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Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
VIC Arapiles	Central Gully Right	(General)	Dunes Buttress	[ Arapiles Guide \| Arapiles Images ]

Topic Date User

Eskimo Nell Dangerous Loose Block Removed 18-Oct-2015 At 10:25:54 PM kieranl

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Tracey Skinner passed on to me today that a party reported a dangerously loose block on Eskimo Nell. The location wasn't specified but it was described as one that has to be passed and moves and is poised on the edge.

As it happens Eskimo Nell is on my recovery program so Ray and I went up this afternoon at 4pm when it was well in the shade.
First pitch is fine but there are obvious signs of rockfall from the rap route near the top of the pitch.

Pitch 2 is also fine but there may be a candidate at the Oasis for people who go a bit off route. I belayed at the top of the pitch, facing out, sitting immediately right of the huge block that you have to crawl behind to the start of the next pitch. About 5 metres across right there is a big block (?adult torso size or a bit bigger) sitting on sloping ground. If on lead you went too far left, because it looked a bit daunting above, you could meet the Oasis at this point. But it's not where the vast majority of people go.
This block could easily be trundled but there's a lot of other smaller loose rocks in this area. Trundling one big rock isn't going to remove any rockfall risk in this area.

Final pitch. This has a few blocks but none of them looked unstable and I couldn't make any move with a firm thump.

My guess is that it's the off-route block at the Oasis. I'd be reluctant to touch it. If that's moved there's probably a lot more has to be shifted.

Edit : Loose block actually existed but was removed by another party prior to this ascent.

This was only the second time I've done the rap route here and let me say that I don't like it.
The first rap (30m) has a lot of potential for pulling off loose rock when pulling the rope. Then the second rap (?40-45m) has the big rampy-ledgy area about half-way down - another great opportunity to pull down rock when recovering the rope., and you're pulling the rope in the gully below, right in the shooting gallery.
We did the first rap with a single 60. This minimised the amount of rope to tangle in rocks on this rap. The first person carried the second rope down and by the time the second person was down the next abseil was rigged with both ropes.