Leaning Peak Sobre todo Escalada clásica 7 vías en zona

A broad, sloping ledge connecting the North-Leaning Saddle with the top of Leaning Ridge just below the summit of Leaning Peak. From the saddle, traverse the exposed ledge on the North Face until a way up can be found on the far side of the summit. No trees at crux, cams required.

The climb starts at the 750m contour line about 200m up the right hand gully which slopes diagonally right across the face and intersects Leaning Ridge. This starting point is below a hanging rock and right of an overhanging lip. The start of "Chockstone Gully" can be found about half an hour above Barney Waterfall where Moonlight Slabs eases briefly to a series of open, low angled expansive slabs.

The climb is a long adventure route, with classy slab climbing leading to the summit headwall. Single rack will suffice, takes mostly medium cams. Despite the grade, this is a remote climb and good routefinding skills and good headspace for long runouts are a must.

APPROACH: From Lower Portals car park follow the track to The Lower Portals (3.8 km) and once at the portals bypass them by taking the steep track on the right. Up to the ridge and back down to the creek. Rock hop upstream until you get to Barney waterfall (on your left). Scramble to the top of the waterfall on the left and walk across the waterfall, the route starts here just above water pools scooped in the slab.

ROUTE DESCRIPTION:

1. Follow the bushy ridge until some open slabby sections are reached.

2. Scramble up for about 100m or so finding LLR until a new bushy section is reached.

3. From here either follow easy grade 4 rock leading right and up or jump left on a juggy wall (cleaner climbing but harder) to a ledgy area below an exposed blank wall.

4. From here the route traverses left on a bushy ledge until you find a low angle easy juggy ramp leading up and right, or alternatively climb straight up on grade 10 rock but runout.

5. Keep climbing up until a bushy gully on the left leads up to a bouldery move to exit on a shaded ledgy area

6. Carefully scramble over blocks and thin exposed ridge for 50m until top of a notch. Downclimb into the saddle over a chockstone with big exposure either sides and back to the ridge.

7. (crux) From a belay tree (optional), climb up trending left to a black boy and ledge on grade 4:

   a) Keep climbing up (grade 5/6) with a couple of trees as protection or solo until easy ground, or

   b) Traverse left, sling solid tree and climb up easy grade but exposed over big drop.

8. Walk to the summit.

To descend: Walk along top of peak towards East Peak and walk down until bolted anchor is reached, from here, abseil (60m rope recommended) into the saddle.

Notes:

1. A 50m static rope will safely take you to the bottom of the abseil, if weight concern is an issue. No downclimbing involved.

2. As of 2022, Queensland State Emergency Service (SES) has added a bolt with two rings high on the ridge to aid the staff in their rescuing efforts. Please do not remove it.

3. As of mid June 2022, there's now four bolts with rings on the so called crux aka. final scramble/climbing section, shortly before the summit. Presumably also installed by SES to assist with rescues. These could be used to lead or top belay people thru this section if necessary, but rope drag would be horrendous and will damage the vegetation that the rope will have to drag over and/or thru.

Approach the Leaning Peak from the Short Leaning Ridge. Two cracks become obvious apart from the face. The left crack separates Leaning Peak from North Peak. Descend into the right crack and belay of tree in right crack.

1. 30m Up past block and small crack top right. Left to tree belay.

2. 20m Up easily to tree belay.

3. 70m A wandering 40m to tree, followed by a 20m pitch.

4. 50m Vertical mank bash. Tree belay. At this point, the Meadow's route traverses left.

5. (13) 25m Tree belay 6m above end of Pitch 4. Climb up face to bridge on belay tree and wall to a micro-ledge. Left of bulge and up 12m to V-crack. Tree belay.

6. 35m Weave up to overhang. Traverse from left to right to small pillar. Up pillar to tree belay.

7. 30m Wander up. Tree belay.

8. 40m Up crack between blocks or traverse to mantel up the blocks. Tree belay.

9. 20m Up wall and crack on right-hand side. This 12m wall is severely delicate. Tree belay.

10. 20m Move up left away from overhanging crack. Dicey traverse right above overhanging crack. Notable exposure up to summit.

"This spectacular gully can be seen from a very long way off. It is the gully on the left side of Leaning Peak North Face and appears to separate Leaning Peak from the rest of the massif. First climbed in 1976 by Barry Ingham and Peter Paterson, the route at first is straightforward with the difficulty gradually increasing towards the top as it should be on all great climbs! There is poor protection (and rock) on the difficult sections." - Rob Rankin's Secrets of the Scenic Rim

Some tricky scrambling on exposed rock. The first challenge is a large slab past the first pinnacle. Bypass this slab by following the base of the slab to the west. After this second pinnacle you'll reach the massive slab which traverses to the east towards Short Leaning Ridge. Follow the slab down and Eastward until a large horizontal crack makes a traverse across the slab to some bigger trees doable. Head up and Eastwards avoiding danger by following the vegetation up until you are forced to make a mad scramble up over an exposed arête on good footholds and handholds. A rope may be handy here. The next obstacle isn't encountered until the long scrubby ridge comes to a minor peak and heads down into a rocky saddle. Progress is now only possible by heading down to the West of Leaning Peak and up a gully eastwards to Leaning Peak. Short Leaning Ridge route is eventually joined and a couple of exposed cruxy moves are encountered before the final scramble to the summit.

Note: An alternative way of bypassing the second slab is by heading up eastwards until a corner with a crack on it is encountered. It is a 4-5m grade 11 climb which can be done unprotected (use the bollard past the crack to secure the next move) or place a nut (size 9) to protect the crack. The ridge is easily accessed by scrambling the face past the short climbing section.