Id recommend staying away until it cools down as the snakes will still be active for a while.

With Summer approaching and the subsequent longer days we thought it a good time to suggest a Grose Valley challenge. Pierces pass is a great Spring/Summer crag with a lot of shade in the mornings and plenty of routes located near each other. It is the perfect place to maximise rock time as the weather gets warmer. We would like to suggest a challenge for climbers to climb a 1000m of routes at pierces pass in a single day. Note that all lengths and grades are from the guidebook. Our suggested circuit has the following legs:

1. Park car at car park of your choice
2. Climb Bladderhozen 110 23 (pitches or 21, 21, 23)
3. Rap back down Smegadeath and Walk to Smegadeath
4. Climb Ssmegadath to Rigby Hill 215m 23 (pitches 23, 20, 22, 23, 21, 22)
5. Walk over to Mirrorball area and rap in
6. Climb Mirroball back to ledge (don’t climb last pitch above ledge) 120m 19 (pitches 19, 18, 15, 19)
7. Rap back down Mirrorball and walk to Bunny Bucket Buttress
8. Climb Bunny Bucket Buttress 270m 18 (pitches 18, 18, 18, 8, 8, 17, 17, 17, 13)
9. Walk back west to top of Mirrorball and rap back to halfway ledge
10. Rap back down Mirrorball and walk to hotel California
11. Climb Hotel California 288m 21 (pitches ‘21’, 20, 17, 10, 18, 19, 20, 18 don’t climb the last short pitch)
12. Walk out along ridge and back to your car wherever you parked it.

This circuit does include 2-3 pitches of scrambling which may not be considered pure climbing but they are part of the routes. It also maximises the easier climbing but there are plenty of other routes that could be better suited to the circuit.

On completion you will have amassed:

• 1003m of climbing
• Racked up 564 Points
• Rapped 520m
• Walked about 6.5km
• Climbed 31 pitches at an average grade of 18

Obviously there would be two ways to do it. One would be totally free climbing with no rests or pulling on gear and the other would involve aid climbing or rest on a pitch or two as required.

I think this would be a great accomplishment to achieve. I’ve done Bladderhozen and Smegadeath in a 5 hour day and was pretty wasted after that so to add 600m more metres on top of it would be great. Anyone keen to give it a crack or suggest an alternative circuit?

The QLD EPA has fined some of the developers and ordered the removal of all bolts at the flinders cave climbing area that was principally developed last year. Obviously this could set a worrying precedent in QLD and other parts of Australia. The climbers in question plan to challenge the fine and ruling and have set up a new group unite climbers against this type of cliff closure. They are asking climbers to support this group by signing up. I urge you to take a look at their site (which also has the full background to the proceedings) and support them in their fight against the closure. The website is here:

www.queenslandclimbersalliance.org

“the fear of failure outweighs the fear of falling”

I think i get what he means????

I seem to have a habit of falling of routes above traditional ‘cruxes’ and very close to anchors. It can be very frustrating experience but quite often it motivates me more to actually do a bit of training and work on my weaknesses.

Interestingly before I set off on this particular attempt I was very nervous as well. To the point I was actually shaking a little nad had to focus my breathing to calm down. This hasn’t really happened to me before on a sport route and i think it may have been a little performance anxiety? Weird.

Either way the route certainly has me hooked (as if it didn’t already before now) and my motivation to do it is very high. I know I can do the route. Ive just got to hold on for one more move, although there is still one more hold on the route I havn’t yet fallen off….

here is a pretty bad pic of me starting the crux sequence

One of the most memorable moves you can do on a route is to nail a nice big dynamic move. Sure you can add one of these moves to plenty of routes but there are some routes that cannot be solved realistically without a nice dyno or solid deadpoint. So for those of you climbing around Sydney who enjoy climbing dynamically here are a few routes that you can employ your skills on (note for the purists if you like onsighting the following list could be construed as beta. :) ). Im sure there are plenty of harder routes that have dynos on them as well but i am yet to sample those

Feel free to dispute this list or add to it.

After initially planning on climbing at Mt Alexandra we (KP, my two eldest boys Stew and Jake and me) changed our plans in the persistent drizzle and headed to Nowra. We decided we would check out the Lair as it had a lot of moderate climbs that would help get some mileage up. At the crag we met up with Bundy and Teacher who, with plastic man, had gathered a big clan of merry crankers for a day ‘on the tick’.

The lair is situated past HMAS Albatross and has about 40 routes from grade 10 to 24 at present. The best quality routes lie in the 21-24 bracket and are situated around the members area wall. The crag was originally develop by a group of people including the guide book editor Gavin Lyon. After the crag was made public in 2005 Graham Hill found his way there and quickly put up a swag of routes on the oddly overlooked right side of the members area.

We warmed up on Bingo Wings 18and Beat the Drum 17which were both pleasant slightly slabby routes on Berlin Wall. KP decided that Graham Hills sandbagging days were over and jumped on his route 6” Release 21 also on Berlin Wall. After navigating through a powerful start sequence he thought he had it in the bag. Unfortunately a single crystal on the final slab was to much for this cranker and he had to beat a hasty retreat. Graham Hills reputation remains intact.

The next routes we climbed were Bakery Treat 21 and its later day neighbour Graba Granny 21. Both these routes offer great climbing on the main wall of the members area with the later requiring me to have a second shot after an unconvincing flash attempt.

Bundy on the start of Cheeky Possum 21 with the members area wall continuing in the back ground. Photo©: Shaun Martin

With the day rapidly slipping away KP decided that the proudest section of the cliff was worthy of his attention and jumped on Kill it and Grill it 22!!. This route requires a batman start then climbs up into a scoop feature before undergoing a decent run out and up a punchy headwall. The initial moves into the scoop are awesome and the scoop itself is fairly punchy. This feisty 22 took KP 3 shots and I had to resign myself to dogging it. It seems Graham Hill got the better of us again but it’s a great route.

By this time Jake and Stew were both hungry and Tired and very vocal about both so we packed our gear and took off. Wasn’t a big day by any means but a worthwhile one. It looks like ive got a fair bit of work to do if im going to be able to tick any of the projects i bolted last year!

Id recommend the Lair to anyone wanting a day away from the regular Nowra crags as the place has a number of routes that are really worthwhile.

Get the Lair Guide from the ACA website HERE

Crater Bluff

• Top of Green Glacier
  2 x Fixe hangers with 2 captive rings,
  2 x M10 bolts,
  2 x Ramset hammer capsules,

Cost - $44

• Middle Rap Station
  2×10mm Maillions,
  1×250mm Stainless Steel Chain,

Cost - $19.5

• Lower Rap Station
  2×500mm 10mm Stainless Steel Chain,
  1 x Bolt hanger,
  2×10mm Maillion,
  2 x Stainless Steel Shackle,

Cost - $59

Belougery Spire

• Rap in Steep Gully
  1 x M10 Bolt,
  1 x Ramset Hammer Capsule,
  1 x Stainless Steel Twisted shackle,
  2×10mm Maillion,
  1×250mm Stainless Steel Chain,

Cost - $34

Total Cost of this Work – $156.50

Also the Sydney Rockclimbing Club have a rebolting fund. Information on it can be found here.