Goto Chockstone Home

  Guide
  Gallery
  Tech Tips
  Articles
  Reviews
  Dictionary
  Links
  Forum
  Search
  About

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

  Shop
Chockstone Photography
Australian Landscape Photography by Michael Boniwell
Australian Landscape Prints





Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

Author
Seventh Pillar – Trip Report - New

Organ Pipe
13-Sep-2011
10:52:57 PM
This winter’s been a long one for me. My wife is pregnant - due very soon - so I haven’t been off to the mountains since May.
Trawling through photos from previous trips is all I’ve got right now to sate my rock related urges.
Even though it’s been a year since the following events transpired I thought: why not put together a belated TR?
Light on actual route beta, but with plenty of pics and vid: This TR is for anyone like me stuck in an office dreaming of places you’d rather be...

Seventh Pillar Portaledge Party – Trip Report – July 2010.


Words by Ben.
Photos and video by Ben, Karl, and Phil.


Karl, Phil, Adam, and I had all been itching to get out and climb together for ages. We’d been looking for an excuse to bust out the ledges and have a Portaledge party somewhere big. So I convinced the guys to jump on the Seventh Pillar for a weekend. The weather forecast was awful but we headed up to the Grampians on Friday 30th July 2010 hoping for the best.
It was Phil and Adams first attempt at aid, and also their first time in a ledge. The rough plan was to camp out on the Taipan Wall and see whether we’d get good enough weather to climb the whole line.
On the way up from Melbourne, storms where carving paths across western Victoria. The highway was cut by fallen trees between Ballarat and Ararat and the SES had us detouring all over the place. Power was out in Beaufort, police in Ararat told us there’d been significant hail damage there, and we later learned that it would snow the following night in Woodend and Ballarat.
Head home? Never!
We camped the night at the flat rock picnic ground only discovering the ‘warning falling limbs’ sign at first light the following morning – s#it!
We hiked up flat rock into the amphitheatre to discover that the whole mount was covered in cloud. The Taipan Wall only showing a little leg out from under her white skirt.




*Walk in – Flat Rock.


*Never thought I’d see cloud like this covering Taipan.


With no rain in sight and conditions pretty dry I lead off up the fantastic opening flakes of the first pitch. Dispatching the bolt ladder quickly I was having a ball and mantled across to the tiny stance at the belay. I tied a cordelette to take the first Portaledge and settled in.


*Racking up with Phil.




*Off and running up pitch 1.


*Amazing flakes on otherwise smooth rock.


*First slot.


*About to switch to aid.


*The bolt ladder.


*The belay.


*Cordelette for the ledge.


*Such incredible stone.


Karl seconded and cleaned, and the other two gents popped their aid cherries on the bolt ladder.




*Phil learning to aid.


*Adam learning to aid.


*Karl chilling at the belay.


We all hung out for a bit in the ledge and at the belay but with the weather looking promising it was time to press on. I freed through the bulges that open the next pitch, the rapped back to the ledge to switch places with Karl so he could jug then finish off the pitch. He jugged the line but the chest cold and the pseudoephedrine he was taking got the better of him so rapped back to the belay and we switched places again.
I jugged up and finished the pitch in light rain. Conditions were chilly and I longed to be hanging out in the ledge with the others listing to Splendour in the Grass on Triple J.




*The best pitch.


*Why can’t I be doing this right now?


Man it’s a good pitch too – for anyone who hasn’t tried the Seventh Pillar it’s overhanging slightly the whole way, and cuts proudly up the middle of the wall. With the exception of the bolt half way, the whole pitch goes clean and crosses thin flakes, traverses under a small roof, then blasts up a thick, bomber flake to glory. The gear is excellent.
It started to rain when I reached the belay at the end, and Phil jugged up to join me. We fixed a line and rapped back to the ledges to set up for the evening.
Just after dark a storm rocked in and lashed us with very heavy rain and strong wind. At the time we didn’t have out Jetboil stoves so used to cook at height with a Trangia hung from hanging pot plant chains. With the metho involved we’d hang it outside the ledge fly at arm’s length.


*Our early bigwall stove (pic taken the following morning).


Despite the steepness of the wall, the rain came in at an angle and cascaded off the wall. We had to zip up the fly and watch the stove blow out several times. The thing was bouncing around all over the place in the wind. We could do nothing but
hipdos
13-Sep-2011
11:19:12 PM
Great belated TR. There should be more TRs on Chocky!
twig
14-Sep-2011
9:57:29 AM
Great trip report!! made for good reading, it is always nice to hear about others having an adventure and living alittle. cheers guys
Mike Bee
14-Sep-2011
10:16:19 AM
Great story mate.
Looks like a fantastic weekend. Love the photos and video too :-)

china_sam
14-Sep-2011
12:31:50 PM
Nice report!

sbm
14-Sep-2011
2:41:24 PM
Great TR, really makes you feel like you're on the wall.

benjenga
14-Sep-2011
4:33:20 PM
Great trip report, I have had the seventh pillar on my to do list for a while.
Was Adam learning to aid climb the bolt ladder in his socks?

Organ Pipe
14-Sep-2011
4:43:56 PM
On 14/09/2011 benjenga wrote:
>Was Adam learning to aid climb the bolt ladder in his socks?

ha! naaa, they were white shoes.

We left our hiking boots bagged up at the base, switching to softer shoes so we could stand around all weekend on the ledges without buggering the ledge bed up too bad.

Miguel75
14-Sep-2011
5:42:24 PM
On 13/09/2011 hipdos wrote:
>Great belated TR. There should be more TRs on Chocky!

Well done guys, excellent TR. I haven't climbed in a few months and while busily preparing for a major test on Friday, this TR brightened my day. It feels, to me, very much like your 'pat on the back' rainbow, fueling the stoke for a day on the rock.
krumpit
17-Sep-2011
10:38:22 AM
hey just wondering if you needed to use a stick clip for that bolt on the second pitch. tried it a few months back and got shut down, so now am planning to take up a walking pole and fix it up there for others to use...

nmonteith
17-Sep-2011
4:39:46 PM
There used to be a gum tree stick wedged in the big horizontal crack below that bolt just for that purpose. Pity if someone has dropped / broken it.

Macciza
17-Sep-2011
8:44:07 PM
Sorry but you lose points for setting the ledges up on the ground and hauling them . . .
Half the fun with ledges is setting them up 'on the wall' . . . Try it . . .
Apart from that and the odd bit of weird technique here and there, congrats on getting out there and doing it . . .
PS Not sure about the stick bit though, hmm, doubled wires and high-stepping often help get through long reaches . . .
Cheers
MM

Organ Pipe
17-Sep-2011
9:25:04 PM
On 17/09/2011 Macciza wrote:
>Half the fun with ledges is setting them up 'on the wall' . . . Try it

Had done prior, at that exact spot once before, and have since then on other climbs.

As for the stick clip, the first time I did SP in 07 the stick was there, but on this occasion in 2010 it wasn't.

I didn't need it either time though. A cam in the break and you can pull upwards on it / lean out and reach easily. If I had more balls I could have probably reached it without the aid.

Macciza
17-Sep-2011
10:04:00 PM
On 17/09/2011 Organ Pipe wrote:

>
>Had done prior, at that exact spot once before, and have since then on
>other climbs.
>
Cool - Just wanting to make sure you weren't missing out on any possible 'fun' . . .

So when are you heading to Buffalo? Damn, the winter seasons pretty much over . . .

Organ Pipe
19-Sep-2011
9:39:21 AM
On 17/09/2011 Macciza wrote:
>Cool - Just wanting to make sure you weren't missing out on any possible 'fun' . . .

haha I'm glad you put the apostrophies around the word fun. Rewarding yes. Pain in the ar$e yes. The first time I set up my ledge from a hanging belay with the delux fly, I stuffed it up royally and spent ages on it. Ended up under torch light.

Since then if we're using the flys, we pack the ledge inside the fly, inside the ledge sleeve, with our steel screwies already connected. Was much simpler last time... although not exactly fun :)

On 17/09/2011 Macciza wrote:
>So when are you heading to Buffalo? Damn, the winter seasons pretty much over . . .

You must have missed my Ozy Direct TR from May of this year:

(This belated Seventh Pillar one was from a year earlier)

http://www.chockstone.org/Forum/Forum.asp?Action=DisplayTopic&ForumID=2&MessageID=7215&Replies=42&PagePos=20&Sort=LastMessage#NewPost

Organ Pipe
19-Sep-2011
9:42:08 AM
On 17/09/2011 Macciza wrote:
>>So when are you heading to Buffalo? Damn, the winter seasons pretty much over . . .

PS: Josh Caples photo of you topping out Ozy in the snow spent some time as my desktop wallpaper before that trip haha.

There are 16 messages in this topic.

 

Home | Guide | Gallery | Tech Tips | Articles | Reviews | Dictionary | Forum | Links | About | Search
Chockstone Photography | Landscape Photography Australia | Australian Landscape Photography | Landscape Photos Australia

Please read the full disclaimer before using any information contained on these pages.



Australian Panoramic | Australian Coast | Australian Mountains | Australian Countryside | Australian Waterfalls | Australian Lakes | Australian Cities | Australian Macro | Australian Wildlife
Landscape Photo | Landscape Photography | Landscape Photography Australia | Fine Art Photography | Wilderness Photography | Nature Photo | Australian Landscape Photo | Stock Photography Australia | Landscape Photos | Panoramic Photos | Panoramic Photography Australia | Australian Landscape Photography | High Country Mountain Huts | Mothers Day Gifts | Gifts for Mothers Day | Mothers Day Gift Ideas | Ideas for Mothers Day | Wedding Gift Ideas | Christmas Gift Ideas | Fathers Day Gifts | Gifts for Fathers Day | Fathers Day Gift Ideas | Ideas for Fathers Day | Landscape Prints | Landscape Poster | Limited Edition Prints | Panoramic Photo | Buy Posters | Poster Prints