Ascensions dans Bluff Mountain comme Tick

Woke up at 5, left the hut at 6, arrived at the wall at 7:30. Yim lead the first 2 pitches and the other party Nicole and Rob follwed. Yim went slightly off route and we ended up doing a brutal finger jam section in the second pitch, it was probably a 20 and an impressive lead by Yim. The rappel went smoothly and I sent Yim off to lead the money pitch, and the wedge tails were constantly watching us and flew real close at some points. The wedge tails were so massive and beautiful up close, we saw them from above, below and straight on, an unforgettable expreience. Yim linked pitch 4 and 5 together into a 70m mega pitch, and did the same for the next 2 pitches. This is where we were noticebly ahead of the other party and they asked us to wait on our comfortable ledge. One hour passed and we could see Rob, the second hour passed and we saw Nicole although they were both still at least 60m below us. The sun was speeding towards the horizon and we knew we would be nighted if we waited any longer. Everyones safety is important on a big trad multi like this and so is making sure everyone is comforatble and is able to carry on. After 3 hours on the ledge I let Yim lead up the second to last pitch, now we were seperated and the sun had set, I was still waiting for Rob and Nicole to make it to the ledge. As soon as the sun went down the cold hit and the wind felt more fierce than before. Rob made it safely to the ledge after leading in the dark, super impressive as you can hardly see anything. The plan was to get Nicole up and then attach one of their twin ropes to me so I can second up tp Yim and clip in the following rope, and so that is what we did, Rob followed and did the same with Nicole the last on the ledge. I belayed Yim up the last scramble while Rob belayed Nicole up. I decided to be the last at that anchor and let all of them get to the top, we finally made it and got to the top in full darkness, we walked back with our led suns and arrived back at the hut at 9:30. Dinner was had and sleep was great, the next day was a rest day for most. Yim went and tried to climb Out and Beyond with Caroline, ask him how it went

Disappointingly smooth sailing to use yims beloved contradicting adjectives. 70min from balor, never lost the path. 2nd pitch was the highlight for me, but things got uncomfy from the rap down the corner. Scrappy gear anchor and a couple moves off the anchor for yim on an rp that did not stand the test of rope drag for even 5 metres, but he glided all the way through the bulge to a ledge, perfectly using the whole rope. Another delighful pitch. From here it was warrumbumbling to the top. Yim decided to change into his hiking shoes at the halfway mark, stumbling up a gr 15 on some smears at one point. 1 little route-finding phoepa for me that cost a couple minutes but honestly you can get from the rap to the top in 3 hours so im not sure how people keep having epics.. the closest we got was accidentally pissing on ourselves at the p6 lunch spot. It was very windy. Benny and daz invited us over to their side of the hut for a fire tonight! Nice to have the invite returned.

Woke up at 430am to give this a crack. After a solid bush bash through the Warrumbungles scrub, we arrived at the base around sunrise, 630ish. Our original plan was a 2 + 3 which was sort of reasonable. Julie Pon crusaded up the first pitch with Zuni Dierk and gave us an idea of the line.

Meanwhile:

Pitch 1: Later I would find out this was an 18. I didn't have too many issues, but I did start a bit too early and caught up to the leading party. As such, I anchored in at the fixed sling and took a 20 minute nap awkwardly positioned along the slab.

Pitch 2: Jay effortlessly crusaded up the crux pitch. As we reached the top, Julie Pon rapped down due to lack of water, and frankly, she sacrificed herself for our sends. She took 2 ropes and a pack with no water and bailed back to camp. Between the remaining 4, we had 3.5L. Choices were made to continue. I am still pondering this.

Rappel pitch: The belay at the bottom of the rappel is awful. Hanging in a corner. I ended up baking in the sun after lowering Jay halfway until realizing I could use a Spoc to keep him in place while I tried to find sun shelter.

Pitch 3: Jay and Zuni Dierk bravely lead the traverse under the effects of dehydration. Gear placements start to become sparse because Get Me The Fuck Out Of Here.

Pitch 4: I bail out of my lead. Thanks Jay. Easy climbing but the sun and marchflies are taking their toll. Every move is effort.

Pitch 5: All just kind of sameish rock and climbing. Somewhat delirious and just trying to keep it together because all climbing and no water make Homer something something.

Pitch 6: Gear placements get more and more sparse because Sun and thirsty. Clouds have started to come through occassionally but it's too little too late.

Pitch 7: I'm getting like, super dumb. As I leave the belay, I realize my shoes have unclipped from my harness and are just sitting on the rock. Halfway through the pitch, I smash my head into a rock. Alex Mantaut leads with about half as much gear as he would usually place. Jay leads with about half as much as that.

Pitch 8: I pretend to be a trad climber and lead the 3. Hell yeah. We have sunbattered and our camelbaks are bone dry.

As we walk back down the tourist track, Adam Cufer and Julie Pon meet us along the path with water. We are wilted flowers feeling moisture for the first time. It is glorious.

I am glad to have done this route. I will likely not do it again for a long time. Especially in mad sun with less than 2L water per person.

Julie Pon MVP.

Great adventure climbing! Access is easy with the partially cairned track starting from inside the campsite in a north west direction. First 2 pitches are excellent crack/slab climbing. The traverse pitch is incredible! The rest of the climb is easy however seemed to take a bit of time as we were baking in the sun. The pitches from the traverse onwards seemed to be a bit longer than described in the guide book so make sure you take cordelette.

started up at 7am, finished around 530pm. we managed to pick the starting line well which felt a bit lucky. thoroughly enjoyed the techy choose your own adventure of pitch 1. P2 definitely had spicier moves than P1. P4 was a highlight for me, it felt like that was when the bungles tradventure I'd been promised truly began. only beta I have to share is to not go R off the belay on P6. awesome day out with the wall to ourselves, sparrows, sunshine, abundant hanging belays and a lovely sunset to end it

We arrived at Balor close to midnight the night before so had a slightly relaxed start. Finding the start seemed fairly ok and I started climbing at 11. I was feeling rusty so let Ben have the first two money pitches, which mean I ended up spending a lot of time chilling out literally while he went on a wild off-route-finding spree. By the time I joined Ben at the rap it was 2:30 and I'd ended up aiding some moves through the mystery pitons and was deep in type II fun: some combination of too cold / too hot / dehydrated / wind chill / cramping badly. We did discuss bailing from the rap but we forged on prepared to climb at night and I estimated it would be a midnight finish. After a couple pitches the type II fun gradually eased back into type I fun. I "led" the top pitch just so I could say I actually placed a single piece of gear somewhere. As we scrambled over the lip we met hectic arctic winds off the summit. I arrived back at Balor on the dot of midnight Best summarized as we had a 'choose your own adventure'.

Great. Despite scoping start got lost in the pre dawn cairn search. Amazing route. Got off route in the upper pitches and finished more direct.

Got it doooone! Fantastic route in a ridiculous position. Engaging climbing through the bottom, and then just romp on upwards the sea of rock with endless holds and gear. Plenty of loose rock and no-fall zones, don't me a muppet up there.

The track from Dow's camp is reasonably straightforward and well-cairned. Hike in early, but not so early that you can't see! We were grateful to NOT be doing it under headlamp power, could have been tricky at times.

P1 is great fun, jumping from crack to crack as you make your way up.

P2 is a comfortable 20. Solid fingerlocks and small jams through several steep-ish cruxy sections. It's all there, but will make you feel alive! Sweet lead by James.

P3 tension traverse was surprisingly airy, feels like you're on the verge of getting sucked back out of the corner! The belay gear is...not great. It's fine. You're fine.

P4 wing traverse was one of my most memorable leads. Ran out of slings and used prusik's to extend the last few pieces. Got swooped by 2x wedgetails close enough to feel their wind on my neck before watching them catch a thermal and soar up the Stonewall corner. What a wild place.

P6 - I went way too high traversing across to the exit gully and had a heinous downclimb above a terrible #000 C3. Enough ropedrag that James probably could have gone hands-free for a nice soft catch. Would not recommend...

Topped out as the sun was setting across the plains, then trail-ran down the hill to the fire and dinner. Perfect end to a fantastic trip!

Did the Cameron/Moon 20 variant and possibly some other variations as some of the route description doesn’t match what we did ...

Done as 5 x 60m pitch’s more or less ... Thunderstorm rolled through to cool, and wet, us down in the upper pitches ...

Great fun of the type you can only have in places such as these ... car to car in about 10 hours but we smelt the roses along the way ...

Some surprisingly tricky route finding due to the number of alternatives and a bit of loose rock but still an amazing line. A good intro to how tricky the gradings and route finding can be in the Bungles.

Mega! Definitely the biggest route I've tried. Jackson led p1,3,4,6 & 8, and I led 2,5 & 7. Routefinding on the first two pitches was a bit funky, 2nd pitch felt pretty sandbagged at 18 but was quite good. The pitch 3 rap was a bit sketchy, we went with the recommendation of using the end of one rope doubled through the rap to support the mediocre belay until the leader had good gear in. Pitches 4 & 5 were long and stellar, great climbing with insane exposure. Pitch 6 was a bit average. We did pitches 7 & 8 after dark, the gully of 7 being pretty manky. All up, a pretty rad day and night out

Definitely didn't start in the right place, and never traversed into the climb again.... later that night we discovered that we traversed into 'Corinth' at the sloping ledge with a bolt. We then traversed off coring going too far right onto a sketchy section that has possibly and never been climbed. Does being wildly off route count as a first ascent?

Didn't do this climb but just thought I'd comment that Bruce Cameron's fall must have added a metre per year. Me and Rob Starmer were on Elijah .. well probably a little off route on a dodgy ledge having a smoke to take the edge off when we saw it all .. offered some help but the fellas didn't need it. Was a classic moment though and pretty full on watching him ride the block into the sunset

Lukas led all pitches. Good climbing on generally solid rock.

After accidentally walking up to the summit on the approach, we finally reached the base at 1.30pm and made the summit by 6pm. Having scoped the descent already we were back in camp before dark, what a great day! A classic line!

Well... what an epic! Start is not so obvious.. First pitch was much tougher than expected due to different style of climbing and perhaps not on the right line. The route finding is extreme! Bring two ropes and many many slings. Be careful of loose rock.

Abi and I got to about 160-170m up before taking a traverse right (protected by a carrot) and then up some boulders. This route became very difficult resulting in a fall from abi, a head injury and a resultant rescue mission involving a helicopter. We were both hauled out after spending 19 hours on a ledge.

All that said, had the accident not happened it would of made for a brilliant day out, full of some terrifying climbing, beautiful moves and great exposure to the remote location that the Warrumbungles offers.

Best 18 multi in aus

Think we did variant start for 2 pitches, then 3rd pitchto ledge, then part bolted crux pitch, then waited for an hour while handdrilling went on then exited left by best 15m of climbing on route onto 2 pitches of Bastion buttress. A work in progress in parts.

Lived up to the hype. Classic.

The most adventurous thing i have ever done

Excellent excursion. Rain while leading pitch 4 & 5 made for an interesting experience.

a long day wich finished by headlamp, till mine ran out on the way down.

With Dan. Alt lead, got the wing pitch. Superb. Topped out after dark cos of party in front that backed off. You know who you are!

Pretty easy, not sustained, bomber gear, some tricky rote finding