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VIC Eastern (General) (General) (General)

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MItchell River - Gippsland Climbing

nmonteith

22-Mar-2012
6:23:10 PM

There has been a few posts recently with people bemoaning the lack of worthwhile climbing around Gippsland. I dug up some 10 year old photos today from a recce I did of the Mitchell River area - and they look pretty good! The sandstone is sort of quartzite - extremely similar to most of South African climbing actually. ANyway - here is some pics to wet your appetite if you are in the area. The river is lovely for a swim as well. All these crags are within a few minutes of the road.

Amphitheatre

Den of Nargan

Amphitheatre

Den of Nargan

Red Rock

Red Rock

nmonteith

22-Mar-2012
6:28:04 PM

And whilst I am in the area of my archives I found this pic of limestone climbing at Buchan in Gippsland. A small but fun sport climbing spot - probably covered in nettles by now.

rodw

22-Mar-2012
7:40:28 PM

Make em search for it all Neil, don't give directions....finding the new super crag after days of searching is half the fun....don't want to take away there fun now do we?

nmonteith

22-Mar-2012
8:28:56 PM

All these cliffs are in the Eastern Victoria guidebook

shortman

22-Mar-2012
8:57:00 PM

On 22/03/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>All these cliffs are in the Eastern Victoria guidebook

Thanks Neil. Now other people are gonna go to my private super crag.

AcaliwebbinOz

23-Mar-2012
4:43:06 PM

Hey Neil, thanks for the post. I bet there are lots of boulders around those spots ripe for some good, well, bouldering too. Most people obviously haven't lived in Perth western Australia. Over here anything under a 7 hour drive is a day trip. Anything taller than 8 meters is tall and anything colder than 24 degrees is cool. Counting down the days till I move east, counting them down with a big red text marker. :)

Oh, PS;
Does the Eastern Victorian guidebook have good bouldering marked as well?
Cheers-

nmonteith

23-Mar-2012
4:44:46 PM

On 23/03/2012 AcaliwebbinOz wrote:
>Oh, PS;
>Does the Eastern Victorian guidebook have good bouldering marked as well?
>Cheers-

No. :-)

Goshen

24-Mar-2012
10:53:41 AM

I've heard of that limestone crag years and years ago, I think when it was first bolted... Matt Brooks? But nothing since - anyone climbed there? It look better than what I pictured it Vic limestone is often just choss, but 5m of that looks just like the Verdon! :-)

nmonteith

24-Mar-2012
8:27:19 PM

Yere - they are Matt Brooks routes (or was it his brother David?)

I've climbed there in 2001, it was ok for half a day combined with some nearby caving. Fun routes on generally good (somewhat sharp) rock - easy access (wear long pants to avoid stinging nettles and electric fence shocks). I also climbed at The Pyramids nearby - but that had total epic access. You had to open/close about 10 gates, then right at the end negotiate with some cranky farmer to cross his land. After that walk through a sea of nettles and hornets - and the climbing wasn't great. There was only a couple of good lines - rest was junk. Matt had bolted about three projects on some more interesting steeper rock - I'm sure he never went back to do them though. The neetles under those projects were taller than me - I've never seen anything like it.

dalai

24-Mar-2012
11:17:38 PM

Mainly Matt but also Andy Kylaars also put up a 29 there on the steep section right of the climber in Neils photo.

BTW - Matt's brother is Daniel...

I checked out this outcrop before it was developed, and even I walked away. Same with the Sun Deck in the Grampians!

The good Dr

25-Mar-2012
8:29:14 AM

On 24/03/2012 dalai wrote
>
>I checked out this outcrop before it was developed, and even I walked
>away. Same with the Sun Deck in the Grampians!

Respect Martin. Shame others may not have had the same good sense. There are small,crags scattered all through that area.

AcaliwebbinOz

26-Mar-2012
11:58:13 AM

Is there any bouldering guide for the area?

shortman

26-Mar-2012
12:51:26 PM

On 26/03/2012 AcaliwebbinOz wrote:
>Is there any bouldering guide for the area?

No. The few problems u will find will be obvious. Get ready for a whole lot of searchin and not much climbin.

AcaliwebbinOz

30-Mar-2012
8:26:43 PM

Sooo.... you're saying that there aren't any boulders in the massive east victorian wilderness? I don't know, it sounds like not too many people are out looking or if they are they're too busy dreaming of being somewhere else instead of gettin it on with what they've got.
In the flattest state in Australia there are plenty of Granite boulders scattered in the hills. Sure sometimes it might take a 3 hour drive to find some climbing but it's out there. The routes are super pumpy, not a stack of moves involved but it's pretty fun. I guess I'll have to get out there and scrub bash around. Maybe start a collection of topos and betas of the area.
If no Bouldering is in the East Vic Climbing guide then where is the best place to find purely bouldering information for East Vic?
Cheers-

dalai

30-Mar-2012
8:50:38 PM

On 30/03/2012 AcaliwebbinOz wrote:
>If no Bouldering is in the East Vic Climbing guide then where is the best
>place to find purely bouldering information for East Vic?

Once you have written it down. ;-)

The majority of Melbourne boulderers look to getting in a car to drive 3 or 4 hours would rather head to the amazing Sandstone in the Grampians than explore some obscure granite boulders in Gippsland...

JamesMc

30-Mar-2012
10:02:24 PM

There's Vereker Rocks and Squeaky Beach at the Prom

JamesMc

dalai

30-Mar-2012
10:43:12 PM

On 30/03/2012 JamesMc wrote:
>There's Vereker Rocks and Squeaky Beach at the Prom

Which are in the East Vic guide. Squeaky Beach was already mentioned in another topic posted by AcaliwebbinOz and is worth a visit.

mattbrooks

2-Apr-2012
9:49:08 AM

Andrew,

there is loads out there if you go look. I have seen heaps out the way, but most Melbourne rock rats head for the Grampians rather than drive 3 hours south. They are letting themselves down though as there is heaps out there and some cool adventure to be had in some beautiful locations. I found a 20m overhanging chunk of limestone overhanging the road down that way last year, but its toooo far away for me to bother with living in Sydney. But go forth and you will find!

MattB

AcaliwebbinOz

4-Apr-2012
11:03:08 PM

Sweet. I would've thought the grampians were so much further away from Gippsland. It'll be really cool finding some awesome boulders. Hopefully I'll be up to V5 or V6 bouldering skills by the time I get there so if I do find boulders I may climb them instead of just look hopefully on.

There are 19 messages in this topic.