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partners for Arapiles, Oct. 15 to Nov 17

travelguy

8-Sep-2009
5:19:19 AM

Partners needed for Arapiles, 4-5 days of climbing each week + 2-3 rest days
Up to Ewbank grade 20 or maybe 22 (YDS 5.10d or so).
Happy on classic moderates (13-17)
I'll have a rental car and I'll pay for gas and the vehicle.
I won't be bringing my rope and rack
Richard


mattjr

8-Sep-2009
9:17:08 AM

pm'd you travelguy


wallwombat

8-Sep-2009
12:16:11 PM

What have you got planned for the rest days?

Paz

8-Sep-2009
1:10:40 PM

On 8/09/2009 wallwombat wrote:
>What have you got planned for the rest days?

The Horsham lights, sights, and fights...

Group of 5 or 6 will be heading up late Sept till early Nov with a week at Moonarie early October, sure there'll be plenty of room to tie in....Look for the giant cardboard robot and jaffle iron singing the high praises of the Munchie Queen

widewetandslippery

8-Sep-2009
1:14:51 PM

On 8/09/2009 Paz wrote:
>On 8/09/2009 wallwombat wrote:
>>What have you got planned for the rest days?
>
>The Horsham lights, sights, and fights...

Maybe Simey can help here. Is there a Nati Cricket team and will they be in action in October? No need to go into Horsham when you can bond with locals beating the visitors.

travelguy

9-Sep-2009
5:17:07 AM

Paz-I'll look for the cardboard!

For rest days, if anyone wants to share the cost of renting an airplane, I can take you flying. There is a small airfield nearby .

ZERO

14-Sep-2009
8:52:28 AM

should be there early to mid October, climbing similar grades

sliianna

14-Sep-2009
1:32:42 PM

will be there sept 26th onwards. aiming to get on a whole bunch of classics. can second up to about 23ish clean. was leading 18s happily at frog (not off width!) and wil have all my gear altho carless...

travelguy

16-Sep-2009
12:15:09 AM

I definitely won't arrive before Oct. 15 but I might stay until around Nov. 20 or so. Is it likely to be too hot at the end of Nov. or can I still chase the shade?

Sliianna and anyone else-I can give you rides in the region. I might even to to Melbourne once or twice but I doubt it. Probably not further than Horsham. I can pick up people from the bus whenever I go to town as lon gas I know in advance. I don't plan to have a cellphone and will only read email a couple of times each week once I am at Arapiles.

I'd also like to get in a few days at the Grampians, if anyone is interested

My main goal is to do as many 2 and 3 star routes as possible. I like to start early and end before sunset but on a good day I can usually cover 200-300 meters of climbing, sometimes more. I'd rather do more routes at moderate grades than spend a lot of time working routes at my limit. On the other hand, I DO like to wipe myself out once in a while on hard routes, especially if I will take off a day or two to rest!

Paz

16-Sep-2009
10:14:10 AM

On 16/09/2009 travelguy wrote:
>I definitely won't arrive before Oct. 15 but I might stay until around
>Nov. 20 or so. Is it likely to be too hot at the end of Nov. or can I still
>chase the shade?

For the most part should be sweet, from my dwindling recollections from last year, it seemed hotter in October than December...strange that....there's lots of nice clean waterways to bath in nearby as well so don't worry about the heat....

>
>I'd also like to get in a few days at the Grampians, if anyone is interested

we'll be moving around a bit, hopefully the moon, black ians and few other places as well

>
>My main goal is to do as many 2 and 3 star routes as possible. I like
>to start early and end before sunset but on a good day I can usually cover
>200-300 meters of climbing, sometimes more. I'd rather do more routes at
>moderate grades than spend a lot of time working routes at my limit. On
>the other hand, I DO like to wipe myself out once in a while on hard routes,
>especially if I will take off a day or two to rest!
>
....on a good day we start late and end very early, usually coffee, smokes, 50c lolly's from nati mmmmm, then probably likely to follow with a rest day

16-Sep-2009
11:45:35 AM

On 16/09/2009 travelguy wrote:
>Is it likely to be too hot at the end of Nov. or can I still chase the shade?
[snip]
>I'd also like to get in a few days at the Grampians

On both points I'd suggest you spend more time in the Grampians. actual temps in the central and southern Grampians are usually 2-5 degrees cooler than araps due to being further south and closer to the ocean. plus the crags are mostly at higher elevation (= cooler) and high on hills (= breeze = cooler again) so the "climbing comfort" is heaps better if it's warm (even on 30C days you might need a good jacket at the Tower!). And Arapiles is great, but it doesn't have routes of the same style as Grampians crags like Rosea (now there's a crag to do hundreds of metres of 3 star climbing each day), Bundaleer, stapylton, etc, so you'll be seriously missing out if you neglect them. At your grades I'd allocate a third of your time to the Grampians - a grade or two higher and I'd suggest 50%.

Wendy

16-Sep-2009
4:33:01 PM

On 16/09/2009 travelguy wrote:
>I definitely won't arrive before Oct. 15 but I might stay until around
>Nov. 20 or so. Is it likely to be too hot at the end of Nov. or can I still
>chase the shade?
>

The weather will be impeccable or as close to it as could reasonably be expected anywhere. It might rain a little, but hardly like to be much. It'll occasionally get over 30, but not that much. There'll be climb in the sun days and climb in the shade days and you can climb at Araps when it's 40 really, there are adequate cool, shady gullies.

gfdonc

16-Sep-2009
5:42:52 PM

Regarding WM's comments.
Yes make sure you get to Rosea. One of the best cliffs anywhere.


Sarah Gara

16-Sep-2009
6:25:49 PM

On 16/09/2009 Paz wrote:

>....on a good day we start late and end very early, usually coffee, smokes,
>50c lolly's from nati mmmmm, then probably likely to follow with a rest
>day

My sort of climbing - when you next at Araps?. x

Travel guy - I'll be around at weekends if you wanna do easier (-below 14) classics x

travelguy

16-Sep-2009
9:17:07 PM

Thanks, all, for the info and advice. I will try to spend more time at the Grampians! I was not aware that there was so much great climbing there.

Paz-until when will you be around?

Sarah-Happy to to easy grades, too! It will depend on my mood each day and how hard I climbed the day before.

I have done most of my climbing at the Gunks in upstate New York so I don't chase grades! Climbing for me is about the quality, not how hard a route is, but I listed my level so other climbers can know my likely maximum range. I've climbed all over the world and I think Arapiles (with the Grampians) could become my favorite climbing destination, based on my two previous trips.

16-Sep-2009
10:48:29 PM

If you've been to Araps twice already then I suggest you spend 50% + of this trip in the Grampians! its heaps more spread out but has more than double the number of routes. Triple if you don't count all the crappy araps squeeze jobs.

Rosea's 3 star routes are better than anything at Araps, imvho. check out routes 12-29 here:
http://www.climb.org.au/index.php?page_id=10&action=area&area_id=827

and routes 34-36 here: http://www.climb.org.au/index.php?page_id=10&action=area&area_id=1249

Paz

17-Sep-2009
9:38:11 AM

be araps from next monday, but'll be heading back to melb every few weeks for cpl days, be hanging around till early Nov then climb NZ then Revelstoke powder.....mmmm......i love you long time air new zealand

One Day Hero

17-Sep-2009
9:48:09 AM

On 16/09/2009 WM wrote:
And Arapiles
>is great, but it doesn't have routes of the same style as Grampians crags
>like Rosea (now there's a crag to do hundreds of metres of 3 star climbing
>each day), Bundaleer, stapylton, etc, so you'll be seriously missing out
>if you neglect them. At your grades I'd allocate a third of your time to
>the Grampians - a grade or two higher and I'd suggest 50%.

Gotta disagree with you here WM, araps kicks arse on Rosea, mainly for the ease of access to hundreds of consistantly good routes....and uniqueness of rock/style. Rosea is a good sandstone cliff but if you dig the style, there are plenty of similar crags and routes on NSW sandstone. Don't forget that you are probably a smidge jaded with araps after too much time there, for folk who've never been before it's super cool. Rosea had a pretty nice feel and views before the fire, how's the re-gen going?

gfdonc

17-Sep-2009
10:07:59 AM

On 17/09/2009 One Day Hero wrote:
>of rock/style. Rosea is a good sandstone cliff but if you dig the style,
>there are plenty of similar crags and routes on NSW sandstone.

I'm glad you qualified that statement carefully with "NSW sandstone". Otherwise I'd have thought you were implying the routes were of similar quality.

Don't forget
>that you are probably a smidge jaded with araps after too much time there,
>for folk who've never been before it's super cool.

It's a fair comment.

17-Sep-2009
10:42:18 AM

hmm, you're normally more on the money than that ODH. i didn't say one crag or style was better than the other - just that they're different, and Rosea et al are not to be missed out on. I did say Rosea's best routes are better than anything at Araps, and let me give examples: Heretic, Last Rites, and Ascension, respectively, are better than any 17, 19 or 21 at Araps.

Travelguy is not a newby to araps so he's already had the super cool first impressions. On this trip he's saying he wants to do the highest quality routes - so araps' routes which have easy access but are merely "good" are not what he's after. And he's going to split the time between araps and gramps - not NSW. I'm giving suggestions about what the araps/gramps split should be.

BTW i've done 3 times the number of gramps routes as araps routes so if I was jaded it should be the other way around...

i dunno how the re-gen is going.

There are 38 messages in this topic.