Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

Topic Date User

A Brief Trip to Frenchman's Cap 21-Apr-2014 At 11:43:52 PM phillipivan

Message

Matt and I decided on a trip to Frenchman's in mid Jan after tossing around a few options; in particular the Darrans. We set dates for the Australia day long week end, since there was a reasonable overlap in Matt's leave and my lack of employedness. I took the boat down with the van on Thursday night, did a shop Friday, collected Matt from the Airport Friday evening and we drove to the trail head. It was a very late arrival, close to midnight, so we shared a dram (or 3rd of a bottle) of Talisker (a gift from the lady), then hit the sack.

A slow start to Saturday morning; packing bags, drinking coffee, watching the hikers get a prompt start. Each and everyone one of them carrying a 60 to 70 litre pack, apparently full, for a two to three day trip. We managed to get everything down into our respective 50 or 55 L packs. Not without compromise though, we packed four days and nights of food, no first aid kit (except sports tape), only one bog roll. We came to rue this, and every little thing we carried that went unused (extra gas, too much coffee! (too be fair, if the weather had turned foul, we would have sat it out in the hut drinking tea and coffee)), when we started cutting down our meals to make it last through night five and day six.

Collecting water at the Franklin River / An early stream crossing

The walk in, is by reputation, the most arduous part of climbing Frenchman's. This is no longer the case, thank or blame (your choice) Dick Smith. Much of the Loddon Plains is avoided now, and duck boards cover the worst of it. We still got wet feet, but it was not so bad, even in persistent light to moderate rain. Four hours and twenty saw us to Lake Vera hut, for a brew and bite to eat. Another three hours five got us to Lake Tahune Hut in worsening weather, and strong winds once we hit Baron Pass.

As a climber, Matt is a vastly superior athlete to me; as a pack humping grunt less so. For the hour after our arrival his yelps of pain provided comic relief as his legs cramped intermittently. Tahune was busy that night, at least a dozen people in the hut, at least two of them snorers; a few more in tents. No one else came to climb, though a few of the hikers were also climbers.

Each day began with Matt commenting how well he slept; me countering how poorly I slept, then a brew up.

From Sunday to Thursday we had exceptionally fine weather, despite forecasts to the contrary. Showers late on the Tuesday, after we were back in the hut, notwithstanding. Perhaps the hikers caught out at the summit may have felt differently.

From Sunday to Wednesday we climbed The Chimes of Freedom, Tierry Le Fronde, two different direct starts to TlF, and The 9th of January.

From the Hut, its about an hour to the start of most of the climbs; and the access is far easier than I expected.

Accessing The Chimes of Freedom, involves a scramble up a loose gully on the left side of the face. Caution is advised here, a few times I had to dive to the side as cannon balls were loosed from higher up.

Finishing up the last pitch of The Chimes of Freedom

We soloed the first 50 metres of easy ledgy rock, before roping up and donning rock shoes. A short traverse left got us to the start of the 4th pitch and the real climbing. Matt led off, through pitches four, five, and half of six, where he finally ran out of rope, and found some gear for a belay. Three small nuts, nothing bigger than a WC 3, all shallow, and none good for an outward pull. The guide book recommends doubles of 1 & 2 camalots for pitch five; we carried one of each, both were placed earlier on pitch four, so he made do with a hex and a few rattly tricams.

Matt took the lead again, finishing up the rib, placed a #7 metolius cam, and set off on the 7m rising traverse. It turns out poorly protected traverses are one of the signature features of routes here; and featured in both the other long routes we did. After 7m of delicate and serious (but not hard (think missing link)) balance climbing a rusty peg is reached, which can be backed up with a mid sized cam, before heading up the corner. Matt belayed part way up the corner, and from here I finished up the route, avoiding some of the loosest rock near the top of the corner best as possible.

All up the route took about four and a half hours.

Obligatory Laibach poses on the summit. Berg heil.

We debated climbing another route, but I was keen to jump in the lake whilst the weather was fine.

On the descent, only a few hundred metres from the hut, I got a bug in my right ear. A fly or something. It hopped in as I brushed passed some leaves. I had a horrid, and loud buzzing inside my head. It took a few minutes to calm down enough to explain to Matt what had happened; which was not aided by my strange reflex to cover my unaffected left ear. He could not see anything in my ear, which was in itself pretty distressing. I hurried down to the freezing cold lake, and dived in, trying to wash out, or drown the bug. Which was not very successful. Novelty or anxiety muddled my breathing apparatus and I inhaled whilst underwater. I bursted to the surface coughing and spluttering. After one submersion I saw a millipede or similar swim away from me, and shuddered with revulsion thinking it had been inside me. Then the buzzing resumed. Meanwhile, Matt did the rounds with the well packed hikers, and returned with some tweezers. With which I very gingerly tried to remove said bug. Also unsuccessfully. I tell you inserting a sharp metal implement into your ear is most disconcerting; especially when your ears are the primary tool with which you make a living. Eventually the horrible buzzing inside my head stopped, after about half an hour of fits and starts. I guess it just died in there.

Yes it did. Die . Two weeks after returning I visited to local clinic and explained I thought I had a dead bug in my ear, and would they please clean it out. After inspection by three nurses, and a few minutes flushing with warm water, I held a pitcher in which a small moth, five or six millimetres in length, floated in the water flushed through my ear. Strangely, after it had died, I could feel nothing, and observed no difference in my hearing to indicate it was still there.

Each afternoon we predicted that, finally, we would have the hut to ourselves, and each evening we made friends with our hut mates.

The hut logbook was brand new, the warden had replaced it around new year. There were only a few pages of entries, and only one other climbing party. They had spent fourteen hours on Tierry Le Fronde. Ouch.

P1 of the alternative start to Tierry Le Fronde we climbed, "Barstards Benediction"

Monday we climbed Tierry Le Fronde. Starting from the buttress below the main face, we climbed two pitches, probably new, avoiding the dodgy gully scramble, to the base of the main face. Except we didn't, avoid the steep scrambling gully, dropping out kit at the top, and descending for some water at our packs, before returning up it. If you are not happy soloing each but exposed terrain in approach shoes, or in my case trail runners, then Frenchman's is not a good place to visit. Tierry le Fronde, is graded 16, a bit easier than Chimes, and it is. Except, its not. There is more bad rock, loose rock, and another exposed traverse, this time straight off the belay. It feels at least as serious. Leading required a certain degree of attentiveness to ensure your belayer lived to tell the tale.

Tuesday we climbed The 9th of Jan, notable for another exposed, and challenging traverse. This time more like seven metres, without interm