Unearthed

On Saturday, I tackled another long line in the Bluyes but this time it was the Megalong Valley that was the victim of our assault. My partner in crime was Leo, poor fellow I think he has permanent nerve damage from the "indecent exposure." The climb is called "Unearthed" at Porters pass and is an all natural four pitch grade 20. Below is a route description for all future ascentionists. This time we started early in the morning and since the Megalong doesn't get the sun till afternoon we climbed in the cool shade and did not get dehydrated (until later).

Access is down the canyon at Porters Pass through the Celebrity Crag area right down to the bottom. The start of the route is described well in the latest guidebook so I will spare you the details but it is quite a walk. Calculate about 45 min to find the base of the climb. We lugged about 30kg of heavy metal to the base and then went as light as possible with the leader taking the gear rack and the second carrying the hydro-pack. As I said the difference was significant and we hardly drank any water because of the shade. Pitch one was a beautiful grade 19 corner crack easily protected with bomber nuts. This got us straight to pitch two, which is a giant roof traverse on natural gear. I thought that this pitch was by far the crux of the route even though it is only rated grade 19 in the guidebook - they must be joking. Pulling the lip of the roof with a number two Camelot wedged two meters below my fat ass had me sweating like a steam train. I linked the first two pitches together so the rope drag was getting a bit of a nuisance by the time a got to a nice thank-good ledge. All in all if you are careful with your placements these two can be linked together to give an enormous 45 meter three star pitch past a gigantic roof. I used some seriously long slings to get past the roof so its not a good idea to fall since the pendulum would be something that you remember for a long time coming. Pitch three is what the guidebook describes as the crux pitch. A long overhanging grade 20 cliff splitter. It starts gentle and becomes ever more overhanging for a full 45 meters. By the time you flop on another suburb belay ledge you are pumped out of your brain. This pitch is suburb with no difficult moves just relentless and steep. Placing gear for 45 meters was never-ending and I haven't felt my forearms burn like this for a long time.

On the last pitch we started to feel the exposure. A grade 18 overhanging corner crack leading to an "out-there" arete. The hole pitch looks like a tower that is slightly detached from the main cliff by a crack and just before I went up it Leo wondered if the whole thing would actually stay connected while I was climbing - thanks Leo! This pitch has fantastic positions over nothing, excellent therapy for my gym-climbing-attitude. This brought us to the top in just under 4 hours. Unfortunately we made the mistake to walk out - ouch - don't do it. Its much better to rap the adjacent route which has excellent anchors and two raps will bring you back to the ground rather than mud-sliding down gullies for one hour.

That was the end of the multi-pitch adventure and we were back where we started just after midday. So we had time to check out the newly established multi-pitch sport-climbing area next door. It is not in the guidebooks yet but you can get a good description of the
area from the following website:

http://www.sydneyrockies.org.au/mtpiddo_etc.htm

Like I said this is a multi-pitch climbing area with ring bolts all the way, still quite rare in the Bluyes. I can only recommend it highly since the grades are quite moderate and there are several multi-pitch grade 19s. The quality of the rock is excellent and the whole wall is very imposing. Three pitches will get you to the very top. Be warned about the grades though I was getting a little pumped on some of the 19s. However I must say that the average length of the route is 25 m or more (10 quickdraws plus) and that's more than 3 times the length of the climbing gym so no surprises there. Leo scarred himself senseless leading three grade 19s, he feel only once and broke only one hold, excellent work. As for myself I linked a two pitch route called "bad blood" into one giant endurance bitch. First pitch is a 25m grade 19 and second is a steep 20 meter grade 22. I used 23 quickdraws on it and had to pull up a second rope to get back down but it was spectacular. There were many climbs we didn't get to do for example, The Rift 3 pitches of ringbolts grade 19 and The Thing three pitches of 22 etc. I think we should go there again next time, any takers ?

Roman & Leo