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Crag & Route Beta

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Orroral Tor 28-Jan-2009 At 1:03:24 PM Capt_mulch

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A group of four of us made it up to Orroral Tor on Australia Day. We even took along a random Kiwi (Brendon) who'd contacted us through the Canberra Climbers Google group - a good sign that the Google group is working.

Orroral Tor, Orroral Valley, Namadgi N.P., Australian Capital Territory

We left the Orroral Valley Tracking Station carpark before 8am and found the bridge over the creek without too much hassle. There is a big concrete pipe sticking vertically out of the ground, and there is a 20cm wide plank next to it which spans the creek. You should head to the left and skirt the swampy area in front of you (as we found on the way back), but we headed straight through to the closest high ground and didn't get bogged. We then stayed high and headed more or less straight for the tor. We arrived at some large boulders in the paddock at the base of the hill, jumped over the fence into the scrub, and followed the ACT Granite guide's suggestion of keeping to the left. It was a bloody good slog more or less straight up the hill. About two thirds of the way up the hill we came across some large boulders, which have a few interesting lines on them.

A bit more slogging, bush bashing and scrambling, and we arrived at the base of the tor proper.

Dead Horse Gap (14) - probably called that because you
need to wedge a dead horse into the chimney for pro. Originally
soloed by Lincoln Hall - it must have been the drugs that people
took in those days.

We did the usual head scratching and guide book reading and slowly worked out where things were. The odd well marked start to a climb helped us to get oriented.

Start to Tautology (16) marked on the right hand wall.

We scrabbled around a bit and made our way to the top of the tor to try and work out where things were.

Owen on top of the tor.

We found the corridor through the rocks that leads to the access to 'The Terrace' - a wide terrace on the southern side of the tor that gives access to a number of climbs. When you get to the end of the big gap, you have to get down low and slide under a capstone before you downclimb easily to the terrace.

Kiwi Brendon negotiates the gap.

There wasn't much that caught our eye on the terrace, so we abseiled off using a very large and convenient tree to check out the south side slabs. There was lots there that looked classic - up to 50m of clean slab. A lot of the slab is undercut at the base and getting onto the face is no easy task.

The Orroral Bolt Route (no bolts), on the left hand side of the slabs used to be accessed using a tree that grew out of the base of the crag. This has since been burnt, making the start impossible without some very thin aid. I noticed another climb had a cairn built at the bottom of it to allow a start. All the bolt hangers were those nasty old homemade Canberra jobbies, which are often OK, though requiring smaller biners on your draws. We decided in the end to have a group effort on Godzilla Meets the Smog Monster 50m (19). It's a wide flaring crack with an undercut start. About 1/3 of the way up you traverse onto the face and follow a dyke that heads up the slab.

Brendon the Kiwi decided to have a go at the lead. It was a desperate start, and a bit of shady aid was used in the end (only because this was in keeping of the style of the first ascent). Brendon slowly worked his way up, a bit freaked at the runout and poor protection as the crack started to flare. The route then traverses out onto the slab, and follows the left hand dyke up the slab. Brendon then freaked at the fact there was only one bolt, and it was hard to see if there were any more further up (the guide says something about four bolts, but we couldn't see them). Brendon wisely decided to back off, and with a bit of coaching from all, managed to downclimb with the aid of a couple of large cams juggled for a safe retreat. I didn't find out until later that Brendon had only been climbing for about a year, and most of that in the gym, so it was a pretty gutsy attempt at a lead (considering it was also his first time on granite).

Brendon on Godzilla Meets the Smog Monster (19)

By this time the sun was blazing onto the slab,and we decided to find something more shady. We couldn't decide on anything else as nothing had really caught our eye except for the big slabs, so in the end we decided to have a go at the nice (though small) flake / crack at the boulders further down the hill that we had seen on the way in.

We were in luck, the climb was shady enough - Kynan (14) it was. Scott lead it then the rest of us just bludged on it on top-rope. It was a nice little problem, with the option to be more in the crack, or more on the flake.

Owen belaying Scott on Kynan (14)

After that, it was back to the carpark for a sausage sizzle and a couple of beers (it was Australia Day after all). Brendon the Kiwi impressed us all by pulling out a cold six pack and sharing it round. We all agreed that it had been good exercise, even though we didn't climb much. We got to work out the best access to the tor, where things were on the tor, and what was most worth a visit (it was the first time for all of us). In my opinion those slabs on the south side were the best thing going (anything on p.182 of the latest ACT Granite guide), though you would want to do a top rope inspection of the bolts first. Best in cooler weather or a very early start.