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Mikl and Ado's excellent Lost Pillar Adventure 5-Feb-2009 At 12:12:04 PM hipster

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I was out at Thor Head in the Grose Valley zooming in on distant cliffs with my video camera. It's an excellent resource for scoping potential routes, what with the 40x optical zoom, it seems to make intricacies very clear. Michael (Law) was mentioning routes where I was videoing, then dropped the bombshell " There's a pillar over there that's never been climbed". Mmmm, "Is that right" I remarked, searching with renewed enthusiasm for this pillar.Sure enough I found it with the camera, a bit hard to see in the shade, but impressive nonetheless. We went off climbing. As the sun came over in the afternoon the features of the pillar in the distance started to reveal themself. There looked to be a continuous crack from bottom to top, and good quality, a perfect line for some ground-up antics. It would be a grand adventure.
In the interim I found out there were other lines on the pillar, from the half-way notch to the mainland or by traversing in, either with glued-in carrots or ring bolts, but nothing from bottom to top, all trad, all free. Everyone has different desires in their climbing experience, and for me I wanted to try walking to the bottom of this pillar and look up and try and climb trad and free to the summit. So I did, yesterday with Michael, and boy did we have fun!!
A late start saw us walking along a firetrail and then scrub bashing. Some people have spent so long in the bush that navigation comes easy..a decade after Mike was last out there, we arrived at Dalpura Head exactly at the rap point after 40 minutes of weaving and wandering, no problemo. What a view, I was seeing the Grose Valley from another perspective, and it never fails to dissapoint. Surely it should be on every climbers' hit list, to just spend one day out in the Grose Valley enjoying all it's grandeur. We rapped off the mainland and scrambled down a gully and round the back of the pillar. The day was heating up so it was with welcome relief we hit a strand of tall native tobacco trees, in the shade and still wet from the previous night's dew.
Arriving at the base of our intended line and looking up, the crack looked good. It turned in to a corner and then some overhung chimneying up high, and with the odd roof the summit couldn't be seen.
The first pitch was my lead, with plenty of gear and some good jambing to be had. I got a bit engaged up high when the crack petered out to finger locks and then nothing, with a thin crimpy crux to reach a ledge. No gear and a slight run-out saw me set up a belay on some chock stones off to the right. A fine 20m of climbing at grade 23 and we were under way. At the crux I was saying to myself "Mmmm,which way did they go?"when I couldn't unlock a sequence, only to laugh and realise that no-one had gone anywhere there before! Michael followed the pitch, cleaning all the loose stuff I couldn't as he'd been below me.
He led through and on up the crack, around the corner and out of sight of me. As I was out of the firing range he cleaned the route of all the loose blocks as he went. Finding a perfect belay stance he bought me up and another 25m of average climbing at grade 18 was behind us. Old blokes get dirty quickly and it's never long before they start to smell, even in a Hawaiian shirt. Michael commented that he didn't like trad new routing in the Blue Mountains because you had to carry too much big gear, and "I already know what it's like to feel fat!"
Pitch 3 and I led up a cracking chimney that was capped by a corner/roof that would have to be turned. Stonking gear placements kept revealing themselves and I thrashed and thrutched around the roof and onto another nice belay stance, another 20m of good climbing at Grade 19. Thunder had started rumbling and localised storms were brewing in the background, but it looked to be missing us, apart from a few rain drops. Michael followed and it was with great dissapointment that I missed videoing him turning the roof, he had the video on his harness and I missed some classic footage. He pulled a decent rock off a ledge, and was too gripped to throw it over his shoulder so he simply dropped it, knowing full well it would probably hit him, which it did, fair on his ankle! He didn't let go though, or grimace, rather a casual acceptance of his fate!
He led on through up another chimney with great gear, and then up a short arete to the summit. Another fun pitch, 40m at about Grade 16. I followed him, signed the book on top and rapped off. What fun!!
We still had to aid/free climb 80m in 4 pitches of the mainland cliff to get out. This was made easier by scoffing some cakes and lollies, which always taste great when you're a little tired.
The storm had blown through and the sun was setting over the valley on the walk out, providing a stunning vista. Again I though to myself " I love climbing.."