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Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

 Page 1 of 4. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 60 | 61 to 62
Area Location Sub Location Crag Links
VIC Eastern (General) (General) (General)  

Author
bouldering near benalla

Superstu
3-Dec-2007
9:11:44 AM
I chanced upon a fairly neat little bouldering area with easy access on public land, just off the Benalla-mansfield road (midland highway). From the town of Barjarg, follow Barjarg Track into the Strathbogie Ranges. About 1km past the park entrance, up on the right on top of the hill is a field of giant egg boulders with lots of problems, some even with good landings. But best of all, the rock is super clean and completely free of moss & lichen, which is unusual for the Strathbogies. A bit far from Melbourne for some granite bouldering, but if you're in the area...

dalai
3-Dec-2007
9:38:12 AM
Sounds like a great find superstu! I look forward to more details and photos once development is underway...

I'm guessing it will be when things cool a bit?

Superstu
3-Dec-2007
9:55:34 AM
it's shaded and up about 700m, ... was quite pleasant last sunday afternoon.

I think the only down side there might not be a lot of super hard stuff but I'm not really the one to be able to judge...

Hardware
5-Dec-2007
10:22:52 AM
I should be up that way in the next week or two.......so i'll take some pickies, leave a dirty old matress lying around, clear an area of vegetation so to make my open fire, leave my maggi noodles packets stuffed in the cracks of the rock and leave big tick marks on every obvious line!!!! :)

Rat Man
5-Dec-2007
5:05:36 PM
I might beat you there,
Did a little route searching in my youth in that area, probably saw and ignored the boulders back then. The folly of youth now I know that bouldering is best!
Will be heading home to Mansfield soonish, will have to take the mat with me.
Typical, I spend years in Mansfield whining about the lack of climbing and then........

Thanks for the heads up.
Christian
richb
6-Dec-2007
4:19:26 PM
The great Benalla Bouldering race is on!!

I'll be in Mansfield Thursday morning for work, so all I need to do is drag my sorry butt out of bed early enough to create some spare time, bag a plum line or two, then be on my merry way!! I knew there was a reason my bouldering kit was permanently on the back seat of the car. (Of course I know the reality will be running late, do a quick drive by and probably never get around to going back...)

Best coffee in town Christian - would that be the produce store, or maybe the green cafe over the road?

Cheers, Richb


dalai
6-Dec-2007
4:22:02 PM
We've got friends who live near Lima and have been inviting us up to visit...

Superstu
6-Dec-2007
5:12:43 PM
Well if anybody is going they can drop me a line and I'll drop by (only 35 mins from my house)...

... then you can personally beat me to a pulp when you find out everything's a holdless slab above porcupine grass...

Superstu
7-Dec-2007
1:58:11 PM
Correction. Take Harper Rd from the town of Barjarg. Harper Rd becomes Barjarg Rd once it hits the forest.

Rat Man
8-Dec-2007
4:29:02 PM
On 6/12/2007 richb wrote:
>Best coffee in town Christian - would that be the produce store, or maybe
>the green cafe over the road?

Dunno Rich, I don't drink coffee. But since I worked in what is now the produce store for 6 years (when it was Mansfield Fruit Palace) that's where my bais would lie.

No rush though, I can't see myself getting home until xmas.
How's things with you anyway? you should drop into the gym and catch up after you've been there and give us the scoop on whether it's worth going home for.

And Dalai wrote...
>We've got friends who live near Lima and have been inviting us up to visit...

Martin, maybe we could synchronise a trip to develop the area, put red tape on any lines with potential and make a limited edition guide for the whole place. (Add maniacal laugh here...)

And Superstu wrote
> Well if anybody is going they can drop me a line and I'll drop by (only 35 mins from my house)...

I'd be a bit shocked if you can make it from Shepparton to Barjarg in 35 Mins!!! (Benalla to Barjarg in 35 sounds right though).

>... then you can personally beat me to a pulp when you find out everything's a holdless slab above porcupine grass...

The granite further into the Strathbogies was often quite featured, very corse grained and could be quite loose. remided me of a giant egg peeling its shell.
and then there were entire boulders that were completely blank. hmmmmm.

I can't see it being an amazing area, but It'll be fun to look at regardless.
Christian

Superstu
10-Dec-2007
9:43:44 AM
Your spot on Rat man, the main problem with the area is the flaky rock, peeling egg shells is the right image. I took another visit last Sat arvo and my thoughts are now that yes there is potential for some harder routes, but landings are generally bad, and "will clean up with traffic" applies, i.e. once all the loose flakes have been flicked off quality routes should appear underneath! Ho ho ho. Seriously I did say "if you're in the area"... Is Melbourne that starved of good bouldering any hint of a new area generates excited glee??

Here are some details to "Barg-ass Hill".

From midland highway, take Harpers Rd (just before Barjarg store) which becomes Barjarg Track, passing a few farms and weekenders, into the state forest, a few twists and turns and then up on the hill to the right you can see lots of obvious boulders. There is a lay-away on the left on a slope or you can continue a bit further up the hill for a flatter parking spot. 5.4km from the highway. Five calve-burning minutes straight up the hill.

The first area you come to has a big black block with a warmup flake traverse on the backside. 2.5 seconds later you'll be bored, but there are a few things around here worth looking into. The main block has not been ascended yet.

Following the ridge right (back to the road) you come along to Little Toulumne, so called because of the quartz knobs here. Unfortunately the rock isn't as solid as its namesake and there is little of interest except for one hideous mantle.

Back to the main block and head left along the ridge you come to The Boob. It's the biggest thing around here and has numerous V0 routes to the summit, however the number of loose flakes makes ascent a "trad boulder" problem. A bolt wouldn't go astray here! So far the summit has been fondled, but not sat upon. A few problems in the area.

Following the ridge further, lots of boulders to explore. The ridge drops away a bit, making landings a bit interesting.









Superstu
10-Dec-2007
10:00:22 AM

>I'd be a bit shocked if you can make it from Shepparton to Barjarg in
>35 Mins!!! (Benalla to Barjarg in 35 sounds right though).

I live on the benalla side of shepp - amongst the orchards. But yes 35 is being ambitious, maybe 55. But definitely 2 hrs 20 mins from home to the buffalo gorge summit rim, that I'm STOKED about.

If you know the area well, then where on earth is "Dookie Gorge"? A fellow in a camping store in shepp suggested I go check out the climbing there. What the !?

lacto
10-Dec-2007
10:37:19 AM
think you'll find the gorge on the slopes of mt major will be small and a fair way off the road . the summit road is locked but i think you can get access via the college . Most likely on the south side though there is a big gully off to the north east
dalai
10-Dec-2007
11:24:50 AM
On 10/12/2007 superstu wrote:
> Is Melbourne that starved of good bouldering any hint of a new area generates
>excited glee??

No, Granite bouldering area's are a dime a dozen around Melbourne (still have another virgin granite area to develop with StuckInLara we scoped out a couple of years ago) plus others where so far only a day or two have been spent. Just always psyched when people find new areas!

And Rat Man, I've started using flouro spraypaint to mark projects with a huge P after my amazing Mt Alex arete I was working on was cruelly stolen, even though it was covered in chalk!!

MonkeyBoy
7-Dec-2009
2:31:53 PM
Anybody been here recently ?
bl@ke
7-Dec-2009
6:42:44 PM
i went to MY :) bouldering spot about 30 k's out of mansfeild a little while ago. I left my bouldering ladder ander one of my long term projects (its sorta like Diabolic except not as steep and bigger holds) As iv said before the whole strathbogies range is covered with granite boulders, most of them are covered in moss, have no holds and are kinda spread out but if you were cranking high grades it should be no worrys :)

MonkeyBoy
8-Dec-2009
9:24:25 AM
Not cranking high grades at all just going to be in Lima South from about 21 st dec to the 26th staying at the in laws. Lead about a 21 and don't boulder a lot but am not taking my rope so thought throw in the shoes and chalk and steal one the mattress' from the in laws and see what I can find in the area
bl@ke
8-Dec-2009
4:31:36 PM
You should have no problems finding some boulders around. PM'd you
dalai
8-Dec-2009
4:35:06 PM
Boulders are everywhere on the area. Near the Benella Mansfield road there are quite a few boulders visible from the Hume...

MonkeyBoy
8-Dec-2009
5:09:10 PM
Cheers all - I will be checking back over the next few days so any more info or input woudl be awesome, Cheers for the PM bloke.


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There are 62 messages in this topic.

 

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