Ascents in South-Eastern Wall

The quality of the rock ups the feeling of adventure by a significant level. Glue reinforced holds add a little confidence. Surprisingly sustained. Varied, interesting climbing. In short, not for the faint-hearted. An imposing-looking piece of cliff. Did not do pitch five as it was too dirty.

Beautiful setting. Some fascinating sections for such an easy climb. Decent rock available all the way up.

If it was graded now it'd probably get at least 12.

Proud of this one. Definitely worth it. A worthy addition to a long lost crag 🙂.

FFA. Sweet to get this one done despite the crux running with water. Awesome to finally have a small piece of real-estate on a wall that I've been admiring for some 15 years.

Tackles the faces and roofs of Venom Wall (mostly) on gear (though with the odd bolt to keep it sane), with some gripping, old-school climbing and runouts.

A worthy companion route to The Venom, in my opinion.

Surely one of the best lines in the Gorge? Even quite wet today (after all the rain) this was really rad -and quite gripping. Though untrafficked and a touch loose (it is Glenbrook Gorge, after all) the rock is generally pretty good, and the route takes the plum line up the proudest part of the raddest wall.

Onsight but for P2, which I'd actually climbed previously as part of another route.

I definitely found committing to the crux on P3 quite intense, as it's not obvious where it goes. All I'd say is: follow the gear.

Second shot on in-situ gear.

If you ignore the faff (read: choss and doddle) to get to the roof, and the fact that the roof itself is comically short, the climbing itself is bloody outrageous -especially given the era of its first ascent.

Rather bouldery roof moves to gain the offwidth, after which the climbing is weird (read: fully-inverted feet-first climbing), but not too hard. The rock itself was surprisingly good for Glenbrook Gorge.

Definitely rap off at the anchors at the BBB . Scramble is not worth it and there is no good rap point at the top. Crux was about a 16 but the rest of the climb was about a modern 14. The 7 grade was from a long gone era and I wouldn't want anyone making it their first trad multi pitch thinking that it will be an incredibly easy outing.

A slow onsight, except for a sling wrap around the bendy tree, to help over the crux at the end of P2.

Despite inspection from ground and on 2nd pitch, failed to see final upper headwall cracks, so traversed left to intermediate tree. Bummer, they look bold. Medium cams and good solid rock and jams to there. And as always, a lovely aspect above the stream.

An after work lap solely for the purpose of marking the top of the cliff on my GPS. Ended up taking about 4-hours car-to-car (we walked back down via the main Mount Portal walking track... which took over an hour in itself), mostly due to my climbing partner coming down with Heat Exhaustion and struggling to stay lucid enough to belay me.

The climb itself is a true alpine adventure. Lots of vertical gardening, loose rock, big run-outs, doddling... But sections of great climbing and awesome rock. And regardless, you can't deny that it's a "prominent line". So, since I'm not the biggest fan of Alpine-style climbing, I'll rate it "good", and regard it as solid gr15 by todays standards.

I enjoyed the various wide/offwidth/chimney sections of this route. Suitably thrutchy for this sort of adventure.

Although situated in an area ritch with veins of chunder this climb proceeds upwards on some clean, interesting moves. Great belay stances, stunning view. At today's rates, somewhat above a 7, grade inflation since '52.

What a cracker! Not only does it deserve a Classic rating from it's age (65th anniversary ascent in 2017) but because it is actually very enjoyable. Interesting moves, solid hexes, a few cams as a nod to the modern era, classic tree belays, and a fantastic aspect above the gurgling stream in a sheltered gorge!

Grade doubled to deal not only with actual difficulty, but grade deflation - what was the hardest thing in Aus in '52? And lastly, apologies to the pioneers: BA there's no chunder, and JME, the line is clear!

What better way for two men to celebrate EOFY17 and their mutual ages by ascending a '56 model climb?

P1 offered little pecuniary interest apart from beating around the bushes to see the wood from the trees, between which bits of rock enabled solid upward progress.

P2 required significant expenditure of both time and energy to surmount the "Grade 12"' crux ... which taking into account inflation was now at least a stiff 15. Grit and imprecations flew in equal measure, inversely proportional to the value of the protection of the life assured.

Al attacked P3, retrospectively deciding the corner strategy was flawed by loose rock and low yield dividends, which could only be saved by serious fiscal misconduct.

P4 offered the prospectus of a nicely angled little grey slab before COB, however, the presence of a large black snake asleep at the base of it put the small investor into a panic. In any case the coffers had just about been emptied, capital had been significantly depleted, and we were both amortised, superannuated, battered and bruised by repeatedly disapppointing ROI, so we closed the books and walked off the job.

As for Quality, both Classic and Crap can only be applied in equal, indivisible, shares.

Take to 60s to rap off easier