Mt. Arapiles is really just a poo shaped pile of sand that got hot once in the middle of a Canola field. It just can't compare to the majestic beauty of the Australian bushland surrounds of the Mt. Kaputar area.
- The giant bluffs of The Governer as it sits like a medieval castle abutting the Kaputar Ridge
- The 360 degree views and amazing blob structures on Eugelah Rock
- Valleys to rival the blue mountains
- Distant cliffs of purely vertical stacked columns to tempt any climber.
- Roo's that graze metres from where your climbing.
And realistically that's where any comparison to Arapiles should stop. Whilst the climbing styles are comparable in their variety, there is hardly the vast array of long easy routes and easy access that Arapiles offers. That said the climbing at Mt Kaputar holds its own, there are long routes, classy routes and easy routes and its a hell of a lot closer to Brisbane by car .
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Arrival
We left Brisbane round 5pm after a short pit stop to grab a sleeping bag for our import of questionable nationality and joined the parking lot crawling it's way west towards Ipswich.... 7hrs later we arrived to the cool heights of Mt Kaputar just outside Narribri in northern NSW.
Day 1: Mt Lindesay
Day one started late as we crawled out of bed, cooked our eggs and bacon breakfast and wandered out to the moonscape like plain at the top of Mt. Lindesay.
Rounding the bottom of the crag we skipped the easy stuff that the guide suggested was comparable with Arapiles climbs, instead choosing two nearby imposing impressive grade 19 crack climbs.
Damo jumped on Mis Led which started with some very scary smeary moves with limited protection (two shallow RP's). Committing to the move and swinging up, Damo got in a decent nut and proceeded up to the bush at half height. From there the pro and the climbing got better turning into a lovely hand jam corner crack system.
Meanwhile Cam jumped on the equally good but slightly easier Mis-Taken also finding the first few moves a little unprotected.
Next Damo set off up Pork Orgy (21), which starts awkwardly overhung as you grab and haul on slopey bulges similar to those on the nearly climb "Thanks for the Mammaries". Clearing this section on interesting pro, the climb becomes a technical slab with fixed hangers which I enjoyed immensely.
Back on the ground we ate some lunch and swapped 19's from the morning. Spawning Cams motto for the weekend
"Commitment is it's own reward"
With time running out for the day Damo raced up the softly graded sport arête climb 'The Hippy Hippy Shake' 21
And then Black Pearl - a somewhat chossy two star 18 that didn't really feel worthy. It didn't really help that I started up the climb as the sun dipped behind the horizon, the weather chilled right down, then had negotiate the interesting overhung section which seemed to disintegrate on touch.
Eventually we topped out and wandered back in the dark to the warmth of the cabin and cold beers.
Day 2: The Governor
Day two started much like day one: slowly. After we all woke around 8am, individually rubbed our eyes, checked the time, and decided everyone else looked really tired and it really would be a shame to wake the others - we rolled over and slept for another two hours.
Eventually we dragged ourselves out of bed for coffee, tea and poached eggs.
Wandering down to the Governor we were taken by the stunning views and amazingly imposing crag of the Governor. Still feeling sluggish (Cam blamed it on the port - I blamed everything but) we let our resident climbing machine lead "Sago Entre" for us. To describe this three star climb is to say that it was 75m of the best varied climbing I've done for a long time. The rock continually formed features that were asking to be climbed, beautiful cracks, and scary exposed bridging.
Getting four people through this monster of a climb was time consuming, but eventually we sat at the top, looking out onto the vista below.
With the sun again racing down towards the horizon, Damo racked up and raced up Ironclast (20) occasionally placing pro to keep his belayer happy. Cam & Pontus followed him up and once again we hiked back to the car in the dark struggling to keep a big grin from our faces.
Day 3: Eugelah Rock & The hot mustard incident
Euglah is almost Mt Kaputar's answer to Uluru, a big seemingly single piece rock sticking out of the bush. A longer walk in than the previous two crags, we eventually arrived and began our arc around the rock looking for worthy lines.
Damo selected Juicy Rumours** (18) a decent looking corner crack system, meanwhile Cam & I hopped onto Yummikins *** (17). Whilst it wasn't necessarily Cams cup of tea, I thoroughly enjoyed 33m of technical bridging, where for the most part all there was between your legs was air, and the only thing holding your feet on was friction! Towards the top it became quite exposed and airy in places.
Topping out we were treated to a pleasant surprise, 360 degree views of the valley, large birds of pray floating around on the thermals, and some really amazing rock formations.
For lunch today Cam had made bread rolls with cheese and salami, and mistaken the masterfoods hot English mustard for a Coles brand mustard and lathered on a good layer of the stuff at about a jam size thickness.
He was quite surprised to discover that this mustard was considerably more potent than the style he had tried previously and proceeded to eat the roll with looks of disgust, pain, and anguish much to the enjoyment of those that hadn't had Cam make a roll for them!
Once again we topped out as the sun was casting its deep orange glow across the horizon and were forced to walk out in the dark.
This time it was not so trivial, and we were glad for the "excessive" number of rock cairns that marked the route off the mountains and back through the bushland and waist high grass back to the fire trail we had walked in along.
Day 4: The Skyline Traverse
Tuesday, and there was one thing left on our agenda - the must do Skyline Traverse.
We cleaned up our cabin, and said goodbye to the eight Kangaroo's that had decided that our back door was the place to graze and headed down the range to Mt Yulludunida.
Words cannot adequately describe the awesomeness of the skyline traverse - So I'll leave it to the pictures.
More/Full Size Pictures in the club Gallery