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Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
VIC Grampians	Central	Mt Rosea	(General)	[ Rosea Guide \| Images ]

Topic Date User

Rosea ACA Guide 20-Jan-2009 At 12:08:31 PM prb

Message

Warning: what follows is a dry and tedious discussion of route directions at Rosea probably only of
interest to Kieran and myself! But I'm the sort of person who's likes to get these things sorted out.

I get a mention in the preamble to Ashes to Ashes by climbing what I thought was a new pitch in 1998
(Diane Super Direct) but what Kieran thinks is virtually a repeat of pitch 3 of ATA. And looking at the
topo, they're certainly close. I hadn't realized ATA crossed Diane so low, thinking they may have
crossed after Diane becomes Heretic.

We were using the old VCC SE Gramps guide (1991) and were trying to climb Diane Direct Finish (ie.
the normal Diane these days). We'd climbed the excellent rope-stretching second pitch (close to 60m)
and stepped L onto the R end of the long, wide belay ledge backed by overhangs. Pretty sure we were
on-route at that stage. The book then said, "The last two pitches of Heretic are now directly above".
OK, lets turn to pitch 4 of Heretic: "Traverse 3m R and climb weakness in overhangs. Now up and L
and up a testing bottomless corner..." So that's exactly what I did but before long realized the climbing
and particularly the protection wasn't grade 16.

The ACA description for p3 of ATA reads:

"Up line above, with odd formation at 3 metres. Step left and up face and steep wall into hanging
corner. Up corner to roof. Exit right."

I can vaguely remember something "odd" when I moved R so I probably touched ATA at that point.
But I then moved probably 5m back L when above the overhangs. I was straight above my belayer at
that point and the scant pro obviously had him worried – he was rolling a smoke one-handed! It was
good balancy climbing but I had to stay cool. A couple of testing moves upwards brought good holds
to hand and I then continued up into a hanging corner and much easier climbing. I can't recall a roof
and an exit to the R. The corner ended at a pleasant niche/ledge and we finished up a short easy pitch
straight behind the belay. But unless there is another hanging corner between the top pitches of
Heretic and ATA, I concede this was probably the finish to ATA.

I see the description to Heretic has changed on the ACA guide and the old Diane Direct Finish has
become the standard Diane. This will make things easier.