Some trips out seem to ignite a fire in the belly and desire to get out and go a bit harder on rock. The last trip out to Lost Buttress did exactly that for me, and I was floating on the feeling the day had given me just a bit higher and longer than normal. However, I had a quandary in that this weekend I wasn’t going to head out for a climb. So it was forecast to be a glorious week I checked in with Howsie and Friday happened to be his fortnightly RDO (rostered day off). Checking my work calendar I had nothing booked in to stop me taking Friday off, so we could head out. Like last weekend I was happy to allow Howsie to choose the destination, and first up he thought Boomer Crag:
It is a lovely place but somewhere he and I have been too several times. There is however a second crag there called Boobyer Boulders that neither of us had been too and looked interesting, and that is what we set our sights on. The crag is on private land so I called the owner and they were happy for us to access their land. That was until I got a call back asking if we had insurance. I doubt anyone has insurance to go hiking, surfing, mountain biking, etc. so why would you have it for climbing? Anyhow his insurance company advised him against allowing us to climb there, and we respected the owners position. And fortunately, there was a third spot the same area:
It is called Oakley Falls, a collection of small crags scatter in the bush round, and mostly, downstream of a reasonably sized concrete dam. The dam was built in the 1903’s as a water supply for steam engines that used to stop and fill up at Pinjarra train station, all owned and operated at the time by the then Western Australian Government Railways. Rumour has it this dam was quickly deemed ineffective to supply the water, but I have not been able to find out why that was. It is now a popular swimming hole, and due to the construction it feels like an infinity pool looking at the plains below the scarp:
Being winter I doubt anyone would have been swimming today, but the frogs were out in force and the sound of them croaking filled the air more than I have heard before. So much so it was worth a video to capture the beautiful sound. Howsie is a bit of a frog nerd and even has an app to identify frog songs, but there were so many different sounds that the app got confused and was unable to help us identify what frogs we were hearing. While it was a wonderful auditory sensation, there was also a droning that could be heard in the background. And this came from Alcoa’s Pinjarra Alumina Refinery:
A machine that never sleeps and a scar on the landscape, and one of so many similar scenes in Western Australia driven by our singular focus of economic stability and progression. This is proven by facts from 2019-20, when mining in Western Australia accounting for 94% of total merchandise exports and 46% for the whole of Australia. This is even when it comes at the cost of carving up the landscape and destroying vast landscapes to dig up metals, mineral sands, rare earths and other materials. And it just shows that there is no forward thinking of diversification after the mining boom slows or ends, which it has to do eventually:
In the image of the refinery you can also see a prominent cracked slab, which is described in the climbing guide as worth a visit. There are however a number of other spots and we decided to do the loop walk, as indicated by the guide, so we could check these out first. We located Cargo Boulders, Fin Field and the above Fox Wall, but the routes at these spots looked scrappy and they didn’t inspire us. We moved on. However, from here on the track detailed in the guide disappeared, and we had to bash through thick scrub. At one point Howsie narrowly missed stepping on an exposed bee hive:
He was hopping down some boulders. I had the advantage of looked from above and could see the white combs, yet to be filled with honey, sticking out from under the final boulder. He stepped over this oblivious of the risk, until I told him at which point he noticed the bees buzzing about and he made a mad dash for safety. A few flowers were out, but obviously not enough for the bees to fill their home with that golden liquid. We also spotted a few fungi but didn’t stop to check them out, I did however have to take a quick snap of the above one. The stem and cap resemble a Parasol Ink Cap (Parasola plicatilis), but I’m not convinced:
The gentle walk turned into a hike, and we didn’t even find the next three crags that the guide details. At least we could tell from the landscape which way we needed to go. And our eyes were firmly set on the cracked slab we had previously seen from our lofty height near the dam. During our hike we had, way back, descended into the valley below. Sadly this meant we left the frog song behind, but on the positive side and due to the land form the sound of the refinery was also lost. We finally got to the prominent cracked slab, called Blair Wall and were pleasantly surprised:
The bush bash had taken over an hour and had been hard work, but we were rewarded with a nice looking crag with some good and varied features. The main lower crack we previously saw from afar proved to be a wide split in the crag, that offered three fun chimney style routes. Two of them being the easiest at the crag so we started on those, Howsie kicked things off with a line that required proper bridging across the widest part of the gap. And for both grade 14 routes the only protection was a single bolt, some 6m high up on the wall. To give you a feel for the position below is a video of Howsie up until the point he could reach the bolt:
Despite the long runouts on Conceded Pass and then Drunk Before Dawn (the image above) we loved both lines. They were very fun and also very different to anything we normally get to climb on. Quite a few of the areas dotted round Perth, like this one, were discovered and established by Jim Truscott and Matthew Rosser. A formidable pair who climbed hard and bold. So the high bolts were not overly surprising, but thankfully not the manner in which all the lines here were bolted. I do however, feel that every so often their lines have felt like serious sandbags, so it was anyone guess how we would go as the next lines would be graded harder:
Howsie was first to test this and had his eye on a grade 17 route that looked lovely, following a rising rightward traverse up some fine cracks. But the sun was shining directly down the line so we decided to leave it till later. Instead he jumped on Fat Bastard, another fun looking line that followed a very clean quartz vein that cut its way from the base, to half way up, the crag. Keeping in mind that this was only an 8m route, and the longest line here is only 15m. It proved to be very good, with thin, delicate, balancy and sustained climbing and in keeping with the grade it was given. This place was really warming to us:
I was feeling good and that fire in the belly was stirring as I looked at the next line, it is listed as a project in the guidebook at grade ‘22+?’ and there is no record of anyone ever having climbed it. But it looked great and I thought I could see two gear placements above the single bolt. Setting off it proved tough, and I won’t say I got it first attempt, but did manage a clean ascent after unlocking the very fine crux sequence that comprised some 7 or 8 moves. And with each one it felt like I could have been spat off, if I didn’t keep my core engaged or my concentration wobbled. Seeing it was a first ascent, I couldn’t resist another video:
The first question was what to call it, and I’m thinking Call of the Wild. The second question was of course what grade was it, and I was aiming for 21 but it felt tough so maybe 22. However, to really check that we needed to try a few of the other harder lines here. Before that, Howsie liked the look of another varied feature of this crag. A stunning knife edged arête, and the climbing proved to be equally brilliant. Oakley Arête, was in my mind the best aesthetic line here. It was utterly fantastic and so much so I took another video of Howsie making his way up this magnificent feature. However, I didn’t want to overload this post with videos so if you’d like to see it you’ll need to ask for it:
The image below looks back up to the dam, which sits above the long slab with just a trickle of water running down it. We were conscious of time, as we still had to hike back out which we intended to do by closing the loop walk. Hiking up the northern ridge, on the left in the image below. But for now focusing on getting a few more lines in, I jumped on Ruthless Charm a grade 21. I managed to clip the first bolt but then despite multiple attempts I remained absolutely baffled as to how to do the moves. Then attempting Indecent Haste another 21 and again I clipped the first bolt, which was a very tenuous situation, and was then completely stumped:
I feel both routes are classic Truscott and Rosser sandbags, and seriously put into question the grade of the line I did the first ascent on and all the other routes we had done today. For the second hard route I pulled on the bolt to get past the “long reach”, which both Howsie and I were almost a foot of reaching. Thankfully the rest of the climb was achievable, and also very fine delicate slab climbing. Time had sadly now caught up with us and we had to make a move, and leave the fun looking grade 17 we had first spied for another visit. So we began the next bush bash and it was another slog. We occasionally found short tracks but they quickly petered, so we attempted to find high points to look ahead for clearings between the thick spikey bush:
It was very hard going, and seemed to last for ages. Eventually we did however find our way out feeling scratched, battered and exhausted. Funnily enough we were guided through the final sections by the sound of the frogs. Telling us which way the reservoir was, as we could not see it due to being completely obscured from view by think scrub despite our elevated position. While I took a few images of our dilemma I seemed to have accidentally deleted them, so instead you get one more image of Howsie on the first route of the day inside the chimney. All up, from Bunbury it was close to three and half hours driving and two hours plus of bush bashing, all for four hours of climbing. But it is the whole experience that counts, and it was so worth it:
Sandbagged 