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Grose valley 1- Climbers 0 8-Apr-2009 At 4:38:27 PM timfreddo

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Just got home after a lovely afternoon in the grose. As my climbing partner and i are extremely picky and dont want to clip those ghastly carrot things (hehe), we decided to give bellbird wall a go. 3 pitches 16,17 and 15. All bolted with rings thanks to Mikl's tireless efforts. Even has a sub 5 min walk in! SOUNDS RAD!!!

rapped in first rap 50m, lil bit exposed, especially once the feet come off the wall. pull the rope, only one way out now. another 50m rap sees us to a big ledge, where pulling the ropes is a little bit of a chore, but not too bad,

Walk to the right, just like the guide ( http://www.climb.org.au/index.php?page_id=10&action=area&area_id=1432 ) says, see a line of hangers up a steepish wall. sweet, doesnt matter that the guide said walk 20m right, and not the 10m that we walked. Or that it says line of rings up to dead tree and we had line of hangers and not a tree to be seen (ahh, no worries, must've fallen off or something!)

Jules ties in and starts up the first pitch, gets about 20m up, has a bit of a sit, tries the move again, no can do.. lower her back down, for me to give it a bash. I head up, get to the same spot, curse the hell out of mike law, bullshit this is a frickin 16, old claw strikes again! grab some rather small grade 16 holds, froth like a maniac between pulling on draws (lucky it was well bolted). eventually make the belay.

Jules arrives at the belay, and we have a quick sqiz at the topo, to see what route the bolts next to our route were... realise we are imensely dumb, and have actually climbed the grade 22 of the route next to our intended 17. and that they cross over on the belay ledge. Major sigh of relief, "sweet as, next pitch will be frickin easy if that was 22" (mistake number 63).

next pitch involved yet more draw pulling, whimpering, and even got a sling out to stand in (as if the ringsweren't good enough to stand on already!). through the exiting crux bulge, amid much exitement, and up the easing face to next belay.

braught Jules up, cleaning a few holds of the route in the process. Looked up and saw the third "champagne" pitch, at witch stage we decided following other peoples routs in the grose isnt adventurous enough. decided to put up a new last pitch (pikers varient). pitch involves a lovely sloping rock ledge to walk, crawl and scamper across. then a walk up a gully to join original route near rap anchors.

anyways, grab shoes from the top, and up the treacherous 5 min tourist track back to the car. MADE IT!!!

note (no more sarchasm):
Bluebird Wall is actually quite a nice outing , havn't done the first or last pitch, but both looked quite nice. exposure is great, very well bolted. a great first route for someone who hasnt climbed in the grose before.
Both of us seem to of been having one of those climbing days where nothing goes right, scared from the word go, overgripping, pumped like mutants, major shame as we would have enjoyed the climb so much more if we were in the zone (or not so pansy).

would have had photos, but picasa only reduces them to 320 pixels, or 52kb, so couldnt upload them (help?) here's the facebook address with fotos.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=236508&id=898180421&saved#/album.php?aid=236508&id=898180421

thanks again to everyone who makes the effort to head out and bolt line for us plebs to scramble up.
Tim.