Bluff Knoll Adventures
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Richard.
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Chris Swain Mike Clemson
Pleasant & Delightful Direct 15
Dave Moyses says of this climb:” The first three pitches of this climb are the 3 most consecutively sustained pitches on the Buff. The climb represents a great challenge for an experienced party and highly recommended” (P & D Direct replaces the first half of P & D, as far as the Terrace).
Chris Swain and Mike Clemson did the route on Australia Day 2008, having done P & D original route 12 months previously. We think overall P & D with the Direct start is a much better climb, though considerably steeper and harder than P & D.
We found the description reasonably accurate except for one major point (which is the purpose of this note). We think that it is misleading to state that the route follows “the only obvious line of weakness”. It may be true that it follows an obvious line of weakness when your on it, but the line is far from obvious from a vantage point from across the Chasm when you are approaching the climb and trying to figure out where it goes. Our advice is don’t bother just find the starting ledge (the only one that is bushy with large blocks) and go for it.
Some minor points
(a) we did not think the first pitch was the crux, but that all 3 pitches are similar in difficulty
(b) It seemed to us the phrase “then up the steep wall” in the description of pitch 1″ could be left out.
(c) the description of pitch 3 is not as helpful as it might of be. First the climbing did not seem any “easier”, and secondly, after about 30m, upward progress on the same line seems dubious due to overhangs. We took the option of belaying at this point, then reaching the Terrace by trending rightwards to avoid the overhanging rock. This was not such pleasant climbing as the rest of the route and it is quite possible that the correct line goes left instead of right to reach the Terrace at this point.
richard
Chris, Mike, nice ascent. And good info. I did the standard P+D with Stephen Gray a while back. We found the description totally confusing and got lost at the ledge. We proceeded up the overhanging wall right of the arete and had an interesting day . Hope to make use of your information before too long.
Shannon
I have not climbed at the Stirlings at all, always been curious though, anyone have a guide or topo of the area? cheers
shane shaw
well done guys. I would love to give it a bash one day. It was hard enough walking to the top at xmas
Mike Clemson
Hi Shannon
Pre 1995 climbs in the Stirlings can be found in “The Guide to Western Australian Rock Routes” second edition 1995. This was a CAWA publication so they may still have some copies. Selected climbs of the Stirlings with some post 1995 climbs can be found in S. Richardson’s “WA Rock.” There is also a good article and topo on Pleasant and Delightful written by Tom Marshall which can be found in the Western Climber May-June 2002
Hope this helps
Richard
Good that people can do Pleasant and Delightfull without getting hopelessly lost.
I still wonder about an ascent we made several years ago. If anyone can tell me where we were from the description it would be interesting to know.Back in 07 or 06 there was a trip to the Stirlings. Well attended. On the Sunday most climbers went to Mt Brown. Myself and Stephen G. walked up to the Chasm to climb Pleasant and Delightful, we hoped. What we did bore little resemblance to the PAD description.
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The peak on the east side of the Chasm appears to form a blunt prow separating north-east and north-west faces. PAD starting on the NW face.# The first three pitches, condensed into one, seemed to work. Start under a small roof climbing the wall on the left to the distinctive smooth 4m band crossed by an easy offwidth. And up a steep but no longer bushy gully. After this nothing in the PAD description matched.
# We climbed up from the right side of the gully 30 or 40m to a large circular depression in the face, diameter greater than 10m. Something like a very shallow cave with a 60 degree floor.
# Belaying uncomfortably here I then climbed out the right hand side of the depression and gained a series of long ledges, or rock benches. These stacked on top of each other extended the breadth of the cliff, all the way left to the prow and possibly round the corner to the NE face. This is probably where we went wrong, PAD may go along the ledges. From my position, looking straight up, the NW face appeared smooth and slightly overhung. However 3 or 4m above the top bench was a small sloping ledge 3m wide, connected to the top bench by a distinctive vertical crack. Total 52m pitch to reach the small ledge.
# The belay on the little ledge was sparse, a horizontal sinuous depression took a BD#2 sideways. I lifted a small slab and put a hex under it. It looked good. In retrospect I could have left something in the crack below the ledge. Above, the wall was steep to overhanging, devoid of large features or protection. Although covered in small edges and cm sized rectangular protrusions making it quite climbable. Looking up left toward the prow were overhangs topped by more broken ground. I climbed 15m up diagonally left toward the prow/arête , meeting it at the level of the overhangs. There was no protection but a moderate grade about 15, becoming harder at the prow where finally good gear placement was found. Looking hopefully around the prow onto the NE face nothing seemed climbable, so I went right above the overhangs to a ledge below a corner . Climbing easily 4m up the left face of the corner I crossed over to the right and belayed under a distinctive horn of rock that accepted a large sling. Even with double ropes the drag on this pitch was large. A single rope would have required a hanging belay on the prow, for which gear was probably insufficient..
# Scrambling a few metres above the horn to the floor of a cave under overhangs. Walking/crawling left 20m out of the cave and 6m up a grassy gully to the top. -
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