Feeling relaxed and happy after the long weekend away?
I've been rather slack in the trip report department lately. I had an excellent day of new routing adventures with Hayden Brotchie out at Mt Hay last weekend, but didn't get a chance to write it up (last week was full of weddings, work and last minute plans for the long weekend, so I had bugger all spare time!). Hopefully this little report should make up for it!
Well, after some tentative plans to head up to the Warrumbungles with Stuart Robertson and party, I ended up heading down to Bungonia Gorge with Andrew Duckworth and friends.
Andrew managed to get Friday off work, so after an early start (yes,
10am is early after a wedding the night before!), we arrived shortly after
midday. Although Andrew was keen to head straight down into the gorge
and jump on "Siblings of the Sun" (multiple pitches of grade 26!) I convinced
him that the SRC Crag (a "small" cliff located near the top of the gorge)
might be a better place to start.
After looking at the crag from the Adams Lookout, Andrew and I reasoned
that the obvious track running down the ridge below the lookout must have
been the track to the crag. The fact that the track headed away from
the
crag didn't seem to bother us, and after about an hour of scrambling
about on a loose, steep goat track in the middle of nowhere, we finally
realised we were probably going the wrong way. Another 30 minutes
of steep scree
traversing and bush bashing deposited us at the bottom of the crag.
Although the "small" SRC crag doesn't get anything more than a one paragraph description in the guidebook, it's actually quite substantial, reaching about 45m in height, and with excellent rock and some fine lines. Although no individual climbs are listed in the guidebook, there are some initials painted below some of the more obvious lines (any of you SRC members know the names of these routes?).
Andrew started up "CR", a really nice 40m face/arete of about grade 14. Although it looked blank from the ground, the wall featured amazingly positive incut holds that are basically jugs (since the wall itself is quite slabby). Although the pro was a little spaced in places, and a little dodgy in others (no Andrew, that #3 RP was not going to hold a fall!), the climbing wasn't too concerning and the numerous rest stances really got us in the mood for more.
Having done one climb, I pronounced myself a master of limestone climbing
and decided to jump on something that looked a little harder, a smooth,
slabby arete about 4m left of "CR". The climb started off pleasantly
enough, but about 10m up I found myself under a rather intimidating bulge
with very few holds. After a couple of rather pathetic attempts at
breaching it, I decided to head left to a nice sit-down rest on a grass
tree that was growing from a hole in the cliff!! After some quiet
contemplation, the bulge still looked too hard, so I continued the
traverse another couple of metres left to a corner and a large block where
I took another rest.
I spent a few more minutes of solitude here, while the peaceful shouts
of "get on with it, ya cowardly bastard" drifted up from Andrew.
From here I shuddered straight up a vertical water chute, which offered
basically only vertical holds (lots of stemming and layaways!), and managed
to place a great #4 camalot in one of the runnels in the back of the chute.
Another couple of metres up and I started getting a little bit panicky.
No gear offered itself, and Andrew was concentrating more on killing the
chicken-sized mosquitoes that were eating him alive than on helping
me through my predicament!
With slightly blurred vision, the exaggerated pumping of my heart in
my ears and the buzz of adrenalin in my veins, I was shuffling through
another couple of moves when suddenly Ping! My left foot unexpectedly
popped off a hold!! "SHIT!!" I yelled and managed to miraculously
levitate up another metre or two to a rest (of sorts). My terrified
wail had attracted
Andrew's attention again, but he was out of sight and couldn't see
what was going on.
Because it was the closest thing resembling a rest in the last 6 or 7 metres of climbing, I was loath to leave my little stance. Of course there was no other way out but to climb on, so after a couple of shaky false starts I managed to step out right of the water chute onto the smooth slab above the bulge. A couple of delicate moves up and right and I managed to gain a jug in the middle of the slab, about 12m runout and scared shitless!! Andrew by this time had returned to his mossie slaughter, so the news of finally getting in some pro didn't elicit much of a response. Another couple of delicate slab moves and I managed to reach a rather chossy but easy corner that led up to a ledge, another short, chossy wall and the belay.
Andrew cruised up on second and we both agreed that the pitch was about 18 with adequate but rather widely spaced gear. I don't know whether I'd use the word "adequate", but I'm sure someone in a more relaxed frame of mind would find it adequate!! :-)
With the sun going down, we trudged back up to the car, and headed around to the campsite, where we met up with about half a dozen of Andrew's friends who'd just arrived. Dinner and campfire chatting passed by in a blur and then it was into the tent for some long overdue shuteye.
After a night of detoxification from the adrenalin overdose of Friday, Saturday dawned rather too soon for my liking. hankfully Jonas, Julian, Genevieve and Monica were keen to get a feel for the rock as well, so we headed back to the SRC crag.
Andrew again started off, this time leading "RB", a smooth, underprotected
buttress just to the right of "CR". After some difficult moves off
the ground, the first crux is reached, with most of the difficulty in trying
to place gear. The gear isn't very good anyway, and Andrew ended
up placing a small, dodgy wire, sitting on it (with concern!) and placing
more gear
while on rope. From here the climbing eases off up to a large
ledge, with a bomber hex placement at the back.
Unfortunately for Andrew, the hex proved useless, as the moves off the ledge proved to be the crux, with a better-than-even chance of hitting the ledge should he blow the moves (the hex would only have caught him a metre or two below the ledge). Worse still, the ledge was covered in those razor sharp limestone water runnels so common in limestone.
With the gear at his feet, a razor sharp ledge waiting to catch him and a slippery, slightly greasy slab move crux to do, Andrew showed his mettle and pulled through the move in fine style. On second I took two goes to get the move, and was very happy I hadn't led it! Definitely a crux to cause grevious bodily harm, should you fall!! From here on the climbing eased off again, up a very nice arete with good gear and nice moves. The climb weighed in at about grade 20, and was about 40m in length.
Eager to get my head back in shape after Friday's little adventure, I jumped on a 15m grade 13 Jonas and Julian had just done. It was very pleasant, and got me right back in the mood to lead again.
Andrew then finished off the day with the lead of a slightly dirty 25m grade 15 on a buttress just upstream from the SRC crag. This was a surprisingly good climb, given that it looked filthy from the ground. One theory is that because limestone is so odrous, very little vegetation can grow on the rock itself, meaning that wherever rock is visible, it'll be clean and good to climb on.
In the afternoon Julian took a group of us down Grill Cave, which was great fun (if a little muddy!). Its been 10 years since I did any serious caving, and it was great fun to get in and get dirty doing it again!
Sunday dawned bright and clear (as it did all weekend!), so we all decided to head down into the gorge, where Andrew and I and Jonas and Julian planned to check out the big, multipitch routes found down there. The access to the gorge is a nightmare, being quite long (about 5km) and steep for almost its entire length. Boulder hopping a kilometre back up the river to get to the gorge didn't help much, either.
After a bit of trouble identifying the right route, Andrew started up the first pitch of "Strangeness and Charm", a 5 pitch route of grades 18, 18, 22, 22, and 19. Our plan was to lead the first two pitches to an abseil chain, then rap back down and walk back out of the gorge.
Andrew dispatched the first pitch in fine style, having a few problems with crossed ropes (we led on two 10.5mm ropes), rope drag and a couple of popped pieces. I then seconded without incident, reaching the pleasant belay stance (an exposed scoop 40m up the wall).
The second pitch is a 20m traverse across the face to a set of rap chains, and the many repeats of the pitch had worn the holds white and slick. Andrew persuaded me to lead it (mainly by pointing out that seconding would be as bad as leading!), and so I racked up and started off. From the belay ledge, one fixed hanger is visible about 3m away, and then there are two flakes about 15m further across. At this point I was praying for some more gear in between, however I couldn't see anything.
I started off, making lots of delicate slab moves sideways across the
slab. With a 40m, almost vertical wall below me, the exposure was fantastic,
and it was all I could do to concentrate on the moves at hand, rather than
the hungry void below me! About 6m out from the FH I started getting
rather worried about taking a huge pendulum fall onto it, removing all
of my skin
on the sharp limestone wall in the process! Thankfully I discovered
a second FH soon after (about 8m out from the first), and muttered a small
"thank you" to Giles Bradbury!
A couple more slab moves and I'd gained the first flake, which offered
both a good wired hex placement, and a welcome jug to rest on. From
here to the chains the moves eased off, although the exposure continued
to snap at my heels. I placed a final cam before the chains, clipped
into them, and began the arduous process of trying to find a comfortable
position on the
hanging belay (my first!).
Andrew was as concerned on second as I was on lead, particularly since after unclipping the first hanger he faced just as big a pendulum fall as I had when clipping the second. Still, he's a consummate slab climber, so he cruised the pitch in fine style.
After an atmospheric double rope rap back to the bottom of the gorge, we packed up our gear and began the long walk back out of the gorge. This bit nearly killed me, and if it hadn't been for Andrew storming ahead up the scree, I'm sure I would have taken three times as long to get out of there! In fact, if Andrew hadn't been awake I probably wouldn't have got out at all, since I took a wrong turn about 15 minutes in and ended up heading up a steep buttress at right angles to the correct track!
We then headed back to the campsite, absolutely bushed, and after some dinner, I hit the sack (Andrew headed out with Julian et al and did another cave, but I was way too buggered for that!).
Monday morning I packed up camp and drove back up to Sydney, keen to miss the Floriade traffic returning from Canberra. Andrew etc. remained in Bungonia for the day, and were planning on either doing some walking in the area, or doing a couple of the more technical caves.
Well, that was my long weekend, and a great one it was, too!! Hope you all got the most out of your time off!
Cheers,
Peter
PS. If anyone doesn't want to receive these trip reports, just let me
know.
Also, if there's anyone who might get a laugh out of reading this,
feel
free to forward it on!!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Monks
http://www.geocities.com/yosemite/4455/
pmonks@iname.com
peter.monks@au.pwcglobal.com