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15-Oct-2009 9:40:13 AM
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Has anyone had a look at this? Just wondering why it gets a hand in the guide? Suspect rock and shonky protection I suspect.
Say what you like about sandy, chossy sandstone death chimneys, but natural lines don't come much more awesome than this. Steve and I had a look down it last time we were up the top. 100m long and somewhere in the grey area between climbing, canyonning and caving, right inside Old Baldy. Interestingly it gets a hand in the description and a Jolly Roger in the topo. We're thinking of having a crack at it in November. Beauty of it is that if it rains, it won't matter!
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15-Oct-2009 10:53:52 AM
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If you die, can I have your gear?
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15-Oct-2009 11:28:33 AM
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On 15/10/2009 wallwombat wrote:
>If you die, can I have your gear?
Sure, but you'll have to come to the Wolgan and get it out of a sandstone trench.
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15-Oct-2009 11:43:24 AM
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Im gonna watch from The Coke Ovens. Im putting up a fixed rope on micro so i can rope solo the upper section..its long and quite hard and asking someone to belay for a few hours streches the belay credits...Just got a mini traxion..it seems to work in the gym!
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15-Oct-2009 11:47:32 AM
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On 15/10/2009 adztcc wrote:
>Im gonna watch from The Coke Ovens. Im putting up a fixed rope on micro
>so i can rope solo the upper section..its long and quite hard and asking
>someone to belay for a few hours streches the belay credits...Just got
>a mini traxion..it seems to work in the gym!
At risk of thread hijack; ... no matter the device, it is good practice (imo), to back yourself up by tying into the rope occasionally along the way.
☺
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15-Oct-2009 12:03:07 PM
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Evan wouldn't be the first person to die on Valhalla... there's quite a lot of shit rock in the Wolgan, especially on the lower grade climbs.
Good Luck,
m.
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15-Oct-2009 12:06:54 PM
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Who changed the spelling in the Subject title! This is an outrage.
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15-Oct-2009 12:23:13 PM
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On 15/10/2009 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:
>At risk of thread hijack; ... no matter the device, it is good practice
>(imo), to back yourself up by tying into the rope occasionally along the
>way.
>☺
At risk of further thread hijack, I would want to take any sort of a fall onto a traxion, nasty teeth in there...
.M
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15-Oct-2009 12:30:59 PM
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On 15/10/2009 .Macca wrote:
>At risk of further thread hijack (snip)
Aah, it's evanbb's thread and he already has a reputation for his threads being hijacked.
In fact he is attempting to do it to this one himself already.
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15-Oct-2009 12:32:43 PM
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Nah, you all have my permission to hijack the shit out of it. As if this bloody route has been repeated since 1968. Who would subject themselves to it?
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15-Oct-2009 3:07:27 PM
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On 15/10/2009 evanbb wrote:
>Who would subject themselves
>to it?
Idiots who think there's something noble and praiseworthy about climbing choss?
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15-Oct-2009 3:35:41 PM
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On 15/10/2009 Duncan wrote:
>Idiots who think there's something noble and praiseworthy about climbing
>choss?
How does seeing an awesome looking natural line and wanting to climb it make you an idiot?
I imagine the trip report Evan will write after his adventure on Valhalla will be a hell of a lot more interesting than anything you are likely to plate up for us, mountain climber man.
As I have always said, you don't need a long neck to be a goose.
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15-Oct-2009 3:58:52 PM
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I think I will join these fellows, as this thread is shaping up to be interesting viewing...
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15-Oct-2009 4:58:34 PM
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On 15/10/2009 adztcc wrote:
>Im gonna watch from The Coke Ovens. Im putting up a fixed rope on micro
>so i can rope solo the upper section..its long and quite hard and asking
>someone to belay for a few hours streches the belay credits...Just got
>a mini traxion..it seems to work in the gym!
Your ropes a bit fatter and sturdier in the gym? I guess you could bring a couple of gym ropes pretty easily. Not sure how I'd approach it; whether or not I'd trust one rope or tying in. If you're high up, you could pretty easily tie a stopper that stops you from bouncing off things and trust the traxion. Maybe a second rope for rapping back down?
Be interested to see what Dave McCleod is using top toping here
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15-Oct-2009 5:48:00 PM
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On 15/10/2009 evanbb wrote:
>Nah, you all have my permission to hijack the shit out of it. As if this
>bloody route has been repeated since 1968. Who would subject themselves
>to it?
>
>
Paul Daniels death leading the first pitch in 1962 put quite a few people off the climb, ideed the whole of the Wolgan. Andrew Penney's guide actually gives the climb quite a good write up. I think Hayden Brotchie may had repeated Walhalla, but then again he is often actracted by big chossy lines (such as Landside Chimney, Dog Face)
Despite encouragement by the late Wade Stevens I declined to lead the Chimney/corner Supernovae at Exploding Galaxies. This was because rather a large piece of the first rock I touched on the climb came away in my hands. I have heard of a few ascents of Dihorrea Chimney, despite it's sandy reputation.
Anyway, good luck, although there are plenty of climbs at the Wolgan I'd look at (or ideed, have looked at) first.
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15-Oct-2009 5:58:34 PM
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On 15/10/2009 mikepatt wrote:
>Anyway, good luck, although there are plenty of climbs at the Wolgan I'd
>look at (or ideed, have looked at) first.
>
Yeah, I've climbed a bunch of routes over at the Coke Ovens and I'm happy with variable rock quality. Not sure yet if we'll go up it; might come down it. I had a look down and it's just such a cool position. I don't remembet the details, but there's an exit from the chimney about 6-8m back from the edge of the cliff, through a hole. It looks like tremendous fun. Like I said, much like a dry(ish), almost dead vertical canyon. I've never looked at it from the bottom, and it might be too chossy for even my tastes.
http://picasaweb.google.com/peregrinite/WolganSep071#5108378072908801026
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15-Oct-2009 6:14:02 PM
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True to its germanic origins I say we maintain the double V and pronounce it as we would vegetable
rather than wegetable (for the confused Krauts this would be phonetically [v]alhalla, [w]olgan [v]alley).
Seeing as english is not a language itself so much as it is a soup we need to celebrate and pronounciate
these and other borrowed words rather than bastardise everything into westy anglo nonsense.
hows that for a highjack?
all i see is moss there, I cope well with moss. Choss depends on my mood on the day.
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15-Oct-2009 6:41:34 PM
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Diarrhoea chimney does read well despite its name, I think that is the one for us Ev. We will have that
done by the time the sport falling contingent has brewed their second faffuccino, Then we can walk over
to ogle at the sand castle, getting momentarily distracted by the noticeably absent sword of damocles. If
we are drunk enough we can free that and claim the FFFA. If we are not drunk enough then we can
amuse ourselves looking for the sword on the ground. Then we can go back and get scared and drunk on
sarsparilla slabs.
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15-Oct-2009 8:44:15 PM
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Sadly, my Wolgan guide is buggered; I got a litre of espresso, that was a week old, onto it while living under the passenger seat of the Subaru, last time I was out there.
I remember thinking the Pulpit into Amphitheatre looked good, scarey and easy.
I think I'll bring some home brew, but the first 2 batches, which are ready now, are honestly terrible. Not too bad tasting, but intolerable amounts of suspended solids. Won't matter in the dark. There's still stacks of piss in it.
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15-Oct-2009 9:00:09 PM
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My first batch tastes like beer (mixed with tonic water). There has also been some rather confronting
allegory in regard to it tasting 'young'.
Another 2 weeks should allow it to develop enough maturity and cynicism to fit in.
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