Since being in WA I have wanted to get back onto some proper big multi-pitch climbing. While I have climbed at Peak Charles and the Porongurup’s which are both a couple of hundred meter as the climbs I have done there have generally been on clean faces and bolted. West Cape Howe got closer but only being two pitch it didn’t give that true out there experience. The place to get that here is the Stirling Ranges, I’d attempted a climb on the big wall of Bluff Knoll in 2006 but route finding at the base of this 250m’ish wall is pretty hard and we were not confident enough to go any further than the first pitch. However, a few weeks back I got a second chance to attempt this real big wall which was reputed to give you that alpine experience.
Lisa, Elseya and I were on a ten day camping trip at the Strilings and part way through Ryan, Rhys, Chris and Steve came down to meet us and take me out climbing:
The first day Chris and Steve headed out to Bluff Knoll to try the classic Hell Fire Gully grade 14 (VS 4b) and 250m long, as they had to leave the next day. As Ryan and myself also wanted to hit this climb on Bluff Knoll we wandered off for the day to Tallyubarup to sample some shorter two pitch routes and get acclimatised (with camera man Rhys in tow. After a hour slog up a shaly path the towering walls with meandering routes certainly looked good:
Um the name of the first climb escapes me now, graded 12 (S) it was fun and had a good middle section and an exposed section straight off on the second pitch:
The next climb however was worthy of it’s three stars, Nail Bite (15 – VS 4c). Up flakes and a towering corner with a steep and exposed finish to a ledge under the capping roof in the image below:
The next day Chris and Steve (again with Rhys snapping away) went to the same place and did the same two lines, here they are up on the second pitch of Nail Bite:
The two climbs didn’t take us too long but we wanted to save some energy for the next bigger day, so we tramped down stopping for a play on a boulder. As we were heading back we decided to have a look at huge boulder at the base of Mount Trio that has had four bolted lines created. We played on two of them, a 17 (HVS 5a) and 22 (E2 5c) and while they were fun they were pretty fingery and hard. The rock was pretty good but the occasional hold did have a habit of crumbling and sending you flying making us think the grades of the routes probably increase with age:
We got back to camp early at just gone 4, and by 5:30 we though we better check on the other guys as there had been no word. As we got there the evening cloud had covered the top and was starting to fall down the gullies. We got out the binoculars and watched them top out on the last pitch at gone 6 as dusk was coming in and 12.5hrs after they had left camp. They got back to camp at 8:30 and told us of a wet and scrubby climb that they were not to impressed with, they also had no phone reception on the face and only got some when they topped out:
Armed with this information Ryan and I still set off at 5 the next morning to Bluff Knoll but chose a line called Right Anti-Climax still going at grade 15 and being 240m long. This climb followed faces rather than gullies so should have been drier. Strangely we were the only ones at the car park:
The hour plus walk in was through scrub with patches of thick bush but on the whole not too bad, the morning light cast its shadows and slowly woke the world below us up
As we approached again route finding was hard, but Ryan spotted a wall that looked clean and not to bad to climb:
We set off but the first pitch took a long time a as gear was hard to find and the rock in places was a suspect. The first three pitches were like this and we were in the sun the whole time, after these we hit Prickle Traverse, a massive ledge system that is just under half way’ish up the big wall. It had taken a long time to get there and it was already 12 by the time we were ready to move on. Both tired from the day before and the sun but food and water gave us the strength to carry on with the next six pitches (which we did in four):
I was knackered but slogged on whinging about steepening terrain and not knowing where I was heading, but Ryan kept me going (thanks Ryan J). The first two pitches off Prickle Traverse were the most technical but the gear was far better than below. After that the climbing was described as a scramble but there was no way we would have done them unroped. The gear again grew sparse and the rock quality deteriorated and in some sections it was hard to find something good to pull up on:
We made good time and not sure how but managed to get up the four pitches in 2hrs, quick it may have seemed the end was a very welcome sight:
Up on top we had a quick celebratory snack and drink, packed up called Lisa and Elseya to say we were heading down at just after 2 and then headed down. The climb was as stated a true alpine experience, run outs, loose rock, hard route finding and we were always looking over our shoulders to check the weather which can change quickly here. We are certainly coming back – maybe in autumn so not too long to wait and we are hoping Hell Fire Gully will be in better condition so we can have a play on that:
When we phoned they said they had just watched us finish the last pitch, and were waiting at the car park. So as we walked down they walked up to meet us part way:
Sandbagged 