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Grampians 29-30 September

phil_nev

2-Oct-2003
11:43:44 AM

Sunday night saw Kezza and myself heading to the grampians. The weather looked grim that night, and we got washed out on wednesday morning, but we still managed to get in two days of climbing and relaxing.

First day, we headed to sumerday valley and warmed up on Overkill (17), i really like this route. We then pushed onto Van diemens land. The combination of kezza's and my navigating abilities meant the walk took considerably longer than it should have. The walk to VD land is great, the blank imposing walls on right are just amazing to look at, i cant imagine anyone ever getting up these walls.

After some lunch, and spurred on by kent telling me that Terminal Insomnia (22) was the best 22 in the gramps, i jumped on for the lead. I climbed well to almost the 5th bolt, mega pumped and having no idea where the holds were, i came off. Bummer. The route is really nice, but theres so much slopy stuff on the slabby section near the top it makes it very hard to figure out whats a hold and whats not. Kezza jumped on on TR and climbed really well, coming unstuck only at one reachy point. Damm girl always makes me look bad.

Id been mega keen to get on De La Soul (26) for a while. Standing under the route is really quite intimidating. After a bit of a rest, i jumped on, not really expecting to do very well. I got to the crux and got a bit stumped. I found a way that worked for me on the crux and punched through to the next bolt. I ended up almost campusing through the upper section as my feet kept popping off. After figuring the final sequence i topped out quite happy with my efforts. Allthough I dogged the lead, i reckon this route is definitly do-able for me, a little enduro training and it will go. I will be back soon....

Mega pumped but still keen to climb, we decided to fall off the the dope man (18).... what a joke that route is..... Quite dissapointing to finish the day on a route like that.

Next day we headed back to sumerday. I racked up and got the onsight of a cool 19 called tootsie. Kezza secconded with ease cruising through the reachy section. We then threw a TR over Tootsie Direct (22). Kezza jumped on first, dogging a bit but eventualy getting up. I got the onsight on TR. Felling pretty good i racked up for the lead. My previous hardest trad lead being grade 20 i was a little nervous. I climbed well to the crux and popped off for MY FIRST EVER TRAD FALL. I was sooooo happy, the other people in the area had no idea why i was happy when id fallen. Thankyou number 6 blue smiley. Kezza had another attempt at a clean ascent, and another. In fact she climbed the route close to 8 times falling from the final move on every attempt. Kezzas gallant efforts were thwarted when she began to loose a bit to much skin.....

We were suposed to be up till thursday arvro but got wasjed out.

Kezza left vowing to return. We will be back.

Cheers,
Phil

nmonteith

2-Oct-2003
1:10:56 PM

Tootsie direct looks hard! Well done of the first trad fall!

..::- Chris -::..

2-Oct-2003
2:05:47 PM

Phil,
Congrats on the fall, I know the exact feeling... It's like "yes it held!!!" finally some comfirmation i'm doing something right....I was exactly the same !!

Though just to make you feel a little better, I've seen 2 myself, and heard of 4 people hitting the deck from that climb (TD). I've top roped it and checked the gear, it seems like a good placement, I think it's the way allot of people come off a little to the right and also perhaps haven't pulled down hard on the wire and locked it in place, the move is tricky & balancy and maybe even reachy ?? excellent effort mate!!!

TI (22) is an awesome route, it's a very difficult onsight especially around the move you came off on, (i'm pritty sure it's the crux) nice effort.

Sounds like you had a great weekend....
Happy climbing, keep it going.... (say hi to daz for me)
Chris : )

phil_nev

2-Oct-2003
2:13:54 PM

Hey Chris,
I have also heard stories of people hitting the deck off it. I thought the gear was pretty good. Theres a good cam in a horizontal (where tootsie moves left) then u move up slightly right to some good pockets. Theres bomber wire placments there. If the wire was placed incorrectly i could see how someone could deck, but the placemnt is so good, i cant see why it happens... And yeah the move is tricky, balancy and reachy, just ask kezza (short in stature).... :)

I thought that terminal insomnia was very cool, but yeah a hard onsight. If you know where to go, the moves a pretty easy.

Me and Daz got our BBall grandfinal tonight.... wish us luck...

Cheers, Phil.

..::- Chris -::..

2-Oct-2003
2:32:23 PM

Phil,
All good mate, BBall Granny tonight !! Good Luck.... and you were going to climb untill Today ..... nice!!! ..... No wonder Daz is always asking me to fill in for you guys ...... hehehe

Your a true sportsman like myself, who keeps his priority's in order .... hehehe.....
I can remember leaving Araps on a wednesday night at 5 to make it back for a 8:10 game ..... (ummm yes you can make it back from araps in under 3 hours, if you stick to the speed limit...give or take 40kms/h)

Good luck mate, hit a nice a tre for me !!!
Cheers
Chris.

phil_nev

2-Oct-2003
2:37:05 PM

Daz asks u to fill in caus he always gets his hair cut on thursday nights ;) Im always there. Was planning on leaving in the early arvo...
He hasnt played for weeks and i bet he shows up to get a trophey tonight.... Dodgy Daz

kezza

2-Oct-2003
5:03:54 PM

It was a great two days, would of been better to get that extra day and a half though.. Bundaleer was definatly calling.. screaming and yelling if i recall !! bummer the weather got the better of the gramps...
Navagating skills on both behalfs has a lot to be desired and wrong turns was the definate theme of the trip :)
VD was awsome and very inspiring, which was just as well because of the 'scenic route' we took to get there was very draining,
De Le Soul was very cool even if we did manage to get knocked about when i came off..
Tootsie was very kool.. Tootsie Direct was just as kool.. even though she did get the better of me.... i made sure i had a stern word each and every time i fell off!! thats definate unfinished business!!
Was a great short trip and very memorable one at that!!

nmonteith

2-Oct-2003
5:45:50 PM

Let me guess - you kept walking straight past the 'fence' of sticks i create every time i go to VD land at the rock step. I hope you constructed it again to stop others from doing the wrong walk in.

kezza

2-Oct-2003
6:46:04 PM

Thats the one... the funny thing is though the fence of sticks were still there!! we created a huge arrow pointing up the rock step!
Hopefully no-one else makes the same mistake as us... it was definatly the long way in!
Although now its slightly amusing!

climbingjac

6-Oct-2003
8:51:09 AM

The track to VD Land was originally better marked with more rock cairns. A little over a week ago, a well-known climber felt the need to kick some of them down as they were "unnecessary". A great deal of bother went into constructing the cairns after myself and a mate experienced a similar epic with access to VD Land. Hopefully noone else feels the need to kick more cairns down!

phil_nev

6-Oct-2003
1:41:03 PM

thats so dumb.... was this person bored or just an idiot.... Cairns dont do any harm, what does knocking them down achieve.

A big thankyou to that person, i loved the almost 2hr walk to VD land....

V

6-Oct-2003
2:08:44 PM

Apparently some people don't like cairns. I've seen at least a couple of times on signage outside a park (along with all the usual "no dogs, no cats, no firearms, no fires" etc.), a directive that says "do not build cairns". Seriously. This could be either because they are seen as a sign of human habitation, or else they might make innocent tourists follow a false trail and get lost. [I have no opinion on the rightness or wrongness of building cairns, I just thought this might help explain the actions of this "prominent climber".]

nmonteith

6-Oct-2003
2:35:41 PM

Personally i see no reason for the cairns to VD land apart from the two rock step sections. If you can't follow a big blank cliff along the base then you have some serious problems! Cairns will certainly lead tourons (tourist morons) away from the estblished tracks. Where VD lands track leaves the tourist track is a very good case for no cairns. The tourons need to scramble up the rocky chimney gully thing to Hollow Mtn tourist world. It dosn't look obvious even with the big arrows on the rock. To them it would seem easier to keep walking left along the base of the cliff. If they see cairns then they will continue along the track for god knows how far. I prefer to keep tourists away from areas with chalk and bolts.

We once had to rescue some idiot who decided to 'down climb' the right side of Sandinsta thinking it was the tourist track. He was standing above Journey through Niceragioua (spl!) and coudln't work out how to get down the 20m grade 30 trad route in his dunlop volleys. He just sat there yelling out not thinking to climb back up again. Classic touron moment.

joemor

6-Oct-2003
3:07:21 PM

hahahh touron!

climbingjac

6-Oct-2003
3:17:54 PM

I don't consider the rock cairns to VD Land to be "necessary", but certainly it's a much more pleasant journey with them there. The walkin is long, and consequently it's nice to see the occasional cairn to confirm you haven't wandered too far, or in the wrong direction. For goodness sake, they don't do any harm. I was really ticked off that they got kicked down...

deadpoint

7-Oct-2003
6:23:32 PM

Tootsie Direct is a great route, I found the crux reach was best done with you left hand on the side pull on the right and go up with your right hand to the high crimps on your left.
Really weird but way solid.

phil_nev

7-Oct-2003
6:33:38 PM

The way i did it on TR was way ifferent to that. RH side pull, left hand high crimps, then rh inetrmediate, then up to big jug. On lead.... It was a differnt story...

There are 17 messages in this topic.