Buffalo Gorge South Side

The Details: The most famous climbing destination of Mt Buffalo, and probably in the top 3 Victorian climbing destinations.

Access: 4hrs from Melbourne, 10mins from the campground. Rather simple to find, just follow all the roadsigns and tourists. To walk down into the Gorge, follow the South Side track, which can be found by starting down the Underground River track, then branching off L after 30m on the signposted Mushroom Rock trail. Follow this down for 5min to the obvious and rather extraordinary Mushroom Rock. From here the trail is a little fainter so keep your eyes open. Continue down from Mushroom Rock for another 80m or so, trending R. Here some cairns should appear close to the drop on your left. At the cairns, the track heads back L (facing downhill), and from here on continues to traverse L and down for perhaps 500m past regular cairns, all the way into a massive gully, 200m directly below Bent's Lookout (about 50m L of Angel's Buttress). The track then follows this gully down, past the base of Angels and onwards.

The view from the drive up, near Eurobin slabs. The features marked from R to L are the Queen Victoria Buttress (facing camera); Wilkinson's Lookout above the mighty North Wall (facing left); Pulpit Rock offering great views of the North Wall and the waterfall; the Oval Area just left of the waterfall; the right facing Sewer Wall; the small Beowulf Area; the top of Burston's Crevasse; Angel's Buttress; the Climber's Lookout atop the obvious splitter line of Monarch; Bent's Lookout perched above classics such as Hard Rain; Glass Gully; Isotope Wall; and the Hang Glider Ramp.

The South Side viewed from Wilkinson's Lookout. From L to R, marked features and routes are: Mushroom Rock; Commander Cody (** 21); Wild Blue Yonder (* 17) and Diamond Dogs (** 20) on Isotope Wall; Black Road (* 22), the diagonal crack under the Hang Glider Ramp; Smear Tactics (22) up the short slabby arete; High Voltage (20), an offwidth crack; Short Circuit (19), another obvious crack; and Glass Gully.

Angels Buttress is the obvious major feature from bottom left to top right. Guidebook aficionados will immediately recognise the black and orange streaked wall at top right - see the front cover! And the hang glider ramp is at top left - Fat Wall uses this for it's anchor. Isotope Wall is the large section of rock down below the far rim.

The view of the South Side from the top of Angels (ie from the bottom of Burston's Crevasse), with features marked being Devilled Cream Buttress; Wild Blue Yonder (* 17); Goat Island (* 19); Diamond Dogs (** 20) at the base of the mighty Isotope Wall; Mushroom Rock; the Hang Glider Ramp; Black Road (* 22), and Ring a Ding Ding (* 24).

South Side Rim

Turkey Chute 10m 14 (TR)
A great introductory route for first time visitors. Simple to find, easy anchor and a gentle grade, but with a nice dose of exposure. Anchor off the far R (E) posts of the South Side Lookout, and rap 10m to a ledge. Up the flakes on the L (slight pendulum potential), then a smear move R to join the dykes which offer nice climbing to the top.

Smear Tactics 12m 22 (TR)
Worth doing, but short. It is possible to scramble down about 10m back towards the chalet, but probably easier just to sling the big boulder (about 25m on from TC) and rap down Thin Wall Pineapple (17). From the base of TWP, a nice dyke provides techie footwork diagonally out to the arete to a good stance. Step up L to the bolt then desperately mantle the sharp little pocket, then another difficult few slab moves to the top.

Mark moves into the crux of Smear Tactics. Thin Wall Pineapple is the seeping crack to his left.

The wall just L of Thin Wall Pineapple runs for about 100m downhill until you can almost reach the base of Fat Wall, and its worth the walk to go and have a look at these superb (although somewhat painful looking) cracks:

Ring a Ding Ding (24)

Black Road (22) is the major diagonal on the left, and Cabaret (18) is the vertical black crack on the R. The bleached rock at far left is below the Hang Glider Ramp.

** Fat Wall Ordinaire Banana Blase 22m 16 (YP)
A fine route, though it ain’t 30m like the guide says, nor am I convinced about 2 stars. Maybe it’s better if you lead it, or maybe it’s the atmosphere. Rap off the hang-glider ramp (not down the gully trashing the vegetation!), and stay R of the bushes (facing out) as you rap in - the line becomes obvious. Anchor on the wide ledge off a BB and the crack. Crux laybacking for 8m (tricky gear) leads to easier territory - lots of jugs, with the odd insecure move. Avoid the wide crack just R.

Robbie styles up the awesome initial layback of Fat Wall Ordinaire Banana Blase. The arete 4m to his R is Surfing the Gravity Wave (27), while the full 250m height of Angels Buttress is visible way down below through wisps of fog.

Toproping Fat Wall (** 16) . . .

* Banana Milkshakes Rule 18m 23 (YP)
Good climbing all the way. It's the slab with 4 carrots 2-3m L of Fat Wall. Felt quite easy for 23 though I did have fresh toes/arches/calves which always helps!

Mark pulls the final move crux of Banana Milkshakes Rule, with Fat Wall 2m to his R, and the full height of Ozymandias visible in the background.

* Vertical Tai Chi 45m 22 (YP) Rap in as for Home James but instead of trending into the corner, trend away from the corner to a DFH belay at a good stance, about 15m down R from the start of Home James. Up short groove (#3Fr), then move up L past a FH to crux slab moves up the small corner past 2 more FH. Beware the large loose block on the R. Move up L out of corner and easily slab into next corner (wires) beneath orange overhang. FH on L arete, then move L around arete close to Home James. Move back R above roof (FH) for a few more independent moves then clip the last bolt of Home James and finish up it. Length includes the 10m slab-walk back to the belay. Kevin Lindorff, Will Monks, Jan 05. The lower pitch coming up from Vortex's first belay ledge is still a project, please keep off. . . . . . . . . .

Some bumbly wobbles his way up the 2nd ascent of Vertical Tai Chi

** Home James 22m 20 (OS) Another one which is shorter than stated and struggles for the 2nd star. It goes up the dyke-crossed wall just around the arete on the R of this photo. Rap off a big tree behind the boulder down the steep slab to a hard-to-find belay - a small dirt ledge with a BB 2m R of the major corner (back it up with your rap rope). Tricky moves off ledge to BB, then rising traverse to 2nd BB. Nice step R, then up R and back L to the crack (med wires & cams). Sidepull crack through steepening, use holds out R to clip 3rd BB but move back left to surmount bulge before stepping a little R to final BB. A move up R gains the diagonal dyke, then an exciting fingery finish running it out diagonally up L. Good, but a bit wandery. Robbie starts up Home James, which as you can see seeps after rain!

Robbie on the impressively steep headwall of Home James, with the full height of Ozymandias visible in the background.

* Silver Shadow 22m 22 (TR)
Starts as for Home James but instead of traversing at the secnd bolt, blasts straight up the desperate slab and through the even harder overlap above. The slab feels solid 22 and would be a sketchy clip of the bolt. The overlap above is simply desperate! This felt sooo much harder than Banana Milkshakes Rule.... either that or my "granite endurance" is crap.

Isotope Wall

* Wild Blue Yonder 105m 17 (OS)
A good warm up with convenient rap tree at 45m. Unless P3 is 60m long, the guidebook has the length badly wrong! It'd also probably be better to combine the 1st two pitches. From far L end of elevated ledge, scramble up onto smaller ledge/ramp, and walk R to big tree with fixed cord. Belay here. 1) (* 25m 17) Move R up pleasant easy ramp/crack past bush to a tricky move to gain flake. Funky steep moves L up flake/dyke to BB. Mantle over bulge onto dyke, then pad up slab to horizontal breaks. Move back R 6m to small belay stance. 2) (20m 10) Step R then doddle up easy slabby stuff trending L, with the odd move over bulges. Belay at big tree. 3) didn't do - looked ordinary so we rapped off instead.

* Goat Island 45m 19 (OS)
Excellent steep face climbing up a funky dyke system, offering well protected moves between good positive holds - a nice change from smearing!! Not 21 though! Start at R end of elevated ledge. Reachy moves up slightly hollow flakes (take a small sling for the first, and small cams for the second), to 1st BB. More easily past med. cam to 2nd BB, then lovely crux moves L and up over bulge to jugs. Sling a bollard out L, then follow easy slabby dyke system up and L for 25m past occasional small wires/RPs. A damn good climb.

Angels Buttress

*** Where Angels Fear to Tread 263m 17 (OS)
An awesome line, the cracks just go on and on all the way. Amazingly, just as one crack fizzles out, another conveniently appears to the L or R, with the two connected by delicate slab moves! Incredible feature. The big downer is how painful the footjams get after 20m, let alone after 220m! It's really L foot intensive the whole way too - your R foot is always smearing and only gets in the crack about 5 times. So be sure to take big beefy tapegloves and a full-on heavy-duty ankle-length left boot. I did it without tape gloves and with a normal climbing shoe, and it was PBF painful in the end! We started at 3pm and were up it in 4 hours, but for many parties it would probably be wise to allow at least double that. The pitch lengths are for how we did it, but for the first 140m there's basically no stances so belay wherever. In particular, combine P4&5 as described if you have a few duplicate big cams.

Key: % = "toe trashing, bone grinding, ankle mushing footjams" !! 1) (*** 35m 16) Classic splitter fist crack in very rough granite, with much %. 2) (** 30m 16) Lovely laybacks up slabby handcrack, then another 20m of fist/offwidth % to small stance (chopped bolts). 3) (*** 45m 16) Easily up wide crack for 8m then smear 8m L up slab to next crack. Up offwidth % for 30m (!!) to SHB below bulge. 4) (** 10m 17) Hard through bulge % then semi-hanging belay - if you're out of gear (like I was)! 5) (*** 25m 17) Lovely delicate step 3m R to hand/fist crack, up it for 20m % to a 5m thin fingers section (crux), to the first ledge on the route (!!). Belay here below short chimney. 6) (* 25m 15) Up short chimney (can be avoided around to the R) then up the L fingercrack, chimneying off the block on the L. Step off top of L block to offwidth % and belay on tree below offwidth (big hexes). 7) (* 18m 16) Hard offwidth for 5m %, then stem off the R hand crack up to ledge. 8) (35m 16) Ignore steep crack above, move down R for 10m (possibly shift belay). Up low angled corner for 20m, quite tricky stemming/smearing. Trend L at bushes to ledges below steep crack. 9) (50m 16) Ignore steep crack, step L to featured crack which is much easier (but still requiring a little %). Up this to big ledge, move back and R to steep corner. Avoid steep offwidth (with %) by briefly stepping R to small dyke on arete. Tricky corner (wet and dirty, with some % for a change), leads to jumbled boulders on ledge, near a large tree. Unrope, then walk back and down L into Burston's Crevasse, and walk up it for 150m to the rim. . . . . . .

A view of the magnificent Angels Buttress from the South Side Track walk-in. Jerry Maddox is the poor soul shown who I've conned into leading me up the hard bits!!! :-)

Bent's Lookout

*** Hard Rain 120m 22
No I haven't done it but it's top of my "to do" list.
Steve is the little white dot at top left.

A closer view of the same photo, showing the gorgeous flakes of the second pitch down and R of Steve.

And here's Zoey starting up pitch 2. Note the awesome corner crack of pitch 1 below.

Climber's Lookout

** Backless 25m 21 (YP)
An excellent corner crack, pleasantly having little jambing! From a crappy 2 carrot semi-hanging belay (back it up with your rap rope), elegant moderate stemming leads up the superbly exposed corner to a short crux past a piton. See the photo below for a view of the route.

Burston's Crevasse

Burston's Crevasse, with Caligula (* 18) taking the major corner on the L, and Agrippa (** 22) taking the crack up the centre of the slab.

A view of Breathless (*** 26), which takes the steep aretes right of centre. Backless (* 21) is the thin corner/crack at top right, while Monarch (** 22) takes the major splitter up the front of the impressive buttress. Bureaucrat 4th pitch (21?) is visible on the L off in the distance, and underclings R-wards under that roof.

Burston's Crevasse to Sewer Wall, with Caligula marked at far L, and Beowulf Area also indicated. Note, the upper end of Sewer Wall is indicated, but it extends all the way down to below Beowulf Area.

Beowulf (* 18) takes the corner on the L.

* Beowulf 20m 18 (OS) A stylish steep corner crack which is quite difficult for the grade, and has you working hard to place pro. Me onsighting Beowulf.

Ethical Corner 15m 12 (YP) The slabby corner a few metres R of Beowulf can be made more fun by not pulling on the bush. What Ethics? 15m 15 (OS) A nice little slab exercise, and its no giveaway either. Takes the thin crack just R of EC, then step up R from the break to gain the slab and then with difficulty past the bolt to topout. Ethical Corner (12). What Ethics (15) takes the middle of the slab.

Sewer Wall

The Oval Area viewed from near Pulpit Rock. Marked routes are: Country Road (* 24), Australia's first 24, Comeback Trail (16 M3), frees the obvious corner then aids R round the roof; Bell Boys Bereavement (26), a new addition which leads into the short finger crack of Lift Girl's Lament (* 22); and Highway 61 (20 M2), the obvious orange corner with aid required round the roof.

© 1999-2004 Will