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VIC Buffalo (General) (General) The Cathedral [ Cathedral Guide ]

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Buffalo - Maharajah - 2nd pitch - L or R crack

shortman

25-Jan-2011
8:48:01 PM

The right crack seems to dissapear into oblivion, we took the left one, but the chocky guide says this is off route....anyone climbed the right one??

rolsen1

25-Jan-2011
9:13:01 PM

We climbed the right one and then swapped to the left one when it ran out

shortman

25-Jan-2011
9:29:20 PM

The step across looked a bit daunting from the btm....but it did look the friendlier crack...

Paulie

25-Jan-2011
9:39:25 PM

There are a few variants to Maharajah, however the trade route is as follows: pitch 1 takes the finger crack to the ledge; pitch 2 takes the RH crack (layaway at the start off the ledge), then towards the top you step left into the crack that takes you to the belay ledge, Pitch 3 is the bombay chimney and onwards up the awesome flake system. The layaway at the start of pitch 2 (not the step across, which is relatively easy) is IMO the crux of the route, although the last smear moves can also be equally as challenging on a hot day, especially if you're not used to exposed routes :-) Most ppl run pitches 1 and 2 together and do the route in 2 pitches. Best belay ledge at Buffalo for sure :-)

shortman

25-Jan-2011
9:47:52 PM

On 25/01/2011 Paulie wrote:
>There are a few variants to Maharajah, however the trade route is as follows: pitch 1 takes the finger crack to the ledge; pitch 2 takes the RH crack (layaway at the start off the ledge), then towards the top you step left into the crack that takes you to the belay ledge, Pitch 3 is the bombay chimney and onwards up the awesome flake system. The layaway at the start of pitch 2 (not the step across, which is relatively easy) is IMO the crux of the route, although the last smear moves can also be equally as challenging on a hot day, especially if you're not used to exposed routes :-) Most ppl run pitches 1 and 2 together and do the route in 2 pitches. Best belay ledge at Buffalo for sure :-)

It was an awsome ledge! And the last slabby bit was fine...it sounds like we missed the crux...although gettin across and into the left crack was no walkover....

kieranl

25-Jan-2011
9:57:09 PM

Once upon a time the left-hand crack was choked with snowgrass which made it very unattractive to climb direct. I haven't been up to Buffalo for a while but I gather the grass has gone.

shortman

25-Jan-2011
10:04:27 PM

On 25/01/2011 kieranl wrote
I haven't been up to Buffalo for a while but I gather the grass has gone.

Na the grass is still there in patches....but far from choked....

Paulie

26-Jan-2011
12:08:00 PM

On 25/01/2011 shortman wrote:
>It was an awsome ledge! And the last slabby bit was fine...it sounds like
>we missed the crux...although gettin across and into the left crack was
>no walkover....

Glad to hear you had a good time. It's easily one of the best trade routes on the hill. There are 4 distinct hard bits on the route: the finger crack at the start, the layaway after the 1st ledge (RH crack), the step across from the RH to LH cracks, and then the start of the bombay chimney. It's deffo not a good route for a grade 16 trad route greenhorn, that's for sure!

IdratherbeclimbingM9

26-Jan-2011
6:37:53 PM

On 26/01/2011 Paulie wrote:
>It's deffo not a good route for a grade 16 trad route greenhorn, that's for sure!

... I saw Bob Cowan take two bumblies up it for their first ever climb one time.
I then followed their ascent as leader of a second party, and was bemused to find skin/fur/blood at various locations on it from the previous party!

When I later spoke to Bob asking him why he thought it suitable as a beginner climb, he told me that since they did not know how hard it was they would manage OK (he knew they were fit/strong young lads), as they did not know any better!

~> This was the first time I ever saw that 'logic' applied to climbing without intentionally being a sandbag, and I was impressed that it seemed to work, as they got up it and seemed to enjoy the experience from what I observed.
... ~> then again, that might simply be the result of the magic location that it is, heh, heh, heh.

Btw; I thought it is graded 17, and the LH hand-crack variant on P2 is a must do.
Also the whole climb can be done as one pitch on 60m rope/s!
☺

shortman

26-Jan-2011
6:41:25 PM

On 26/01/2011 Paulie wrote:
>It's deffo not a good route for a grade 16 trad route greenhorn, that's for sure!

It's a 17 and i fit that description perfectly.....smiles.....only my second multi-pitch and i would recommend it to anyone....the climbing wasn't to hard....pretty straight forward really....if anything it was a bit of a let down because everyone was talkin about it being a classic....but don't get me wrong - it was certainly not a bad day out!

shortman

26-Jan-2011
6:52:51 PM

On 26/01/2011 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:
>Btw; I thought it is graded 17, and the LH hand-crack variant on P2 is a must do.

Did u think the LH crack was harder, easier or just different?

Paulie

26-Jan-2011
9:04:03 PM

yeah it's somewhere around that grade...I personally think that it's slightly overgraded when compared to other grade 17 benchmarks such as Wicked Solitaire,

Paulie

26-Jan-2011
9:05:45 PM

On 26/01/2011 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote>
>... I saw Bob Cowan take two bumblies up it for their first ever climb
>one time.

...that wouldn't be like Bob now would it ;-) I hear he's thinking about getting back into it again.

Paulie

26-Jan-2011
9:07:23 PM

On 26/01/2011 shortman wrote:
>Did u think the LH crack was harder, easier or just different?

LH crack I always found harder, the grass footholds looks inviting but prove to be slippery and horrible from memory (I haven't done the LH crack for ~15 years.)

shortman

26-Jan-2011
9:17:40 PM

On 26/01/2011 Paulie wrote:
the grass footholds looks inviting but prove to be slippery and horrible from memory

That sums it up perfectly!
Spent the whole time underclinging with my feet!

IdratherbeclimbingM9

26-Jan-2011
9:27:23 PM

>grade 17 benchmarks such as Wicked Solitaire

I thought Wicked Solitaire was Gd 18, and final pitch a bit of a testpiece at that!

Grass growing on Maharajah?
Last time I did it (admittedly two seasons ago now), it was clean. I would have thought it receives too much traffic to ever be anything but clean?
~> We are talking the magic hand crack, sort of left of centre of face (and requires a step or two left-traverse type move to get to the base of), that leads directly to the square cut belay aren't we?

shortman

26-Jan-2011
9:34:51 PM

Na, that LH P2 crack had about half a dozen tufts poppin out....so did most of the horizontal cracks....too busy climbin and tryin not to sh*t myself to do the gardening...

shortman

26-Jan-2011
9:59:48 PM

And yeah we are talkin that magic hand crack....but the word magic is probably stretchin it a bit.....

Paulie

27-Jan-2011
7:33:14 PM

On 26/01/2011 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:
>>grade 17 benchmarks such as Wicked Solitaire
>
>I thought Wicked Solitaire was Gd 18, and final pitch a bit of a testpiece
>at that!

Pretty sure that it used to be a good solid grade 17 handcrack, it's deffo easier than Beowulf (18).

cruze

30-Jan-2011
9:37:13 PM

Jumped on Wicked Solitaire yesterday. Great route. Seems the second pitch gets all the love, 'cause the first pitch was 50% gardening 50% fun. IMHO top pitch is as hard as Beowulf. Very tight gnarly hands for me (#1Cam). Anyway don't know what thishas to do with Maharajah...

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