Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Accidents & Injuries

Report Accidents and Injuries

Topic Date User

Climbers rescued off Margarine Ridge, Mt Hay 10-Nov-2011 At 6:27:04 AM pmonks

Message

On 9/11/2011 Sturge wrote:
>Slightly off topic, the ACA guide says about the pitch 8/9 variant, "Apparently
>some people head straight up the chimney, but it looks bloody desperate!"
>Has anyone got any thoughts on grades for this? It felt at least a couple
>harder than the rest of the climb, but allows you to skip the really shitty
>belay.

The ACA description was copied from an early description I wrote the 1st time I climbed the route (where I avoided the chimney because I was intimidated by it). Since then I've done the route 3 or 4 times and always gone direct up the chimney - although it looks intimidating, it isn't really any harder than anything else on the climb and (imvho) is definitely safer than that crappy intermediate belay in the cave. That said you do end up a little runout by the top of the wide bit, and if you miss the crucial pocket that takes the last good gear before that section, it'd be very runout & dangerous indeed.

I reckon the hardest pitch on the route is pitch 7 (as described on ACA) - the climbing up the arete after the rising leftward traverse is pretty delicate and has given me pause every time I've done it. I still think a grade of 13 is fair though - it's more that the route overall is sustained and long, even by international standards (it's 9 pitches plus several "pitches" of scree bashing - in the US they'd include those in the pitch descriptions & overall length, even if the grade is "only" 2nd & 3rd class).