Ascents in Queensland as trad by JAndrews

We climbed it as per the book, but it seems to be different in The Crag. Probably better to follow route described in the The Crag. The step bush walk/climb out to the right is not recommended.

Could not find any good gear within the first 3 m and took a ground fall.

Totally lived up to the description. DDB at the top was welcome.

Nice little climb. You can down climb to the left of the route.

A bit of a mission to find, but worth it. Good gear, no chain at the top, best to walk off.

Figgered it was a good idea to start easy after months of not climbing.

Abseil rings at the top along the ledge to the right

Just could not get through the thruching part at the start. My petite partner had no troubles on top rope, but she did not think the climb was in her top 5 at FB.

I've onsighted this before, but today I was having a little trouble on the crux off the large platform, fell 4 times. Good thing is you can place a decent cam or hex from the platform, step right into the crack, but have some air beneath you if you fall. Really good climb.

This was a lot of fun. very cool. From the first big ledge lean out right to get on the crack.

This is the second time I have led this and I can say I am pretty sure that if this was anywhere else it would be a 14 to 16. Best bit is the second chock stone.

Funny that it is grade 12 in the guide book but 10 on The Crag, felt like at least grade 12 to me. The warning in the book is a bit misleading as well, we found enough gear placements. Granted they are a little spaced out and hard to find above the chock stone. This is a interesting climb worth a go if you are in the area. The higher you go the bigger the trees to belay from. Easy to walk off.

lived up to its name: "awkward alley"

A tough 13, but lots of gear and fun, DDB at the top.

A bit of fun at the end of the day.

Great to shake off the cobwebs after a long break from climbing. Got a little crazy when some bloke decided to try to rig a top rope for his son above us. They inadvertently kicked some large rocks off and a toaster sized rock landed about 4 meters away while we were preparing to climb. No warning shout, just a loud rumble that had us diving into the cliff base. After the rocks stopped, I went up and had a chat, to this guy’s credit he immediately saw that what he was doing was wrong and packed up to go. I advised him to try KP or the Glass House Mountains and get some helmets. I suggested that he try Andromeda, but in hindsight I should have suggested Tinbeerwah. I bet this happens a lot at Frog, I think with some calm advice most people can be convinced that it is not a good idea. Maybe some signage??

Fun climb, followed my partner yesterday but had to have a go myself.

Had to grab a bit of gear. I took this on during the heat of the day (27 Deg) and with my sweaty palms (and poor skills) I had some trouble.

Had a go on top rope but could not get passed the crux. Maybe next time.

Not sure if I did the right climb. The route I took was about grade 12, but cruisy fun. Straight up the wide crack in-between the two roofs to the chains at the top. I can’t imagine where else this climb would go. About 3 meters left of LL.

About grade 10-12 if you treat it as a face climb. Found some larger cam placements deep inside the crack.

Took a couple of goes but I finally top roped this. This felt more like grade 18.

Spoilers - Here’s the BETA I used:

Start in the centre of the crack system. A low sloping right foot hold helps you get your left foot on top of the low pointy boulder. Obvious ledge on the right for your right hand. Plenty of under clings on the left as you end up on the left of the crack system. Using lay back type moves you transition to the centre of the crack and stand up on the ledge with your right foot. You have a solid under cling under the squared off chock stone for your left hand. Right hand can fist jam high to give you a rest.

Right hand goes as high as possible on right side of chock stone. Right foot out to the right at about waist high to a small wrinkle. It’s a lay back move on this wrinkle, reach up to the top of the chock stone with left hand, match with right and pull up, with some friction assist.

In the recess on top edges of the chock stone are cracks to hold on to. Left foot jam as high as possible, right foot on slope.

Crux: Left arm, horizontal arm bar, as in an arm bar for a horizontal crack, (elbow down, palm facing up on the roof) in recess above chock stone. Right hand to small hold directly above, just in reach. Once your right hand has this hold you get your left foot on top of the recess and climb over the top to the chains. Once I worked out the arm bar move the crux was a lot more doable.

Pre placed gear, after a top rope practice.

My number 4 friend snuggled in nicely behind the pillar, but I also clipped the steel rod holding the pillar to the wall! I don't know why there are two warning symbols on the topo. Maybe this was a note before the pillar was fixed to the wall?

Only a Flash because I abseiled down to the start. Not sure it really helped though. Excellent climb, found good gear all the way. Climbed with Chris N. Worthy of the 3 stars. Mason (a local guide) left a rope he found to safe guard the climb down to the anchors from the summit. Found 2 or 3 good torque nut placements.

Listed as trad but more accurately it is a mixed route. Lots of FH. All belays are bolted but the ledges are small or they are semi hanging belays. Grades are accurate. P3 was my favorite. Did the VS start. Pitch 7 is only a grade 10 but is a little scary without anywhere to place gear. Deserves the two stars. You can abseil back down the route or climb up to the top of the caves routes and abseil down that way. Easy to bail from the top of any pitch.

Blabbermouth VS start. Thought we would see how high we could go before it was too hot. Got to the top of pitch 3 and decided to head down before we fried. Still a great climb.

Started in Head in the Tress and we may have wondered too far left but we ended up on the route at the end.

Nice climb. P2 was the highlight. P3-5 is a little run out in places. Top of P3 is a slanting dirt ledge, slanting up to the left. Follow this to get below BO chimney for the belay. This is as per the description, but the topo diagram will have you going straight up. For P4 I went left to keep out of the scrub in the Prometheus I chimney. It was more run out and harder then it looked. Check all holds for P3&4 before cranking on them. From Cave 4 it is a simple traverse to Cave 3 and the top of Zeitgiest and then join the caves route to head down.

With Sam L. First 3 pitches of Orpheus, then last 2 pitches of Black Orpheus.

The first pitch was still wet from a morning shower so we climbed the first pitch or so of Prometheus 1 and then traversed over to the bottom of the chimney.

Took a friend up for the day. We tried a linkup from BO, to cave 4-5 trav, Prometheus 2, Boggs Lite. However I could not get up the second pitch of Prometheus 2 and we took another route, but we did get to the top of our planned link up. We then abseiled down the caves route. Big day.

The chimney on P4 is a real highlight. A very nice climb.

At grade 8 this is a sand bag. Should have known considering the FA was 1956! First pitch is cool, at least to the top of the buttress. After the top of the buttress you traverse right for about 10 meters and climb up broken rock into a gully. You will see the crack in the centre of the gully that the book suggests is an 18 for a possible second pitch. I was able to put in some good gear here to make an anchor for a belay at the base of the crack in the gully. I’d recommend you use radios to communicate with your second, there is no way to hear someone otherwise. The other option is to belay at the top of the buttress.

Pitch 2 is where there are issues. As per the book, I traversed left and after one large cam placement just out from the belay, found no gear, crumbly rock and thin holds. You can see some possibilities as you go out but there are very committing blanks in between. I scratched around for a while, got about 10-15 metres into it then tried to go up but decided after losing confidence to return to the belay. I was also concerned that I would not be able to protect my second adequately on this traverse even if I did find a way over, so I retreated.

But all is not lost, there are several ways out of this position, which does not involve a hairy unprotected climb. To the right of the gully is a DDB and a line of bolts that I think is pitch 8 of the Ross Miller Route (16). Clearly harder than 8 but at least it is well bolted. This takes you to a DDB just below Cave 5. Alternately you could abseil in 6 pitches down the Ross Miller Route – check the book for details.

I’d be keen to find out if anyone has climbed Prometheus 2 and found it to be a grade 8.