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Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 34
Author
Big Trad Thong.
Lhotse
31-Mar-2009
10:02:22 AM
Had a jaunt up BTT on Sunday and loved it, the proper experience... it's got a bit of everything.

Big thanks to Mikl, Ness & Neil for all the work - clearly a big clean up program on that one.

Here's my thoughts and a few snaps if you're interested.

P1: is nice, P2: nice, only little bit of choss.
P3: interesting... more choss (pic below of Owen coming up it). As you move back right be careful that you don't pull off any holds ;-), but don't despair, there's the odd good letterbox to throw a full arm or hand into.
P4: any choss in the pitches below (and none of it is really that bad) is well worth it as it unlocks the jewel of the climb - the roof is awesome, good fun jamming. Be warned... the feet aren't as good as they look in the snap below. Also nice sporty moves up into the corner, before traversing the roof.
P5: save a big cam (or two) for the crack leading into & thru the mini roof at the end of the pitch.
P6: has an old skool feel to it. really nice.

Such an great spot out there.
cheers
JR
















mikl law
31-Mar-2009
12:19:47 PM
The foot ledge under the roof isn't there, it's an optical illusion I reckon.
Does the new bolt at the end of the big roof stop killer rope drag?
dfinnecy
31-Mar-2009
1:03:08 PM
i can also vouch for the phantom foot ledge. Climbing out that roof is awesome and
exhausting, what a monster.
Lhotse
31-Mar-2009
3:01:14 PM
yeah the bolt is very helpful... no issues with drag at all.
our double ropes were helpful.

Did you notice the rope draped / hanging down the cliff to the left of this route, level with pitch 5? Anyone know why it's there? Is there some epic story?
mikl law
31-Mar-2009
5:03:29 PM
There are two ropes there, don't know who's. Both whipped away by the wind (westerly) when being pulled down from the top mirrorball rap, hence the warning in the guide. They fly around the arete and wrap themselves around ironstone jugs

vwills
16-May-2011
9:26:02 PM
Hmmm, is there mass delusion in the above climbers who all seemed to enjoy BTT??

An upcoming climbing trip is providing impetus to do some long trad routes. Three weeks ago our original plan of doing a grand Grose valley reverse traverse over 2 days and climbing out either side was thwarted by horrible weather, and we spent the Saturday huddled under an overhang at a crag that doesnt officially exist doing steep sports routes. Amazingly on Sunday we woke to clear blue skies and decided we would do at least one Grose climb, so although everything was still wet we decided to give Big Trad Thong a go. How hard or unpleasant could it be?

The road and vegetation was still wet as was parts of the first pitch. With 3 of us we wanted to sort out a system where the third climber self belays up a fixed rope while above one belays the leader and one ascends. A wet, loose, traversing climb with galvanised, already rusting, bash in carrots is probably not the ideal route to get this system dialled on. We also somehow ended up with about 23 quickdraws between us but only 10 bolt plates. And although we had cams including a #5, no one wanted to carry it.

The worst part is Neil had actually done the first 3 pitches before but clearly had expunged the choss from his mind. Or perhaps he is just a mega sandbagger. There are some 5 star routes at Pierces, but BTT is not one of them.

Pitch one: wet with vegetation; pitch two: honeycomb sandy choss, leader dislodges massive block nearly falls; pitch 3: choss with bonus shale bands to loose ledge, booty bolt plate is highlight of route- someone else has done this climb recently?? how mad; pitch 4: boulder moves to choss ledge, crux moves on broken holds, and then traverse out under roof which is a massive hanging flake that is hollow and communicates with the belay on top of it; pitch 5: easy ramp and then lichenous corner, wet finish; Pitch 6: dripping and very wet chimney, don goretex, escape out of waterfall to left to belay on blue ruin and climb out on dinner plates.

No trouble finding rap descent over mirrorball. Ropes dont get stuck. Do a pleasant grade 17 aptly called Hypothermia on the half way ledge. 6 pitches like that would have been better!
Were there drugs in those lamingtons?

mikllaw
17-May-2011
8:06:44 AM
sounds like you picked a mis day to do it.
crazyjohn
17-May-2011
2:07:05 PM
You climbed a route that had "big trad" in the name. Then after you have what would have been a day of good fun for most people in the history of big trad climbing, you throw up a massive whinge! Mostly due to wet rock!
This may seem obvious, but the next time you want to climb perfect rock with perfect weather just go indoors.

rodw
17-May-2011
2:25:31 PM
Yeah Vwills ya big girl..... what have you done on grit???

Crazy john I know a shit load of climbers and Vwills is up there with the best that I know that are able to suffer through long scray trad choss shit piles with smile....she is hardly a gym bunny wanna be.

vwills
17-May-2011
3:10:55 PM
I was just saying its not a 5 star route and Mike must've be on drugs if he thought it was.
We had lots of laughs on the route. Perhaps I need to put in more smiley emoticon thingies.
I particularly liked the bit where my friendly climbing partners called down behind the hollow flake "you are going to die, I am about to detach, this is the hollow flake talking".
mikllaw
17-May-2011
3:17:28 PM
I think I liked it as it had no jambing. Jambing isn't trad, it's not even climbing.

Maybe we liked it cos it was done on our wedding anniversary, and non-romantic climbers just don't understand

nmonteith
17-May-2011
3:26:09 PM
I have to agree with Vanessa. It was not just the wetness - but the acres of chossness as well. Every pitch had some section of appalling loose or dirty climbing, and some pitches were almost all of that. When you have to question almost every hand or foothold on a route, plus avoiding plenty of detachable holds and the mangled carrots you have to question the stars. It was a fun day out in a mountaineering kind of way. It's a major line, but I couldn't help thinking that the whole purpose of the route was just to get into position to do the 15m roof traverse section. The rest was just filler. Apart from the middle of pitch 1 which was fun flake crack climbing. I'll see if I can post up some pics soon.

p.s. Crazy John - I don't think they have rock this chossy anywhere in Tasmania!

nmonteith
17-May-2011
3:36:48 PM
On 17/05/2011 mikllaw wrote:
>I think I liked it as it had no jambing. Jambing isn't trad, it's not even
>climbing.

I think its a classic case of a memorable first ascent expedition and maybe not such a great climb to repeat?
simey
17-May-2011
3:44:16 PM
On 17/05/2011 mikllaw wrote:
>I think I liked it as it had no jambing. Jambing isn't trad, it's not even climbing.

People who know how to jam know how to climb. There are plenty of crankers who can't climb for shit. The irony is that despite your dislike of jamming you are skilled at it.

nmonteith
17-May-2011
4:23:11 PM
Here is some photos of our ascent
http://neilshaulbag.smugmug.com/Sports/Climbing/Big-Trad-Thong/17092580_CDLdSn#1294954304_PGb7Gk8
One Day Hero
17-May-2011
8:18:13 PM
On 17/05/2011 simey wrote:
>
>People who know how to jam know how to climb. There are plenty of crankers
>who can't climb for shit.

I call bullshit on this!

A friend of mine from San Fran came out to Oz with her new husband a couple of years ago, they climb 5.12 in yosemite. First route at araps was some 21, they racked up 2 sets of cams and no wires, just like they do for trad routes in the Valley :0)...............needless to say, they got hosed! And then continued to get hosed all the way down to gr14, where they stayed for the remainder of the trip (aside from a glorious ascent of Tannin)

The moral is that specialists are much shitter climbers than they appear to be when you meet them in their natural habitat...............I won't start on about some of the Blueys sport-climbers, who would probably shed 8 grades on a hypothetical interstate trip!
cogsy
17-May-2011
8:46:29 PM
Nice one Neil.. bet you'd wished you kept working the muscles at "the crag that doesn't officially exist" (or "the crag that time forgot" sounds more cool...). Any photos?
crazyjohn
17-May-2011
11:37:27 PM

>The moral is that specialists are much shitter climbers than they appear
>to be when you meet them in their natural habitat...............I won't
>start on about some of the Blueys sport-climbers, who would probably shed
>8 grades on a hypothetical interstate trip!

Like zac and lee who crushed el cap repeatedly? And every other crack in oz. Massively scarry shit. And Patagonia... etc. Jarmilla in anarctica? Etc. etc. Im not sure about the concept of 'specialist'. If you are a good climber, you just climb. Use your imagination, suck it up and figure it out. Specialist really just means lazy climber.


Hey about big trad thong. Thanks for the beta! I was kind of sticking up for the route because it has a killer name! I was hoping to climb it but after seeing those photos... Well... They pretty much tell the story. LAME.

nmonteith
17-May-2011
11:38:58 PM
You should solo it crazyjohn!
Wendy
18-May-2011
7:34:17 AM
On 17/05/2011 crazyjohn wrote:
>
>>The moral is that specialists are much shitter climbers than they appear
>>to be when you meet them in their natural habitat...............I won't
>>start on about some of the Blueys sport-climbers, who would probably
>shed
>>8 grades on a hypothetical interstate trip!
>
>Like zac and lee who crushed el cap repeatedly? And every other crack
>in oz. Massively scarry shit. And Patagonia... etc.

Is Zac on here to embarrass? I remember a trip to Frog many years ago where a few young guns from the Blueys turned up, photographer in tow, and proceeded to get spanked. Zac (who must have been about 17 at the time, but already climbing 28) was having a shocker on Resurrection corner and Mike (the photographer) decided his gear was so bad, he'd swing in and put in something decent for him before he killed himself. This group was also the source of one of my favourite quotes "There's a reason this crag has been out of fashion for 15 years!"

I think we can safely say that Zac has diversified immensely and certainly no longer qualifies as a Blueys sport climbing specialist and I can no longer gloat about how i might be miles off 28, but at least I can climb grade 18 hand cracks.
>
>

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 34
There are 34 messages in this topic.

 

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