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Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 37
Area Location Sub Location Crag Links
VIC Buffalo (General) (General) (General) [ Mt Buffalo Guide | Images ] 

Author
First timer at Mt Buffalo
Fish Boy
7-Dec-2004
2:32:21 PM
Myself and a mate are heading to Mt Buffalo in January for a couple of weeks. We have never been there and from reading the guide and looking at this website, there appears to be LOADS of climbs and it is hard to decide which areas or climbs to visit/do.

We can climb up to around the low twenties and are looking for some really long routes. "Where angles fear to tread" has so far got me excited.....

Have any of you got any favourite climbs that you want to share to make our planning a bit easier.....?

Nick

nmonteith
7-Dec-2004
2:55:32 PM
Sultan - must do three pitch 20. Vaired, good rock and excellent 'summit'
Mahrajah (17) - an easier version of Sultan
Hard Rain (22) - very very awesome three pitch crack route. Thin hands - bring lots of medium cams.
Commander Cody (21) - Beautiful flake and jam crack
Edge of Pleasure (21) - Scary first pitch - gob smaking arete second pitch.
Fish Boy
7-Dec-2004
2:56:55 PM
Thanks Neil, I just checked them in my guide and they sound pants!
adamk
7-Dec-2004
4:10:30 PM
Hi Fish Boy,
Stoked to hear your heading up to the buff. Myself and a couple of other Geelongians will be up there so probably seeya. Not sure where your used to climbing but for your first time there just be aware that the buff requires a bit of a different head space than say Arapilies. If you can between now and then get out to the youies and practise sticking body parts in granite and standing on micro edges a good distance above your last bolt i would well recommend it. Good idea to start up on the plateu places like Cathdral (agree with Neil Sultan and Maharagah(spelling) are awesome) the Horn for the Pintle and a sunset ascent of Peroxide blonde. Check out old threads on Angels it's a bomb day out but take plenty of tape and wear socks or tape your ankles and get an early start. Also take lots of water and food. Caligula is an awesome grade 18. Heaps of epics and adventures to b had. Have a ball.
Adz

nmonteith
7-Dec-2004
4:43:50 PM
A couple more... these are short and easy to locate.

Home James (20) - Good, safe, featured granite face with bolts. Easy to locate right next to carpark.
Fat Wall Ordinaire Banana Blasé (17) - Good first route to do at Buffalo. Elegant slabby flake crack. Right next to Home James.
Wicked Solitaire (17) - Short crack next to Cricket Oval. Only do the last pitch. The first is dirty.
This is Not Our Land (20) - Very featured dyke face route with bolts. Fun and novel!
James
7-Dec-2004
7:13:36 PM
a few of the slabs at Chalwell galleries are good for a hour or 2 in the arvo (right after a swim in the dam).
Kanya
8-Dec-2004
10:15:10 AM
The Initiation (18 - 4 pitches) is a great day out.

If you are at This is Our Land do the arete left of it (Instant Justice??). It is a really interesting climb up
spaced bits of dyke stuck to smooth granite. The
grade is height dependent so would be 21 for you. I agree on all the others but suggest rapping in to do
the top pitch only of Edge of Pleasure.

There have been some good articles in Rock magazine on Buffalo.

If you are interested in an easy aid route that can be completed in a day do Defender of the Faith. You
can abseil down the line - there is a good description in the Buffalo update on the VCC web site. Leave a
rope on the top abseil for jummaring up at the end. The other pitches require lots of friends and a long arm
to clip the bolt on the short traverse on pitch 1.
Fish Boy
9-Dec-2004
4:57:31 PM
Thanks guys....
kieranl
9-Dec-2004
7:30:48 PM
Also good but rarely done is Elizabethan in the Queen Vic area.

It gets 21 but that's for the short traverse near the top of pitch one. This traverse was originally done on aid (a few knife blades). Joe Friend is supposed to have freed the traverse at 21 in the early 70's but it looks damn improbable to me; then again I have known to be wrong before...

If you ignore the traverse and continue up the short but very dramatic bomb-bay chimney at the top of pitch one you get 3 good pitches with the first solid 18 and two other pitches around the 16-17 mark. The first pitch has some of the best climbing at Buffalo, lovely technical laybacking and stemming. You've got that chimney to contend with but it's all good fun (#4 cam helps). Seconds can actually cheat by removing the piece protecting the chimney and tensioning right to an easy ramp but no-one would do that would they?
Getting off is a bit of a let-down though. There should be a reasonable easy exit but when we did it I encountered a snake sunning itslf on a ledge and had to take an unscheduled detour. We ended up on opposite sides of a slab holding the rope in the air above a very angry snake and had to finish up some real crud that I think is well right of the usual finish. Hate to think what would have happened if the snake had actually got onto the rope.
Fish Boy
13-Dec-2004
7:56:31 AM
Whats up with the aid rating on Angles? Can it be freeclimbed by doing the direct finish from pitch 5 onwards???
WM
13-Dec-2004
3:32:17 PM
Yep Angels is all free with the direct finish - 17. The aid on the original is just a short tension traverse from memory

And don't believe all the flak about the first pitch of Edge of Pleasure!! IMO the gear is fine and it is fantastic climbing - at least as good as the excellent 2nd pitch arete. Everyone knows Neil's just a big wuss. :)

A very airy 20 is Coming up for Air by Chockstone's very own K Loughran. Had a look on the way home yesterday and you get a major sucking void feeling just standing on top!!

For Angels see http://www.chockstone.org/Forum/Forum.asp?Action=Display&ForumID=1&MessageID=6681&Replies=1

For a general rave and some pre-trip orientation photos see (ahem) http://www.geocities.com/willmonks/buffalo.htm

nmonteith
13-Dec-2004
3:40:38 PM
On 13/12/2004 WM wrote:
>And don't believe all the flak about the first pitch of Edge of Pleasure!!
>IMO the gear is fine and it is fantastic climbing - at least as good as
>the excellent 2nd pitch arete. Everyone knows Neil's just a big wuss.
> :)

Just don't bring a minimal trad rack like I did. The guide makes it sound like a pure bolted climb. It is far from a sport route!. I thought i could die from several sections in that climb.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
13-Dec-2004
3:53:01 PM
On 7/12/2004 Fish Boy wrote:
>and are looking for some really long routes.

Back Wall has long routes in the grades indicated.

Mt Mcleod has looong routes also, but is more adventurous again than Back Wall.

If 3 pitches satisfies your criteria for long, then there is at least one on Eurobin Falls with easier access also.

It goes without saying that the North Wall has long routes, but most are regarded as aid lines by those of us (includes me at <21) who
>climb up to around the low twenties
WM
13-Dec-2004
3:59:03 PM
On 13/12/2004 nmonteith wrote:
>The guide makes it sound like a pure bolted climb.

BTW the script for the new guide was updated yesterday to rectify that exact deficiency. Its getting its 3rd star back too :))
kieranl
13-Dec-2004
10:50:06 PM
On 13/12/2004 WM wrote:

>And don't believe all the flak about the first pitch of Edge of Pleasure!!
>IMO the gear is fine and it is fantastic climbing - at least as good as
>the excellent 2nd pitch arete. Everyone knows Neil's just a big wuss.
> :)
EoP would be a very different experience if you skipped the first pitch. It was sustained and had a lot of variety. Protection was OK except for the moves to gain the bolt ladder on the final face to the belay. Ferret said there was a good placement in a pocket in the seam where you step R but I couldn't get anything decent. Maybe a TCU would work.
>
>A very airy 20 is Coming up for Air >
Great climb but the gear needs fixing up. Second bolt sticks out a mile and Ferret said that the peg was loose though someone else said it was OK (peg is a long angle in to the hilt). Natural gear on the final arete is a bit dodgy I think though other people have said it's OK.

Paulie
15-Dec-2004
4:43:07 AM
My fave routes (though most are not that long) on the plateau are:

Bannana Blase, Home James, Edge of Pleasure, Sultan, Maharajah and The Pintle (LHV on 2nd pitch and with true finish - not that horrible slippery arete :P)

There are so many great routes up there, but I think everyone has covered most in the low - mid range of grades.

Stick to the 3 starred ones and you cannot go wrong!

Paulie

IdratherbeclimbingM9
24-Aug-2005
4:02:45 PM
(bump)

On 7/12/2004 Fish Boy wrote:
>Myself and a mate are heading to Mt Buffalo in January for a couple of weeks.>We have never been there (snip)

How did you go?
We never saw a trip report ...
It would be good to read a 1st timers perspective.
Fish Boy
24-Aug-2005
4:09:19 PM
Was cool.
gfdonc
24-Aug-2005
5:01:17 PM
Fish Boy wins the Post of the Month award for the shortest ever trip report.
Fish Boy
25-Aug-2005
12:18:20 AM
Okay then....

Day 1: Where angles fear to tread....5 pitches. Stuffed like a bunny after that.
Day 2: Commander Cody, Bannana Blase, Beowulf (?), Peroxide Blonde.
Day 3: Ate dognuts (thanks Jason), piss farted around below the hang glider ramp, saw Kevin Lindorf putting up a new route. Climbed Maharajah and Sultan, yeah!
Day 4: Woken up by rangers.....ate more dognuts....climbed a beauty out the back called the initiation....very hot climb. Did a few other things....

Drove home from the best trip I have ever had climbing.


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There are 37 messages in this topic.

 

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