Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

Topic Date User

Mt Buller Ice 3-Sep-2005 At 4:26:45 PM uwhp510

Message

Despite appearances, about 80-90% of the tool placements on the second pitch were in ice/turf (the first pitch was crampons off rock climbing at about grade 10 I guess).

Steve and I were back up at Buller on friday in VERY melty conditions and climbed a route further left. It was two pitches with the first about 30m and Scottish grade 3 (Steve is scottish so he can tell these things). The second pitch was about 40m of quite hard, thin grade 4 I think. It was not as sustained as the previous route but in the conditions had much harder moves at the crux. Also there was a lot more loose rock than I have previously experienced at Buller, which might have been due to the meltyness of the day. There was a lot of ice on this route and in colder conditions (when the ice would become usable instead of raining down in big chunks as it was on friday) it would be a highly enjoyable grade 4, instead of the scaryness we experienced. We are calling the route "One in the face" after Steve took some small chunks of ice to the face while on belay for the second pitch.