It was high time that we lifted the curse on Pierces Pass: I had two soaking weekends trying to climb one of the best multipicth crags in the country, one with Jason and one with Mark and ended up at Duck Wall at Bell’s Gorge twice. Mark was even worse off and had a total of four attempts to climb a long multi-pitch route at Pierces. Together we had a few grudge matches to take care of so we weren’t going to back off this time rain or shine. So for the long Easter Weekend Friday the 14 of April we headed up early to camp at the Pierces Pass car park, but this time the night sky was clear and stars were smiling at us. The scenery was surreal when we arrived with both car parks top and bottom jock-a-block. So we expected hordes of hungry climbers lining up for the perfect Easter Climbing weekend. Not so. Despite all the cars there was nobody, and it was kind of eerie. Where did all the people go? Campers, hikers, or serial killers? Once darkness fell two feral climbers emerged from the wood having spent the day climbing at the Mirrorball pinnacle all alone.

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

We crashed early that night and got up at 5am to get ahead of our imaginary queues on the routes. Finished breakfast at 6am and headed on the trail to the halfway ledge. The morning was stunning and the Grose Valley was at its best behavior. Clear blue skies with bellbirds all around us chiming the way. The shadows were still tall and the sun had not yet emerged from the horizon when we arrived at the halfway ledge. We made quick progress and found the abseil spot above the Mirroball Pinnacle straight away. Twin 60m ropes and two raps later we were in the valley and located the start of our route pretty quick. Our choice of the day was Randy Rabbit Ridge (20***) 280 meters and 11 pitches long.

Chain Links	Grose Buttresses	The valley South Grose	Mirroball slot
Old Skull Pierces Pass	Grose Moon	Abseil Ledge Mirrorball	Rapping Halfway Ledge
Crux Pitch 2 Mark	Grose Shadow Line	Exposure	Frenchies on Bunnies
Mark at the slab	Mark Pulling the Roof	Moon over the Grose	Nearing the lip
Mark below roof	The final moves	Headwall from lunch ledge	The team
Mark on Bunnie Ledge	The traverse Crux	Roman exposed	Northers Grose
Mark on Headwall			Halfway Ledge with Mirroball Pinnacle

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

This is a slightly harder version of Bunny Bucket Buttress that follows a similar line around the corner, Meeting briefly at the halfway ledge and joining the top 3 pitches on the arête of the exposed headwall. We started the route at 8am sharp and knew about the narrow chain linkes on the first two pitches. I brought narrow CARABINERS which fitted perfectly and we did not have to use threats like some of the other parties before us. Take small quick-draws for those pitches or you will be wasting a lot of time ! The first three pitches are very cruxy and you should probably be comfortable climbing about grade 21. Then two rambling pitches with some great moves up a few short pinnacles bring you to the lunch ledge. From here the business pitch awaits. Bitch number eight leads you out of the protected corner along a juggy traverse over the void - similar to the famous “tighten your undies” pitch on Hotel California –out onto a steep overhanging arête. The jugs are humongous here, but the void below tugs hard at your subconscious and the rope drag is hideous here. We used our twin ropes and I put long extension draws on the entire traverse but still I got more bumped trying to bring up the rope then the actual climb itself. You end up at a nice cave that joins with a ledge right next to Bunny Bucket Buttress. From here three exposed pitches on the headwall along a sea of iron stone buckets finish with a sudden exposed slab crux high above the valley.

Halfway Ledge Panorama with Perries Lookdown on the other Side.

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,

Two Frenchies, who climbed Bunny Buckets next door, had caught up with us, and we were taking turns shooting photos of each other from the hanging belays. (Caroline had Upload the Photos to the CRAG website for Bunny PucketButtrees)There was no one else around. One more slab pitch led us to the final cruxy overhanging pitch and we topped at 3pm after about seven hours of continuous climbing. It was still the perfect day with the sun high in the sky now and temperatures unseasonably warm for Easter. We basked in the sun and hiked back to our car – for once not in darkness and lost. When we arrived at the car park still packed to the rafters, the mystery of all the cars finally revealed itself. A huge group of people in sarongs were praying in the forest for some kind of Easter celebration. There were gurus giving blessings, women singing and everybody was merely sipping teas and eating scons. I was a strange site indeed and perhaps our minds were playing tricks on us after a day in skies…….

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!