Ascents in Mt Barney as Onsight

A couple of mishaps and navigation errors turned what was meant to be a 11hr hike into a 2 days adventure. Had to sleep on the mountain for the night under emergency blanket & tarp. Ran out of water the next day but luckily we have some purifying tablets within the group. Definitely bring headlamp & extra supplies if you are planning to do this route.

Came to do Face of Long Leaning and missed the start. Decided on playing it smart and calling it and jsut to summit another way. Ended up going up something not quite this. Messed up the descent. Long day out. Lower Portals Water is the best tasting thing I've ever had. Glad we carried all the gear and ropes all day to never use it

What a lovely day out, bit of choss here and there, some interesting bolt placements and cool exposure up a nice big rock.

Follow this for the trip report: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pAzDut9lcp9y9PpDT2CkatVrwvEgtPLdvcMm-mLVedc/edit?usp=drivesdk

WOOOOOOOOO! Fucking mega classic what an adventure. Rocked up back in Brissie and the day after straight into a solid white rock session. Sent hard, mega pub feed after then did out shopping.

Rocked up at yellow pinch carpark around 10/11pm and had a somewhat decent sleep on boulder mats under a full moon. The hype was real and it was intensifying. 5am wakeup, 6 hours sleep, being sore from the day before, a strong cup of prison blend, half a sub and racking our gear later we started walking around 620ish. Lee's first time up Barney so was tricked by every false peak, as we walked up we awed at the possible first ascents along the boulders on our way up, good times. The hype was real once reaching the drop off point, we ended up reaching the base of the climb at 10am. The "wooos!" were loud and we were stoked we had an amphitheater to cheer us right back on.

Straight into it with the 19, we learnt early that seconding with the bag SUCKS! Super good climbing from the get go, loved every pitch and to be honest the rock quality was not all that bad, too be fair it has been trafficked long before our ascent, still had to trundle one last death block around pitch 7. We linked pitches 2-3, 4-5, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13 & 14-15. The pitches individually are really short and most of them can be linked easily.

Standouts were the exposed boulder problem, the general exposure on the above belay, the solid crimpy climbing (all of it) and the gr 22 pitches. I had to fight for that first 22, had to do a big slap to the slopey shit over the lip and fully commit & even then it's not over! Seconding the second 22 was fucked, due to my error, coming around that first corner you need to reach up into a slot, I missed that slot and hit a razor sharp sloper, bearable but not for long... I go with my other hand for the slot, miss again and hit more razor sharp sloper, I kept slipping and slipping but no fucking chance I was letting go this far in!! Through persistence and psattt I finally got the slot while almost peeling off into the exposure below me, I trusted a slopey footer and pushed up to stand on a rest halfway into the pitch. More technical climbing ahead!

Topping out (near 5pm) was super satisfying, our success echoed through the couloir, Lee's firs time topping barney was via the east face, so sick. Sweet, now the walk back down, took for ever! Bit of ticker needed to get us back down that hill jeesus! We talked about how much food we were gonna eat and how fucking rewarding it would be. We hit the cars pull out the boulder mats, sit down, smash a 1/4 of a sub and some tofu scramble and just, be. 111/10 what a time with a good mate. Will be back on this face in the future. Stoked! Very visionary to bolt this line on such a daunting face, good effort and much appreciated.

What an amazing achievement it is to have found and developed this route, deserves all the stars for such a unique line something quite rare in Australia, that actually climbs really well! First few pitches where sub par and I truly disliked the 1st pitch, though the higher you got the rock quality was amazing with fun delicate movement & more jammys then I was expecting

Although this is a sports route, it is very much a mountain climb and shouldn’t be taken lightly, with knowledge of mountain climbing and a traditional background recommended - bolting causes some bad fall potential in areas an it’s definitely R on some pitches, though I felt well protected for the most part and the choss is easily avoided if you take you time looking for the right holds This route is only going to get better the more it’s frequent

Psyched! We did the route in 10pitches and I was very happy with a fall free day, on the summit at 330pm started heading down just after 420...

The crux was rock hopping down the creek bed at 2.30am after 22hrs of climbing/walking/abseiling. Good to see what the mind can push through! Pretty sure it's called leaning peak cause I was leaning on stuff and things the whole way to stop falling over from fatigue.

Turned into a bit of an epic. The climb being the easiest/most enjoyable part - the upper pitches being absolutely sublime! Rocky Creek descent by head torch was a challenge of the will. 22 hours car-to-car. Would descend Short Leaning Ridge next time for sure.

just scrambling

We approached The Governor with few expectations, other than anticipating a long day and perhaps some hard climbing near the top. I'm well chuffed with the outcome, with both of us onsighting every pitch and topping out after just 5.5 hours of climbing. We didn't really try to move fast or cut any corners, but nevertheless everything went super smoothly. All told, we needed 12 hours to get up and down, leaving Barney Lodge at 3am and arriving back at 3pm, all while taking a comfy break for lunch on the summit and two breaks to brew coffee.

This was a special experience in so many ways, particularly because Ryan and I assumed that it wouldn't happen this season after I busted my ankle in late July. Fortunately, recovery has been effective, and the ankle felt stable all day. Overall, a great experience with a great friend - thanks Ryan for an amazing day out (and for gifting me the crux pitches while carrying the pack)!

Good day out

Woohoo! This was a great adventure and one of the hardest and longest hikes I've done. I was already pooped before we reached the start and we went a bit off track. The rock hopping section along barney creek was super beautiful. Great views all the way up the ridge and cool abseil from leaning ridge. Finding our way down North ridge was a bit challenging but satisfying each time we made slow progress down bypassing a steep section. All in all 11 hours starting and finishing at lower portals car park.

Epic day out, scoped out North Face of Leaning Peak for an attempt in a few weeks. Continued up North Peak and up to East Peak and descended via SE Ridge.

A fun ramble with the crew, well guided thanks Morag and Ryan.

Absolutely mint climb, rope only needed to rap down top of leaning peak. Done in hiking boots. Epic views and exposure. Camped overnight at rum jungle.

A little bit of exposed, technical scrambling where you want to be well aware of hollow flakes and loose rock. Absolutely fantastic route. Probably the best unroped route up mt barney.

Hiked up Mt Barney late Friday night and bivvied near the top, ready to start The Governor on Saturday. As we bivvied in the open, we got soaked by cloud cover and rain overnight; a pretty average experience

We assessed conditions in the morning and ended up pulling the pin on The Governor due to high winds and general wetness. Did SE Ridge instead as a commiseration climb.

Guess we'll have to wait until next season to get the send of The Governor.

As grand a day-venture as you can have in SEQ! More like 370m as rather than the 300m description. Incredible slab climbing on the whole route, apart from the crux section up a rotten corner with uninspiring gear. Proud of pushing through the mental battles on this one.

There is some awesome multi pitch slab potential to the left of this route which will be just stellar climbing. An awesome contender for ground-up mixed routes I reckon.

3 hours hike-in, 5hr20 on the route, 2.5hr hike-out.

Alpine? Haha. Onsighted to about halfway up the steep final gully to the N Peak-E Peak saddle, then got off-route and did the East Face of North Peak. Found the top of Rocky Gully and down climbed.

Onsight solo. Haha! Funny that's a tick option now. Down the gorge.

Sean basically has already said all in his comment. I'm glad we've done it, but I'd surely not do it again. If you're seeking a long, adventurous day with some alpine characteristics, go for it.

What. An. Epic. The short trip report: A combination of mishaps, inexperience, and ill-preparedness led to an 22 hr car-to-car 'outing'. Vertical bush-bashing. Awesome chimneying. Roof chimneys. Runouts. Rusty bolts. Getting benighted on the wall with one head torch. Sleep-walking back down.

Longer version: Liam and I started hiking at 4:30am on Sunday, and took a lot longer to get to the climb than we expected. To start the day off on a good note, when replacing my headtorch batteries, I found that the AAAs I had were mis-manufactured to be a couple millimetres too short. Awesome. Nevertheless, we made it up the ridge, rapped in, traversed under the big roof and scrambled up to start the East Face of East Peak on Mt. Barney. It had been our goal for about a year and a half, and we were excited, more than a little nervous. Little did we know that we would be spending the next 12 hours up on the wall.

The first two pitches went easy, though the shrub/tree belay from the old guide is gone. The 3rd and 4th are a bit tricky to follow, as the tree belays seem to have both gone as well. Liam did really well in pushing his mental game but still staying composed, linking the two pitches and finding an okay-ish semi-hanging belay atop the 4th. It was his 2nd trad multi. Here, we had to make the call. It was 1pm, 5 hours to sunset, and we still have 5 pitches and a bit under 200m to go ... It was either leave gear and rap off, sketchily traverse over to the bolts on The Governor and rap down, or go for the epic. It was an easy choice. The next pitch (p5) had some beautiful slab with good gear, curving back left towards the chimney and p6. What a pitch of chossy class! The classiness far outweighed the choss. "Climb the overhang by any means" totally sells this pitch short. "Badass roof chimneying would be more apt. I don't know of moves like this in Qld. I spent ages on this pitch, just battling fear on the uncertainty about what was to come. In reality, it didn't turn out to be that bad, and the gear isn't terrible, although the moves felt comparable to a grade 20. Linked with p7, and reached the top as the sun was setting. It was then that we realised that Liam had left his headtorch in his bag on the SE Ridge... From then on, the leader got the headtorch, and hauled the seconder, who battled through blind climbing and vertical bushbashing, sometimes aided by their phone light. The new moon didn't help. There were some awesome chimney sections in those upper pitches. One of them was this tight 3-sided chute, which was closed off by matted grass on the air side. Think chimneying up a garbage chute, with one wall that you couldn't use, and filled your chalkbag with grass haha. Oh and it was wet ... We grew to love the vertical bushbashing, too, and perfected our grass-climbing technique.

We topped out at 9:30pm greeted by a frosty wind with numb toes, blood on our hands, grass and dirt in every possible crevice, and big grins on faces. We did it! Our high spirits were definitely aided by the snake lollies we chewed, the sugary goodness washing away thoughts of the oncoming 5-hour descent. Trudging on, we found our way to the ridge without too much trouble. Once the scrambling ended, the weight of the day (and the lack of sleep in the nights before) set in. Delirious with fatigue, w ticked off two more firsts for the trip: falling asleep whilst standing up, and falling asleep whilst walking. We were stumbling over eachother. At one point we found these abandoned cans of soup. The first mouthful was glorious. By the fourth, my tastebuds realised that it tasted like cold vomit. Ah well... we were hungry.

After a few naps, 5 hours of stumbling, a few rolled ankles, and 40% of phone battery (my new torch - the headtorch had long since become useless). It was 2:30am when the tray of Liam's ute embraced our spent bodies. We were too far gone to notice the 1.5°C night. YEAHPA!

PS - Liam cried.

Also, this weekend was probably the first time that Barney has seen an ascent of The Gov and the East Face Route in a single weekend!

To start thanks Lachlan, Ro and Alex for access information, greatly appreciated!

Second: P2 - We attempted to replace one of the mallions, after 30min got 90% of one of the mallions undone and then proceeded to drop vice grips down to the bottom off climb (warning - this means that the mallion is still undone), the new 10mm mallion has been left up there if next party can attempt to undo... Apologies for any inconvenience we where trying to do the correct thing.. Fortunately a small locking biner/ quick draw still fits next to it.

P3 - Left 2*10mm mallions attached to old ones

P5 - Managed to remove horrendously rusted mallion and replace with new 10mm.

For reference - the majority of mallions on climb are 8mm steel... Now for the climb!

Where to start! What an adventure had so much fun on this thing!

P1 - Not as bad as I was expecting but definitely not a standout pitch. (OS - Lead)

P2 - Not super memorable but still fun (OS - TR)

P3 - Good climbing - (OS - Lead)

P4 - Unmemorable? (OS - TR)

P5 - Now where talking lovley face/slab climbing never feeling to hard but exposure creeping up, great fun (OS - Lead)

P6 - Don't really remember except I'm glad I wasn't on lead found this really hard and had to fight pretty hard to make it to anchors! (OS - TR)

P7 - Yes this pitch is where it started for me, fucking loved it super fun committing boulder problems with alot of air, was so psyched with this pitch!! (OS - Lead)

P8 - Good fun climbing (OS - TR)

P9 - As per route description give me pitch! (but actually quite fun climbing!) (OS - Lead)

P10 - really good climbing, great rock down low with really nice movment. (OS - TR)

P11 - Really enjoyed this pitch, kind of sequency but great movment. (OS - Lead)

P12 - Really enjoyed climbing on this pitch, shame about crumbling crimps! (OS - TR)

P13 - Holy shit I had to fight hard for this one! Don't remember what I did at all coming up out of the over hang of this one except that I don't know how I stayed on haha. Recomposed to see fairly tricky looking slab. Loved it awesome. (OS - Lead)

P14 - Good job Niko again glad I wasn't on lead for this one, although really fun endurance climbing followed by some what I found to be extremely strenuous moves (did not feel 22 but fatigue?) into some lovley nice wet moss would of been exciting on lead... (OS-TR)

P15 - Auto pilot ran up this. (OS - Lead)

What a day 3 hours sleep, 4am started hiking, 9.20am started the route, 5.27pm summit (30min unsuccessfully spent on pitch 2), hugs and a great sunset to finish off a great climb and day! Back to Lower bivy Point by 6.20pm, retrieved rope fed and watered walking out by 7pm back to the car at 10.20pm ish.

What a climb and adventure totally recommend it...

Thanks Niko for the day out loved it!