As the grey clouds and brisk wind surrounded the city of Adelaide, our number became four and we commenced stockpiling equipment and food for 12 days in the south Australian desert. A stop at a friendly climbers' house, a camping store, brunch and small goods at the Adelaide market, the supermarket for essentials and we were off crawling through the 3pm Friday afternoon traffic towards the picturesque Clare valley. Stopping only for dinner we were taunted by that most beautiful of English phrases 'cellar door' but frustrated by a less attractive phrase 'opening hours'. Then it was straight on to the Flinders Ranges and a private campground in the shadow of one of the most imposing walls on Wilpena Pound. Arriving after dark at the camp-site we fumbled around in the freezing breeze erecting unfamiliar tents and retired to bed.
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Saturday
Waking to the impressive Moonarie bluffs we packed our gear and walked towards the cliff. Having arrived in the dark we had camped near the road and managed to miss the obvious trail up the mountain, instead following goat trails and bush bashing up and down gullys as Pete and Kirsty exclaimed 'here's the path!' at every skerrig of a trail. Thankfully our destination was obvious and after about an hour we found the actual path in all it's well worn glory. Slogging up the last part of the path which starts very uphill and finishes as a scramble up rocks we finally arrived at 'Top camp'.
Lunch, and a quick scout around looking at some impressive lines, and suddenly the desert heat had switched to rain and hail! We quickly rushed up to the cramped rain cave. After the downpour we decided to hit the rock with a few single pitches near the descent gully. Pete and court went up 'The Prince' ** 19, whilst I linked the pitches on 'Gargoyle' *** 13. Up mantling through ledges, a tricky roof type move, then up an easy crack line and finally out and up past a big hanging block with a hand jam and a big feet move. Topping out cursing Kirtsy And wooping, I had had my first Moonarie experience. Scary.
Sunday
The weather had turned a little sour this morning, so Court and I went to Wilpena Pound for supplies and a tour of Brachinia Gorge. Meanwhile Pete and Kirsty braved the weather and climbed 'Pine Crack' *** which Pete describes as 'like climbing Taipan Wall at grade 19'.
Monday
Heading off to the great wall, Pete jumped on 'Downwind of Angels' *** 19, reputed to be the best 19 in the country. Pete headed up the sustained first pitch, finding it challenging but soldiering through and declaring it's reputation intact.
Kirsty then tiptoed out above the void below the great wall on 'Outside Chance' ** 16 with both climber and belayer scared shitless. After getting some pro in near the arête she then powered on and up through the arête to the first belay.
I followed her up and led the second pitch through a balancy step across a big chimney and up through a top out.
Tuesday
Wanting to get some leading done I headed over to the classic corner of Ultion ** 12. Blitzing up the first half I was on a role until an awkward offwidth and smeary foot move came unstuck and I slipped down, kicking my draw, inverting and plummeting 6m!!
Rapt that my green BD camalot held, I headed back up, tried an alternative chimney approach to the move and powered on through it to set a belay in a cave.
Kirsty led the second pitch and we topped out and walked down the descent gully to watch Pete and Court pull through the last tenuous moves on the crag classic sandbag 'Flying Buttress' *** 15.
Feeling stuffed Court and I headed back to camp, whilst Pete, Kirsty and a Victorian, Dave climbed Buckets of Jism ** 19 (a Nowra inspired name) and Vortex ** 17. Up the side of the Flying Buttress.
Wednesday
On the recommendation of the two Victorians in the camp ground Courtney and I headed up 'Garden refuse removed cheaply' *** 13. I led the first pitch, swinging up through the overhang and out onto the slabby face before continuing up through a scary corner move. More corner a bit of slab and to top it off a crazy chimney, mantle, beached whale and wiggle up move.
The next two pitches were pretty cool with my second lead involving a little bit of gardening and a few spiky bushes. Courts final pitch went up the last of the now steep corner through some exposed overhangs which only kept their mild grade by virtue of it's bomber pro and big holds.
Meanwhile Kirsty and Pete tried their hand on 'Mr ordinary' ** 21
Thursday
With rain forecast and a few sore bodies about camp, we lazed around and ticked a few novels in the morning. The afternoon brought showers, washing and beer restocking at Rawnsly park. Followed by shopping for basics at the Hawker General store and some tasty tasty Quandong pie.
Friday
Unfortunately the rain forecast for yesterday arrived late and this morning we woke to drizzle and the mountain enshrouded in fog.
After spicy noodles and damper, Pete decided that the weather was no object to climbing so he and I braved the elements to go climb 'Miles from Nowhere' *** 18. Quite possibly the most amazing climb I did of the trip.
A cool sustained grade 16 corner made up the first pitch which Pete raced up as the clouds on the southern end of the crag dived down over the cliffs and the rain soaked the valleys. Getting a little drizzled whilst on belay Pete headed up the cool technical jamb sequence of the 18 pitch and onto the freezing belay ledge. I led the final pitch up through a tight (body width) chimney, struggling at one point to find something useful to do with my hands and feet, whilst wedged in at the waist!
Then through a second chimney past a dead goat and up through the top blocky bits to top out just as the sun was peeking out through the clouds before dipping behind the mountains of Wilpena Pound.
Saturday
The day we'd all been waiting for, Kirsty had prepared us for weeks telling us that Saturday would mark the start of the big long weekend in SA and the entire climbing community of SA would be out in force at Moonarie. Late Friday night they arrived, slammed some car doors, pumped up the music, and smashed in the tent pegs. By morning there was another three tents in the camp ground! To be fair it must have taken some organisation to get all 7 members of the SA climbing community together in the one place at one time ;-)
Looking to tick some more of the lower grade classics, Kirsty and I headed off to do "Nervine" ***12. I led up the access pitch and created enough rope drag to warrant not stringing it to the second. This forced Kirsty to squeeze up through the chimney on the second and lead up through the amazing corner that followed, placing every piece of big gear we'd brought with us. When i tried the to second, I discovered that the chimney was exactly the size of my waist, and having headed in low to retrieve the gear, I had to push myself sidewards out of the chimney squeezing very tightly and wishing my harness was one of those fancy thin ones.
I led the next two pitches up through some thoroughly interesting but relatively easy roof moves to a wider chimney and the blocky top-out.
After a bit of lunch at top camp we headed over to Gargoyle wall near the descent gully and Kirsty lead a cool 16 called "Tim Tam" ** featuring tons of jams, continual overhanging roofs with cracks all the way through them, and finally a crazy, awkward top out move that involved squeezing through a tight gap, via a kneebar or heel hook and then campusing up and pulling yourself through the overhung awkwardness.
By this stage i was completely destroyed after days of climbing and a particularly tough couple of climbs, so much so that i pretty much fell asleep straight after dinner.
Meanwhile, Pete had decided to tackle another one of those terrifying grade 15 climbs, "Hangover Layback" ***. (The starred grade 15s at Moonarie seem to hold a special meaning, presumably graded as such when 15 was considered difficult, and by some pretty hard folks, that noone has been game to bump the grade up since. Or perhaps the SA climbers just enjoy watching sand bagged climbers mumble through the horrifyingly scary 15s)
Hangover layback involed two very cool features - a big flake to layback on the second pitch, and a hand traverse (No feet!) along an overhung block (ie. in free space)! Unless your Pete, where you can just skip from a left heel hook to a right heel hook and skip the buk of the hand traverse!
Sunday
With Kirsty on a last ditch effort to push the grade train, we headed back to the great wall area to try our hand at "Rush" 17 **. Slowly and steadily Kirsty pulled the moves on the grade 16 corner and then tentatively inched out from under the roof thankful of the big crack for its pro and handholds, but cursing the lack of feature on the wall for footholds.
After belaying me up she then crawled through the classy startmoves to the grade 17 pitch and flopped into the "cramped sentry box" which was exactly as the guide described. Once inside it proved difficult to get out, however after some time she was able to stand inside the box and try to desperately chimney enough height to be able to attain the high footholds, which made a hand jamb feasibly in the awkward crack at the top of the box. Once gotten, the hand jamb meant you could pull yourself above the lip and cruise up the easy slab to the belay.
Monday
Our last day on the cliff and Kirsty had picked a two star 18 traverse "Hanging Fred Bonnet" to round out the week. As the story goes, the first ascentionist was rapping down the climb and exclaimed "hey!, A hanging thread belay" to which a series of Chinese whispers changed it to the name the climb now retains. The guide, and heresay round the camp fire suggest that Fred is none too impressed at the climbs name. M. Bonnet is a SA climber who emigrated from France at a young age, and insists on maintaining a French accent and generally having the habit of having annoyed some of his recruited belayers in the past. One of whom was our heroine who was inclined to have a stab at the climb which had so frustrated M. Bonnet.
The climb itself was...well... interesting. To quote the frog guide for another climb entirely ".. the star being given for this sick and twisted form of climbing being thrust upon you.." is well applicable. Although the thrutchy off width chimneing of Satans Smokestack is far from the horrid traverse of a horizontal break, the style is not for all tastes.
Whilst Kirsty enjoyed pushing her limits, and making it to the end of the climb (or at least the dodgy anchors we found), her seconder did not quite so enjoy the experience. -For those who aren't familiar, on a traverse, both the leader and the seconder are prone to the same falls since the next piece of protection is often horizontally along the cliff, so if you slip between gear, you fall and then swing!
Tuesday
And then it was over... cuts, scrapes, bruises, and mental scarring - reminders of our time at Moonarie ... more importantly great memories of some of the best climbing that I've been party to...
Thanks guys.
'Would I go back?' Sure. If Arapiles is the sweetheart of Australian trad climbing - smooth lines, well protected, beginner friendly, easy walk ins.... Moonarie is her slightly scary older brother. Hard work to get close to, Cool to have a beer/climb with, but a little bit scary - might fly off the handle at any time kind of older brother. And you just know that if your always hanging with his sister and don't pay him due respect your not getting the best of climbing in Australia.
Check out more photo's here:
Blake: http://www.qutcliffhangers.com/forums/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=22954
Pete: http://www.qutcliffhangers.com/forums/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=22855