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22-Jun-2009 9:42:46 PM
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has any body got good accurate & reliable beta for this route.
we got on it today, seems uttlerly desperate for the grade, or any grade for that matter!!
there was a wet streak on it though, which didn't help matters.
pulling the bulge seemed desperate. with the nasty box shaped pocket
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23-Jun-2009 8:03:11 AM
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hard, with the crux above the bolt is what i remember. I don't know that it's had many repeats and 'may' be undergraded
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23-Jun-2009 10:47:22 AM
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Wish I could help but that route shut me down!! I would love to know how many ascents it has had and what grade people think it might be.
I know the route was done in the 80s by James Holbrook and Mikl. Mikl was climbing superbly (as always) in the 80s and I saw James climb a few times and he was excellent on thin technical climbing. Other wall routes done in this time seem desperate aswell (Butter Knives, Bill Collins and Gidget Verdon) and I think the wall climbs are gradred very hard compared to the steep stuff at Berowra.
While we are talking about Berowra sandbags am I the only one who thinks Cenotaph Corner is tough for a 4?
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23-Jun-2009 11:12:12 AM
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maybe with more sandbags, it would of stemmed back the water from covering a few of the footholds.
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23-Jun-2009 11:31:28 AM
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>While we are talking about Berowra sandbags am I the only one who thinks Cenotaph Corner is tough for a 4?
Ha! I was teaching some mates how to lead trad on that the other day :) (I wanted them to focus on the placements and not the climbing). Got some weird looks from the other climbers.
Its pretty easy, but not that easy.
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23-Jun-2009 4:47:39 PM
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I once saw a guy down climbing Marsala (the grade 12 corner at the right hand end of the blackboard wall) in runners with a backpack on. Once he made it the ground he complained that he thought it was hard for a grade 4 (he thought he was descending Centaph Corner).
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24-Jun-2009 6:50:22 AM
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From vague memory I'd say Bill Collins is fairly accurately graded (24) - I could at least do all the moves on it, unlike Gidget Verdon (22) which has a showstopper move at the start.
I suspect that part of what makes Berowra more confusing is the inconsistency in the gradings - Wall Thing (19) for example is nowhere near as hard as Ladder of Gloom (also 19), either in terms of its hardest single move or the sustained nature of the climbing. Then there's also the fauna factor - if you shove your hand into one of the horizontals on Wall Thing and inadvertently start giving a brown snake a massage, the grade would likely go up a couple of notches.
The grading on Cenotaph Corner is certainly debatable - that move at the top is quite possibly grade 5 (or maybe even grade 6!), and could cause a lot of concern for those only leading grade 4 - the exposure up there is pretty wild!
heh5
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24-Jun-2009 8:03:55 AM
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Gidget Verdon shed a cricial hold at the start a long time back. I suspect a lot of the more popular routes on the Blackboard have. Butterknives is probably 28/29, it took me quite a few tries and I did Steps Ahead at Araps soon after on 2 days.
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24-Jun-2009 9:36:14 AM
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I was out there one day and came across a guy who was contemplating riding his bike down cenotaph corner. I didn't stick around to find out if he did it or not. I pointed out that the rocks at the bottom are of the hard kind and then moved on rather quickly to the other end of the cliffs. That had bad news written all over it...
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24-Jun-2009 10:20:44 AM
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On 24/06/2009 pmonks wrote:
>I suspect that part of what makes Berowra more confusing is the inconsistency
>in the gradings - Wall Thing (19) for example is nowhere near as hard as
>Ladder of Gloom (also 19), either in terms of its hardest single move or
>the sustained nature of the climbing.
I sometimes wonder if some routes seem like sandbags because I've missed the "trick" move. I thought Ladder of Gloom was fairly hard for the grade but I went up on the horizontal cracks on the left, then right across to the ladder. I later saw another fellow go up from directly under the ladder ... reaching up to the ladder balancing with no hands, making it look incredibly easy.
Talking about trick moves, I still can't figure out Pickaxe (22) at Narrabeen steep side. I've now made it up Relax(23) right next to it, with a bit of dogging, but it seems much more straightforward than Pickaxe.
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24-Jun-2009 12:27:05 PM
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On 24/06/2009 TonyB wrote:
> I later saw another fellow go up from directly under the ladder
>... reaching up to the ladder balancing with no hands, making it look incredibly
>easy.
same here. on my second shot i took the low road and that's the beta for Ladder of Gloom.
end on sight spoiler. ;)
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26-Jun-2009 9:26:31 AM
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I still have trouble on the "easy" approach to Ladder of Gloom ... the power approach is more straightforward for me than the balancy bend over backwards thing.
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29-Jun-2009 8:35:29 AM
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I have just checked out the crag.com and there are 2 ascents of the Daily Grind listed. So come on Steve and Warwick if you are out there here give us some beta. It is your chance to say just pull on the pockets and paste your feet up and then claim it is actually only grade 23 - we will respect you as hardmen then.
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29-Jun-2009 8:40:30 AM
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My 'ascent' is a ghost. ie i couldn't even get to the anchor!!
i recall it being very very thin with poor feet? i think i was using a tiny sidepull and trying to go up to a small edge? i think i only tried it once 6 years ago so memory is a little hazy of the holds.
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29-Jun-2009 9:48:57 AM
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i cant recall whether ive even been on it, but i can confirm that a lot of holds have come off that wall (ive pulled a couple gooduns off myself!) since the routes were first done!! quite a few of those thin routes feel incredibly solid at the grade & i always assumed it was due to the disappearing holds more so than mikls fantasy grading
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29-Jun-2009 12:05:47 PM
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On 29/06/2009 Josh Caple wrote:
>i cant recall whether ive even been on it, but i can confirm that a lot
>of holds have come off that wall (ive pulled a couple gooduns off myself!)
>since the routes were first done!! quite a few of those thin routes feel
>incredibly solid at the grade & i always assumed it was due to the disappearing
>holds more so than mikls fantasy grading
True for the Blackboard wall (except maybe for Butterknives, the edges were all tiny and solid) but Daily Grind is on good rock on weird sidepull crimps.
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29-Jun-2009 3:48:11 PM
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The rock here is bulletproof and all the holds are small pockets in a fused crack so the problem is not disappearing holds. The problem is my lack of finger (and all other) strength and a complicated sequence with a runout top. Anyone trying the route I would recommend using the small pockets as monos rather than sidepulls - but apart from that little piece of wisdom I am stumped.
C'mon someone get on there and let me know your thoughts.
PS I reckon it feels desperate and should be graded 26+ (now that should stir up some interest.....)
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29-Jun-2009 5:00:14 PM
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i'll throw a hefty low end 27!!
do i hear any higher bids??
although a dry route,rather than a river running through it may answer some of these riddles.
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29-Jun-2009 5:03:26 PM
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27 is the new 24
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29-Jun-2009 5:03:36 PM
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It's in the spirit of most things at Berowra being a little bit undergraded.
For those who care for a piece of trivia, the route Comausminpab on Bullet Hole Wall is a Navy acronym for "Commander Australian Mine Warfare and Patrol Boat Forces". See http://www.navy.gov.au/HMAS_Waterhen.
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