Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

Topic Date User

Easter Epic - can you beat this? 28-Mar-2008 At 12:52:38 PM prb

Message

I can't beat bluey's epics, just had several of those "I could be getting into trouble here" moments on a
new route.

I rarely plunder Victorian crags for new routes, I just don't feel it's my turf, but last weekend we were
staying in a valley about 10k NE of Myrtleford for a mate's birthday. Across the valley, on the western
slopes of Mt Jack I believe, was a sunny little granite crag known locally as Bum Rock with a couple
of useful looking lines on it. We wandered over for a look.

The "hard" line was a clean wide hands crack with an undercut start. We had a quick feel but decided
to do the "easy" line first which the birthday boy had insisted was about grade 11, having toproped it
some time ago. It looked pretty steep and slick for an 11 to me but it was an excellent line, up a
leaning inset corner-crack to a roof then a wall crack to the top, about 25m in all.

Well the first half of the climb ate medium stoppers and 0.75 cams, placed while laybacking in a semi-
pumpy fashion with good smears. Then the corner straightened and the angle relented a little which
was good because I'd run out useful gear. I walked up the crack about 4m and thankfully found the
crack in the roof widened a little and took a good #1 cam. Nevertheless that was going to be the one
piece keeping me from getting hurt until I topped out. That's can be OK it you know the climb but trad
new routing is a different ball game. I found exiting the corner the crux, stepping onto the R arete and
then R again onto the wall. The top crack went OK once I'd gotten a foot up and in, but topping out
was pretty delicate with collapsing ankles from standing sideways in cracks for too long. It all sounds
dramatic, but Mt Buffalo veterans would fly up it:

Burkey's Birthday Bash Corner (18). Paul & Chris 21/3/08

Easter was our first (climbing) visit to Buffalo, a good 10 hours drive from Adelaide. Certainly no
shortage of impressive rock. The highlight on Saturday was Maharajah with the Flake Start, on Sunday
we were at Eurobin falls for Mother of Pearl and Llafnwod (hmmm, I'd lead the latter but might get a
few more Buffalo routes under my belt first).