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Mid-week climb in Adelaide?

sydneysj

19-Apr-2008
7:18:43 PM

I'm down in Adelaide next week for a holiday and would absolutely love to try out the rock down there. Is anyone free for a climb on Wednesday the 23rd or Thursday the 24th?

I've been climbing now for about 3 years, first with a group of mates and then with new friends I've met through the Sydney Rockies. But...I'm still pretty low-level - can lead sport up to about 16-17 (depending on the climb) and can follow to about 18. Happy to try harder stuff as long as you catch me when I peel :) On the upside I've done a lot of following and am totally happy cleaning trad gear, on multi-pitches (are there any of those in Adelaide?!?) and good with all the safety stuff. And I'm enthusiastic....very enthusiastic :)

I'm also planning to take out an absolute beginner on Friday. Any suggestions on what area would be the best? I won't have a rack so it'd have to be either easy-ish sport or top-ropable.

Any advice appreciated!
Cheers,
Sarah-Jane

foreverabumbly

19-Apr-2008
8:51:35 PM

the only sport climbing in Adelaide is the summitt, which has nothing under 20. Morialta is the best place, just 15 minutes out of the city, it has big metal bollards at the top of the cliff for toprope setups. There are some bolted routes out at waitpinga and some bolted slab at Victor Harbour as well.

-edit- oh, and no multipitch really, morialta's cliff is about 15 metres high.

sydneysj

19-Apr-2008
11:20:44 PM

Thanks a lot - that helps a great deal. Looks like Morialta is the go.

Ok...this is probably going to be the dumbest question ever...but metal bollards? I'm used to rings or bolts...can't say I've ever set an anchor off a metal bollard before. So do you just sling the thing and run the rope through a locking biner on the end? Or are we talking big enough or set back far enough that I'd need the cordelette? The idea of one point of contact with the rock rather than two freaks me out a little, even if it is a bollard...but I guess it's just a question of what you're used to :)

foreverabumbly

20-Apr-2008
9:03:52 AM

the bollards are huge, its not uncommon to see multiple topropes off the one bollard and they get tested every year. But if your still worried, on most climbs you can tie off to two if you wanted - the bollards are set around about 5 metres from the edge of the cliff - though they can be a bit closer or further than than that, the most common way of setting up is to use a static rope. cordelettes are usually too short and the tape running over a 90 degree angle on sharpish rock dosnt sit well with my stomach.

the static is tied to the bollard, run over the edge with a few biners apposed and run back up to the bollard, the climbing rope is threaded through the biners. so you do use two anchors, just tied off to the one place.

IdratherbeclimbingM9

21-Apr-2008
2:04:39 PM

On 20/04/2008 foreverabumbly wrote:
>the static is tied to the bollard, run over the edge with a few biners
>apposed and run back up to the bollard, the climbing rope is threaded through
>the biners. so you do use two anchors, just tied off to the one place.

That still constitutes one anchor in my book.

Though a single dedicated for the purpose (presumably engineer spec), that is annually tested would be perfectly acceptable.

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