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VIC Arapiles (General) (General) (General) [ Arapiles Guide | Arapiles Images ]

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Beta required; Araps July/August

l3lair

24-Jun-2008
7:27:55 PM

Hi there. I have some time off and i'm thinking of heading over to mt. arapiles for the first time in a couple of weeks. I will be travelling alone and plan to stay for about 3 or 4 months.

Will the weather be ok for climbing if i head over at the start of July? Wet?/Cold?
What will it be like finding people to climb with?
Are you going to be there?

And the big question, What do i need on my rack. At this stage i don't know what weight allowance i will have but i usually take much more gear than i need so i'm trying to get rid of unnecessary items.

So far I plan to take:
Rocks 1-12 (leaving 13 and 14)
Superlights 1-6
Micros 1-6
Ballnutz 1-4
Tricam 0.5, 1
Zeros 4,5,6
Friends 1-3.5 (should i take the 4)
Hex 7,8,9 (would the smaller sizes be useful)

I also have Camalots 0.3-3 but my rack seems large already and i expect most others will have a rack of their own already. I'm planning to climb lots of classics and get on stuff up to around 25 if i get bored of the easy stuff.

Thanks in advance for any advice
-Blair

surfinclimb

25-Jun-2008
8:21:22 PM

The weather will be cold, occasionally raining but the friction is good for all those clasics on the watchtowers.
Your rack sounds good, pesonally I would swap the friends for the B.D cams and maybe if your looking to cut down on weight ditch the tri cams,hexes and ball nuts as well, there good, but the B.D cams will be sweet.
As for crew to climb with Me and a few of my mates are going up for all of July so send us a P.M if you want.

muki

25-Jun-2008
8:53:22 PM

Hey don't ditch the Tri Cams they're great, and for a minimal amount of weight they double up the cams.
Also love the ball nuts, again so little weight that they make sense to include on the rack, agree with
mick, ditch the hexes, and go with the BD's they're slightly heavier, but can be used as hexes if needed.
bring warm stuff for the windy cloudy days and cold nights, GOOD friction right now, best time of year to
climb here, might see you there, I'll be trying to hook up some climbing with Surfnclimb when he's up
here...... we got a date with fever pitch! right mick?

surfinclimb

26-Jun-2008
7:52:04 PM

We most definately have a date with Fever Pitch. maybe week 3 definately not week 1. I trashed my wrist being a brickies labourer for a few days mixing mud and hauling around those render bricks and now 10 days later I can only now wash the dishes.
Though it will give me a chance to work on some easier grade classics that I havent gotten around too.

muki

26-Jun-2008
9:45:00 PM

No probs Mick, we'll get some prep work done on the easier classics, Little thor, Quo vadis, Thunder
crack, Kachoong, Taste of honey, Squeakeasy, Glory rodent, ect. then we will look at all the great 23's
Birdman, Curtain call, Not just a pretty face, High dive, Iron void, Finger prince, Strolling, & Karma sutra.
I'm sure there are others I've missed, but that's a start, then we can check out some 24's start easy like
Orestes, can't wait see you then! BP

jgoding

26-Jun-2008
10:31:32 PM

Howdy - firstly I hope you have a fantastic trip. Arapiles is still great for climbing over winter. The season just never stops (but it does rain every now and then).

Climbing wise there are lots of locals who can most likely entertain you if you don't find anyone in the camp ground to climb with. You can ask at the pub or in the climbing shop.

There are so many classics to be done. Some personal favs are:

Birdman from Alcatraz 23*** Death Row Pinnacle (just left of the Phaoros)
Fever Pitch 23** - upper yesterday gully
Lunatic 22** - upper yesterday gully
Blue Hawaii 21** - upper yesterday gully
Snow Blind 23** - yesterday gully (near the Pharos)
Squeakeasy 22*** - Central gully left
Tannin19*** - Organ pipes
Lemmington 19** - Organ pipes
Quo Vadis 19*** - Bluffs
Thundercrack 20*** Bluffs
Dispatched 24*** (still to finish this!)
Skink 18*** - Watchtower Face
Auto De Fae 20*** - Watchtower Face (some run-out bits particularly on the first pitch)
Los Endos 22*** (yet to complete this - a bit scary!) - Wind wall / central gully right)
Starless and Bible Black 22*** *(Wind wall / Central gully right)
Cecilia 22*** - Central gully right (upper)
Entertainer 19*** - far north
Comic Relief 21*** (tricky gear in places) - far north
Kachoong 21*** - northern group
A Taste of Honey 22*** - northern group
Honeycomb 22** - northern group
Nativity 16** - northern group

haven't done Oresties 24*** I think - but looks fantastic.
Debutantes and Centerpedes (25*** I think) looks awesome.
Trojan looks great (25***) but might be too cold (it's pretty much always in the shade).

There is great climbing to be had on the Watchtower faces in winter. Central gully left and the Northern group are also excellent.

There is a great on-line guide for Arapiles developing if you want more of a look here: http://www.climb.org.au/index.php?page=25®ion_id=8

Have a great trip! Might see you there.

Joe

l3lair

27-Jun-2008
3:01:26 PM

Thanks for your responses, and the route beta, although that will probably apply to the end of my stay. I'm planning on starting with plenty of easy grades. I am highly succeptible to peer pressure though, so we'll see.

Looks like i will be heading over to melbourne on wednesday 2 July, getting there about 6.00pm. I'll confirm my ticket tomorrow. I'm planning to catch a train and a couple of busses out to natimuk. Looks like a long trip. Anyone driving out that weekend?

WM

27-Jun-2008
3:13:48 PM

To get a feel for what the weather will be like, check out last year's readings for Horsham for July and August.

There are 8 messages in this topic.