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Mt Buffalo - She


gordoste

4-Oct-2010
10:39:23 AM

On 1/10/2010 One Day Hero wrote:
>Squamish rock is for granite like Taipan rock is for sandstone.....which
>means Squamish is better than Patagonia, which is in turn better than Tassie,
>which is better than Booroomba, which is better than Buffalo......which
>isn't surprising as Buffalo has the worst granite I've ever climbed on.

You need to come climbing at Mt Pilot or Felltimber!!

One Day Hero

4-Oct-2010
2:45:57 PM

On 4/10/2010 gordoste wrote:
>You need to come climbing at Mt Pilot or Felltimber!!

You might have missed the bit where I said "worst Granite I've ever climbed on"

If I ever made the mistake of ending up at Felltimber?! (it even sounds like a pile of pox), I can just about guarantee that I wouldn't bother to pull my boots on.

Taste......it works for rock just as it does for pastries; you grow up in Australia happily eating lamingtons and vanilla slice, blissfully unaware that anything better might exist........but after one week in France and you'll never enjoy an australian "crassont" ever again!


gordoste

4-Oct-2010
3:37:22 PM

Haha Felltimber is pretty poxy but it's only 5 minutes from my work so can't complain too much! Some of the problems are very nice, but you wouldn't travel to get there... local crags overseas are just as poxy, we just don't hear about them! But even though I've climbed at Arapiles, Thailand whatever - the local crag still holds a special place, it's more about the memories and many good times with friends just talking crap and falling off things.

P.s. i never understood lamingtons... laziest cake-maker ever!


IdratherbeclimbingM9

5-Oct-2010
1:17:42 PM

Excellent trip report FB. Thanks for posting it.

Route / Cliff quality is very much like art, as it is largely in the eye of the participant/beholder. Personally I am stoked to see the beauty of the lichen/moss untramelled climbing in FB's photos. Yes other places granite is different climbing, and many would say better, but I would say 'not better, just different', as it is all good.

Regarding the route allegedly 'seeping', the photos show it looking basically dry to me. In fact surprisingly so, since it was only a fortnight or so ago that the place had 256 mm (10") rain over a two day period with subsequent intermittent rain since, and on that topic I was also surprised to find Noblesse Oblige dry on Sunday as well, which considering it has upper slab catchment festooned in moss to weep after rain I did not expect this.

The left rising traverse crackline (Pitch 7 of Ozy Original) that you found runout on three cams and leapfrogged, is pretty much the standard way it is done. Interesting that that pitch gets graded both 19 and 21 in the latest guide depending whether you read the route description or toppo! Imagine how that went on hexes ... ~> would be more gnarly!!
You probably also found it less enjoyable due by then you were on the third day of your climb and mental fatigue would be starting to take a toll, this possibly evidenced by the rope tangle you experienced there, which would have added to the negative vibe.

Re the bent hook &
>I normally leave the last hook on the wall until i drag my etts up.

Your fall was caught by the static aspect of your daisy?
Presumably the hook held the fall to end up like that, ie it didn't bend then let go, to release you further into the void?

I am glad to now know they bend like that, as the longest fall I have taken on a hook that held, was while free climbing & that I had left for pro in a solution hole in limestone. The hook pretty much conformed to the lip of the hole, but I fell from about 1.5 metres above it, so all up 3 to 4m with rope stretch while being belayed, ie a soft catch, and it didn't bend. I did not know that they would do that, and assumed the steel to be so hard that if stressed enough would crack or break.

>The fun begins (pic)
&
>The cliffhanger morphed into a grappling hook....(pic)

~> pics are the same placement. Is this the placement that held the fall that bent the hook?

Well done on your successful solo.

An enjoyable read/picture viewing, that I find inspiring, ... and bending a hook from a fall is an impressive effort, ... that is made all the more so for pushing on afterwards!!


IdratherbeclimbingM9

5-Oct-2010
1:48:30 PM

As an aside...
I notice from your photos that you sling your hooks differently to the way that I do.
Have you considered that if you sling through both the upper and lower holes that the mechanics of doing same when loaded in a placement, tends to lever the hook closer onto the rock (depending which part of the loop is pulled through and clipped), instead of away* from it?
(*As happens with your method, though your slings are long enough to help counteract this effect).
This can make a difference for them holding on the less than suitable placements...
;-)

Fish Boy

5-Oct-2010
2:56:20 PM

Agreed Rod about the lichen being part of the enticement to Buffalo wall climbing.

Yes, I took the fall onto the daisy but the hook didn't hold the fall. It bent as I went down, then popped off.

Some of my hooks came pre slung with dyneema from mtntools in that crappy way, and the other pointed leeper in the pic is how I got it from Baxter. When I sling a hook, I do what you say Rod, I just never got around to redoing Baxter's. The hooks that Blake got from me are slung correctly.


MrsM10iswhereitsat.

5-Oct-2010
4:26:31 PM

A lovely trip report. Well done Mr Fish Boy.

(I must get Derek my M10 love to read this and become reinspired to become the aid climber I married, again).

brendan

5-Oct-2010
10:16:51 PM

thats for the beta nick, i was assuming that the route was hooks then bolt, hooks then bolt.
WTF is with that LA on Ozzy the person who did that deserves a roundhouse kick to the head,

lacto

6-Oct-2010
10:17:42 PM

the RJM stamped aluminium hangers are at least 35 years old and i think they only held 400 kg (or pounds if circa 1973) either way not very safe at all !!! . they were home made and cheap as well asbeing light . If on non stainless carrots then corrosion will also be present.

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