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9 pitch day

WM

15-Jan-2005
11:21:04 PM

Warmed up by polishing off the new route which I'd tried ground up in the blazing sun last week (see Mike's TR):

* The Mint 42m 21
Start at the R end of the elevated ledge at the base of Dinosaurs Don't Dyno, but belay on wide ledge 6m below to see crux. 1) (32m 21) From elevated ledge, step down to hand traverse R under large roof, cross Great Divide and continue traversing R to Seventh Banana first anchor. 2) (10m 17) Continue traversing R to Sirocco first anchor. Rap off. Full set of cams. Has also been done by starting up the unpleasant flakes 10m L of Great Divide leading to the largest part of the roof (10m longer, not recommended). Pitch 2 can probably be reversed at the same grade by those wanting more after Sirocco's first pitch (or those who don't like Sirocco's sling anchor!). Will Monks, Mark Rewi (alt), Neil Monteith 15/1/05

Oh yeah the other 7 pitches were:
Sirocco p1 repeat
Seventh Banana p1 (onsight and then seconded to retrieve gear)
The Chick is Trouble - ridiculously hard crux, rest is ok
Sordid Orchids p1 - much closer, down to one sit and have a better option to Neil & Kent's heinous sequences!
Spillway DS
Spillway

couldn't be bothered to crack the 10!

Richard

16-Jan-2005
8:41:00 AM

On 15/01/2005 WM wrote:
>
>Oh yeah the other 7 pitches were:
>Spillway DS

I saw some guys try this once - thinking it was grade 18 (or the same as the rest of spillway). They quickly gave up once i pointed out the actual grade. Looks bloody hard.

deadpoint

16-Jan-2005
9:22:42 AM

Spillway DS is good fun, would be *** if a bit longer. It has also been done with gear, using small wires and cams in the heuco thing near the top.

WM

17-Jan-2005
9:17:14 AM

Yep Spillway DS is good fun but no harder than 22 - it is slabby after all! Easily toproped by setting a belay below Spillway (largish cams)

Here's me on the first attempt of The Mint (pic by Mike Boniwell)

And Neil seconding

Superstu

19-Jan-2005
6:02:35 PM

As I managed to lead on sight spillway DS, it is therefore not grade 22.

(Long armsies may have helped thoo...)

kieranl

19-Jan-2005
9:11:37 PM

I don't mind lowering the grade of Spillway DS. It's got one quite hard move past the second bolt ( could be easier if you're tall) then maybe 18/19 for the next couple of moves. Maybe 21. Not really my call.
It wasn't designed as a sport climb - I placed gear after the crux, probably in that little hueco. First bolt turned out to be in a bad spot, very close to a crucial foothold, and possibly wasn't necessary in the first place. Just another stuff-up on my part.

nmonteith

20-Jan-2005
8:47:58 AM

On 19/01/2005 kieranl wrote:
>I don't mind lowering the grade of Spillway DS.

It is bloody hard! 22 at least in my (short-arse) opinion. I certainly didn't onsight the move.

Superstu

20-Jan-2005
9:00:43 AM

Settled then, its "22" with comments in the route description to the effect "possibly easier if you are tall"

Ewbank rocks on...

deadpoint

20-Jan-2005
9:23:26 PM

I remember it was way easier to clip the bolt from above and right, rather below and left. Was a funny episode, I launched up the DS, onsighting it, I looked up at the second pitch and discovered that the guide was incorrect in describing the bolts as 'shiney new ringbolts'. There was a line of shiney new carrots, hmmmm I did not have any bolt plates. I had to walk down to my pack retrieve the bolt plates, walk back to the base of the spillway, belay the second up the DS. Second then decided more food and water was required to complete this epic and walked down to packs and back up to the spillway. The DS is a massive 8m.
It started raining so we walked back down to our packs and started to pack up. The rain stopped, so we walked back up to the spillway and completed the rest of the climb without incident.

nmonteith

21-Jan-2005
8:44:45 AM

On 20/01/2005 deadpoint wrote:
>guide was incorrect
>in describing the bolts as 'shiney new ringbolts'.

They had turned into 'rusty death-trap ringbolts'... thus the reason for the rebolting!

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