Routes in Australia for selected grade

A non existent route.

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.

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

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.

Scartrek-Diplomacy link then Stugang Ext gaston crux into The Wormhole Search.

No sure if it goes. Start The Seam and stay in the it all the way. Two more bolts allow to link directly to the upper wall of Spoonman.

As for Brain Haemorrhage for about 12m, then trend L up the biggest baddest steepest part of this sector, finishing a couple of metres R of Bloodline. Going left into Bloodline is not on route. Do not climb into Bloodline at all.

Great fun. Climbs up to 1 move before Einfinger.... crux and busts out right to finish up old open projects.

Pooferator into Truckstop into Horseshoe into Fabricator.

Wowsers! All time mega classic. Start as per Aristocat, boulder its main crux and then head into a mind boggling amount of sustained climbing, culminating with a potentially heart breaking finish. Absolute stonker! Stu Monique Jorge flash

Climb Mr Squiggle, then just before the anchor head left into steepness to the top of the crag. Tom

Deterred many very strong suitors for many years and finally fell to the Kiwi Wizz kid

He says he cant but its the belief he can.

Starts 5m right of Tiger Cat and is feisty straight off the deck with some brilliant and brutal bouldering. Suck in some oxygen at halfway then head up to join Love Cats at its crux, following this to where LC and TS trend back left. Instead peel off rightward under roof to motor up the headwall. Hoik your rig left and right while trying not to feel like a flag in a stiff wind. Sitting Bull joins into the same headwall finish. Stu

Originally bolted by Rowan Druce and generously offered to the masses, Tom O'Halloran, seeing a classic on offer, was quick to pounce. Start as per Brummel Hook (also possible to start up 1st 2 bolts of Tiger Snatch), then head straight up the immaculate orange stone to finish on the high black head wall. Slightly easier than Tiger Cat (opinions are divided on this...) and originally given 32, but has now seen an upgrade. Andrea , Ryan

Climb 'Astrobatics', then keep girdling to the right across Mr Meeseeks until you end up at the end of Desperado. The longest and hardest route in the cave.

Start as for Lord Elphinstone and The Elephant Man then heads right to vague prow and all the way up up up to the top roof. The boulder in the roof is a tricky one, finishing with an all points off dyno a loooong way above the ground. Finishes out on the highest, furthest out part of the cliff. All time!

Stopping at the hands free rest under the roof is an insanely good 33.

Climb Sitting Bull to the final break. Up a few moves then start heading right past bolt to come into Bandula crux. Finish as for Bandula. Lots of moves, no rest! Tom

One of the hardest routes in 'Victoria'. A sustained full frontal assault on the highest part of the cave.

Start: Start just R of DF.

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).

4m right of Up Jumped the Devil. Climbs straight up. Nowhere to hide on this. One of the best bouldery routes in the mountains. New sequence makes it a bit easier than the FA beta.

Variation to Mr Pink.

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".

Yet another impressive send by Alex, giving it hard 34. Shared start with Astral Traveller. Head up to small ledge and straight up with increasing difficulty.

Beta Vinyl into Tiger Cat. All the cruxes and no rest, outrageous! Grade unconfirmed.

No under dogs here. Shares a similar style to its neighbour Rhythm & Stealth. A lovely start up Impossible Princess leads directly into the wall above, past the Rhythm Method anchors and trending rightward and becoming rather tricky. Finishes on the same anchors as Rhythm & Stealth.

Tiger Cat to the half way jugs then across right and finish as for Beta Vinyl. The Don't Believe the Hype of Elphinstone.

Tiger Snatch to the jump then head right into Kitten Mittens for the drive by move. Finish up Tiger Vinyl. A classic!

Was for four years the hardest route in the country. A classic Miller route, involving a fine balance of power and precision.

Steep, Hard, bloody awesome 4 metres right of Who'd be a cop project. Very hard climbing thru steep territory, many a strong lad had a crack before Chris got the tick.

The greatness of life is impossible to realise before you cast your eyes upon this, the route of all routes. At the time of completion it was the hardest route in the country and the hardest climbed by an Australian. Up Fantastic Mr Fox and without dangling about on the rest, bust up and into a thin crux until you reach Grey Area's rest, shake out here then finish up Grey Area and climb to the top of the cliff.

Rad rock, hard moves then the crux!! pull from a tiny crimp and its in the bag! Up Motor Pussy to 3rd bolt (??) then head right.

To avoid entirely stealing/climbing what was Ben's project (FMF), a variant was done in which all of the business of Ben's project is climbed. Hence the name.

The right hand line in the 'second' cave. Awesome climbing thru a great roof to an extremely hard boulder at the lip. Good 27'ish to the lip, * . Bolted on lead by Macca and Dave. 2 metres leftt of Activation on buttress directly above where the track meets the crag Up wall to the roof, out roof, up headwall and right then thru top roof to point then jump. Excellent climbing through roof.

Start up Cheese Monster past the first crux. At the break climb right, past the crux of "Non-Dairy Cheese-Like Substitute". At the break under the roof, head straight out past slopes and edges (V9) and finish with a big move to the break. Awesomely sustained climb, vision and bolts by Robbie Le Breton, climbed by Vince Day.

Route renamed on request of Vince Day in 2020.

Lee Cossey

Start: up levitation then move leftwards into search and destroy, eliminates the batman start to SAD and is the BEST/ONLY way to climb this route!!!

Start off the pile of rocks above the ledge, 15m L of Chimp Chowder. Boulder problem start, to rightward traverse, then radical wall of exciting gymnastic moves lead to a feisty finish, classic!

Direct finish to Touch and Go - a total one move wonder. An old open project sent by Chris Webb. Anchor is one good ringbolt and one old dynabolt.

Sit start matched on a large jug at the far right end of the cave. Traverse about a meter left on some crimps to meet the Sloper Rail line running along the roof. Follow this to the crack and all the way out the cave traversing right along the face before a scary top out.

Liam Buckman

Tucker Time is sooooo rad. A technical boulder problem on the face down low leads to a massive rest you can bury bodies in, then truckin' on upward is another little punch followed by the crux of Super Duper Goo and finish with the best roof climbing known to man. Skip the last two bolts in the roof, get a little slack and take the cleanest 20m fall you've ever had.

Tucker Time.

This route was previously known as The Sean Myles Project and bolted in around '92 by its English namesake. Like a woody problem on classic Arapilisian bums through a steep wall to finish up crimpy headwall. Start at base of roof left of Aristocrat (clip the 3 dynas with single biners for ease of climbing, and to keep rope away from holds). Slappy compression leads to base of seam. Clip bolt at lip and head straight up via pulls between edges and last bolt to easy finish and single bolt lower-off.

Start: As for 'Some Kind of Bliss', then traverse a loooooong way before weaving up the wall above. A mission.

All the moves had been done but no one was able to take care of this one until a climber from Scotland, Robbie Phillips visited Queensland. He sent the route on his last day in the country thereby establishing Queensland's current hardest Sport route.

Bouldery start trending left on line of weakness, before joining into BTHTF at the bolt below the headwall (ignore bolts out right which need to be removed).

Robbie re-named "Taking Care of Business Project" to "Haggisaurus Rex" due to the Dinosaur skin-like nature of the rock and the fact that Robbie only ate Haggis the whole time he was in Australia to maintain his Scottish Highlander Powers! Rumour has it they shipped 70 whole Haggis' to Australia just for Robbie..."

Ever imagined what the best route in the cosmos would be like?...wonder no longer and get yourself down to DF today! The most technical, fingery, tensiony, positiony, brain flaking hard route around. There is no route better.

The alternate unethical approach to https://www.thecrag.com/en/climbing/australia/sutherland/route/13097509

Joins the hardest bits of both routes and is supposedly a grade harder than each of them. At least two repeats, Chris Lindner in 2009 and Byam Keil in 2023.

Start as for Pretty in Punk, finish as for Punks in the Gym.

Boulderyness to top of cliff, anchors over lip up high and left past the "lonely virgin" finger lock.

Start: double dyno off cool slopes on boulder wall.

"The Ticklish Dog". At times a link-up is better than both halves and this recent addition proves this. An absolute classic. Climb Dogbite to the bottom of the slab then go left via a fantastic boulder problem to the marginal rest on Mr Tickle, squeeze this for all it's worth then to the top of this route.

Tom O'Halloran

The left hand line in this feisty little cave. Campus the start and thrutch up to the single U-bolt anchor. Good times.

Climb original White Ladder then continue via one more boulder problem to the ledge.

Jake Bresnehan

Start Attack mode but go direct.

Extension of Cheese Gobbler that goes all the way to the top of the cliff via a whole bunch of hard independent climbing and then the top of The Big Cheese. Original vision by Robbie, new vision and execution by Tom.

The chalk at the start says 32, but the guidebook says 33. Batman start. Use rollers/extenders and skip the 5th or 6th bolt, so that rope drag doesn't make the crux easier!

Oz's first 34! Since relegated to a tame 33. A 6m direct variant of Tripe, squeezed in between Don't Believe and Tripe. Ben Tom Jake

Start slightly left of Knifey Spooney. The fainted crack feature on that compact wall. This line link into the crux of Spoonman. Probably the hardest climb in Queensland at the moment.

Short but desperately powerful climbing. Excellent. Originally climbed as Attack Mode to the fixed biner and given grade 32. Start at the huge handlebar jug right of the massive fallen boulder.

Was Vince's project, eventually sent by Tom O'Halloran. Jump start off the boulder and then up up and away forever, topping the cliff to finish. Vince climbed it to the first anchors above the lip and called that Spacecake (30).

A crazy extension to Metamorphosis climbing all the way to the top of the cliff. Endurance test piece.

Daniel

A striking line up the blank, overhanging shield. Easy climbing leads to a powerful crux with multiple options, all of which are hard. Followed by a few pump cruxes high above the hard moves.

Bouldery start on tiny slopers and a shallow hueco. Once over the lip do Friction Addictions

Do the first move of Abacus, then traverse backwards through Mushi Brain to finish up Nasty. No traversing straight into the Sushi Train start holds.

Sit start on good holds down to the left, move up and right through the roof, then up arête to top out.

Start off pedestal block and compress upwards.

Left side of the large face at the top of the crag, one of the first boulders if approaching from the top. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTyUKfN2aVE

Stand Start - Start at back of cave, jump out to big slope and traverse left.

Sit start. Make a couple of moves up as for the V10 before breaking left, topping into the big water jug hueco/ pot plant.

Stand start on distinct sidepull, executing a powerful set of moves to a show-stopping long move. How it ends was anybody's guess ... until visiting Canadian Simon Parton showed everyone how it's done in 2016 in the inaugural Passchendaele V1 Bouldering Festival.

Standing Start

Start as for Phone Sex and finish through Shape Shifters.

The shallow crack 6m right of Mr Happy Place. Sit start on sidepull at bottom of crack, climb up to ledge and then top out in any direction that appeals.

A direct line up from the Goldfinger start via pocket and undercling then dyno to a slopey crimp on the lip and up the v easy top.

Chris Beers

Follow the crack starting right in the cave. Powerful on good holds. Awesome feature, classic.

Andy L.: https://vimeo.com/120233539

Clinton M.: https://youtu.be/kjrW3GyEhlU

Will A: https://vimeo.com/221130834

Start as for Persistence climbing this for about 2m before breaking off via an obvious perfect deep 2 finger pocket heading straight out to the cave entrance via some good holds. Then make a huge span move between 2 good holds heading right. Release the span via the Rodeo move and finish matched on the starting rail of Major Lightweight on the outside of the cave. Easier if you are taller.

R. Hofmann

Start on pinchy block to a hard sloper traverse into underclings and wild cross-throughs to crimps up high. Hard. Stand start at the undercling is V9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjrW3GyEhlU

A foot at the start has broken since the FA making the start harder... the full opening sequence has been done post break now - possibly V12 for the full line post break

Start on the right of Major Lightweight on a left hand side pull and right hand edge. Big move to the pocked with the left hand, right hand crimp intermediate then to the gnarly 2 finger pocket, hand foot match the left and hold tight to pull over the bulge to small edge via sloper. Top out "RIGHT" via slopers and edges. Gymnastic and Powerful.

R. Hofmann

Silent Bob into High Up Over Yonder.

Start as for ‘Klockwork Orange’ and finish as for ‘Stargate’.

Starts on juggy flake left of ATASTA and uses left blocky gaston to press into dihedral - finish as for ATASTA

Sit start on the opposing side pulls, a big pull brings you up to the nose then up and right to top of the boulder.

Climb Porn, but finish way up high and right on the jug. Let the old chalk guide you

Start as 'Crimping Ain't Easy'. Come out left to sloper and then straight up from sloper. Adds some hard moves to the original. https://youtu.be/pwsiUx_U2mg?t=320

Sit start with right hand flat crimp and left hand glorious pinch. Head up through bad holds to big committing finish move.

3m of climbing on inward facing crimps on a steep face lead to a scary 5m slab. Shouldery, hard. Fragile holds. https://youtu.be/Ky45gPjB-pM

Unfortunately since the FA the final crimp of the crux (left hand gaston at the lip) appears to have been chipped using an angle grinder to make it a better hold. This makes the grade closer to V11

Start as for Persistence, climb this to finish out the crack as for Anger Management.

Peter Jeavons

Start as for Ladder II and when you get to the jugs, head left following the rock contours and some tiny crimps to a very slopey top.

Sit start and up the left side of the steep wall to finish on high jugs.

Sit start from LH finger pocket/crimp and RH pocket, move up via small pocket and crimp to match the lip. Committing move out left and up to mantle.

Potentially already F.Aed in the late 90's

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!