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Sydney's Hardest Roof Crack (Bogan Aid Climbing) 4-Aug-2014 At 9:54:25 AM Superstu

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A bit of a silly adventure this one, but since there has been some hub-bub from people interested in dabbling in the dark arts on the forums here I thought I'd post this mini trip report. Plus for all hard people out there, Sydney's Last Great Roof Crack Problem awaits your amazing talents.

En and I checked out the Lomandra Place crag in The Shire a while ago. All rather disappointing with one reasonable sport route and one super hard mini route, plus a few steep bolted things with rusty rings and frayed red undie tags. None-the-less if you can avert your eyes from the dumped rubbish and pile-o-bongs its actually a pretty place to explore with lots of wildlife and expansive views over the Woronora River.

We returned to clean and attempt the infamous Lomandra Off-width Roof. A quick scrub revealed it's not really an off-width, more a deceptive hand-rack roof with a super steep fist-crack second section.

Major pfafforama during Saturday morning didn't get us to the crag until 2pm. I removed the worst of the choss from inside the crack and En set off to aid climb it first to see its potential.

Things kinda got slow from here. We'd forgotten just how much frigging-in-the-rigging goes on with this aid silliness, which was made worse by bringing along just a regular rack with doubles in the usual sizes, necessitating a lot of back cleaning. The ground is never far away and we wondered whether we should have brought a bouldering pad instead of a rope. Aid Bouldering could be the next big thing!

Belaying got tedious so I amused myself with text messages and admiring the aboriginal midden.

And it started to get cold and dark..

Getting hungry now...

Highlights of the ascent included Enmoore copping a black eye with a flying hex, and the absurdity as I took a break from belaying to stand on tippy-toes and pull out the initial pieces to hurl back up at En so she could use them again higher up.

A feint "safe" from above around 8pm and finally I got to dangle and thrash my way up on second, appreciating a long arm span to bridge the gaps resulting from all the back cleaning.

For the record, Suburban Reality (A2) takes triples in hand to fist sizes,plus #5 and #6 friends, medium hexes and a large nut. If back cleaning, just watch out for deck potential. For the first free ascent, the 5m roof hand crack is now clean and ready to go, and there are plenty of features and hidden holds to help you along the way. The super steep fist crack above could do with a second brush, and there is even a rest stance half way up. The top-out is super dirty, consider installing loweroffs or take a broom. Enjoy.

Access by parking at the bend in Lomandra Place, Alford's Point, and walking west downhill following your nose.