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Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

 Page 6 of 6. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 60 | 61 to 80 | 81 to 100 | 101 to 111
Area Location Sub Location Crag Links
All NSW (General) (General) (General)  

Author
Warrumbungles
mikllaw
6-Apr-2011
8:18:32 AM
I do, I'll email you
mikl

ChuckNorris
6-Apr-2011
8:20:00 AM
Google mark colyvn sydney uni philosophy

MichaelF
6-Apr-2011
6:45:57 PM
On 7/04/2010 nmonteith wrote:
>On 7/04/2010 Auspep wrote:
>>We also cleared the track down to Crater Bluff and cairned it the whole
>>way. We'll do the bluff mountain track again next trip.
>
>Ah! That explains it. The first day i walked in i pretty much had to bush
>bash down the guly - and then on the way out there was suddenly a lovely
>path. Thanks! It made it a lot easier to negotiate at night.

Having done this same walk to Crater Bluff on a moonless night and enjoyed the experience, and in contrast to Neil's view, please dont clear/enhance/cairn tracks up there. Personally I find the ambiguity adds to the adventure....When people take varying routes through the terrain the impact is dispersed and the sense of remoteness and connection with the landscape is enhanced (for some).

IdratherbeclimbingM9
6-Apr-2011
9:49:27 PM
On 6/04/2011 MichaelF wrote:
>Having done this same walk to Crater Bluff on a moonless night and enjoyed
>the experience, and in contrast to Neil's view, please dont clear/enhance/cairn
>tracks up there. Personally I find the ambiguity adds to the adventure....When
>people take varying routes through the terrain the impact is dispersed
>and the sense of remoteness and connection with the landscape is enhanced
>(for some).

+1.
jgoding
10-Apr-2011
11:59:30 AM
Howdy Stu,


Firstly good on you for taking this on!

I'd be happy to do a little work with the topos, and have ok shots of Crater Bluff, some of Bluff Mountain and Belougery Spire.

I can number the routes to suit your type if you assign numbers to them.

Brett is heading up there over Easter and I asked him to take some photos. Steve Kassar is also up there and I've asked him also to get photos and send them to me.

Will let you know what comes - and if OK with both Brett and Steve - will provide you with a copy of their photos.
mikllaw
11-Apr-2011
2:23:15 PM
OK then, doing Flight of the phoenix tomorrow, maybe.

Should I climb up and rap (which is how we did it way back when) on pitch 2 or cut across via the John Croker variant? And if I rap, what's the anchor?

Also, the ACA website mentions a chain before the end of P1, is this a rap station?
gfdonc
11-Apr-2011
2:34:59 PM
On 11/04/2011 mikllaw wrote:
>OK then, doing Flight of the phoenix tomorrow, maybe.
>
>Should I climb up and rap (which is how we did it way back when) on pitch
>2 or cut across via the John Croker variant? And if I rap, what's the anchor?

I presume you're referring to the rap anchor not the anchors at the bottom end of the rap.
We cut a large bunch of tat off there in 2007 and replaced it - with what I don't recall, my memory dims, we either put some new tape or a loop of cord. Joe will remember. Plus one mallion.

>Also, the ACA website mentions a chain before the end of P1, is this a
>rap station?

I don't know anything about a chain on p1 or p2, but there is a rap station on the slab somewhere that lets you get off from the ledge if you tension to the left (and clip the old pin on the way) in 2 raps. (In other words I didn't see this on the way up but we used it on the way down).
gfdonc
11-Apr-2011
4:42:56 PM
On 11/04/2011 wm wrote:
>based on 10+ year old memories, yes the chain on pitch 1 is a rap anchor.

Well that's not my recollection. I belayed at a nice ledge off wires, and there may have been a fixed pin there. Or am I setting myself up for a "you were off route" attack?

>I think the p2 anchor was a rather modest tree on the ledge wrapped in
>tat ... is that right Steve?
The tat and some trad to back it up.
The 'tree' .. hahahahahahaha.

Superstu
11-Apr-2011
4:47:08 PM
I remember seeing the tat (or was it chains?) at the top of pitch one. Doesn't really do anything, not sure why they are there. I think I may have belayed somewhere else too. Pitch 2 is the bomb, don't miss it with the piker's variant that escapes right to join the third pitch. Most people seem to rap from pitch 2 anchors to get to the start of pitch 3. It's a bit of tat around a flake only; the tree has long gone. The other option would be to lead down from pitch 2 anchors; this may be a better option as you can be more choosy with your belay stance (gear wasn't great where we ended up).

If anybody was in the mood for fixing things up, I would suggest replace the tat on pitch 2 with 2 dynas & mallions, and removing pitch 1 anchors. A great cliff for keeping as clean as possible.


BG
2-May-2011
3:29:23 PM
My friends and I had great time out at the Warrumbungles over the 2011 Easter Anzac Weekend. Met up with Steven Kassar and a great bunch of other people throughout the weekend. I didn't take many photographs as I was climbing every day. But my friend Matthew may have some worth adding to the guide. I'll send some through once we have gathered everyone's pix.

We managed to get up Endeavour face and Vertigo on Belougery Spire, Corner Stone Rib on Crater Bluff and Bastion Buttress on Bluff Mountain.

I was given two approach descriptions for Crater bluff from Balor Hut. The most straight forward being to make your way to Dogma gap and then follow the climbers trail (straight ahead when coming directly from Balor hut) and cairns towards crater bluff until you cross a creek bed, then make your way up the scree to the base and follow the base left (corner stone rib, etc) or right to your chosen route. The other description was provided by Alan (unfortunately I cannot recall his last name right know) and he suggested making our way up to the Grand high tops and following the major volcanic dyke down the valley and across to the base of the rib. From up on crater bluff this way appears to be reasonably straight forward.

For Bluff Mountain we used the access description from the ACA route register and found it to be pretty good. I guess the most important thing in getting to the face of Bluff mountain is to not traverse too high from Dow's camp. Once you find the large cairn on the second scree slope make your way down and around the next rocky ridge and then up the large boulder field directly under the face.

We started Bastion Buttress from where BB Variant was scratched into the base and climbed up until the grade got a bit stiff for the route description (Good rule for the Warrumbungles is definitely if the climbing is harder than suggested you are probably off route). We belayed from a large slung rock and traversed left under the arête to a semi hanging belay from a tree with loads of slings on in it. We then arced left before going right out onto the arête for the rest of the climb. Our climb didn't seem to directly follow any of the photo topo's I had seen except for when we got onto the arête. Regardless of which route you take, the first 2-3 pitches are definitely the hardest, but then things ease up dramatically.

Michael Law was generous enough to lend us his half ropes for Bluff mountain and it was really appreciated. After experiencing some of the loose rock, I would not climb in the Warrumbungles again without half ropes.

It was three years ago that my girlfriend and I did the Grand high tops circuit and made a packed to learn to place protection and come back out and climb those beautiful volcanic spires. On the trip we met so many great people that had a wealth of experience and stories to tell. We had a couple of loose rocks and "we are not in Shipley any more" moments, but all in all it was an amazing adventurous weekend.

Here's to making goals and living your dreams.

Superstu
17-May-2011
4:10:00 PM
Just an update on the Bungles guide. I've received the original manuscript for the 1994 guide from Mark Colyvan, which will be an invaluable resource for figuring out stuff. I probably won't get a chance to look at it all until after my big holiday but I've now got a few names of some likely suspects who might be able to contribute.

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There are 111 messages in this topic.

 

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