and guide here: http://www.thesarvo.com/confluence/display/thesarvo/Frenchmans+Cap

wallwombat
4-Dec-2008
5:49:20 PM
The route description at thesarvo.com is pretty bloody detailed. Surely that is enough.

Frenchman's is the closest thing we have to alpine rock. Go alpine rock climbing - take a rack and a couple of ropes and climb the thing. It's grade 16 and about 380m. It goes in 13 pitches. I reckon if you need more info than thesarvo provides you should go to Arapiles instead.
simey
4-Dec-2008
9:59:11 PM
On 4/12/2008 orwell wrote:
>Topo and guide here: http://www.thesarvo.com/confluence/display/thesarvo/Frenchmans+Cap

That online guide looks pretty good. I noticed in the route descriptions however that they give three stars to The Natimuk Route (22) which Steve Monks and myself put up. I don't know where they got the three stars from, but I don't think Steve or myself wrote it up with three stars. I thought the route was a bit inconsistent and the crux pitches (which Steve led together in one big pitch) were quite dangerous at one point.

I haven't done any other routes on Frenchmans in which to compare it, but my impression was that The Natimuk Route was probably only worth one star. However I can understand that any climb that has the Mentz name associated with it is automatically assumed to be a three-star mega-classic.



Eduardo Slabofvic
5-Dec-2008
10:26:41 AM
On 4/12/2008 simey wrote:
>However I can understand that any climb that has the Mentz name associated
>with it is automatically assumed to be a three-star mega-classic.

That would be consistent with the Arapiles guide.
mikepatt
5-Dec-2008
11:22:24 AM
Hi Bones,

I wrote some detailed notes in the Tahune Hut log book after the climb.
A lot of people get confused on the lower pitches (which are easy) then it gets hard... I'd suggest you'd want be be leading around 19/20 on trad routes to give yourself a bit of a margin. A grade 15 move can feel bloody desperate when you're run out on shattered rock (well at least that's my experience) I found the climb a whole lot harder and more desperate than Flight of the Phoenix at the Bungles.
One of the descriptions we had (Thesarvo?) refered to pitons which were either gone or just rusty stumps, whereas I remember a few pitons not mention in any descriptions.
BTW I felt buggered by the walk in (in 30+degree temps) and didn't really recover from that.
bones
5-Dec-2008
5:00:22 PM
Thanks all for the info. I lead grade 18 trad so the comment about 19/20 trad worries me a bit. I have experience with long chossy alpine routes though (Dolomites).

wallwombat
5-Dec-2008
6:56:11 PM
On 5/12/2008 mikepatt wrote:
>One of the descriptions we had (Thesarvo?) refered to pitons which were
>either gone or just rusty stumps, whereas I remember a few pitons not mention
>in any descriptions.

Could the rusted out or removed pitons be made redundant by using modern gear?

mick
5-Dec-2008
10:24:16 PM
Sounds like there might be a crowd!! I will be down there also from about 4 January, wasn, hoping to carry to much gear surely no climb can require a double set of friends :) Hell surely no one can carry to many friends that far, would be interested in what the hut is like? Is there a caretaker, do they have a fridge? Will we need it?

Seriously thoughhas any repeated some of the single pitch routes around there? Have always been attracted to an kind of quartzite......

Mike

wallwombat
5-Dec-2008
11:07:21 PM
Most of the routes on Frenchman's where done before friends were invented.

I reckon it depends on how solid you feel.

Personally, I'd take a set of wires with doubles 3-6 and a set of cams with doubles 2-3.. Half a dozen 60cm slings, a couple of 120cm slings and a length of sling for threads and abseil anchors if needed.12 quickdraws and some spare biners and I think you would be right to go.

This is what i would take to do the popular routes. For something like Conquistador or Valerie or some of the other harder routes, I would probably take more, including maybe a few pins.



Now, if you split that between two people, it's not a great deal of weight.

Lyle Closs
6-Dec-2008
7:10:32 AM
It tends to be the food etc you need that ups the weight to carry in. It's usually a 2 day walk in and 2 days out, then however long you want to stay there given it'll probably rain half the time at least. You'll need a tent unless they've got a hut at the half way point these days (I haven't been there for 35 years or so). It's a serious place so make sure you're ready for anything.
mikepatt
6-Dec-2008
9:28:17 AM
We carried in 30+ Kg of gear, food, tents etc. Although I've heard stories of 1 day walks ins unless your'e very fit and strong allow a day and a half.
My earlier reference to pitons was not meant to be about protection but more a case of route finding with the pins showing the way...

wallwombat
6-Dec-2008
9:57:39 AM
My question still stands: where there places where rusted out or removed pitons couldn't be made redundant with modern gear?
mikepatt
6-Dec-2008
1:33:46 PM
The pitons are redundant but the point I was trying to illustrate was, that, even with a detailed route description, as on thesarvo, if the pitch description ends with 'Belay to a piton at the foot of a detached pinnacle' then if the piton isn't there then it doesn't help with route finding.
Of course it's good style just to 'climb the line' and leave the guide book at home but for some folks a rusty old piton is a nice sign that you're still on route, even if it's useless as protection.

There are 16 messages in this topic.

 

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