Return to Zeitgeist

I travelled with Marie back to Mt Tibrogargan to (re)introduce her to multi-pitch climbing. After practising some techniques at Kangaroo Point the night before we tested ourselves on Zeitgeist, a great introduction to the joys of longer climbing.

We started up in sunshine, but as the day grew longer the clouds came in. We ascended the three pitches without any problems, and sat down in the caves for a lunch break as the skies darkened.

We explored the surrounding caves for a while then made our way back to the rap station to abseil down.

We got caught in a light shower as we descended but made it down without getting too wet. After a short 4WD detour (time to hose out the chassis again) and a pizza stop we returned to Brisbane, keen to return very soon and try some new climbs.

 More photos here

Winter Wakeboarding

So what if it is winter, and I forgot my wetsuit. What better way to start the weekend than with a refreshing dip in the Nerang River.

It took us a while to get going in the morning as the battery in the boat was dead. We quickly got bored waiting for it to charge so I removed the spare battery from my Patrol, jumped started it, and were almost on our way.

Somehow we completely destroyed a jockey wheel in the process of winching the boat down the ramp.

It was a beautiful day, the sun was out and there was not a cloud in the sky, but the increasing breeze had quite a chill to it. Undeterred by the absence of anyone else in the river I jumped in, waited for my breath to return, and set off on my wakeboard. It was a lot of fun, but my fingers and muscles didn't last to long in the cold and after a few long rides (I was afraid to try any tricks and fall into the water) I returned to the comfort of the boat.

The other guys had a go in the water, and I braved one last chance before heading home. Halfway though my second run I got a piercing headache which I think was caused by the cold, so we called it quits and went home for a hot cup of tea.

Not the smoothest of trips but we easily replaced the wheel, found the momentarily lost single ski, re-charged the battery and didn't lose any limbs to frostbite. All in all a great morning.

Multi-pitch on Mt Tibrogargan

Every time I drive to the Glass House Mountains I get struck by the same feeling. Driving along a section of road, you round a bend and the towering Mt Tibrogragen comes in to view. From the road the south-eastern face looks like the head of a gorilla, and I always get the urge to climb and explore the exposed cliff faces seen from the road. Having only single-pitch experience I had avoided the longer climbs that the mountain offered, but today that was to change.

Leaving Brisbane before dawn we arrived to the base of Mt Tibrogargan not long after sunrise and made our way to ‘Desperation Wall’ to begin our climb. We set off under clear blue skies on ‘Zeitgeist’, a 120m multi-pitch grade. I led the first pitch, a 35m (17), then sat on a nice ledge and belayed Joel on his way up. We swapped lead with Joel climbing the second pitch, a 38m grade 13, then I finished the route by leading the final 45m grade 15 section. Not the most difficult climb, but the longest I had done by a great margin so I was happy to not exert myself too much and concentrate  on my multi-pitch technique.

Arriving at the top we scrambled up past the final bolts and rested in the shade of some caves. We enjoyed the stunning view and the impressive cave formations before heading back to the ledge to abseil back down. Not having too much previous experience in rappelling down my heart in my mouth as I leaned back over the edge of the cliff and lowered myself down.

It took a longer than expected to abseil all the way back down but I was more than happy to take our time and make sure we did it safely. As we climbed with two ropes we were able to rappel down in longer sections, but it was a lot harder to manage, especially as we had to pass some climbers ascending. A few tangled ropes and a dropped belay device later (luckily we had a spare) we were on the ground and ready to return home.

I was very happy to complete my first multi-pitch climb, and can’t wait to go back for more! And thanks to Joel for literally showing me the ropes.

More photos here

Mud crawling and rock climbing in the Glass House Mountains

Discussing our climbing options for the day over a hot coffee on a cold winters morning, Chris and I decided to head to Mt Beerwah, where neither one of us had climbed before. We decided that the crag "Wayne's World" would be the best choice for a day of fun climbing, so we set off in my 4wd following slightly unclear directions into the state forests of the Glass House Mountains.

We turned off the dirt road down a steep rutted track that wound deeper into the scrub. We stopped and search in vain for a well hidden track that would take us to the Southern face of the mountain. Undeterred we turned around and took a different track back to the main road. We found another turn off that looked like it could take us where we wanted to be, but it soon turned away from our destination. 

We decided to head to another part of the mountain that we knew we could find, but on the way there I decided to put the Patrol through its paces off road.

This is what happened.

In my hubris I decided to drive through the first mud pit I saw, which happened to be a lot deeper and rutted than I expected. Barely past the steep drop off the Patrol quickly became stuck on its axles, and even if the wheels reached the bottom of the ruts the tread was too caked in sticky clay to get any traction. Lucky I had the foresight to pack my hand winch, so I walked the frigid muddy waters and started looking for my recovery point.

I found what I was looking for, anchored my winch to a strong tree and very slowly started to pull her free. Eventually we dragged her out of the mud without any further problems. There was a long divot in the mud where we had dragged the diff all the way through the pit, I had no chance of getting through on my own!

Relieved to be out we set off further along the track to make it through to the main road. Once the tyres had shaken off their mud coating we had lot of fun driving the rest of the way, through some fairly steep, degraded and rutty section of track.

It doesn't look as difficult on video as it was in real life, but the Patrol handled the rest of it with ease.

We made it to Mt Beerwah without any further scares, and made our way to 'Mosquito Wall', a section of low graded climbs where we practised abseiling and setting up top-belays in preparation for some longer multi-pitch climbs.

We called it a day as the sun was setting, we headed back to our meeting spot nine hours earlier where we demolished a family sized pizza in a few minutes.

We left our separate ways, I stopped at a car wash on the way home and spent 1/2 and hour with a high pressure jet hose scouring the underside of the to remove the severe amounts of clay all through the suspension and chassis rails.

All in all a fantastic adventure, well worth the mud, sweat and fear (of the winch failing).

A couple more photos here

Climbing at Brooyar

Getting a break in the weather we set off north past Gympie to discover some new crags at Brooyar State Forrest. We stopped at the 'Eagle's Nest' cliff and samples some routes along the varied limestone formations.

We climbed several easy routes to get a feel of the place and finished our day on a fun 45m climb just as the sun was setting. I will definitely return soon...

More photos here

Climbing at Brooyar

Getting a break in the weather we set off north past Gympie to discover some new crags at Brooyar State Forrest. We stopped at the 'Eagle's Nest' cliff and samples some routes along the varied limestone formations.

We climbed several easy routes to get a feel of the place and finished our day on a fun 45m climb just as the sun was setting. I will definitely return soon...

More photos here

Miscellaneous climbing photos

Finally got a of copy of some climbing photos taken of me by others.

Hiking and Climbing Pages Pinnacle

Back down to Pages Pinnacle for some more hiking and rock climbing. We hiked along the ridge to the highest point, then decided to continue to the end which meant a scramble down a rock face and over loose rocks and dead tree branches. We were rewarded with some spectacular views over the Hinze Dam, definitely worth the extra effort.

Hayden, Naz and Anton left to go kayaking in the Hinze Dam while Kaz and I stayed to do some more rock climbing. The first route we selected was a decent warm up, the the last section to the anchors was surrounded by loose rock, I had to dodge quite a few stone showers when I was belaying while Kaz finished the climb. The name of the route, 'What Were We Thinking' (16) makes sense now.

We then moved on to 'Are We Dancer' (19) and 'Rock n Surf' (17) to finish the day. These were great short climbs, lots of fun moves and great holds. We finished the day as the sun was setting and hiked back to the car park by the light of a slowly fading head torch.

A short trip back to Brisbane to devour a slow-cooked goat curry I prepared before we left. Great end to a great day.

More photos here

Climbing Pages Pinnacle

With the forecast for rain all weekend I thought I would risk a trip to a new climbing location situated in the hinterlands of the Gold Coast. Kaz, Anton and I took our chances with the rain and drove down to Numinbah Valley and hiked to the ridge line. Heading down to the base of the wall we eventually we found a nice looking, juggy climb and set off up the wall. 

I lead TOS (18) which was a great pumpy climb with some decent fun committing moves. Kaz followed before the rain set in, leaving Anton to attempt the climb in the wet. Luckily the overhanging ledges kept water off most of the climb, and Anton made a great effort to get to the anchors. I climbed once again to clean the route and made my way back down as the rain intensified.

Before heading home we decided to check out the hike to the top of the range. Probably not the greatest idea to try and scramble along the thin ridge in the rain while wearing joggers and a backpack full of heavy climbing gear, so we only made it a short way along before calling it a day. 

There were some great views as fog enshrouded the surrounding landscape, eventually we left and made the slightly muddier trek back to the Patrol and headed back to Brisbane.

A great adventure and we definitely need to return very soon to attempt more climbs and summit the ridge.

More photos here

Climbing Mt Ngungun

Another gorgeous Autumn day, Kaz and I decided to make to make the most of it so we drove north to Mt Ngungun to do some rock climbing.

We headed straight to the Owl Pillar but found it was already being climbed, so we continued along to the lower main wall and decided to warm up on a tricky 18, 'Summer Holiday'.

With lots of committing, pumpy moves just above an awkward overhang it probably wasn't the easiest way to start the day, but we both topped out and made our way back to the Owl Pillar.

We spent the rest of the day on 'Afternoon Delight' (18) and 'Dawn Raid' (19) which are short, fun routes with lots of great moves.

A great way to end the weekend, we sat on the top of the pillar and enjoyed the view before heading back home.

A few photos here