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Best wide crack in Vic/NSW.


sbm

18-Jun-2014
11:29:22 PM

That's me on cacaphonic crack...probably more awkward to aid than to free if you shove a #6 above you...it was a terrible choice for an aid warm up.

In Sydney, go to the Cathedral down in Sutherland, many offwidths there. Can't think of any north of the harbour off the top of my head.

In the Blue Mountains

Transcedental Meditation at Zig Zag. Sandbag at 22, I've belayed bultitude on it and he was making progress doing it inversion style feet above head.

Genesis and Gemini down the end at Mt Piddington are apparently wide and physical.

The Monster Offwidth at Mt York has the name but I've never actually checked it out.

Jezebel at Ikara - "take a spare liter of blood"

Telstar at Ikara. Squeeze chimney out a huge exposed roof. By all accounts one of the scariest routes in the mountains.

Landslide Chimney on the Dogface might be one that's scarier than Telstar...dunno anyone that's done it to compare! A thrash deep into the bowels of choss.

Gypsy and the Firecat, Triple Echo up in the Wolgan.

Don't discount Point Perpendicular, several brutal looking wide cracks lurking around there, there's a photo of Mike Lee shoulder deep in Icebird, also I think there's climbs called Frothwidth and Man Boobs (?)


IdratherbeclimbingM9

18-Jun-2014
11:49:14 PM

On 18/06/14 sbm wrote:
>it was a terrible choice for an aid warm up.

?
That is not what I heard you telling Macciza at the time! *

On 18/06/2014 Big G wrote:
>I have a question: I'd the crash is that big that you can use a big bro
>and it looks a bit slabby, would you actually be able to fall?

Yes.
~> but a lot depends on your technique, ... or lack of it!

_{(* Re aiding it; sbm nearly kicked his belayer (Macciza), in the head after taking a fall off it! Heh, heh, heh.)}

Ok, we have had our fun. The (what's the feminine version of Maestro?)-lady of savouring offwidths, Wendy; will be along shortly to blitz us with all manner of wide cracks, likely starting with the classic 1st pitch of Passport to Insanity...


Big G

19-Jun-2014
4:56:41 AM

>>I have a question: I'd the crash is that big that you can use a big bro
>>and it looks a bit slabby, would you actually be able to fall?
>
>Yes.
>~> but a lot depends on your technique, ... or lack of it!

>
>Ok, we have had our fun.

Just teasing. It actually looks hideous.


Big G

19-Jun-2014
5:00:31 AM

The cathedral had lots of offal widths. Some are even worth climbing.

I will quote Mikl Law "the only reason you do first ascents of off widths is to make other people climb them too"


E. Wells

19-Jun-2014
9:13:42 AM

Syriac at Mt York is short but steep and wide. For sustained battle top two pitches of Echo Crack although you stem often so not pure froth. If you can climb grade 30+ easily then the roof crack on the 'goats overhead' side of Noisy Place crag at Mt Vic is ....there.


Superstu

19-Jun-2014
9:21:16 AM

I'm not sure if that offwidth roof at Gibraltar has ever been done free, but there is a cool pic of Tony Barten hanging hands free from it in the old ACT granite guide. For the true crack god hardperson, chop the shitty bolts and do it on big momma gear. Sadly I suspect all the Canberra hardpeople are too busy posing amongst the spooge at Nowra to have the time to throw themselves at a real climb like this one.

Wendy

19-Jun-2014
9:34:24 AM

As M9 predicts ....

The problem with most of the buffalo offwidths (indeed, buffalo in general) is no one climbs them so they are filthy. Even after Singersmith cleaned Country Road, it was still rather unpleasantly dirt and moss when I played on it a few years ago. I've never done Monarch because I'm too scared of the unprotectable grade 17 squeeze chimney in the top pitch. Angels is awesome. Cacaphonic Crack I got told off by parks for building an anchor off the lookout so I never actually got to climb it. Jaws was some off the most desperate, cheese gratering 17 I have ever done in my life. Hand vice is also rather fatter than hands.

On the less suffering side, you can have a great day out in stapylton amphitheatre with Germinal, that thing in the kingdergarten whose name I can't remember, clicke crack and lay back and think of england. Bundaleer provides the joys of Basilisk DF, that 18-9 thing just left of it, the top of Dagon's Temple, and of course the amazing Ogive.

Araps has a few joyful offerings such as Electra, Wizard of Ice, Kama Sutra, Cerberus, In Lieu, 5 fingered Mary and I've never braved the roof of Marbuck.

Frog is probably the place to go for pure offwidthing, where Badfinger, Venom, Côck Crack and Juggernaut await. And almost any route there with provide a surprise finish of fat crack. I've rounded up 3 6s and 4 5s for this winter so I can make some brave attempts on them.

Piddo has a few, my fav of them being Janicepts, although it's been a very long time since I've done Spartan which did look rather fun when I was up there last year.

Best? Sorry everyone, most of the suggestions so far don't make it onto my "best" list ... Maybe Angels, Kama Sutra, Electra, 5 fingered Mary, Basilisk DF, Ogive, Janicepts and that one at the Kindergarten, I really wish I could remember it's bloody name. It's starts as blue camalot and only gets wider and by the time you are at the end of the roof you are closer to the ground than you are to your belayer. I'd love to do Telstar as well, it does look awsome.

patto

19-Jun-2014
9:39:11 AM

On 19/06/2014 Wendy wrote:
>Bundaleer provides the joys of Basilisk DF.

At 16 that is a horizontal chimney!

kieranl

19-Jun-2014
9:40:46 AM

On 19/06/2014 Wendy wrote:
>Basilisk DF, Ogive, Janicepts and that one at the Kindergarten, I really
>wish I could remember it's bloody name. It's starts as blue camalot and
>only gets wider and by the time you are at the end of the roof you are
>closer to the ground than you are to your belayer.
Genuine Wage Overhang

Wendy

19-Jun-2014
10:08:23 AM

On 19/06/2014 kieranl wrote:

>Genuine Wage Overhang

Yeah, that one! I remember borrowing your home made tubes for it, but being really grateful for my big cams, because there were a few places where I didn't want to have to hang out and fiddle the tubes in.


nmonteith

19-Jun-2014
10:18:40 AM

Layback and Think of England (20?) at Amnesty Wall (Grampians) is a cool wide crack

I did the first ascent of this new wide crack at lower Sublime Point (Bluies) a few weeks back... [edit - actually it was done by Greg Child in the 70s and not recorded]


shortman

19-Jun-2014
10:51:32 AM

That top pic looks a cracker!

kieranl

19-Jun-2014
11:42:27 AM

On 19/06/2014 Wendy wrote:
>On 19/06/2014 kieranl wrote:
>
>>Genuine Wage Overhang
>
>Yeah, that one! I remember borrowing your home made tubes for it

They weren't home-made. Genuine Chouinard (think Black Diamond) tube-chocks. I used to have a full set but the 4.5 was for many years fixed in Layback and Think of England. It would be nice to get it back from whoever bootied it just for the nostalgia value of having the full set again.

climberman

19-Jun-2014
2:50:50 PM

great looking arete to the R!


IdratherbeclimbingM9

19-Jun-2014
3:20:54 PM

On 19/06/2014 nmonteith wrote:
>Layback and Think of England (20?) at Amnesty Wall (Grampians) is a cool wide crack
>
Good photo.
What was involved in getting that vantage point?

(& nm, your PM box is full...)
☺


JamesMc

19-Jun-2014
8:07:10 PM

Agamemnon
It's a crack
It's wider than the other suggestions
It's good


gordoste

19-Jun-2014
9:03:39 PM

I don't think Cinderella at Buffalo has had many ascents. Looks heinous...


Miguel75

19-Jun-2014
9:04:37 PM

Awesome looking line Neil. Very cool.

martym

19-Jun-2014
9:48:15 PM

On 19/06/2014 JamesMc wrote:
>Agamemnon
>It's a crack
>It's wider than the other suggestions
>It's good

On 18/06/2014 Adam Burch wrote:
>Most painful gut wrenching, hardest off width classics out there.

Agamemnon is none of those things... And it's not a crack, it's basically a canyon!
But you're right, it's pretty good ;)

Ithomas

19-Jun-2014
10:10:30 PM

Country Road was and remains a real landmark, moss and all. Cacaphonic Crack is a true off-width but hardly worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Monarch or Angels. Even the magnificent Angels can hardly be considered off-width because the wide sections are so easy angled and can be walked up with a big pair of boots.

Most of the named climbs from NSW are corners and can be bridged. The Triple Echo may be an exception and Teaser and the Firecat has its thrills. Telstar is not an off-width. It might be an awful width but its not an off-width. Same with The Landslide Chimney, which by the way, is way easier than Telstar.

Queensland is not NSW or Victoria but as Wendy says, there are lots of true off-width at Frog Buttress of which Juggernaught and Venom are standouts.
No mention of Tasmania but people ought not forget Frews Flutes where some testing off-widths occur including Fantini's awsome climb, Pipeline, and there are a couple of beauties on the Organ Pipes and at the Lost World.

In the ACT there are some pretty good skin tearers on Orroral Ridge. Julius Caesar might just be an offwidth at the top. There are lots of others there including the central line at Trojan Wall which may have been climbed by now? I tried it with Ray Lassman in 1975 by wearing an EB on my right foot and a Galabier Super Guide on my left. It got me to the ceiling, but clearly, I was out of my depth and eventually the Superguide weighed me down. When Henry Barber freed Sooleimon a few months later he toyed with the idea of the big central line and thought that it would eventually go and would prove to be be the hardest climb in the country.

There must be heaps of other off-widths around but don't confuse them with chimneys or bridging corners.

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