Ascensions dans South Face

FA w/Dave Westby, Damien Shields & Russell Denny - 18th June 2022

“Reptiles are just retarded birds,” said the King of the Birds, “and so I am your King, thank you very much.”

A fun day on the side of a hill that ended up having very little to do with the hill, and much to do with the quality (and patience) of the company I got to share it with.

Approach: We came off The Martian as advertised, mid pitch 8, which was significantly higher and steeper than the hands free rising vegetated traverse that started at about the pitch 7 belay. Would recommend future ascensionists deviate from that route there instead.

I then led Reneé on a merry venture up and down several pitches of soloing, at alternating times slabby, steep and abrasively vegetated. All the while Ryan napped patiently at the base of the actual route. Some time later after a tour of Beerwah's SW saddle we pulled on to Divine Comedy proper.

The Route:

P1 – A bit crumbly but it’s all there. Bolts and a Jesus nut right where you want it. Not a giveaway at 18.

P2 – The cruxy corner crack. The crack was wet where it mattered, which made the 3 distinct crux sections quite... cruxy... to free. Wet and silty as it was, the fingerlocks were bomber and it did force some (committing) but great crack movement. Huge props to Ryan who onsighted the pitch to within 2 foot of the anchor before going for a ride stepping back in from the arête, taking a small garden with him. Could be hard Frog 22 if dry and clean, but I don’t see that ever happening given the location. Reneé managed to second it clean front on jambing up the filthy flared pods in the top third, it’s unclear how normal humans should best approach it.

P3 – Cool traverse under roof, bolt ladder will go free if someone can be bothered to dry off properly after the wet first half of the pitch and brush the inevitable silt off everything on the arête.

P4 – Crack above roof that you can see from The Martian. Short, protectable crack that makes you work harder than you feel you should have to for vertical thin hands.

To the top, follow hangers and line of most solid-ish rock. Climbing bits of this in the evening gloom definitely added to the ambiance.

Topped out to a sunset and the summit and descent to ourselves, delightful.

This was actually such a great route, and really good value for a high mileage day for fitness. A lot of terrain covered and great cardio, mixed in with various pitches of actually-good climbing in the crux pitches!

Thankfully the notably-dry winter meant that the entire climb was bone-dry, leaving only dry, dusty lichen.

Kyle and I freed all pitches, him freeing the first aid pitch and me freeing the second. The upper aid pitch goes at aroudn 23 in its current state, onsighting and suffering through the dust. With a proper clean it would probably go at 22. Would be cool to exit the roof on pitch 10 next time. Simulled Martian and soloed some low-risk sections.

All in all, brilliant route for a brilliant day out! Will be coming back in years to come for pre-trip fitness training. ~8.5hrs car-2-car.

Second ascent of this really nice line up the mass that is Beerwah’s South Face. What a special place!? I feel I have many future hours ahead of me on this amazing mountain. Thanks to Cris and Russell Denny for the gear and the forethought to put this up. Well done on all the anchors, hangers, and placements of all too - perfect. A blast of an outing that was all said and done within 3hrs linking a few pitches for efficiency. Took a light rack to #3 + nuts only (no hexes). First and last pitches the standouts for me.

Nice little adventure up the South Face. Thanks guys for the work, hardware and for showing the way!

Found the climb pretty cruisey until I managed to create the rope drag from hell on the last pitch. I placed a couple of sketchy pieces too wide apart and didn’t extend them enough. Had to fight hard in the end to get the send. Pirate and I swung leads, I linked pitch 4&5 and he linked 6&7. We rapped down in the dark. (Should be marked as a mixed climb because it has more bolts than gear).

First pitch only

Managed to turn this fun scramble into a decent adventure

We opted for a classic alpine start, beginning with 0930 coffees in Brisbane. Pulled onto the route after midday joking about not having head torches...

We climbed on twin 50m ropes, which came up painfully short of being able to link pitches nicely. Managed to link 2-3 and 4-5 with a bit of simul climbing. Twin 60's would have been ideal for linking pitches on lead and rap.

Very sporty for a mixed route in this part of the world. Bolts provided adequate pro, just supplemented a few pitches with the odd nut or hex and slung a few trees. Really impressed with the rock quality and variety through pitches 1-5 especially.

Final pitch took cams, nuts and hex's, much more so than the rest of the route. Fun, 3D finish up the final overhangs.

A stuck rope during the rap turned into a pleasant two pitch rope solo session in the dying light and a walk out in the dark.

I did odds and Daniel did evens.

This was our first time ever climbing on Mt Beerwah, and it's a nice introduction to the slabbiness of the mountain! We've been getting too comfortable on Tibro that the slabs of Beerwah never seemed to end.

Parked in the tourist carpark and walked in from there. Ran into Russell Denny at the carpark and he told us to climb the new variant they recently bolted: at the start of pitch 3, climb up a bolt or two, then traverse left following a line of bolts until you come to a large flake-like feature. I think it is best to belay at the base of this flake instead of continuing up - prevents massive rope drag and the potential of rolling down into shrub if you slip. There are anchors after you pass the flake, but I'm not sure how long the pitch would be (50 - 60m?) if you don't stop halfway.

The variant rejoins the original line at the start of Pitch 6, and is a really great addition if you're down for some delicate traversing! Perhaps a grade 15/16?

Daniel Smith couldn't find much gear to place on pitch 8, and I discovered some portable holds. Should clean up with traffic. Pitch 9 consists of an amazing slab pitch, with moss-and-lichen covered holds. Absolutely brilliant, and was the standout pitch for me. I missed the final bolt before the anchors, but found an alternate way with gear (climbs a bit more naturally, in my opinion). The final pitch climbs a vertical crack system, and takes all sorts of gear.

This route has a lot of hardware for a mixed climb, but is definitely a fun day out! We topped out and walked down the tourist track but really just save yourself the gross slab descent and rap the route.

Great route!! Pretty easy to follow with the instructions on here. Left the car at the tourist carpark at about 7.30, topped out and took the tourist track down to finish at about 4.45. Had snack breaks and multiple photo ops up there. Also shady most of the day!

Great multi pitch, well equipped with bolts and anchors. We linked pitches 2 + 3 and 4 + 5, although our 60m rope was just short and some simul climbing was needed to reach the anchors. Shouldn’t be an issue with a 70m rope. Lower pitches are a slabby scramble and a few challenging moves up higher where the terrain gets steeper. Good gear placements where you need them, the last pitch is all trad except for a single bolt. Easy descent via the tourist track. About 7hrs car to car, although we wandered around in the bush a bit trying to find the start.

We climbed the left variant through pitches 3, 4 and 5. It's definetly worth the detour if you're confident at the grade. I'd suggest bring a 70m a linking some pitches - they seemed to be a a touch longer than 30 generally. Particualrly pitch 6 and 7, it felt like I'd just started climbing p6 and I was suddenly at the anchor. We took a single rack - seemed about right. I thought it felt a bit easy at the grade, but still a fun day. Rachel led odds, I led evens.

Fun day out. We did the left variant for pitches 3-5 mentioned in a previous comment, which definitely added variety (and a very cool flake). Pitches 9 and 10 had the most interesting climbing, but the scramble down the tourist track might have been the hardest part of the climb led odds, Chris led evens.

Rpt. Got the other pitches plus the crux this time.

Changed tact this trip, took nuts plus a single rack for the last pitch and climbed on a 70, linking 2-3, 4-5, 6-7 easily. Walked off down the nicely polished N face slippery dip.

Fun day out, linking most pitches in pairs and swinging leads. Enjoyable and very easy slab climbing. Last pitch is a bit soft in my opinion, maybe a 16 to climb direct. Half a rack (0.4, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 3 and nuts). A good addition to the SE area

Mason (accidentally) linked pitches 1 & 2. I linked pitches 4 & 5 (deliberately). The climbing doesn't really happen until pitches 9 & 10 - the rest is pretty easy slab climbing, but on great rock with interesting features. Route finding on pitch 8 was a little confusing but once you've figured it out it makes sense. Overall a great day out. We did it as a party of 3, using twin ropes for the leader and two seconds climbing at once several meters apart. That saved some time. Not sure I'd want to rap off it as it looked like the rope may get caught in places, though I can't confirm this because we walked off the top and down the hiker's trail.

Awesome moderate climb on solid rock. Lots of slab, so bring your buffed calves. Simuled on the sharp end for the first 9 pitches, linking pitches 1-9 into one mega 290m pitch. So fun! Plus, we got to skip all the awkward and uncomfortable belay stances. Managed to do it in 2hr31sec. 32 sec too slow! Reracked at the bottom of the tenth and lead to the top. Could have linked it all but wasn't sure what gear I needed. Used ~25 draws and a few mid sized cams plus skipped a good few bolts on easy ground. Used one draw and 3 cams (BD .75, 1, 2) for pitch 10. Pulled through the outside of the overhanging chimney for the direct finish.

Simul-climbed with Chris leading the whole way. Managed the first nine pitches without stopping, we topped out in 2 hours and 31 seconds. Rapped down with 2 x 70m ropes in 1 hour and 5 minutes, somehow managed to not get any ropes stuck! A great day out

Great climb Good rock Linked a few pitches to get a idea of the route would simul climb next tine all the pitches to 9 and belay 9-10 Took a small single rack to .4 to #3 and two hexes and full set nuts didn’t really use much gear apart from last two pitches and heaps of long draws Got a little lost of pitch 8 was a little to the right didn’t go as far over left as needed apart from that was awesome

7 hours car to car with a trip to summit and back

Great adventure style line, big thanks to the guys that bolted it. Broke off a few holds at the crux below the horizontal hand jam section, one nearly hitting Hilary at the belay. Overall, rock quality is good, and sometimes better than it looks!

Led 1-3, 7, 10

Quality addition to the Glassies’ adventure climbing menu, and highly user friendly with the bolts, straightforward route finding, and solid rock. Led all pitches, linked 2-3, 4-5, and 6-7. About 4 hours on the wall, with lunch midway.

Such a good time! Great gear, fun crux pitch, and a great crew.

First 9 pitches in approach shoes, linking pitches 2/3 + 4/5 + 6/7 + 8/9. Done in a little under 3 hours base to top-out.

Maybe more like a 15-16 at the crux? Nothing overly difficult and there is a lot of good pro on that last pitch.

Really nice climb! Lots of slab with amazing friction but a few other interesting moves thrown in. Last pitch had some really cool 3D climbing. Walking off seemed the easier option compared to rapping down in the dark.

Great day out! Lots of runouts, although there's always a bolt or gear where you need it. Potential for a bad fall off the belay on the last pitch, although the climbing is not hard for the grade. Linked pitches 2-3, 4-5 and 6-7 with a 70m rope.

Had a very wet start, but by pitch 3 it was pretty dry. Great day out climbing, fun route with good trad placements and enough bolts for the bits that don't. Alternate leads with Andrew, linking a few pitches.

A slabby route with volts a plenty till the penultimate pitch which presents some excellent climbing up a well featured water runnel