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Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

Area Location Sub Location Crag Links
VIC Buffalo (General) (General) (General) [ Mt Buffalo Guide | Images ] 

Author
Buffalo aid routes
tom.p
8-Sep-2013
2:22:38 PM
Ahoy,

I have a few questions regarding potential aid routes at Mt Buffalo. My mate and I are planning on heading to Buffalo in a few months after things start to warm up to do a route or two but I'm not entirely sure what our best options are. We were up earlier this year to do Ozymandias and for some bizarre reason we actually want to go back. Probably looking for routes in the M4/M5 range- no harder.

Our initial thought has been Magic and Loss, but I'm entirely convinced that it will be any good. Anyone done it? Any advice regarding it? If not that what other options would people suggest?

Question regarding pitons. At what point do you need to start using pitons on an aid climb? Never used them myself but have been thinking it might be necessary to learn to do the harder stuff. Any suggestions about how to practice? I don't know anyone personally who would really know how to use them. Also if anyone has a few old but usable pitons lying around I would be happy to take them off you for a few bucks


IdratherbeclimbingM9
8-Sep-2013
8:32:42 PM
On 8/09/2013 tom.p wrote:
>Ahoy,
>
>I have a few questions regarding potential aid routes at Mt Buffalo. My
>mate and I are planning on heading to Buffalo in a few months after things
>start to warm up to do a route or two but I'm not entirely sure what our
>best options are. We were up earlier this year to do Ozymandias and for
>some bizarre reason we actually want to go back. Probably looking for routes
>in the M4/M5 range- no harder.
>
>Our initial thought has been Magic and Loss, but I'm entirely convinced
>that it will be any good. Anyone done it? Any advice regarding it? If not
>that what other options would people suggest?

It is a good route, done by a couple of experienced climbers, and will keep you honest at the grade.
The best part of the route is that it takes She Wall fairly directly (read good value exposure), but the ordinary part of the route is that it finishes up the Ozymandias chimneys. You could of course link the top of it into other routes in the vicinity (eg Strange Ritual), which is one of the great things about the Nth Wall, ie being able to mix and match lines for variety and consistency...
>
>Question regarding pitons. At what point do you need to start using pitons
>on an aid climb?

Just about every major line on Buffalo Nth Wall goes as 'clean aid', and the personal satisfaction of doing them that way is worth striving for. An added benefit is that the rock is preserved for future ascents in similar style.

>Never used them myself but have been thinking it might
>be necessary to learn to do the harder stuff. Any suggestions about how
>to practice? I don't know anyone personally who would really know how to
>use them. Also if anyone has a few old but usable pitons lying around I
>would be happy to take them off you for a few bucks
>
Modern pitons are more specialised for the thin-aid end of the spectrum and utilise items known as peckers / birdbeaks etc. They can often be placed by hand for 'clean-aid' ascents.
If they are ever driven with a hammer, they don't need belting on like the pitons of yesteryear.
Practice is best done on non-lines in quarries, roadside cuttings, etc, though there are also plenty of out of the way boulders at Buffalo that lend themselves as practice blocks...

Keep an eye on the For Sale section of climbing forums, as the gear gets advertised for sale from time to time. Failing that, convince M75 that he has more than enough, and take the excess off his hands!!
Heh, heh, heh.

Back on Magic & Loss.
It took thin knifeblades and a cheat stick to do it on it's first ascent back in 1993, but there is a good chance it would go as a clean-aid route these days. It has not had many ascents, so having a couple of thin knifeblade pitons on your rack would be a sensible backup if you needed to re-use the original slots if micro RP's or hand placed peckers don't work.
tom.p
9-Sep-2013
5:11:12 PM
Thanks M9, that's exactly the sort of advice that I was looking for. Especially regarding the peckers, etc.I'll try and rustle some us and a few knifeblades to help out as well

Have you done it yourself? I had suspected that an obscure route like Magic and Loss there weren't going to be too many repeats of it

I'm certainly not looking forward to doing the Ozy chimneys again, they are bloody horrible...

Miguel75
9-Sep-2013
8:08:38 PM
On 8/09/2013 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:
...SNIP
>Keep an eye on the For Sale section of climbing forums, as the gear gets
>advertised for sale from time to time. Failing that, convince M75 that
>he has more than enough, and take the excess off his hands!!
>Heh, heh, heh.

Mmmm, you'll have to pry my (ridiculous amount of) excess gear out of my cold, dead hands... :)

P.S. I do need a few peckers, rurps and beaks, anyone selling any?
mikllaw
9-Sep-2013
8:31:50 PM
On 9/09/2013 Miguel75 wrote:
>P.S. I do need a few peckers, rurps and beaks, anyone selling any?

Get some powerstation tubing (2.25 Cr 1 Mo; 1/2 Cr 1/2 Mo, 1/4 vanadium; P91 or similar) and laser cut the shapes out about 5 mm thick. Cold grind them (fine grinding wheel, low pressure, constant dipping in water).
Use and enjoy

IdratherbeclimbingM9
9-Sep-2013
8:45:31 PM
On 9/09/2013 tom.p wrote:
>Have you done it yourself? I had suspected that an obscure route like
>Magic and Loss there weren't going to be too many repeats of it

Not yet due my lengthy to-do list has harder stuff nearby to it that interests me more...
To my knowledge it has possibly only had three repeats since it was put up, and I would classify it as an aid afficionado type of route, once some others in the area have been done, ... depending on whether your team is consolidating or pushing their grades.
Don't get me wrong though, as the original ascentionists are very experienced, and I reckon it would be worth doing simply because of its location on the wall as well as the fact that they put it up, as I respect other routes of theirs (individually), that I have done.
widewetandslippery
10-Sep-2013
8:31:32 AM
do know of a nuclear facility where you can go dumpster diving?

Miguel75
10-Sep-2013
10:13:41 AM
On 9/09/2013 mikllaw wrote:
>On 9/09/2013 Miguel75 wrote:
>>P.S. I do need a few peckers, rurps and beaks, anyone selling any?
>
>Get some powerstation tubing (2.25 Cr 1 Mo; 1/2 Cr 1/2 Mo, 1/4 vanadium;
>P91 or similar) and laser cut the shapes out about 5 mm thick. Cold grind
>them (fine grinding wheel, low pressure, constant dipping in water).
>Use and enjoy

I'm keen to give it a crack. Anyone have a laser cutter?

IdratherbeclimbingM9
10-Sep-2013
12:49:06 PM
On 10/09/2013 widewetandslippery wrote:
>do know of a nuclear facility where you can go dumpster diving?

Try Fukushima, though the aid climbing in the vicinity is limited I hear.
... But on the fishing front, the contaminated groundwater entering the ocean makes for some wild catches, and makes eel fishing from a packraft seem tame! ;-(
Heh, heh, heh.
widewetandslippery
10-Sep-2013
1:07:53 PM
fishing near the warm water outlets on lake macquarie is a bit like that to, I love those "its only steam" signs.

sliamese
11-Sep-2013
8:07:00 AM
you could do Holden Caulfield, but skip the crux aid pitch through the roof by heading up ozy direct. then join it at the top again. Pretty cool route up the best bits of stone. Did you do the original or the direct last time? a night at the gledhill bivy is something not to be missed i think!

There are 11 messages in this topic.

 

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