Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
All QLD	(General)	(General)	(General)

Author

Rack for frog

daave

2-Jul-2012
10:40:53 PM

On 2/07/2012 One Day Hero wrote:
>On 2/07/2012 steve peckman wrote:
>>
>>ODH I agree that a second rack of cams is very useful for anything over
>>18 but not essential.
>>
>Yup, but add a grade or two for the extra effort of frigging hexes in.........or
>subtract a grade for all the cam-cheats, depending on how old you are ;)
>
>I seem to remember thinking that the ideal rack for stuff like Resurrection
>Corner and Infinity would be 4x(red, yellow, and blue), a couple of draws,
>and nothing else...........is my memory defective?
>

So True!

On my first trip to frog, only had 1 set of camalots, hexes and nuts. I remember being scared stupid on c--k Corner, having already placed red camalot, needing another, facing a long fall, swinging a hex around my head like a lasso and flinging it at the crack above my head in the hope that it would go in. It eventually did. The flash pump momentarily subsided, only to reappear when I climbed on and accidentally kicked that same hex out 2 min later...ooops.


Sonic

2-Jul-2012
11:36:25 PM

On 2/07/2012 One Day Hero wrote:
>On 2/07/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>>And who said trad was dead!
>
>Ummm, I'm guessing Bundy? Or maybe that weird dude who's been gridding
>Kiera with rings (apparently including bits of rock that aren't even routes)?

Oh, how I wish Chocky had a 'like' button!

Nick Clow

3-Jul-2012
9:11:37 AM

To paraphrase something Mike Law once said (he was actually talking about the Blue Mountains and grade 20), you have to be some kind of hero to lead under grade 19 at Frog :)

You might be a little under-gunned with that rack if you are on a trad/crack learning curve. However, there are some shorter pitches of nice climbing in that 'up to grade 17' range, which you can easily lead with a limited rack.

Wendy's suggestions are pretty good, and I would also endorse/add:
- Witches Cauldron 12 is short and quite friendly
- Rest Area Ahead 15 (near the above) is pleasant, not too hard and short
- Faki 14 is a nice corner at the right of the ledge above these climbs
- Integrated Logic something?? 17, up L of Faki, is pretty good
- Micron 16 is amongst the best at the crag at or below 17 (another short climb)
- Elastic Rurp 17 is too
- Winston Alley 16 (17?) is another short technical gem easily protected on a small rack
- Clockwork Orange is a crag clasic at 13
- Devils Wart 15, not done it but there is often a queue for this corner at the v far end of the crag, R of Garbage and the Goddess.

You would probably want to avoid the following if not that solid at 17:
- If 17 (no pro at the start)
- Liquid Laughter Layback 17 (has had one or two accidents)
- Resurrection Corner - now 18? Was a bit of a sandbag at 17 with a hard start and grunty, ugly climbing higher up.

Will be there from Monday next week (Nick and Matt), so maybe see you there.


nmonteith

3-Jul-2012
10:09:04 AM

Theory (14) and Blood Sweat & Tears (15) are another two great routes. I'm not sure why the latter has such a bad reputation though... it's rad training for Yosemite!


Eduardo Slabofvic

3-Jul-2012
10:19:41 AM

Doesn't the current guide give BS&T 17? and some still consider it a bag at that grade.


pezz

3-Jul-2012
10:28:10 AM

Intergrated logic(17) is great and it eats up nuts and hexs , just be watchfull off the loose block 2mtrs up and the loose flake just before the rooflet


nmonteith

3-Jul-2012
10:47:30 AM

On 3/07/2012 Eduardo Slabofvic. wrote:
>Doesn't the current guide give BS&T 17? and some still consider it a bag
>at that grade.

Really? OK. I think I thrutched my way up that sans cams when I was 15 years old. It's a rad old school three dimensional line with a few handy fig branches to sling/pull on. Well that's my memory from 20 years ago anyway.

Frog has such an amazing concentration of classic cracks... has anyone climbed elsewhere in the world at somewhere with such a concentration? The cliff can't be more than a few hundred metres wide but squeezes in more single pitch splitters than Yosemite. (maybe exaggerating there)


Eduardo Slabofvic

3-Jul-2012
11:16:55 AM

On 3/07/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>I think I thrutched my way up that sans cams when I was 15
>years old.

It was my first 15. I had a No.1 Friend and a 10 and 11 hex that were on slings about 3 feet long, and a Whilans sit harness. I still recall a moment up high when I had my head in the crack trying to wipe sweat off onto the rock thinking maybe there's somthing else I could be doing. That was about 30 years ago.

An ealier poster made the comment that the lower grades are hard work, so it's a different matter to turn up at Frog as an experienced climber and have a go at crack climbing, than it is to be a novice and learn how to climb from scratch (as you and I probably did).

I recall going to Araps the first time and having to try and route find for the first time - no issues route finding at Frog.

Olbert

3-Jul-2012
1:03:38 PM

On 3/07/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>On 3/07/2012 Eduardo Slabofvic. wrote:
>>Doesn't the current guide give BS&T 17? and some still consider it a
>bag
>>at that grade.
>
>Really? OK. I think I thrutched my way up that sans cams when I was 15
>years old. It's a rad old school three dimensional line with a few handy
>fig branches to sling/pull on. Well that's my memory from 20 years ago
>anyway.
>
>Frog has such an amazing concentration of classic cracks... has anyone
>climbed elsewhere in the world at somewhere with such a concentration?
>The cliff can't be more than a few hundred metres wide but squeezes in
>more single pitch splitters than Yosemite. (maybe exaggerating there)

Have you been to Indian Creek? I'm not sure if the actual density (routes per metre of cliffline) is equal to that of Frog but it sure has a *lot* of cliffline!


nmonteith

3-Jul-2012
1:45:49 PM

On 3/07/2012 Olbert wrote:
>Have you been to Indian Creek? I'm not sure if the actual density (routes
>per metre of cliffline) is equal to that of Frog but it sure has a *lot*
>of cliffline!

Yes - it didn't have anywhere near the same density of quality routes.

Wendy

3-Jul-2012
4:47:14 PM

What is it with all this when i was a lad stuff? Yes, I too went to Frog for the first time with a set and a half of cams and nothing bigger than a 3 camalot. As a result I nearly died of terror on a regular basis, the top of Erg and Iron Mandible staying in the memory. I bought my first big cams after that trip. Gareth also likes to remind me that was the trip we met on, whilst I had set up a hanging belay 3/4 of the way up devil's diherdral because I had run out of gear. I hauled 3 3s, a 3.5, 3 4s, 3 5s and a 6 up c--k Crack a few years ago and appreciated every one of them. Actually, I remember I had a 3 left at the top, because the guy leading infinity was having a wail because he didn't have enough 3s and I offered to lover it down to him, but he sucked it up and climbed through before I got above him.

I did Infinity and Resurection corner again just last year. I am very confident on grade 19 cracks, but i still carried triples of 3/4 - 3 up Infinity and used them all. RC took at least an extra 3.5 and 2 4s. And if you discover that you don't like the fist jams on Shit heap, as Steve suggests (armed with your 3 and 4 camalots of course), you really won't like RC or IM. And I love BSandT, it's one of the best easy routes there. It's fine at 17, but put it in the not straight forward catagory. However, it's long and sustained and that little rack just won't cut it. And as an aside, I think Theory is a crap route. Sabrasucker was ok as well actually. Probably not a walk in the park for 14 if you can't jam though.

I'm not very good at sandbagging people unless I know they they'll cope with it - i'm not suggesting all of this for no good reason! Frog sucks up cams and it's really fiddly to place passive gear because many cracks are parallel. Yes, many of us have survived a trip to frog on measly racks, but your trip will be way less stressful (and safer) in proportion to the number of cams you manage to get your hands on. I hauled 3 4s, 3 5 and a 6 up c--k Crack a few years ago and appreciated every one of them.

Am I agreeing with Damo again? I'm worried now. No, he agreed with me, I got in first!

And Indian creek? Well, there were amazing lines after amazing lines ... Maybe Frog wins in density, but the creek has a slight loss of density for a much much much greater quantity. How permanent can you really be at Frog? It's only really climbable 3 months of the year, and I suspect even i might get bored by then and it's one of my fav crags. The creek, on the other hand, I could spend many many months at.


nmonteith

3-Jul-2012
5:03:26 PM

Wendy, you are famous for stitching up cracks! The first time I met you was many moons ago and you were on something at Frog and I remember being blown away by the 15+ bits of gear you had in below - and your screaming! :-)

Wendy

3-Jul-2012
5:14:11 PM

I don't just stitch up cracks - I stitch up everything! I also still scream when I come off. And grunt and wail a bit at other times. Maybe slightly less than I used to ... I did notice your second post moved from "back in the day" to "i didn't place anything but cams on my last trip". Really, if you have cams, they are the way forward for frog!

BTW, which epic was that one I was on then?


Doug

3-Jul-2012
6:35:49 PM

I remember standing on the ledge of Inquisition whimpering until a Kiwi strolling by offered to send up a couple of large cams. Offer gratefully accepted. That experience and standing below Magical Mystery Tour, looking up and lusting - but not enough to jump on it without wide gear convinced me to finally buy some bigger cams. I've since been back and loved MMT thanks to the peace of mind of my #'s 4 & 5 Camalots.
On the other hand, Di and I just repeated Outer Space on Snow Creek Wall (http://www.climbingwashington.com/classics/outerspace.htm) after 26 years and dragged a #4 Camalot all the way to the top needlessly!


nmonteith

3-Jul-2012
8:51:19 PM

On 3/07/2012 Wendy wrote:
>BTW, which epic was that one I was on then?

It would have been 1998 I think and I have a hazy memory of it being right of Gladiator. A corner of some sort.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

3-Jul-2012
9:00:06 PM

On 3/07/2012 Nick Clow wrote:
>You would probably want to avoid the following if not that solid at 17:
>- Liquid Laughter Layback 17 (has had one or two accidents)

?
I don't doubt the accidents, but I thought it pretty fair for the grade, and the best part of it was that it pretty much leads up to Borderline 29, if my decrepit memory serves me still!
☻

On 3/07/2012 Wendy wrote:
>Am I agreeing with Damo again? I'm worried now. No, he agreed with me, I got in first!

~> So, what are you saying again, apart from (like nm said), you stitch up the routes you do?
Heh, heh, heh.

White Trash

3-Jul-2012
9:24:35 PM

On 3/07/2012 Eduardo Slabofvic. wrote:
>I recall going to Araps the first time and having to try and route find
>for the first time - no issues route finding at Frog.

Is this the story behing the new routes you have put up there?

White Trash

3-Jul-2012
9:26:07 PM

One Day Hero

3-Jul-2012
11:39:15 PM

On 3/07/2012 White Trash wrote:
>
>Yeh, but if they were written up then they are now routes?

Au contraire, my good man. Sinking a couple of bolts into a 6m high gr1 gully, giving it a shit name, then writing it up on the internets does not magically produce a route.

anthonycuskelly

4-Jul-2012
9:07:16 AM

Wendy, I'm still a lad. But at <17 (which the OP is asking about), most frog climbs aren't that parallel for long. Elastic RURP is probably the only thing in that grade I've carried double cams on at Frog (though a few others they'd be handy). I have no doubt that in the 18+ range doubles and triples become far more useful, but that's not what was being asked about :D

My own shot at Iron Mandible I bailed because I couldn't stick the wider jams (past fist), probably says something about my thrutching ability.

There are 55 messages in this topic.