Routes in North Grampians

As per the normal Wheel Of Life problem, but with a more difficult and direct finish

The long standing open project linking the entire 'Hollow Mountain Cave' end to end. Start as for X-Treme Cool (V9), and keep climbing into all of 'Sleepy Hollow' (V12), Cave Girl (V8/9), Dead Can't Dance (V11) - finishing up 'Rave Heart'. Route grade of 36/37

Pretty Hate Machine with the Eve Reve finish

Links 'Sleepy Hollow' + Cave Girl + Dead Can't Dance - first ascent spread over a mere 3 days.

Climb Cave Man into all of Dead Can't Dance.

Starts as for the Wheel of Life, but halfway through Sleepy Hollow traverses into Stimulation and climbs the whole of Stimulation (with the exception of the first move) till its end, which is also the finish of Silverchair – hence Wheelchair.

Links X-Treme Cool into The big flake link

Klem Loskot's piece de resistance - Climb all of Cave Man and keep going into the crux of Dead Can't Dance, and finish up 'Rave Heart'.

Links Cave Bitch into Dead Can't Dance, finishing as for 'Rave Heart'

Link 'Sleepy Hollow' into Cave Girl

Links X-Treme Cool into 'Sleepy Hollow'. First ascent spread over 12 days.

Start on the left hand sidepull and right hand crimp.

Originally put up as 'Ummagumma' (also at V13) starting in the 3-finger pocket - Klem added the first (hard) move a week later. Previously V14 until Nicole repeated it in a single day.

The creme de la creme. Sit start on crimp, punch up then across right and up a series of shallow pockets via a rad cross move, finishing on jug under the bolt.

Sit start on hueco.

The very dangerous problem just right of 'Butthole Surfer' and climbing out to the obvious pockets on the overhanging face above and bad landing (the drop off the terrace).

Takes an extreme line to the right of Cave Man, climbing into that problem's finish.

Link 'Easy Does It' into 'Sleepy Hollow'

Start on the large jug in the darkest depths of the cave - (the finish of X-Treme Cool) and head out to the jug at the start of Cave Man

Sit start on two edges under the rooflet. Reach out to slopers and crimps and make a press out left to the pocket. Big reaches back right gain the big high flake and finish as for The Nevin Rule.

The final chapter... Start as for 'Spanking the Monkeybars', reverse 'A Horse is a Horse', then finish as for 'The Weill of Fortune'. Route grade of 33.

A big link up. Sit-start as for 'A horse is a horse', then traverse right all the way into the start of 'The Nevin Rule'. Finish up this problem. Route grade of 32.

Very solid; as shown by Fred Nicole in the classic EOS2 video (or more recently by James Litz in Dosage 3).

Start on Strammamax and into Endamax. Traverse into and finish on Lost for Life

A huge, technical dyno starting from a sit-start, then up to the big sloper and higher crimp - then the sharp lip jug. The hardest dyno in Australia?

Old Klem Loskot project which was expected to be the hardest dyno in Australia; the FA went to Nalle Hukkataival and its status as hardest dyno may have been subsumed by a few hard problems Nalle put up in Buandik, 'Massive Dynamic' and 'Pigeon Superstition' at the Citadel.

Listed as a project (#19) in the 2016 guide. Sit start on chossy looking jugs 2m right of Big Buck Hunter, up direct into the finish holds of When We Were Kings.

Start off big flake, out to undercling and huge move to pocket. Finish as for When We Were Kings.

A more direct line into When We Were Kings, starting further to the right.

The imposing face across to the right from PP. Stand start with high crimp. Up to the two bad pinches, then punch up to the lip. Finish on good holds out left.

Takes the right-trending line via the odd pocket just left of 'Epsilon Crack'.

Heads straight up just right of the start of Sultans of Swing. Pending details.

Upper Cave.

Links 'Fog' into 'Dead Heat'.

a.k.a Enter the Dragon, a.k.a. Mortal Combat. This is the subtle groove about 6-8m R of Mr J's arête. "33/34" with tricky beta on both cruxes and lots of kneebar action, says Alex. Start at the DRB at the base of Venom. Trend L past FH, through desperately blank looking bulge, to follow the line of anti-holds up the attractive faint groove, joining Venom at the big break. Nalle reported "8B boulder section with very precise and shoulder intensive moves, bad feet and the two worst slopers I’ve ever seen on a route. This is followed by an easier but absolutely amazing scoopy section to a pretty ok rest. From there you set up for one of the craziest dynos I’ve ever done! If you stick the low percentage dyno, there’s still a sustained run-out section with long moves to the anchor".

Extension to Kundalini. Adds another 7m of hard climbing on thin crimps and pockets and a final jump to the ledge.

Starts up 'Extended World' V10, drops down into Wimmel Friedhof V5 and then finishes up 'Gastonia' V8

X-Treme cool into 'Desire'

Link Body Eater into 'Ogre Thumb'

Starts on the two 'rails' - at the finish of Cave Man - then climbs out via the famous 'pinch' hold into a gaston crux (the pinch hold of Rave Heart) finishing as for Wimmel Friedhoff.

Start as for 'Passion' then traverse all the way across the crux of Klapusterperle, through the start of 'Bitch Slap' and finish as for 'Winterkirsch'. Has also been done by finishing up 'Bitch Slap' (Sharik Walker) at no change in grade.

Start underclinging the left side of the scoop feature (just left of the start of The Nevin Rule). Move up to LH incut crimp via tricky kneebars and underclings, gaston edges to meet The Nevin Rule at the high pinch. Finish as for The Nevin Rule.

Sit start on underclings below the white rail 2m left of the start of STMB. Climb to a slopey pocket and underclings to make a big move gaining the slopey pinch of STMB and finish as for this problem.

Stand start on crimps, use arete to throw for good edge.

Sit start on good side pull and small crimp, up through crimps before veering left as the landing falls away.

Sit start on the low rail and move up a series of dimples and slopers to crimps and jugs at the top. Hard for the grade - James didn't want it to be downgraded.

Stand start to Peter Parker.

Dai Koyamada's addition to Andersens. Sit start matched on the left facing flake. Move up the wall and jump like mad to the lip.

Start left of the V4 problem on a good gaston and take a left-trending line past the mono to topout. Has seen an impressive flash ascent by James Litz (US). Originally given V13 by Sharik as the mono didn't exist and he did horrible moves crimping the very edge of the same hold.

Dynoing from the crack directly to the top is 'Forced Entry Direct' (V11)

The line 1m right of Feverish starting at the good pocket. Make tenuous moves up slopey rails to a high top out.

Sit-start at a small, slopey undercling with not much for feet.

Possibly the traverse completed by Dai Koyamada - starting from the V2 start hold - then traversing right to the finish of 'Mad Max' - unconfirmed.

Sit-start from a poor RH undercling and an incut LH 'pocket' - massive span move out right to the arete of 'Nice Max' - then finish as for this problem. Positive ape-index recommended!

~8m to the right of Zeus, start on the block with the odd pinch inside. Out left to shallow pocket, big lockoff to sidepulls and finish directly above on flat edge.

Only one of the moves on this 14 move roof traverse is hard. Unfortunately all the rest require exactly the same muscles, ensuring a month long bicep ache. Fred Nicole didn't do it! Can you?

Resides on the walk-in track to 'Spurt Wall' - just before the 'tunnel' (beneath the 'Taipan' route 'Invisible Fist').

Sit start on slopey rail.

Middle Cave. 2016 guidebook grade

Upper Cave.

Rumoured to be a total classic at the grade - and it looks like it too. Sit-start left of 'I Feel So Holy' and motor up through the pockety featers on the steep wall to the big slopey break. Shuffle rightwards to a high-ish topout.

Hardest route in the Grampians?

Start: Link-up of Daniel Or-Tiger into Somoza via some mind-blowing climbing. Very sustained with a bouldery crux.

Just another incredible looking line on Taipan. It's the orange streak directly above Snake Flake's anchor, climbed in a single pitch from the ground.

An extension to Groovy, this was briefly the hardest route on the wall and may be the best. Climb it in 1 pitch from the ground. The sheer face above the finish of the Groovy groove is sparsely bolted (despite a dubious retrobolt by Dave Graham ... which lasted about 5 seconds after he left) up the black streak to a lower off. Can seep. Equipped by Zac Vertrees and Mike Law (with the top lower-off added by Jake Bresnehan), this was attempted by a who's who of Australian hard-men over 7 years before Ben's success.

Ben Cossey FA of Groove Train https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-PsXKda6JU

The visionary black streaks and water grooves about 5-8m R of Naja. The joke used to be that Steve Monks "marked his turf" at the top of Naja after every shot; it looks like perhaps Lee did too! Start as for Naja. Up Naja for 2 or 3 bolts then traverse right via an obvious undercling flake a few metres above the low roof. Use long (2m) extenders for this section. Now follow the incredible grooves, ignore the half-height anchor, and continue up via amazing sustained climbing on slopey edges to the top of the wall in one single mega pitch. Rap anchor (55m).

Demanding bouldery cruxes and intimidatingly huge dynos. According to Dave Jones, 'Malcolm only ever bolted this because he'd just done Mirage and thought he could dyno the full height of the cliff'. Start about 15m R of The Seventh Pillar, 2-3m R of Slytherin.

1. 28m (33) 3FHs (enormous dyno at 3rd, Rainbow Rocket -style), to gain THE break about 6-8m R of the Seventh Pillar bolt ladder. Continue up the desperate looking face past 3 FHs which trend R into a thin L-facing flake. Follow this to a chain below the main roof (30m rap).

2. 20m (32/3) This is the left-most bolted line through the major roof which extends all the way from The Seventh Pillar to Serpentine, halfway up Taipan. Another all points off dyno plus amazing water scoop/arete climbing, ending at the 3rd pitch traverse break of The Seventh Pillar. Nalle thought pitch 1 was a bit harder than this pitch, but maybe not by much!

3. 14m (29) Quetzalcoatl last pitch.

One of the hardest routes in the Grampians. Sustained. Often mistakenly called Samosa, but the naming theme is Nicaraguan revolutionaries not pastries!

The hardest climbing on 'Spurt Wall'. Splits after 3rd bolt of 'Tyranny' and finishes up 'Lifestyling'.

The scene of one of the biggest dummy spits in Australian climbing history. Cruelly stolen from Gordy by a roving Garth in his youthful prime. In a fit of vengeance Gordy promptly chipped off the vital holds, removed the bolts and covered the rest of the holds with sunscreen! Nathan Hoette managed to repeat it anyway. This is the extension of 'Tyranny' past a further two FHs to rap chain.

A link up. From the anchors of Snake Flake, traverse left into the top half of Groove Train via one bolt.

Second Pitch to Mirage. Quentin approached from Seventh Pillar LHV via Snake in the Grass. More like 33 according to Alex Megos.

A big traverse starting to the right of Problem #3 and finishing as for Problem #1

Start on the furthest RH sloper right of 'Rave Heart' original start - then traverse left into 'Amniotic World' and finish up it.

Crawl into the dark cave left of 'Passion' and sit-start on the right matching a big sloper. Traverse left via a massive iron-cross move (hence the name) and finish on the left.

Previously a long-standing open project prior to Klem's arrival. Originally graded 11, with some people thinking it's still not far off that.

Start matched on the low hueco jug. Climb the steep orange/grey prow using the arete or directly up orange cove. Top out on jugs and slab.

Start at the bottom of the cave, climb the long roof crack and top out through the little hole.

Stephen Waring

Trent Searcy

Start back of cave with LH undercling jug and RH arete. Slap up arete and edges in roof. Give some beans to gain the arete and finish up glory jugs to top out. Stay tight to avoid dab. Recommend sweater over rock as crashpad. (Project #34 in guide).

📹 When in Rome

Popular. Sit start on good flakes at the lowest part of the roof and climb the line of flakes, pinches and edges all the way out to cruxy moves at the lip. Finish at the big jug on the face or top out.

Start as for Mr Knox. Follow the obvious line of good holds out of the cave and head right via big moves to the arete. Continue up the right-hand arete to top out.

Start as for 'Apfenschaukel', but head right through a big gaston move. 2nd ascent was quickly made by Toni Lamprecht in about 5 minutes!

A brilliant complex roof problem. Located 1 minute's walk downhill - left of the 'Sweet Sensation' cave. Sit-start right at the back of the cave, and climb out, down, and around to a cruxy finish out on the lip.

Sit start in the back of the cave on jugs. Climb line of pockets, underclings and flakes out of the roof finishing up the bulbous crack.

Left line of slopers through roof to jugs. Traverse right, up to next level and back left to jug.