Baylac Directly Direct (80 m, 18) at Peak Head

(or ‘Don’t freakin’ tell me I forgot to glue in the bolt.’)

Phillip Calais and Gesa Graser

First pitch is the Baylac Direct crack (30 m), 18). At the top of the crack, instead of traversing right and up the gully, just keep on going straight up and trend slightly left (50 m 18).

Sounds simple and it is, but here’s a few notes.

1) For the second pitch, belay from the thin ledge at the top of the crack. I wasn’t happy having a belay with a few cams in the crack at the belayer’s feet – a fall before clipping the first bolt would leave the climber and belayer hanging on the face below (possibly worse…) and I don’t know how solid the placements would be. You can put in some cams in the thin crack about 3 m to the right, but this is still not the best, so I put in a fixed hanger about 1.5 m above the ledge. I think that some purists may not be that happy as it potentially interferes with Baylac Direct. I was originally thinking of maybe putting a ring-bolt there but after discussing it with Ross (who was against anything there at all) I decided that a fixed hanger may be a reasonable compromise. If people object to it being there, the hanger is on a glued-in stud and the hanger can be easily removed with a spanner. If people are happy with it there, then leave it alone. If not, take the hanger off. But that means that if you want to use it you may need to take along a hanger and a M10 nut and spanner. Just above the hanger is a hole drilled for a ring-bolt. A ring-bolt can be glued in if people like or the hole can be bogged up.

2) Why the sub-title of ‘Don’t freakin’ tell me I forgot to glue in the bolt’? Well, I put in the bolts and then waited for the glue to set and then started to climb. I started out on the second pitch and saw a hole where I forgot to put in the bolt and that freaked me out a bit. The hole is about 2.5 m to the left and about 2 m up from the fixed hanger. So at the moment the start is a bit run out as the first bolt is about 6 m up. If anyone is up that way with a bolt and some glue, please feel free to stick it in. Anyway, a few hours later we were at Nona’s Restaurant. As well as a 15% surcharge, they were obviously understaffed, the food was brought at out at random intervals and order, and there were also a few other issues such as – “ere’s yer beer” “Ummm… can we have some glasses please?” “Eh? No, we don’t have any.” But back to the story, Rick asked for some pepper and a pepper mill was brought out. After a few twists and shakes it was obvious that there was no pepper in the mill, to which the waitress exclaimed “Don’t freakin’ tell me there’s no pepper in it!”

3) Sorry about the messy gluing in a few places. I was given a tube of Ramset glue – I usually use Hilti or Sika. I never used the Ramset before and it sets much faster than the Hilti or Sika, so after ending up with a blocked glue nozzle, I had to use the spare nozzle and glue as fast as I could, so it’s not that neat as a result.

4) The second pitch ends in a shallow gnamma with 2 ring-bolts. It’s another 30 m to the top where the blocks and cracks are. It’s no problem carefully walking up to the top, but some may want to keep roped-up.

The Pit of Despair (20 m, 14) on the South Side Wall, Eastern Walls Areas, Blowholes.

Phillip Calais and Tracy Martens

About 10 m to the left of ‘Way Out’, belay from the small blocky ledge about 4 m above the water near the 1.5 m wide chimney. Traverse across the chimney and then up the arête. A more interesting grade 17 version is to go past the arête by about a metre and go up the face, but it’s a bit wet near the top from water seepage.