Blog

The property at Bare Rock at Fingal now has a new landowner who is a rockclimber. Andrew Martin and his partner Alannah are the owners of the property and they are climbers who reside in Queensland. The house will be their holiday house. They have sent me the following email with their requests and conditions regarding access to Bare Rock which needs to be respected. posted by Gerry Narkowicz

Can you please indicate to the Tassie Climbing Crew that we are more than happy to have climbers access the land to climb at Bare Rock (Fingal), although we would prefer that people go up the side boundary fence (as opposed to the main drive) and then hook a right turn to the obvious parking area. We would also appreciate a quick call on 0418883418 telling us that you are heading up there... as we have neighbours looking out for the place and that way I can tell them of your intended arrival. The other number is not currently connected, but may well be by christmas. Either way the mobile is the way to go. Of PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE is the realization that the road up to Bare Rock is not council maintained, and in fact, is paid for and maintained by the 3 property owners (myself included). The other two have therefore asked that any climbers PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY as this seems to really irritate them (the road gets chewed up very easily, as well as noise etc). I know this is a very small ask, but keeping the neighbours happy on this one would seem to be the wise option. Other than that I hope you all enjoy climbing there as much as I did. I will be down from Late November through to late January... so if you are around then... pop in, grab a beer (if there are any left) say hello etc... we would love to get to know the Tasmanian climbing crew!

Andy~

hello! i'll be visiting hobart from sydney from august 25-29, and i'm looking for someone to climb with if the weather warms up! (but not on august 26)
i trad lead up to about 14, and will have a crack at seconding anything (but start falling off around 20). i'll only have shoes and harness with me.
cheers,
julie.

The printed version of the new Mt Wellington Guide is now available.

It can be purchased online for $13 USD + postage at http://stores.lulu.com/thesarvo

The printed version comes out at 147 pages, in pocket-size format (slightly bigger than the last guide). B&W inside with color covers. Quite a few photos inside.

Hopefully it will be available in the shops in 3 weeks or so. Will let you know when it arrives.

As we are using publish-on-demand, the idea is that we will cut a new version of the printed guide every 6 months or so, or when the volume of new routes and content builds up.

It's awesome to actually get a version 1.0 out the door. A big thanks go to everyone involved in the project:

Tony McKenny: Editor and chief mover and shaker.
Al Adams: Editor and author of colourful descriptions.
Dave Humphries: Editor and topo tweak master.
Jon Nermut: Editor and boss of printed layout and web trickery .
Phil Robinson: Detail review officer and author of the 1981 guidebook.
Peter Jackson: Artmaster responsible for crafting the crag topos.
Ivan Riley: Site topos and maps.
Thanks to Max Banks, Al Beech, Doug Bruce, Josh Caples, Simon Carter, Lyle Closs, Nic Deka, Campbell Godfrey, Dave Gray, Stefan Karpiniec, Doug McConnell, Gerry Narkowicz, Roger Parkyn, Simon Parsons, Garry Phillips, Kim Robinson, Ian Snape, Pete Steane, The Wellington Park Management Trust, Al Williams, Alex Wilson, Simon Young, wives and partners of the editors and many others for their contributions, updates, comments and photos. Thanks everybody.

It's been frickin' cold in the last couple of weeks. There was a few days where it was -5 on the top of Mt Wellington for 3 days straight.
Anyone found any ice to play on?

This photo is up at the Ben Lomond ski area 19/6:

Small bit of ice on Ben Lomond 19/6/2007

I've moved thesarvo.com to a new host, because of I was sick of the reliability problems and the lack of service at the old one.
Hopefully I've got everything set up again ok, but if there are any issues with the site, please let me know.

Cheers,

Jon Nermut

This is from a little while ago, but it somehow went missing...

Roger Parkyn has done a nice new detailed topo of the Geryon Traverse.
Check it out: Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair.

Jake has whipped up a guide and topos for the star factory.
Check it out: The Star Factory.

Gerry Narkowicz and Nick Hancock have begun work on a new Freycinet guide. We have the info from the CCT guide from 1995, plus Nick's new routes in recent years. Any other route information would be gladly received. Email your contributions and suggestions to gerry.narkowicz@bigpond.com A realistic time frame is 18 months to 2 years in the making. But before then, Bob and I have got to get the Ben Lomond guide out....

The contents of the current draft of the new Mt Wellington guide are now available on this site, see
Kunanyi - Mt Wellington Guide .
The online guide contains the full content of the printed version of the guide, in terms of climb descriptions and topos. The printed version will be generated from this content. You are free to print out the online version for your own uses, however the more convenient hardcopy printed version is not too far away.

The current state of the guide is the product of many months of work by Tony McKenny, Al Adams, Dave Humphries, Jon Nermut, and a host of other contributors. Many thanks to all involved in the project so far, it is great that we are starting to see the products of our labour.

The current status of the guide is draft. We are working towards version 1.0 of the printed guide being available around August. At this stage we are seeking objective feedback and comments, and any new routes that are missing. Subjective comments on grading and stars will be taken on board, but not necessarily acted on, at the discretion of the editors. We are also still taking photo submissions for the printed guide. See the Feedback page for how to get information to the editors, or add a comment to this post.

I've been having a play on Google Maps, adding tasmanian climbing and bouldering locations.
Check it out: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&msa=0&hl=en&msid=115102596344199739296.00000111c43697ba392d0

In some cases it is quite useful, in others not.

BEN LOMOND RAP STATIONS REMOVED

Just letting climbers know that the bolted rap stations at Frews Flutes and the Pavilion on Ben Lomond have been removed. Ben Lomond is now a completely bolt free zone and will remain that way. This includes every cliff on the massif, including Stacks Bluff, Africa, Pavement Bluff, Ragged jack and the Northern escarpment. The bolted abseil anchors were a compromise to the traditional ethic that has prevailed on the mountain since 1971. This was done in consulation with national Parks and wildlife whose policy declares the bolts to be illegal structures. Descent from Frews Flutes can easily be made via the broad gully about 100m east of Robins Buttress.

by Gerry Narkowicz

Mother Cummings Peak (Western Tiers)

Anyone  know of any routes done here? Any details much appreciated.

Gary

From http://www.abc.net.au/news/items/200704/1892689.htm?hobart

Body recovered after Federation Peak fall
Monday, 9 April 2007.

A man has died while climbing Federation Peak in Tasmania's south-west.

He fell from the summit of the peak yesterday afternoon at about 2:30pm AEST. The jagged summit of Federation Peak can only be reached by a near-vertical climb.

His companion set off an emergency beacon and was found by police yesterday evening.

But the search for the dead man's body was considered too dangerous in the dark and was put off until first light this morning.

The body has been flown to Hobart in the police rescue helicopter.

The coroner is investigating the man's death. The victim's name has not yet been released.

From SMH :

Climber plunges to death from Tas peak

April 9, 2007 - 1:39PM

A climber has plunged to his death while attempting to scale Tasmania's Federation Peak, 90km west of Hobart.

Rescue workers were scrambled to the mountain after a fellow climber set off an EPIRB emergency positioning beacon at 2.30pm (AEST) on Sunday, Tasmania Police said.

A police helicopter located the dead man's friend four hours later but rescuers postponed trying in the dark to recover the body until Monday morning.

The victim's name has not been released and the coroner is now investigating the fall, police said.

Federation Peak, which soars 1,224 metres in the Arthur Range of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, is considered to be Tasmania's toughest climb, according to Tourism Tasmania.

I doubt very much if it was a climber - the bushwalking route to the top is amazingly exposed and requires scrambling up to grade 6 or 7 hundreds of metres above Lake Geeves.

I just had a few beers over lunch with Tony McKenny and Dave Humphries.
Amongst other things, we discussed the possibility of reviving the CCT.

Tony's idea is to make the club as online as possible - a virtual club, so as to minimise all the crap you have to do for an association - meetings, minutes, officers, constitutions, membership, bank accounts etc etc. We would still have to have an AGM and a public officer, but there aren't all that many legal requirements.

The main purposes for the existence of the CCT I can see are:

• Advocacy: representing climbers' views to government as orgs such as National Parks and the Wellington Parks Trust
• Guidebooks: being the publisher and copyright holder for guideboooks, such as the upcoming Pipes guide
• Standards: publishing codes of conduct, and things like policies on bolting

I am more than willing to create a space on this site for the CCT, involving a set of pages, a membership list, and a forum. In order to resurrect the CCT it will require at the least a new constitution, and some new members. Wouldn't be anything to grand to start with, but it could grow if people get keen.

Ideally, if we can manage it, membership would be free or very low cost.

So, are people out there keen for the resurrection of the CCT? Would you be a member?

Jon.

Simon Parsons has completed one of the most compelling projects in Tasmania - linking and straightening out the two pitches of Pleasant Screams. The completed climb goes at 29.

According to Simon:

Pleasant Screams Direct 29 50m by Simon Parsons, 18/03/07

The original Pleasant Screams by Sam Edwards was done as 2 pitches. The second pitch was done by first starting up After Midnight and stepping right to a 2 bolt hanging belay at 20m. On the second pitch, originally graded 26, at 2/3 height he moved right into Brown Madonna and made some moves up this before returning to the line.

The Direct version starts up the true first pitch (grade 25) and is a single mega pitch to the top.

There is a reasonable rest after the first pitch's crux on a large foot hold and some hand jams about 2 bolts below the original hanging belay anchors. From here, once you cannot stand hanging around any longer, just keep to the line of bolts. No deviating out left towards After Midnight (tempting at the hard move to reach a crimper match at bolt 13 - this move is much harder for people < 6 feet tall). At bolt 17-18 the line comes close to Brown Madonna, but you must stay on the face and not move further right to jugs and rests in Brown Madonna.

This is the Serpentine of Tasmania and is truly amazing.

No move is harder than grade 27, but there are several very technical hard sections with side pull rests between and it is sooooo looong.

Cheers

Simon