Go back to Tasmania.
Go back to Candlestick.
Ben Lomond.
Despite a marginal forecast, we drove up 2.5 hours to the Ben Lomond National Park. The place is famous as it’s home to Tassie’s only ski area. For climbers, it’s the “best crack climbing in Tasmania.” Indeed, Frews Flutes buttress offers soaring crack routes up to 200 meters tall. Think Smith Rock’s Lower Gorge but 600 feet in length. A boulder hopping approach (45-60 minutes) complete with scurrying wallabies brought us to the Robins Buttress and the start of our two-pitch Ramadan-Rajah (19) link-up. Two long-pitches (40 meters each) of splitter climbing put us at the edge of the Ben Lomond Plateau. The weather was deteriorating and by the time Shirley was topping out there was sustained wind with 100kph gusts (as we’d later find out on the drive home). There was sideways rain and the two long rappels would prove to be good practice for Frey some 5 weeks later. We were back at our cozy house later that evening and I have to say that the pellet stove was a big hit.
The Ambiance
Tassie cragging. Click photo for a quick video.
Photos
A Tassie town (Dec. 2015).
Tasmania and its countless sheep (Dec. 2014).
One of the countless small cemeteries we saw on Tassie – complete with a chapel. This one is not too far from Ben Lomond National Park entrance (Dec. 2014).
The boulder hopping approach to Fews Flutes wall in Ben Lomond National Park (Dec. 2015).
View of Frews Flutes from the approach. The tallest aspect of the wall is ~200 meters…crack climbing galore!
Robins Buttress of Frews Flutes in Ben Lomond (Dec. 2015).
Leading the beautiful opening hand crack of Ramadan on Robins Buttress (Dec. 2015).
Conserving pieces on the lower half of Ramadan…a bit too much as it turned out as I got to the belay with 2 cams in that size left on my rack (Dec. 2015).
Splitter climbing of Ben Lomond (Dec. 2014).
Upper portion of the Ramadan pitch (Dec. 2015).
Shirley following Ramadan (Dec. 2014).
Views from the top of Ramadan (Dec. 2014).
Nearing the top of Ramadan (Dec. 2014).
Shirley topping out on Ramadan (Dec. 2014).
The second pitch (called Rajah) in deteriorating weather (Dec. 2015).
Shirley following Rajah in some breezy conditions (Dec. 2014).
Sideways rain and ~100km/h winds greeted us at the rim. Click photo for a quick video.
Happy to be down in the 100km/h winds that greeted us at the top (Dec. 2015).
Hiking out in spitting drizzle (Dec. 2015).
Happy to be done with the stormy day of climbing (Dec. 2015).
Shy echidna in Ben Lomond National Park (Dec. 2014).
Echidna close-up (Dec. 2014).
On the drive to Ben Lomond (Dec. 2015).
A zoomed in view.
Tasmania.
Hiking through the historic Richmond in Tasmania (Dec. 2014).
A taste of the beach life – a bit like swimming on the Oregon coast: jump in and convince yourself that it’s comfortable (Dec. 2014).
Land of gigantic jellyfish (Dec. 2014).
Life in the tidal pools on Tasmania (Dec. 2014).
Go to Freycinet 1.
Go back to Tasmania.