This is an ode to the hidden, marginalized and forgotten mini crag of which there are plentiful in the mountains. The FuseBox is a hidden gem, a mini Cave, stowed away secretly to the side of the main Zap-crag and blessed by a sense of tranquility and solace that is nowadays hard to find. As more and more urban climbers descend on rather, than ascend in, the Blue Mountains. Access pressure will inevitably lead to crag closures like we are seeing in the Grampians at the moment. This was a particularly mad weekend, it was Easter and arguably one of the busiest times in the mountains. We had learned our lesson in the previous year so we just headed up for a day only - staying overnight would have been madness.But even so turning off the Great Western Highway towards Mt.York, the number of cars at Bardens Lookout was mindboggling. We immediately turn-around and guessed that most of the bigger crags would be the same. However, just down the road was Zap-crag, which can also be quite busy but has a little visited mini cave to the side of the main crag like an island in the sky, that catches the sun nicely and is completely isolated with a comfortable belay ledge. This is where we would make our home for the day accompanied by the next generation of rock-stars: Andrew, Cameron, Chris, Roman, Will and some of the more advanced generation included Dave and Roman S.

The warm-up at the Fuse Box is Switch Gear (22*) a short but steep route with some very nice moves that leaves you begging for more. The traverse to the arête is called Megawatt (21*) and is surprisingly tough for its grade. Just around the corner at the end of the crag is one of the most exposed and underappreciated arêtes in the mountains a real hidden gem that starts with a hardish move into thin air. Disappointingly named KillerWhat?(21*) it had only one star but deserves three. It is only marred by a lack of lower-offs which makes cleaning the route tricky from below. This is about it as far as warm-ups are concerned and it gets serious pretty quickly from here. The main wall has the Particle Accelerator (25**) with fun long powerful moves on good jugs leading to a truly hideous crimp crux. Then the route moves into a slot/chimney to the right and finishes on a steep traverse with one final punchy move. The variety of climbing is truly spectacular. Most of us did okay on the steep part, which clocks in about 22 but the crimp crux was a real show stopper for some of us.  Then it was time to hit the piece-the-resistance: Trip Switch (26***) a funky name for an even funkier climb. Fantastic steep moves lead to a hideous crimp crux, the delicate footwork is the key to a deadpointleading to a positive edge, one final undercling move and it gets easier. Roman was the only one to send this monster but Chris and Dave came very close. With sore digits we watched the shadows grow longer in the cave and as the landscape around us transformed by the rays of the dying sun, poetry became reality.

Roman 18 February 2019