Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

Topic Date User

Ozymandias trip report (on Supertopo)... 27-Mar-2017 At 2:31:34 PM IdratherbeclimbingM9

Message

On 27/03/2017 dalai wrote:
>Sounds brilliant M9. Preference has always been for a leisurely ascent
>rather than a speed record.
>
>Always considered solo aid for my first attempt of Ozy, but the more sensible
>side of me says to definitely take you up on your offer. ;-)

Give me some dates to work with dalai!

Back to thread...
Over on Supertopo there are a couple of interesting reply posts to that Trip Report...

>
ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana

Mar 22, 2017 - 09:38am PT
Love the carrot bolts on the awkward traverse! Are those still being installed on routes today?
Arne

deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia

Author's Reply Mar 22, 2017 - 03:00pm PT
I don't think anyone still places carrot bolts, and they are all getting replaced by expansion bolts and glue-ins in most places. Was surprised that these in particular hadn't been replaced, they will definitely snap one day, as they stick out miles and are quite rusted. Where the free version goes, the bolts have been largely been replaced (at that particular point, the free version traverses below those bolts into a nice crack), but there are a still a few critical rotten carrots for the clean aid climb.

Didn't mention it in the TR, but the free version of this route is truly amazing. Hats off to Steve Monks, who first did it all free way back in 1995, and Lee Cossey, who apparently fired it in a day in 2005 , and of course all others who have freed it - it looks a hard and very bold free climb (5.13), in a true big wall setting. We were also impressed with the one-day aid rim-to-rim solos of the route, like Kate Dooley's - lots of work! And of course HB's legendary solos of Ozy and Lord Gumtree in a day - wow!

I think there are some placements that even with clean ascents, might get blown out by camhooks and perhaps even when yarding out nuts on the clean, as well as some of the old carrots breaking and rendering sections unaidable on clean gear. I suspect there used to be more fixed pins in the route - now there are very few. It wouldn't seem unreasonable to me if someone put in a few more bolts to both protect the necky free climbing and to ensure its place as a moderate first big wall climb for Aussie El Cap aspirants.

p.s. interested all the comments about my old yellow jumars! When we first moved to Australia, it was theoretically only for a year or two, so I brought very little gear to Australia - actually, I like the yellow jumars mostly for the rigging jobs for movies and stuff, which comprised a large chuck of my income back in my big wall dirtbag days, which is why I brought them, but had retired them for big wall climbs way back in the 80's. All my other big wall gear is still in storage in Colorado, where it hasn't seen the light of day for 10 years!

Hmm.
>unreasonable
... or contentious?

Much as I respect you deuce4, I have to disagree with your premise of placing more bolts on established climbs on that wall, or indeed for 'retros' generally in Australia.

Even if the drooping rusted manky bolts on the Gledhill traverse that leads rightwards to break through the second roof that further leads up to The Fang, actually do break; then I reckon that traverse would still 'go' on clean aid by following the incipient crack where that wall joins the roof, as it's no thinner than the seam that runs through the Holden Caulfield portion of the roof... which was admittedly first done on rurps (though often do-able clean these days due to fixed RPs in it), would likely go clean on upside down small sized cam-hooks.

I'm not a good enough free-climber to comment about the need for more bolts on the free version but I respect history, and also the fact that the first free-ascentionist didn't feel it necessary to place more; along with the fact that it has been repeated at least several times in the condition that it is currently in...

As an aside, higher up on the Holden Caulfield route (which takes the cleaner right hand side of The Fang), there was a rivet, that went missing...
The route is still clean-aidable by using a bathook in the rivet hole.

Different topic if you haven't yet gleaned it from my replies. I very much enjoyed reading your Trip Report.
I find it an endless source of fascination reading of other peoples experiences on Ozy (or other routes that I've done on that wall), and ever since I educated myself further on wall climbing by reading your excellent books on the subject, I have mused about the possibility of reading of your exploits on one of our (mini by comparison)-walls.
It turned out to be a double delight reading that simey actually condescended to aid climbing after so many years of disparaging it!
Heh, heh, heh.