Saturday May 12 was perhaps our final chance to hit the Blueys for one more shot at multi-pitch climbing before winter would direct our attention towards white powder instead of orange rock. The conditions were almost perfect, sunny but with a piercing wind on the ridge to keep the friction high.

Dan and I had chalked off a few long term projects this year, but there were still two classics that needed our attention. Luckily both were at Narrow Neck – an old school climbing area that has been overshadowed by the nearby sport climbing crags: Diamond Falls and Bougainville.  The first was a four pitch natural protection knife blade arête called Both Sides of the Glass (18) with the very rare grade of five stars.  And if this was not enough than there was Leif Eriksson with four pitches of grade 23 on ringbolts. We will just see how we go with time…..

Time was not our friend and locating the descend through the thick scrub past a supposedly “obvious” gum tree turned out to be an epic in itself. Both Dan and I were stunned when after much searching we stumbled upon a well hidden belay point after getting seriously lost!  It turned out to be the belay station for Cave Climb one of the major access points to the climbs below. Hint: don’t try to find this by yourself and take somebody that has climbed there before.

Both Sides of the Glass (18)

We quickly located the knife-blade arête of Both Sides of the Glass and started our project around about 10:00AM. The first pitch was fantastic balancy climbing on – you guessed it – both sides of a slightly overhanging knife-blade cutting into the Grose Valley.  It took small cams and luckily there were two carrot bolts at the blank spots were placing gear was impossible. The first pitch ended in one of the most comfortable belay ledges available in the entire Blueys with panoramic views of the Narrow Neck escarpments.  Next was the crux pitch with a tricky traverse out left over the gapping void. Pulling the lip however was easy on jugs and protected by two carrot bolts.  A run-out section gained the arête again where a lonely carrot bolt high above the last piece of protection brought solace to our tortured minds. The arête was now easing but still soared high above us into pitch three. Protection was sparse here with the occasional small alien in tiny cracks. The end of pitch three meant we had to choose between a scrubby pitch four, topping out and finding a way down again or a long rap down to the ground for another climb. The clock was ticking…

Leif Eriksson (23)

We went for the long rap down and headed straight over to our next project. It was now after 13:00PM but Leif Eriksson (23) was waiting for us and the sun was nice and warm on our backs.  Looking at the line soaring high above us into acres of vertiginous orange rock we faced a dilemma: Climbing this free and light without our packs meant we had to repel down again after finishing four pitches of technical climbing.  We only had a few hours of light left and would have to retrieve our heavy backpacks with all the gear across tricky terrain in complete darkness.  There was only one choice and Dan made the faithful decision to haul our packs up the entire wall! 

It was my turn to lead pitch one (23): a blank face with sharp crimps up to our first roof.  The climbing was strenuous but quite smooth until about half way when the angle increased and the sharp crimps started to take their toll.  Completely bumped I went for a high edge only to go sailing through the air past a couple of bolts. I was finally awake and started to concentrate to our first belay station. Dan quickly followed with our second rope tied to his back where the two backpacks were connected for hauling.  The next pitch is described as a technical face and was originally grade 22 but after some holds broke off who knows?  It felt very thin and the five meter run-out began to fray my nerves. After a tricky all out friction sequence we gained belay number two high above the valley. Waiting for Dan to clean I suddenly realised that climbing in shorts and T-shirt was not such a good idea after all. The temperature was now plummeting and the sun stood low on the horizon.  It was crunch time.

When Dan arrived at the belay I suggested to rap and climb out somewhere easy because I was shivering all over!  I was worried about hauling our packs up this massive face with the sun fading. He looked at me and smiled: “Just keep climbing and you will stay warm.”  Great idea so I set off on pitch three dreaming about my war clothes in the packs below.
We were getting fairly high on the route now and the wind increased dramatically, but never mind the cold and windy conditions  the third pitch was all business and after a thin face and a technical traverse on the first two pitches this was roof city! Pumping on large jugs through steep orange rock kept my mind occupied as the long pitch soared up high above the valley. I arrived atop pitch three in a gale that sucked on my exposed body parts.  Luckily the third belay ledge was huge and I hunkered down behind some scrub to escape the wind – still in T-shirt and shorts. I was praying for Dan to hurry up so I could borrow his long sleeved shirt, but he faced his own little problem! Leaving pitch two, the second fifty meter rope would not reach to the third belay so he would have two backpacks tugging on his harness. Poor Dan had to readjust part of the top-rope to the haul rope and extend it to reach the third belay. Not an easy feat considering that he now had some 70 meters of rope drag on his bottom.

I was a shivering mess by the time he reached the belay and now the hauling began. Fortunately,  the huge roofs meant that the packs hung free and we hauled like mad for about 100 meters.  The bright side was that we were warm again, but know fading light and heavy wind made climbing the last pitch impossible.

A scramble to the left out of the wind brought us to some shonky chimney that we scrambled up to the top of the cliff. It was getting dark quickly now and we still had no idea how to get back to the car. There were no obvious tracks here, so we hit the head-high scrub once again searching for a way out.  Before long we spotted a car and just fought our own way through the thick bush back to the road.
Winter was definitely on the horizon….

.Roman 13 May 2012.