Ascents of Contented Cows/Hotel Cali link-up

Lead Odd pitches. CC section just a bit sandy, P3 had a weird climb around to the right which took me a bit to work out.

HC traverse pitch more fun then I remember, and pitch after hard for the grade. Skipped the last pitch.

Brought 15 draws, 2 alpines, few bolt hangers for the belays; maybe a few more alpine, a few less draws next time ?.

CC pitches meh, HC pitches money.

Traverse pitch started to come into sun ~1400hrs today 24/3/24

~7hrs 15 minutes C2C, weaselburger raps.

finished after 8, last 2-3 pitches in dark. fun!

Fun route

A great day out. Worthwhile linking pitches together

Fantastic adventure day, did the first three pitches of CC to link up to Hotel Cali. A bloody windy day, we were getting blown about on the headwall and while working on the traverse. I led two pitches, Jimmy and Damo led the rest. My first one was a 10m crack easy but fun, second one was up a small face wall around a small arete then scramble to the start of the traverse. Felt comfortable on the traverse following Jimmy. That and the 20 after were the best two pitches, but enjoyed the entire climb.

Started on CC due to traffic, still great day out and awesome top pitches of HC!

Lead the first pitch. Then second for the next 5 pitches. Attempted pitch 6, came off on the traverse above the roof.

Ran up Cows pretty smooth, until I broke a sizeable hold starting the Hotel traverse (and probably in ledge-fall territory). Frenching saved the day, mes amies!

The only route we tagged gear on, as Will could stretch the rack a lot further on his leads than I could on mine.

Bonked hard on the gr20 pitch after, just went 100% to 0% over like 4 bolts.

1h 38 mins including the top pitch.

Simul until the traverse

Wanted HC, but there was a party on it so we did the linkup to overtake. Was halloween so I climbed in a morph suit.

Bit run out so needed to climb cautiously. Did the CC pitches kinda haphazardly. Linked some pitches and some tree belays etc.

HC traverse is a big slog, but probably the best pitch. Some physically easy pitches are a pain to onsight due to deceptive holds.

~5 hours bottom to top. Should be able to do it faster next time.

Great adventure swinging leads and linking P1+P2.

As some of the previous comments have mentioned, there is a lot of dirt and muck on P3 and P10 from the rain. There has been a small land slip at the top of P3 so be very careful pulling over onto the ledge. The belay tree no longer exists. I belayed from the first bolt and carrot next to it on the start of P4. There is not really anything else to belay from. P10 is a shitshow. It’s still wet and very brittle. Probably won’t dry till spring now.

The rest is fun!

The top pitches (Hotel California) are great. Hotel California has better starting pitches if you are up for that grade.

Maybe because of the recent rains but pitch 3 (grade 19) is very dirty. Not a good pitch to climb.

Took us about 4.5 hours car to car.

Had a great day on this with Dan, the top pitches are fantastic, but didn't bother with the last pitch. A few points for the uninitiated.

First, finding the start is a bit tricky. It took about 20 mins of trouble shooting for us to find it. Stay near the base of the cliff is my advice.

Second, the P1/P2 link up is pretty close to 60m. I was right on the end of my 60m rope when I got to the anchors. It definitely pays to be thoughtful with using extenders, etc.

Third, the face of P3 is great climbing on smallish but positive holds, but as of January 2021 the recent heavy rain has washed a lot of dirt/mud/choss from the ledges above on to the face of this pitch. We did our best cleaning out holds but it added a bit more spice. When you hit the first ledge on this pitch, belay on the first big tree you find because...

Fourth, the scramble pitch to get to the start of P5 of HC, presumably on account of the bushfires and rain, is a pile of loose dirt and choss and there is no large, well rooted tree here to belay from. Alternatively link 4 and 5 and belay at the bolts next to the emergency bin.

Free climbing Hotel California has always been a bucket list item for me and will remain on my bucket list as I’m not good enough to free it. However, I got to do it’s money pitches using this linkup. Yay.

Wish we started an hour earlier. Bit of a mess down in the valley finding it. Bushwhacking. Do a better job of planning the path than we did. Take GPS of start.

Contented cow portion doable.

Found the traverse (19) harder than the pitch after (20).

Fun enough, but nothing to write home about. A little tough on an old body when your having a bad day.

Definitely a more relaxed start (and warmup) if you just want to enjoy the money pitches of Hotel California. Make sure you have a 60m rope for the 1st pitch, and be prepared for some drag! And since you are on it with your 60, you can also link pitch 5 and 6 so the lead can enjoy the sunset while belaying

Stubbsy & Mitch's super massive fun link up day!!! decided to do this second as there was a 6 party traffic jam on BBB. Our slowest route of the day. 4hrs 30 mins round trip.