| On Saturday the 17th of September 2006, Gary and
Roman left for the Pierces Pass car park. The objective
this time was to climb Bunny Bucket Buttress; an elusive
all-bolted (carrots with some rap-rings) line, which
although established in 1997 has not made it into any
guidebooks yet and also has not had any reviews.
After a quick breakfast in the top car park (we couldn't
get the gas stove to work!), we left camp at 7:00AM
sharp. Access to the route is via the halfway ledge
and raping down the mirror ball pinnacle (two raps).
Even though we had a good topo (see link below) it was
quite difficult to find the start of the route. It took
us 1 hour and 40 minutes to arrive at the start. Gary
started pitch one at 9:00AM and cruised the bouldery
start of the 9 pitch 270 meter route. Pitch two has
some balancy moves and after a 5 meter traverse pitch
three finishes up a spectacular arête. The next
two pitches up a smooth but easy slab were surprisingly
well bolted and we arrived at the half-way ledge in
just over two hours. After a quick refuel Roman led
the roof pitch which although daunting is quite easy
with great underclings right at the huge lip of the
roof. Rope drag is big here so take lots of long slings.
The roof pitch leads to the superb headwall which goes
straight as an arrow all the way to the top. Gary linked
pitch 7 and 8 into one huge lead up the slightly overhanging
headwall. This is the best part of the climb - hugh
jugs all the way with big exposure all the way to the
valley floor. A nice little belay ledge leads left to
the final pitch up through some caves and chimney. We
topped out at 13:00AM after four hours of continuous
climbing. Overall the climbing is constant and relatively
straight forward. Although it is only graded 18, you
should be comfortable with leading grade 21. It is somewhat
tricky to find the way back to the car and the easiest
way is to climb up higher through the bush above the
climb until you arrive at a ridge where a faint track
leads back to the Bells line of road and the car park.
Overall time was 7:00AM to 14: 00 PM.
This is an excellent multi-pitch route that deserves
more ascents. It is very well bolted even at easy spots
and we only used one single cam placement overall. Having
said that it can feel quite run out at the top headwall
when the exposure is starting to pull on your imagination.....
Update Roman 01Jan2013
|
