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VIC Buffalo Gorge North Side North Wall [ Gorge Guide ]

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Big Grassy rockfall

MattJ

18-Mar-2015
1:44:06 PM

Big Grassy was hit by a sizeable rock fall some time before last Saturday. We found quite a lot of debris at the base of the route collected in the ferns and much rubble on the ledge itself. (Photo is of the ledge post trundle).

From the debris I gather the ledge once hosted several bushes? Or perhaps these came from elsewhere on the cliff. I'm cautious venturing anything that could be described as an opinion on Chockstone, but I don't think it's practicable to sleep on Big Grassy anymore.

Ben_E

18-Mar-2015
2:02:51 PM

No photo?

Either way, thanks for posting. Glad no-one was on the ledge at the time (I'm assuming we would have heard if they were!).

Are the bolts there still intact if anyone wants to put up a portaledge?

gfdonc

18-Mar-2015
3:30:32 PM

HUH?
Yes please, a photo would be of interest.

My early thoughts lead me to wonder where the hell anything could have fallen off from above and landed on the ledge, given the amount of steep rock above.

The flake about 15m above the ledge did sounds a little hollow last time I was there ..

kieranl

18-Mar-2015
3:39:12 PM

Matt, any idea whether it was rockfall from above, or whether Big Grassy itself was the source of the rockfall?
It's been donkey's years since I was in Big Grassy (?1981). Back then I could sleep full-length on the narrow eastern end (albeit with one rock digging into me and the residual smell from someone's crap that I'd scraped off the ledge) while Steve got the fairly comfortable flat bit in the corner which was just a bit small to stretch out in.
I gather it's become less-and-less accommodating over the years and probably has finally turned the corner.

MattJ

18-Mar-2015
4:59:15 PM

Pictures aren't liking being uploaded I'm afraid.

Pretty sure the source was the wedge of rock at the very base of the classic 22 corner pitch.

rb

18-Mar-2015
5:15:29 PM

Photo here

What it doesn't show is just how sloping and generally shit the entire ledge is. There's a roughly couch-sized flat ledge about 10m down which sleeps one, just don't roll over. A hammock slung across the corner is pretty comfortable.

ademmert

18-Mar-2015
5:29:21 PM

Wow there was a small tree shrub just behind Matt in the photo in Jan and a lot more vegetation generally.

The ledge almost looks like it has been "cleaned" off

Reg

18-Mar-2015
5:38:40 PM

I did Ozy on the weekend of the 22nd of Feb and the shrub was still there

Imaclawfan

18-Mar-2015
6:18:00 PM

...BIG GRASSY 2013

...NOW...

gfdonc

18-Mar-2015
7:26:10 PM

Yeah it looks like something has speared down from somewhere near the Gledhill roof and taken the tree with it. Eww glad I wasn't there when it happened.

I'll be interested to look at the next set of photos from the south side to try and work out what has changed above.

The ledge has been slopey for a while but still useable for 2. I slept there last April (& got rained off, see my TR).

Neald

18-Mar-2015
8:56:52 PM

To me the ledge looks flatter. I think there was a large slopey rock on it that appears to be missing. Perhaps it was displaced by rock fall and took the tree with it?

IdratherbeclimbingM9

18-Mar-2015
9:09:47 PM

Geoff G & John F are up Buffalo at the moment.
... Perhaps they needed clear space for their reunion party?
;-)

Rockfall in the Gorge is not uncommon, particularly after rain.
I have been there midweek soloing, basically no-one else around and heard large booms of disintegrating rock while climbing.
... It tends to play with your solo mindset when that happens!

I have also sat out rain at the Gledhill Bivvy and noted that the water running down the wall above, and dripping off that roof, makes a neat 'cut-line' on Big Grassy so that ledge has been undergoing erosion 'forever'.
Compared to many wall bivvies, in it's current state it is still luxurious!

By the way, if you ever go straight up the face above the obvious diagonal traverse left, located on upper Ozy Original, You will find that much of that face is a facade wiating to drop into the oblivion...

kieranl

19-Mar-2015
8:49:09 AM

On 18/03/2015 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:

>By the way, if you ever go straight up the face above the obvious diagonal
>traverse left, located on upper Ozy Original, You will find that much of
>that face is a facade wiating to drop into the oblivion...

Aren't we all?

The good Dr

19-Mar-2015
8:56:50 AM

On 18/03/2015 gfdonc wrote:
>Yeah it looks like something has speared down from somewhere near the Gledhill
>roof and taken the tree with it. Eww glad I wasn't there when it happened.
>
>I'll be interested to look at the next set of photos from the south side
>to try and work out what has changed above.
>
>The ledge has been slopey for a while but still useable for 2. I slept
>there last April (& got rained off, see my TR).
>

Will try to get some pics on the weekend of the 28-29th March. I have some from early Feb of the Nth wall for comparison.

kieranl

19-Mar-2015
9:24:41 AM

I'm wondering from the photos if the bush didn't just fly into the void taking all the dirt with it in its roots as the newly exposed rock looks remarkably clean. Could have happened during heavy rain with the extra weight of water. Something similar happened to the large tree at the first belay of Debutante in 1984. That was snow, but the principle is the same. The roots just take all of the dirt with it, and leave clean(ish) rock.

Reg

19-Mar-2015
2:45:51 PM

I agree. Looks like the tree just gave way. There's no rock debris as you would get in a rockfall

rb

19-Mar-2015
2:56:36 PM

There's no debris because I kicked it all off the ledge. Definitely rockfall, a flake (I guess) from the right hand side of the yellow roof aprox 20m up from the ledge.

Interestingly, there's some smeared metal fragments remaining on the wall right where the flake cut loose. I'm assuming it's what remains of a fixed wire that got squashed between the flake sliding down and the wall. Between a rock and a hard place...

There are 17 messages in this topic.