Happy, unshaven, out-of-focus goofballs after the descent off Missing Link. What a great route, and what a great trip. Now, as for next year... |
A slightly more close up shot, for Colin's many fans. Col cooked up beef stroganoff as the sun went down, and the usual giant bottle of duty-free cognac provided nightcaps. They were welcome, too, as the temperature dropped right off. I was more than happy to have shoved a parka in my pack. |
Australia 2004 - page 2 |
Wake up you lazy sods! The Mt. Buffalo lodge was nice, but it's time to re-board the mother ship and head for the legendary Mt. Arapiles |
We both slept nearly 12 hours after climbing Angels, stuffed down breakfast with great enthusiasm (on my part, at least) and then hit the road. More than 500 kilometers of driving, but that's just a short haul by Oz standards. We stopped for lunch in a town called Bendigo, and Colin pointed us at a sidestreet bakery for meat pies. First time to try them for me, and the steak pie I chose was awesome. Wish I could remember the name of the place now... |
We pulled into the Pines campground tired enough to decide it was too late to climb, so we opened the gaping maw of the mother ship.... |
...And in a matter of moments: home! |
A slightly more close up shot, for Colin's many fans. Col cooked up beef stroganoff as the sun went down, and the usual giant bottle of duty-free cognac provided nightcaps. They were welcome, too, as the temperature dropped right off. I was more than happy to have shoved a parka in my pack. |
Daylight brought - well - not us. But we made it up by 8:00 or so and scarfed down bananas, cereal (Wheat-a-bix or some other odd Oz brand, I think), juice and coffee. Then it was time to sort gear and saunter off to Bard Butress. |
The green tent was mine for the week, generously loaned by Col's friend Adam. A two-man Wild Country and a very nice piece of gear indeed. |
Yup - I'd fly all night to climb here. |
Our first route was Bard (Oz 12; US 5.6). I got pitches 1, 3 and 5, with the first being a pretty casual ramp. Perfect for getting some feel back after a day in the car. Here's Col at right just about at the belay on pitch 2. And below at said belay. Nice spot. We were both carrying patagucci puffball vests clipped to our harnesses and the air was chill enough in the morning for them to be welcome at the belays. |
After Bard was Resignation, a four pitch Oz 15 (US 5.7-5.8). Col got the stunning traverse crux on pitch 3, and I shot a sequence of pics of him leading above a pretty nifty little opposed nuts placement. |
PRETTY SWEET! Took a stroll before dinner and saw a couple of kangaroos, too far off to photograph, and an echidna (pretty rare to see except as roadkill, Col said), but he refused to show us his face. Headed back to camp, shoes full of evil, prickly grass seeds, and pigged out on sausages, rice, salad, Victoria Bitter and Hennessy VSOP for desert. Yum! |
We awoke to the standard soundtrack of the Pines campground - the weird warbling of the Arapiles magpies and the shattering screetches of small groups of galahs. What a fantastic place. |
Magpie. No idea specifically what sort of magpie they are, but I love the noise they make. |
Galah. These and the magpies, plus the occasional kookaburra from deeper in the bush, would provide our background music for the rest of the trip. |
We were strolling in to the Watchtower Face not long after our 7:30 wake up. I had my first encounter with a shingleback along the way. Cute little things, I thought, until another Aussie friend described them to me as "turds with legs". That's really not very nice, but, well, now that you mention it.... |
We opened the action with Skink (Oz 18; US 5.9-5.10a), and Col wanted the crux second pitch, so I took the first and third. Here's Col, breathing again at the belay, after underclinging his way across the crux traverse. A nice shady roof kept the sun off me while he did the work. Temperatures were spiraling from our first cool day, and would continue to rise as the week went on. On the rappel ledge at the top, we met a brown snake. Poisonous, I learned, as Col and the two other Aussies sharing our rappel suddenly bolted screaming into the bush. Sadly, I wasn't quick enough to get a picture. After Skink we hid from the sun on Watchtower Chimney (Oz 12; US 5.6), with me taking pitches 1 and 3, and Col 2 and 4. I couldn't figure out where the heck pitch 3 was supposed to go (not to mention getting freaked out by the chimneying) and ended up traversing out and up to a gorgeous airy belay ledge on the left corner of Watchtower Buttress, from which Col face-climbed us to the top. Guess I'll have to go back and do it right, someday... |
A mommy 'roo posed for a distant, low-light picture on the walk out. Note the joey peeking at us from her pouch. Sorry the pic isn't better. Burritos and beer for dinner and LIGHTS OUT. |
The temperature was really ramping up by now. I went from a fully-zipped summer bag the first night in Araps, to an unzipped bag, and then to no bag at all. It was actually more comfortable sleeping in a cotton t-shirt directly on my sleeping pad, then throwing the unzipped bag over my legs if it got cool enough in the early morning hours. We started planning our climbing around the heat, as well, looking for shady chimneys. And that brought us to Lamplighter (Oz 14; US 5.7). Col took pitches one and three, and I got what the guidebook claims is the crux traverse on pitch 2. Pitch 3, however, is a chimney, and I personally I for one would have called that the crux. Needless to say, Col took full advantage of his comfy belay to laugh at me as I thrutched around in there, cursing away the whole time. Penalty slack for you later, dude.... frigging chimneys.... |
The descent off the back side of the Pharos formation, where Lamplighter is found, is a 50 meter, mostly free-hanging rappel. Kinda fun; kinda cool; kinda scary. I did my best to capture the moment with my old, cheap, point and shoot film camera. |
In search of more shade, we wandered slowly through the scorching air down in the direction of Atridae formation and Agamemnon. It's not hard to spot - just look for the nice, deep, cool, chimney. Yeah, the deep one, right in the middle. Damn. |
It's only a grade 10 (US 5.4-5.5), so I really had no excuse to be horrified of leading it. On the other hand, who needs excuses anyway? After enjoying the shade - and begging for mercy for a while - I headed up. Residual echoes from my whining are probably still ringing back and forth in there somewhere.... |
Col tries to understand what all that drama was about. |
Heat persuaded us to go in search of swimming instead of more routes, but we were shocked to discover no water at all in Natimuk Lake. The dock stood forlorn over a plain of dust. We determined that beer constituted an adequate substitute and repaired to the Natimuk Pub for same, together with dinner cooked by someone other than us. |
By Col's design, an after dinner stroll out of camp took us back to the tree where we'd seen our echidna a couple of days previously. This time, there he was - fully willing to pose for the camera, at least for a moment. Well, actually he wasn't so willing at first, but we held dead still for a few minutes, and pretty soon he seemed to forget we were there. Off he went, waddling about his business and giving us our chance. No genius, but pretty cute! |
Next day saw us set the alarm for 6:15 to beat the heat and climb Brolga (Oz 16; US 5.8), a very enjoyable slab route, although somewhat run out in spots. I got pitches 1 and 3, and Col got pitch 2. Here he is on pitch 1. |
We finished the route before noon, stripped off the gear and headed in to Natimuck again - this time for milkshakes. Next stop Horsham for lunch, and then back to another swimming hole, which thankfully had water in it. The temperature was up past 38C (over 100F), and there was no way we were climbing anything until it cooled off. Ahhh, this is the ticket! |
And here, leading pitch 2. |
And following pitch 3. |
Doesn't mean no climbing though, and we threw the toys back on and zipped up Muldoon (Oz 13; US 5.6-5.7) in the late afternoon. What an absolutely fun-tacious climb! I led pitch 1, while Col got pitch 2. Here he is following. |
And leading. |
The plan for Saturday, November 27 had us driving back to Melbourne for dinner with Col's girlfriend, Rachel, followed by goodbyes, and then a night for me in a swank hotel to get cleaned up and a taxi to the airport the following morning. Time for one more route before driving out, and Col, whose lead head had been stronger than mine for the entire trip, called for a run on Missing Link (Oz 17; US 5.9). The gear on this one is thin, and it was his lead, all the way. |
Happy, unshaven, out-of-focus goofballs after the descent off Missing Link. What a great route, and what a great trip. Now, as for next year... |
Someone with waaaay too much time on his or her hands has spelled out the words "Clip n Go" in rocks, so that they're clearly visible from the top of the Bard Buttress. What the heck is up with that? Must be some sort of Oz thing... |
