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The bouldering section is constructed from the BIG BOOK OF PROBLEMS, which is a bouldering guide to
arapiles. Each season (very losely defined) we will incorporate a bouldering area appropriate to the season.
This installment includes the Intro etc from the book.
INTRODUCTION:
"The rules of gravity are very very strict, and you're just bending them for your own
benefit."
Billy Bragg from "She's got a new spell."
Arapiles. What a nice place to hurt yourself. How, when and why are
up to you. There are thousands of good boulder problems at Arap's.
There have been rumours for years that with ropes and things it is
possible to do long boulder problems on the bigger faces behind the boulders, but who wants all that hassle. Far better to stick to the wee
things you can fall off (*not advised on some). Leave the bigger stuff for less intelligent people.
We have settled on a format whereby we tell you where the problem
is (and possibly mention its difficulty in a sort of hard/easy dichotomy) but you get to work out how hard it is for you ...which means we have not used any recognised bouldering grading scale such as the B1,
B2, B3 or the V system. We'll leave that sort of excruciating pigeon holing for those anal types that fold their lycra, wear underwear and call their quickdraws by individual names.
All we want to do is show you where to have fun/pain. Whether or not you have fun/pain is up to you. And if you fuck your tendons or break an ankle...WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE.
so....have fun!
but...
WARNING: !!!!!
Some of the boulders at Arapiles are too high to fall off safely. We
advise you to use your discretion in determining the outcome of a fall. If it has a nasty landing, get some one to spot you. Make sure your spot knows what they are doing, the best way to catch you, etc.
Mattresses, in case you hadn't noticed, are 'in vogue'.
If it is too high for a spot, and you are not sure, walk away (beats
crawling) or try it with a top rope. Don't bang bolts in it, lead it, and claim it as a route. That sort of stuff is done by the less intelligent people who play on the big walls.
Always check out the descent before getting up on a boulder. The extreme problem you almost fell off might be it!
Finally Be careful.!!!
"If you're going to bang your head against a wall all day you might as well find a nice wall”
...Graffiti
HISTORY: (of sorts).
The people who do the big stuff on the big walls do BIG guidebooks with BIG histories. It is only fitting for those of us who are amused by small things to have small guidebooks (with a small history).
The archaeological survey of the mount proved one thing beyond doubt: that the Duanborap clan of the Jardwadjali language group
that lived at Djurid for squillions of years left few areas of the rock (under grade 10 at least) unexplored. Evidence seems to suggest that, as you would expect, taking in the afternoons tranquillity from a
nice spot, was a common activity. The top of many of the boulders in this guide are such nice spots and as such Jardawa individuals probably claim many first ascents. It is uncertain whether the mass
murderer Mitchell who `discovered' the area, and set the date by which the previous rich history would be ignored, did any bouldering, but I doubt it.
He doesn't strike me as the sort of whom guy sat on boulders and relaxed.
Much, much later came climbers. A few bothered to play with the wee
things. Not much is known of this period either. Henry Barber revolutionised Arapiles bouldering by doing other stuff on the Golden Slime (then called Golden Streak) boulder and by doing Brain Death.
Nic Taylor probably deserves a mention. Chris Peisker, Greg Child and Coral Bowman's names pop up. Kim Carrigan is credited with introducing the traverse to Arapiles. Kevin Pearl ensured his name in
the anals of history by driving all the way from Brisbane just to go bouldering.
Jon Muir and Mark Moorhead played a lot, and many of their desperates remain exactly that. Jon's very scary Not The Height of
Fashion has, after more than a decade, only just been repeated. Tony Dignan's name, with the previous two, is on some of the scarier problems around. Charlie Creese made a mark with his Low Life
Deviant. HB has muscled his way across a few things. Dave Mudie and Richard Smith have found some desperates and James Falla and Paul Hoskins have all contributed to the collection. Most recently
Steve Bullen and Gordon Poultney, Garthie Miller, Saxon Johns and Dave Jones have added some stuff. And lots of other people have added problems as well.
The end.
GRADING:
Despite the paradoxical beauty of the old B system we felt it was not practical and we were loathe to try and impress with our in depth
knowledge of both the Font and V grades as other wankers have. We toyed with inventing some completely new system for intricate pigeon
holing of difficulty, and after all, who doesn't want a grading system named after them...
But we finally settled on a movie type grading, pretty much along the lines of easy, hard and scary:
THE P.G.R GRADING SYSTEM
G = General = Easy problems, safe.
PG = Partneral Guidance Recommended = Easy, but not safe
without spot.
M = Mature = Harder problems
(R) = Restricted = Harder unsafe problems. Note (R) is in brackets to distinguish from R meaning Right..
X = X- Rated = Either very hard, very dangerous or both.
To give you some sort of comparison with V grades we have included a table with the estimated V grades and our grades.
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Golden Slime
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V0+
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PG
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Animal Acts
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V1
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G
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Gonzo Gladiator
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V4
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M
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Attack a Helpless Chicken
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V6
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M
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L, S, or D
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V4
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(R)
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Two sections of Slea Stacks
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V9
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X (hard)
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Heartstopper
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V4
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X (serious)
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Now, what we plan to do is post a part of the bouldering guide
every three months, depending on where is best to boulder in the prevailing weather. It is high summer now and hot and there could be no better place than
The Torture Chambers.
UPPER CENTRAL GULLY.
Including the Torture Chambers
The Upper Central Gully problems offer an eclectic mix of styles from the small
wall of James Falla's Everyfin, et al to the steepness of the Torture Chambers. This latter area is probably most famous as a cool shady or dry place depending on the weather.
MICROCLIMATE:
The Chambers is good on hot days and often avoids all but the worst weather. The other problems are more open.
ORIENTATION:
Almost to the top of the Central Gully track, about 100m from the road is a track (on the left heading downhill) leading up to the right. This goes to the Torture Chambers. On the left there is a large white
boulder. The Chambers can be approached from the top more easily. Back down the gully you go past a small wall which is called Everyfin,
everyfin like that and everyfin. If you're at the Torture Chambers, walk around behind them to the cliff line and then go up to find a traverse,
The Pleasure Palace. Or better still walk to the rocky summit and watch the sunset. On Skyline Wall there is a traverse under Exodus (with a high scary start on the right) called Outrageous Coincidences.
Torture Chambers
PROBLEMS
1. Out roof, two small edges on lip M
2. Out roof with hand on lip and funky footwork X
3. Out roof using finger jug, pinch and oomph X
4. Sausage. Lean out off lock to slopey jug on lip and up PG
5. Around roof and up PG
6. Big dyno up and L to knob X. Footless var. Also var. mantle. M
Greg Child's problem mantles straight onto knob.
7. Classic trav. on big holds.
"Pumpy" from under roof at 1. or 2. to the end ABA M
8. Low varient to Trav on door jam edges. M
9. Footless Trav. From R follow lip past 5,4,and up 3 ABA Yeah Right!
And now a section for the back of the book
If you'd prefer to be elsewhere, here is a list of our recommended
problems at Arapiles. It's up to you to find them.
INDEX BY NAME OF PROBLEM (Whole of Arapiles)
Ace.
Animal Acts
Anthonus
Around the World
Attack a Helpless Chicken
Ben Bowyang
Beware of Slea Stacks
Bliss
Brain Death.
Bum Drag
Bunny Rocks 15 8m
Caving
Chariots of Fire
Chunder at 31
Crankshaft
Dark Cave
Dignan's
Dink
Entrenched
Environs
Final Chapter
Finalgon
Fistfull of Feathers
Garth's
Gives Me the Willies
Golden Slime (nee Streak)
Gonzo Gladiator
Good Morning Arapiles
Heartstopper
India Replicator
Jump to Jug
Krondorff
Low Life Deviant
Miller's Tale
Ministry of Fig Pluckers
Moody Blues
Molar Boulder
Monkey Puzzle
Moss Factor
Nemesis
Not the Height of Fashion
Oops
Pebble Wall
Pinch Arete
Playground (the)
Round the World
Sausage
Saxonion
Scoot
Skinny Mulligan (project)
Skulk Ave
Sports Arete
Sooty (Project)
Superman 1, 2 and 3
Swing Wing
Swing Wing of the Northern Group
The big E.
Three Moves to Glory
Velodrome
Waterboys
Wayne
Welcome to the Future world
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