Ascents in The Gorge - North Side

A long term goal fulfilled '*'. It took many years to gather the grit to commit to this one.

Due to weather we only had 2 and a half days on the route. This reduced the pressure somewhat, because the scale of the thing felt insurmountable. Knowing how my brain works, this is probably is the reason it came together.

• Unfortunately pitch 3 was soaking wet and unclimbable, boo.

When Aaron said he wanted to do this route, I didn't respond for over a week. I reeeeally didn't want to climb some coarse granite nightmare. But for that exact reason I figured it was best to say yes and get outside the old comfort zone. In the end, all the training and preparation paid dividends and despite the rain only giving us about half the climbing days we had planned and keeping one of the pitches saturated, we climbed 8 of the 9 pitches (including the crux) in 2 days and had a fantastic time doing it. A very memorable first ever trip to Buffalo. Probably can't top that, might never return.

So good. It's getting a bit of traffic which is great.

Gave it a really good brush on the way down. Solo TR lap after that. Amazing pitch

insane

Probably the best single pitch of climbing I have done at Buffalo, if not anywhere...

Good climbing but was feeling a bit ill and came close to fainting after a bit of exertion in the sun - had to sit on the rope for 10 minutes to recover.

Pitches 4-9. One fall on the corner pitch. Very very stoked. Beautiful, fun, interesting climbing

Fun day out, solo in 11.5hrs.

Double rack, black totem to #4, single #5. Narrow cam hooks, few medium offsets and small nuts. Could have used some more/smaller offset nuts.

A rare example of fair grading at the buff. Bomber locks will blow your socks off and the unexpected gift of footers just where you want them will make your wildest stemming fantasies come true. Stitch it up or run it out, take your pick without compromising your longevity or sanity, this buffalo piece is about as cushy at it gets and almost feels like this piece of climbing has fallen out of a benevolent pocket of an ego-boosting climbing god that got lost on his way to a holiday grade destination. But I’ll take it

Moisturise your eyeballs and get ready for ‘spot the carrot’ game. Almost gave up and started jugging out when the anchor materialised before my eyes.

Exposed, technical and unprotected start is what you’re coming here for. Train your pinches and prayers to levitate your suddenly laden body up the footless sequences and let your imagination roam free at the building of anticipated smackdown into your trusty belayer. Make sure you take your pick at a soft-bodied type.

Beautiful piece of natures stonework with just enough sparks to make you dance on your toes the whole way, with a glorious clean layback corner to finish you off by the means of terminal pump. Enjoy the acute awareness of being alive and ponder upon the subtle beauty of human experience at the amusing symphony of your groaning and yelping second.

Awesome jamming locks and stemming

Wish I'd had a wire brush to clean up the first 25m But the moss definitely added to the atmosphere when I was manifesting gear and holds in the shallow crack off the airy belay

First taste of the North wall.......🤌🤌🤌

Had a horrible time it was amazing

5 sessions on the crux solo Then climbed clean from the ground with 4 pre placed pieces at the crux. This was an exceptional day out. Every pitch is a 2 plus star pitch in its own right.

Great 2 day uneventful burn with Dan. Less enjoyable, more work and slower than anticipated but still a rad time for our first big wall. Very different mentality to free climbing.

Learnings: bring a small milspec camelbak with snacks to save faff with opening haul bags; a cam hook 'expansion range' is pretty large; more rope bags for belays and storing stuff; lightweight bosun probably better and faster than arranging ledge for belays; pre-clip most shit in haulbag before stowing to 'clothesline' for easy access and no fear of dropping if you need to remove anything; bring way more powerful headlamp for night fixing; bring more rated accessory cord; more large HMS boa biners; slide hammer nut tool was essential; .1.2 offset good for p2 and p3; rigid ledge for anything over 1 night; make more effort to transition properly to free; aiding is super rough on gear life expectancy, worth trading weight for durability for some things.

Aid onsight is a legitimate tick

Big adventure Did in two long days Great weather Tested out the g7 and taco ledge it's the way to go with the approach

Mashed up a few of the smallest rps on the 2nd pitch with my nut tool they were bomber placements

Another aid onsight thanks for the beta @bestofthecrag

Beautiful finger crack in corner, although quite intimidating place to climb 😅

First time aiding on gear, using camhooks etc. But was an epic time on the wall. Insane location and exposure.

Day 1: Walked in ~ 2hrs and then climbed to big grassy for bivvy with plans on fixing the next pitch. But had some haul line mishaps and ended up just calling it a day.

Day 2: 14hrs from Big Grassy to top out

Gear:

Double rack of friends to #4 Few small aliens + offsets 1 x set of RP's which I didn't use 2 x sets of offsets - micro to large 1 x set of BD stoppers 2 x medium cam hooks 2 x skyhooks (only used the hook for 1 move) 30 non lockers 10 lockers 2 x draws 4 x 60cm slings, 2 x 2.4m slings. Would take a couple more 60cm slings next time for anchors, tethers, rope coils etc. 8 x bolt plates Microtrax, grigri, atc, prusicks, jumars, Daisies, Aiders, Fifi hook,

Camhooks were great for moving quickly on the thin corners. Didn't take a #5 and ended up being able to make do on the final pitch with a couple old carrot bolts on the left hand face. All the available beta is great but found the route to be fairly obvious to follow with some incredible lines.

Three tough days in the sun. Slept at the base night before, then Big Grassy day 1, under Gledhill roof day 2 and topped out day 3. Awesome experience with great gear and exposure. But even after getting more water on the first night 4 litres per person each day was not enough on 30 degree days. Ended up severely dehydrated and with an upset stomach couldn't eat for the last day and a half which made progress really slow.

Either way this line is a serious undertaking. Glad we spent a few days practicing aid and hauling technique in the lead up and that we both have a wide range of rope skills under our belt. Definitely not the place or conditions to be learning new skills.

The nut off the fifth anchor is actually on the right at the base of the climb. Didn't realise that's where it came from until day 2.

Part 3: Yim and i spoke briefly on the walk out about whether we would become aid climbers, probably a fairly standard conversation to have after australias 'the nose' of aid climbs that initiates so many into the world of the big walls. Yim mentioned he was keen to use the skills for exploratory trips (new routes) one day but wouldnt really make established big walls a priority over free climbing. For me, it was time to come clean about my feelings for big wall climbing: Categorical fuck no, not interested. I cant understand why one would put up with all that faff, routine 3 hour belays, sleeping and eating like animals, all to not even climb rock? There were for sure some good moments, but on the whole, i recall being uncomforable, tired, abit stressed (probably more a symptom of poor preparation) and generally distainful that i could see a stack of 3 star free climbs from the wall that we had foregone to tether our way up this wall. Whats more is that we were doing the best aid route in the country with ideal weather conditions.

Im tremendously grateful to have had this experience and owe our mate yimbo a beer (that he'll not doubt drink a quarter of and go make himself a hot choccy instead) for book sourcing all our literature and coordinating most of the gear we used for the trip. I think alot of people never try things like this because they assume they wont like it or convince themselves their life is good enough to not bother having an experience like this; if it werent for yims enthusiasm and zest for new experiences, i would have been one of them. I suspected i wasnt cut out for big aid missions. I was right in this case. Im glad to know this now for sure. Keen to continue reserving my aid climbing for free routes a little above my paygrade and continue kicking around climbing rocks!

Part 2: The following morning, first light woke us and the beautiful views of the sun lighting up the porepunkah valley were juxtaposed quickly by the first event of the morning: Laying cable into a fucking sandwich bag. Yim captured the literal second of mine on camera and im not sure how i feel about it; yet to see the photo. Ill decide on instagram worthiness later on. We packed up the circus and i got into climbing (almost without the haul line). I got back to the start of the 22 and decided i was too cunted to put climbing shoes on and aided the pitch, something i still kind of hate myself for. It was my mistake at the end of this pitch though that dished us the biggest epic of the journey. I set up at the wrong anchors (the carrots at the top of the corner). Only 4m from the real anchor on the arete but the pig did not agree with being pulled up the slab on the 6th pitch and promptly got itself trapped on a bolt. Unable to lower the pig out of its predicament, yim used the hexagonal fixture on his nut tool to try to loosen the bolt, only to have the bolt explode out on him and fall to the valley below. We have included a separate note on the route description in relation to this, please refer to that if this is of concern to you. The pig was free and dragged up to the carrots. We made a pretty efficient go of the roof, yim evidently turned the corner on cam hooks, which i realised on the prussik up the corner above that was pretty free of trad gear. It was my job as seconder of the roof to free the pig and due to our anchor location, our poor piggy that wed become close with in the last day was about to take a king swing across the wall. I was reasonably sure all the waterbottle tethers had been prepared but i still couldnt bare to look as the load soared through the air along a sagging arc. The pig handled the exposure like a champ and didnt spray plastic and shit everywhere to our relief. Looking pretty good for time, we tucked into lunch at gledhill. The fang pitch (8th) was my lead and is a truly unique pitch, which i think can still be enjoyable (and awkward) as an aid lead. Supposedly 22 but definitely would be nuts to free. Yim got us to the plaque at about dinner time just as it was starting to dim and i knew after the haul line faff that i was about to become apart of the benightment club, after such an improbable run of all daytime finishes. The jap curry was now well and truly sour and even our hungry, depleted bodies were rejecting the concoction. Aiding the offwidth with the lights of bright(?) glowing in the distance was an oddly calming experience. "I prefer stars; natural light" yim hit back after i offered my thoughts. Ok mate. The no.6 that we only included on the rack upon recommendation from pauly and brad in the carpark on monday was as essential as a climbing rope to get up thr final 5m! Wrapped my hand around the tourist lookout rail at 10pm, ripped yim up the final pitch so we could commence the walk back to the car and our bivy spot at echo point which now seemed like the marriot penthouse.

Part 1: Lot of work for a 10.

Monday arvo was when the adventure started. We lugged the gear from the base of angels to the ground bivy at the base which was way harder than i anticipated. Bushbashing with a portaledge and haul bag is exhausting work and yim seemed completely depleted of energy; a great way to be at the start of a 2 day aid route. I have to admit i was within a hair of turning us around and not going through with the climb a few times on this approach, especially after the creek crossing. We found the base at 9pm and bived down. Surprisingly good sleep. Up at 6, i refilled our 8 waterbottles (which frighteningly were coming undone from their tethers on the walk in because i had incorrectly copied the knots from a youtube tute) and ushered yim to get to work setting the pig family up at the base (the big marn takes some encouragement to wake up at the best of times). We were on the wall aiding at 8ish. P2 was my coming of age with cam hooks; Only good experiences for me, but that all changed on yims lead of P3, taking no less than 5 (five) [V if roman numerals are your choice for counting] whips in half an hour. Id never seen an aid whip before but ive now seen 5. Impressively, he stepped out the top of the crux that had beat him up on a triumphant skyhook (!) and continued to big grassy. Having never successfully set our ledge up on the wall, i was keen to stop decorating our wall lodge with fixed lines and gear displays and get to making sure we could lie down for the night. It was yim that made the break through wed missed at kp which was loosening the fuck out of all the straps to fit it together, a fairly obvious sounding solution in hindsight, but with old gear, i fell into the trap yet again of assuming the worst of the uqmc club gear (sorry lachie). We had the ledge set at 6pm just in time to pack some food in before fixing the pitches above. This was one of the best moments of the wall experience, providing some reprieve from the anxiety of this big undertaking we were backing ourselves on. The japanese curry wed cooked 8 serves on was starting to sour abit but by portaledge standards it was fine. I fixed p5, wanted to free p6 (best 22 at buffalo) but didnt have enough appropriately sized gear so rapped down to do it in the morning. The sleep was again surprisingly decent on the ledge, and it turns out sleeping mats actually arent essential we found out as i lay comfortably while yim laughed and told me to look where my sleeping mat was. I thought it was under me. It was under my feet and 70% hanging off the end of the portaledge. Fuck. Dig heels in, do a sit up, and grab the mat that was all to happy to oblige to the evening breeze that was wishing to claim it as another piece of ozymandian space junk.

Abseiled into big grassy! 1 shivering night on the ledge, freed 90% despite dogging every pitch other then the 24 and the troll toll hole to sunshine glory. Dave really was the MVP - the power of friendship got this one done! A little above my pay grade but stoked to aim to free this rig with little to no climbing of late

Mitch led all pitches. I attempted pitch 2. I took way too long, was very difficult and found it scary. Bailed after sleeping in hammocks on big grassy. Due to way too tired, cramps, and mentally etc.

Today was a very special day, I managed to free the lower crux pitch to the aid belay. I heard a pop in one of my fingers cranking on a shallow pin scar and may have ruptured a pulley, still, incredibly stoked to get the send!! Will have to try to link it into the rest of the pitches from the ground next time!