Yuku free message boards

A friend and I did a top down recce of The Governor (320m, grade 22, sport) on the East Face, Mt Barney...especially since it has been raining for a few days prior. We bivvied up on the S.E Ridge at the small cleared area around the 1000m elevation, under a sea of stars. Next morning we blasted up to the East Summit for a 9:00am start rapping the route. The top belay bolts are quite easy to find and the sunny East Face was out of the blustery SW wind that was blowing. The first rap (2 x 50m ropes) was easy low angled slab, past some bushes to the top of the second last pitch (crux climbing pitch?) at a gut wrenching 300m overhanging drop into nothing...very exposed. There was a huge chain belay about 5m further to our left (as we rapped) that looked like it was their primary anchor for fitting out the route with hardware.Most raps were pretty straightforward, except for the 2 that involved a left trending dogleg that was done with a bit of tension traversing...definately not a place you want to swinging about on really skinny threads like twins or halves. Be very careful here if you are rapping off the route as there is a huge potential for ropes jamming up...we had to put a prussik on the rope we were hauling on, and step into it with full bodyweight, to get the ropes moving, as there is a bit of a corner above and the rock is very abraisive. We simul-rapped all pitches and descended after 7 raps in a little over 3 hours. Rock quality is terrible and I doubt this line will see much traffic...some of the worst rock I have ever seen in S.E QLD. Looks better quality over to the far left hand side of the face, above the large orange overhangs. Placement of natural pro is pretty much non existent, primarily due to the poor rock, so the multitude of hangers is definately needed to keep things sane. Some of the harder pitches seem to be less well protected than the easier pitches lower down on the wall...which seems strange as the lower rock is much better quality as well...all in all, a big balled effort by those that put the route up...be interesting to hear from any super skilled climbers that have done the full ground up ascent of the route, and how they dealt with the crumbly rock found in the upper pitches. The rock is high friction but friable.

The walk out back to our camp on the S.E Ridge was as to be expected...the usual Mt Barney bush bashing for an hour and a half...trick is to keep high, close to the rock under the East Face but far enough up to keep away from continuing steep drops down through the scrub below you...there is a small amount of tape on trees to start with but we lost this in the middle section then picked it up again as we ll as some rock cairns, as we neared the walking track on the ridge. So for anyone planning to go in to attemp this Goliath of a climb, I would advise they start pre-dawn, wear helmets, use fatter ropes (for lead) and have the second carry a second skinny for rapping (if needed)...be great fun if you like climbing on Anzac biscuits!!!

Safe climbing to all and Rocky, hats off to you, you crazy #&!$%!!!

Steve