Tyndalls Mania! – Witchcraft

What’s going on?

Thought I’d put a little post up about goings on of late. Things have been hectic between working, getting sick, trying to train and a trip to the Tyndalls. Garry and I recently made the trip out again where we established a new route called Witchcraft 150m 27/28. It is the route we equipped a back in November, and finally work/weather aligned for both of us to take four days off and go and climb it. Turned out to be an awesome route, that we climbed over two days, both redpointing every pitch. Here’s how we went:

Fagus near the cave

Setting up camp

Basking in the sunshine!!

After an early start on Monday morning we made the long drive out to the carpark. Pretty light packs made the walk up the hill it not too bad, and with Garry’s new Mission Ledge in our arms we were super psyched so made good time. To our surprise it was perfect weather – 20 degrees, sunny and a tiny bit of breeze.  The colours and atmosphere up there at this time of year was unreal – all the Fagus was out in Autumn colours, and the lower angle of the sun in the sky meant long shadows were cast everywhere. Having never been up at this time of year before, it made it pretty special. After sorting out our gear, we cruised down to the top of the route. Fixing ropes, we warmed up by trying the ‘Metolius Pitch’ up high which was awesome climbing and good to get into the zone. We then rapped to the top of the crux pitch where we set up the ledge, talked tactics, and decided to lower in and try this pitch as it was the big unknown.

Garry hanging out on his new Mission Ledge

I lowered Gazza in and he had a play. He came up to the belay smiling, saying it would probably go but it was definitely pretty goey. I lowered in and tried the pitch – and it was awesome!! A cruisy few meters off the belay, followed by a strenuous layback flake just left of the arête, then into the crux section. A powerful undercling arch leads you out right to the arête, where there is a boulder and you have to lay it on straight up the arête to get to a rest. From there it is about 20m of wall climbing, with a few tricky boulders thrown in to keep you on your toes. Psyched that I managed to do quite a lot of it, I lowered Gaz in for one more try. It got late so we jugged out and watched an amazing sunset, then spent hours talking over the sequence psyched for Tuesday’s assault.

Rad sunset

The next day it was on. After a bit of chill out in the morning we rapped in to Eagle Ledge. This is the second to last big ledge, and has a great grade 19 above it.

Warming up on pitch five (19) off Eage Ledge

We both sent that pitch first shot as a warm-up, then headed down to try the crux. One more lower-in each and we had it sorted – Gaz seemed more certain than I; I thought that I would blow it after the crux if I managed to get through, as it was pretty sequency and pumpy. However we shifted the ledge down to the start of the crux pitch and it was all go. Gaz tied in and without further ado simply crushed it – it was pretty rad to watch him cruising the crux boulder. Psyched!! Then it was my turn – as usual I had a few pre-redpoint nerves but I just had to silence them and try my best – managing to just hold on through the crux, I got some back at the rest then blasted up the wall, almost blowing it on the final tricky traverse but held it together and clipped the chains! Stoked.

Putting on the boots before redpointing the crux!

We then both redpointed the first traverse pitch which went at about 21 and was rad as well.

Garry on pitch 1 (21)

After that it got dark so we shifted the ledge up to the top of the crux and went and chilled out, psyched to finish it the next day. In the morning we took it pretty easy, and both tried pitch 3 (24) once before both doing it first redpoint. It’s great – an easy traverse past the Gills (slanting fins of rock) before a cruxy section to get to the Witch’s Eye Pocket and then a pumpy finish.

Getting ready for pitch 4 – having heaps of fun!

Starting on pitch 3 (24)

Making the move to the witches eye pitch 3 (24)

After that the sun came out again which was nice. We both redpointed pitch 5 (21) first go – it is a cool traverse to an exposed position on the arête that goes around a tricky bulge up high.

Garry at the bottom of pitch 5 (21) – The Metolius Pitch

Tyndalls Mania – Gazza living the dream!

With the end in sight we pulled all our gear up and redpointed the last pitch (19) – and finally every pitch had been done, we’d both led every pitch first go, and we were super psyched with the quality of the climbing. It’s a bit of a classic – not as long and involved as the longer routes like Deeper Water, so a little more accessible in that regard and awesome climbing as well! Big thanks to Gaz for an awesome trip, we both had heaps of fun.

At the top celebrating the send! An awesome trip

Mindblowing sunrise on the last morning

So that was the last trip of the season and what a trip it was. Everything went smoothly, we both ticked the route and it is awesome climbing. The Tyndalls were pretty breathtaking at this time of year with Autumn in full swing – highly recommend a trip at this time next year. More highly recommended is our route! Get amongst it. We would like to see what people think of the grade, mainly on the crux – we thought 27/28 so it’s somewhere around there but not 100% sure. Either way it is great climbing and you will enjoy it. The other pitches are great if you’re not after something so hard. A rad day out would be starting at pitch 3 and going to the top. Pitches for the whole route are 21, 27/28, 24, 21, 19, scramble, 19. Here’s pretty rad topo courtesy of Gazman – thanks for reading!

Witchcraft 150m 27/28