Troposphere
Tristan and Kirsty started up Troposhere first, as Sinead, Courtney and myself de-jumpered to cool down from the walk-in - an act that we later regretted as the cool winds in the shade of the mountain sapped all warmth from our bones. On the other side of the mountain Johno, Bjorn and Mathias had the exact opposite problem as they took off on Blubermouth, which is in direct sunlight in the area of the mountain aptly named sunburnt buttress. While they enjoyed the first few pitches of the climbing, the extreme heat and dehydration unfortunately took it's toll, apparently turning the climb into somewhat of an epic. Meanwhile I believe Pete, Dave, Mooj and Soph headed for some crazy stuff up near the caves, of which I have no idea of the adventures they enjoyed.
Back at Troposhere Sinead decided she was keen for the first lead of our three-team. As Kirsty made light work of the second pitch above us, Sinead headed off, her first lead in some time which I think is always exciting regardless of her sentiments towards the walk-like nature of the pitch. Courtney and I had arrived at the belay station in time to watch Kirsty finding the crux-pitch move a little tricky with Tristan's drill in her pack weighing her down. This didn't particularly help my already questionable confidence as I struggled to regain the last shreds of my long-lost head space, but I somehow managed to forget about the exposure and focus on the interesting but quite achievable problem. Sinead and Coutney both came up with minimal difficulty, and Irish strength continued as Sinead insisted on another lead. American perseverance saw Courtney endure both five pitches of climbing quite easily, and five pitches of Australian smart-arse-ness.
Topping out to the amazing view of the halfway house, we find that Tristan had forgotten some crucial part for his planned bolting work, and Kirsty entirely happy to have climbed all that way with drilling gear on her back for no apparent reason beyond strength training. After enjoying the view for a bit we rapped down, though not without a worrying little hiccup as Tristan and I were unable to pull the rap line several pitches up. Many minuets later and with sun going down we were relieved to see the rope finally fall, though our return to the car park revealed that the caves crew were still nowhere near the ground. Johno and crew had apparently had a cruisy afternoon in the Glasshouse township, but now having a full car decided to bail. I got a ride with him having shirked all mothers day responsibilities and needing to make it to dinner, so I didn't get to find out what exciting adventures the caves crew got up too. Hopefully someone will fill us in.
But from my perspective at least, it was a sweet day. And I can finally confirm that Troposphere is an excellent climb. Can't wait to do more multi-pitching at Tibro!
Originally Posted by Mark Dickie http://www.qutcliffhangers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24&p=718&hilit=trip+report#p717
Pete's Epic
While Myself, Dave and Marita endeavoured up Patience Crack (a grade 16 100m trad multipitch) the Mooj and Soph machine ascended up Black Orpheus (a grade 10 145m trad multipitch). My sources tell me Mooj and Sophie had a fantastic time meandering up their climb albeit the long run outs and interesting gear, one piece of which including an encyclopedia britanica CD?!?!
About 100m left of the Mooj and Soph machine my party was having a great time chimneying, laybacking, jamming and face climbing up Paitence crack. Once we got to the top however I sort of lost the way a little.... 2 hours and 3 pitches of traversing later we finally made our way to the last of the summit caves. We then proceeded to chimney up the last pitch of the caves route to a nice ledge near the summit where we had lunch and 20 minutes later met up with Mooj and Sophie.
By now it was still only about 3:30PM and so we thought we had plenty of time to do the supposedly '40 minute' abseil down the caves route to the base of the mountain. After some horrible bush bashing / abseiling, the rope getting caught 3 times (one of which Mooj had to ascend the rope to fix), and some down climb soloing with head torches we all finally made it to the base of the mountain at 7:45PM and finally to the car park by about 8:15PM. All in all the most fun I've ever had having an epic. Thanks for the great day guys :D .... lets not do it again sometime ;)
Originally Posted by Pete Reis http://www.qutcliffhangers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24&p=718&hilit=trip+report#p723
Mooj's Addendum
After climbing up the rope and abseiling back down we still needed the weight of 3 people to pull it. I am still not sure where exactly you can run the rope to not generate immeasurably huge rope drag. Someone should put some bolts at the top of the slab part (and some bolts on it, that thing was a 20m death solo to a belay with all 2 pieces of gear in a single feature. Not what I call fun. Those first few moves are desperate as well for a grade 4).
We of course broke the first rule of multipitch which is 'bring your head torch' so it was inevitable that the sun would set at noon and make it difficult for us. To make matters worse the rope got further tangled in a tree on the third abseil meaning Dave had to spend about 15 minutes untangling it on a ledge 20m below the anchor with the only light being what my headtorch could shine down that far. Meanwhile Sophie and I sat on the tiny ledge shivering as the constant cold breeze swept away any chance of warming up.
Considering it was about 1:30 when we finished our actual climb (minus the short solo to the top that was completed after lunch) it all took a very long time. But when you are in that kind of situation it is always better to go a bit slower, double check everything and use best safety practices. Also, don't care about the people waiting in the carpark because it's not them stuck half way up the mountain :)
Not my biggest epic, but definitely the most responsibility during an epic so far.
Adam Mujaj http://www.qutcliffhangers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24&p=718&hilit=trip+report#p737