Ascents in Belougery Spire

Thought this line looked like a cruisy grade 15 ish for a ground up first ascent.... in classic bungles style it proved vastly more involved.... after navigating and cleaning off loads of snappy holds as I went, and huffing and puffing for an age below the crux trying different sequences and pulling all those holds off, I had to take a rest with a stonking pump.

After a sit and a think I was able to get through the cryptic and commiting crux and almost got spat off fighting my way into the final streno moves and finger crack ! Super.

Can't wait to go back and do it when the rock is all solid as it's a super fun and engaging sporty trad route.

FFA. So hard to tell what the grade on Bungles rock will be !! haha

Launched up this as my eye was caught be the the finger crack and corners high up on the second pitch.

On this my 4th trip in the Bungles I felt like I found a little bit of Bungles rock one-ness and was comfy enough to quest up through some appauling rock and dicey moves.

Rick did a steller ground up ascent of the first pitch through some similarly dicely and loose and committing moves.

Good addition to the bungles . Approx 30m of new climbing. The finger crack is great. The adventure begins on the approach.

great exped. fun descent

plenty of exposure

epic

Swinging leads with MickyB - Fantastic. Sometime in the early 90s.

The usual route finding, loose blocks and gnarly exposure. Good fun.

Did from the half way ledge via spectacular exposed traverse (3 pitches) to upper 3 pitches

An excellent adventure. A mix of amazing rock and tricky route finding with a few sections of dodgy rock to add spice.

Bailed after pitch 5 into vertigo. There is some pretty dodgy rocknup to this point. Can't report on pitch 6 onwards.

Bailed after pitch 5 into vertigo. There is some pretty dodgy rocknup to this point. Can't report on pitch 6 onwards.

Have had this one on the ticklist for a couple of years. What to say? Some good positions, good exposure, and maybe 4 good pitches of climbing? Linked 1+2 (good), 4+5(traverse straight right for ~5m before heading up), 7+8+9 (maybe not the best idea to link all 3 but didn't like the belay options at the end of 8), 10+11. Rock quality on 3, 4, and 9 was probably the worst. I would only recommend this route to those comfortable with runouts on suspicious rock who are looking for an adventure.

Glad I did it. Will not get a second lap from me.

Late start but direct approach and we just managed to fit the summit and descent in ...bit of a long day all up ...

Did some variant pitches in the upper half as the phone had run out so we had to just make it up... looking back at the description we definitely weren’t on line for a while there but ended up in roughly the right the spot and summited ...

Bit of a long day but mostly mild climbing ..great view and some great position, some interesting rock in parts ...

Quite awesome to see little hawkman crush the crux of this route on his second multipitch! Quality Bungles goodness the entire way. with Steve only ripping off one big block!

Had a great time in the area with a mate. Enjoyed this.

late start from Pincham carpark. Bailed from halfway ledge before sunset

Started the day with a heinous bushbash that regrettably didnt need to be done. Found the start before darren and ben arrived but darren still overtook me on belay. He ran out of rope in an inconvenient little groove which made passing him fun "i hate it here". I had yelled out to yim telling him to move left on his pitch to go up the rib as prescribed but doctors orders were neglected and yim chartered his way across some runout face and somehow refound the route. We stopped for lunch on the pith 5 landing where darren later admitted he tried every manipulative conversation techniques to sneak him and ben ahead of us. They didnt need to in the end, yim went way too low on the traverse and started shedding the cliff so ben was able to 'offer to help us by skipping ahead' for the traverse. This pitch was fantastic and yim loudly proclaimed his love for benny for the photo he got from above of yim leading across. A little later on, ben ran into trouble when a peg lead him into a choss field he started knocking rocks and i sought refuge under a massive detached block that he was standing on, while 12m runout diahonally from the corner. Serious sketch levels for abit but most importantly, this allowed me to take the lead again! I belayed on a broken ledge in the corner and shot yim off onto the north face while darren got his boys lost again and making us unpassable. I quested the last 3 pitches with one rope and we were at the top of the spire. I thought the days sandbagging was finally over but i was wrong! Will and greg had earlier rapped the descent (same for vertigo) and told me id be fine to skip the first chains. Didnt make it to the second chains and had to tether to a tree and hang off it. Benny lead us through the traverse off the bottom of the spire.. i dont know how he could continue to be confident in his orienteering skills after the day gone, but he was right this time. The boys had the fire and fireball ready for us back at the hut. A classic day

MEGA CLASSIC, what an epic route and such a cool story behind it. Lee's first bungles route and my first time on the spire, how do we start? An eency microdose of acid of course. Walking in was insane, started at 11am all I could do was admire the length of the spire, we met some hikers on the way and got some pics with them . On the approach Lee told me about the mythology behind Prometheus and how he was bound at the top of the spire, where his liver was eaten everyday by an eagle as punishment for giving fire to humanity. This created the awesome story of 2 young boys approaching the spire, hoping to reach the top to free Prometheus.

After finding the start and admiring possible FAs on the way in Lee took off up the first pitch, "FUCK, thats a hard move for a 14" he exclaims. He had linked pitches 1 & 2. Sitting in the chimney slightly right of the nice ledge Lee dropped his ATC to the deck, we stare at it in disbelief as it crashes down against the rocks only to disappear into the bush. "You silly cunt" hahahhahahaha. After rapping down the ATC was found and we could continue on the mission, the flow was there and the 3rd pitch was super cruisy jugs to the base of the big corner, the next pitch was also awesome and I topped out onto the grassy ledge, only to do a bit of bush bashing and then come back down. Lee climbs up, Dylan: "Hey bro I think you have to do that high traverse there", Lee: "WHAT THE FUCK! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!" We discussed the line and Lee took the sketchy looking lower traverse, and luckily did not try and go high. We had our mates calling out to us for a little bit, calls of encouragement from the walk in all the way to balor. WOOOOOOOOOO.

I then climbed the imposing chossy corner and finally found a sweet belay. "It's a bit cold but once you get around this arete youll be sweet", Lee climbed on a 45 degree angle and onto the arete "HOLY FUCK ITS A WIND TUNNEL AROUND HERE", stitched up. From the next belay we thought we had 3 pitches left, when I climbed on and found some overhangs I realised we were on the last pitch. We finally topped out at maybe 830pm, wrote in the book, sorted out the rap and made it to camp at 1130pm. Took soem freeze dried meals up the hill, cooked em up, smoked, drank wine and let out a mighty sigh. Climb of the trip.

I knew I was going to climb on Belogery spire from the moment I first laid eyes on it.

This route takes in some dramatic features and amazing positions on what in my eyes is the most striking rock in the park.

Full value all the way.

I like this route more than flight of the Phoenix.

Big loose adventure on a big loose rock 🤌

Prometheus is Bound no more - we freed that motherfucker!!!!!! Holy dooooley this was a coming of age climb. My most gnarly to date.

18 hour mission - left camp at 8am, back at 2am. Type 1,2,3 fun, all in a day - 30 degs and sun does that. Only 2L water each, big L (defs sun stroke vibes). 2 parties of 2 but we sorta shared gear so ended up being kinda a 4.

I swung leads with Sam (side note - STOKED I got to send this together with him, my first climbing friend in Sydney, and before he leaves for the other side of the world!) and we went well. Couple of linked pitches meant I had the gnarly traverse pitch 6 that is not for the faint of heart. Haz lead Ashton and went a high line, which the guide specifically warns against, so Sam and I decided on a lower line. I was going well, foot jugs and pro for 7-8m around the corner then my line turned a pro-less 18 with thin holds and fuck that - talk about the fear of god! Back climbed, went up and followed Haz's line which was dece. Next pitch was night fall and on run out choss blocks so I shat brix, but yelled the loudest I ever have on a climb (and thats saying something) when I got round the arete to solid rock and placed a bomber cam and nut. I don't know what that feeling was. Rest was smooth up, beautiful, serene gratitude for it all.

The descent was on brand for the day. couldn't find the rap to save our lives (lol eventually did), but made the rap longer and harder for ourselves and bashed back to camp. The relief, accomplishment, commeradarie, stoke, fatigue, confusion and elation was all evident. I don't even know but in love with the story.

I FUCKING LOVE THE BUNGLES.

CHEERS FELLAS THAT WAS ANYTHIN!!!!!

what an absolute MISSION this climb was. ever since seeing Dyl and Lee on it, the same time last year, we knew we had to Do it. it just looks at you when walking up from the carpark, its a must do for anyone brave enough. with Khush And Sam in the other pair, the 4 of us set off around 8am for the mega line climb of the weekend, with the hot sun coming up, it was going to be a long day. bashed around and finally found the start about 1030 I think. as Ashton wasn't leading I had to do every pitch, which was a struggle after a while, but well worth the push on. i was in front so some of the pitches I left gear in the climb for the others to lead on, which helped them, but made us all quiet slw together. first 4 or 5 were pretty good with the pitch 6 traverse being super exposed, I was told I took the line to high but except for the heinous drag, ended quite well. after that I think I did part of Pegesus, some sick corner finger crack, that Ashton really struggled on, but everything else was cruizy. until we got to the top in the dark and didn't remember where the rap was, took quite a while to figure out it was on the other summit. and then 1 hour turned to 2, then 4, then we were at camp at 2am. soo when you're out of water for 4 hours and not thinking too clearly, time just goes on. but all went physically well, and we got up the next day for another one!!

Fantastic voyage. Got benighted 1 pitch from the summit. Ian, Beadie, Nigel and Moi. Had to return a year later and take photos