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Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
VIC Buffalo	(General)	(General)	(General)	[ Mt Buffalo Guide \| Images ]

Topic Date User

Best Routes for first time Buffalo Climber 27-Dec-2008 At 8:55:42 AM hipster

Message

On 24/12/2008 WM wrote:
>On 23/12/2008 jgoding wrote:
>>Hard Rain (22***) – Kevin Lindorff’s favorite route on the whole plateau.
>>A solid outing. Take a seasoned non-scared leader!
>
>It's not solid and not scary! great pro and pretty easy for the grade.
>except for the 21 bit shared with status quo which is horrendous!

Whoa there tiger, you may have done the route plenty of times so it's no longer scary. I rapped in to do Hard Rain, which is scary enough, because my wife really wanted to do it. I had the pro on my harness set to lead it, but when I looked up the line I was overcome by fear. I looked at her and stated "You want to do this route, your lead it !" and started passing back the gear. Glad I did too, I was gripped just following!! I think I manned up and led a short Grade 19 pitch :-)

Tips for the first timer:
1. Buffalo is scary, the butterflies in the stomach never go away when you drive up the hill. Never. It's the anticipation of battle :-)
2. Never, ever climb in the sun on a slab
3. Disregard grades and any preconceived ideas of what you'll get up. Start real easy, or do a stack of toproping to get comfy before you lead.

I agree Vertical Tai Chi, Edge of Pleasure and Pretty Girls with Long Knives are absolute mega classics for their style. Pretty Girls pitch 1 particularly is mind-blowingly good