Boar's Head and Kilimanjaro Abseils

[Julz]

Today we practiced retrieving jammed ropes. A couple of times......

We were meant to be sprucing up our SRT skills, and did that too!

With plans for an upcoming NZ canyoneering trip underway over New Years,
Rod was keen to familiarise himself with SRT as the Aussie toss and
tangle will be barred on our trip due to the high volumes of water we
will be subjected to. So we did the Boar's Head and nearby Kilimanjaro
single rope except for the last BH pitch as the huge link on the sling
was bigger than my carabiners!

First rope jam of the day happened after we abseiled down the back of
the slot next to the Shandy climb. Lovely pitch of 65m. Not so lovely
retrieval. First time I've had difficulty here so possibly just human
error in direction of passing the rope through the quicklink - too much
friction. A reminder to stay switched on!

We completed BH and walked (scrambled?) up Devil's Hole and had lunch at
the top of the Wall of Africa and watched a few abseilers on an opposite
cliff face rapping down. The first Africa pitch is a little over 40m,
retrieved (easily), and rigged for the 45m overhang abseil of
Kilimanjaro. Woo-hoo! What a rap. Nice! Until the rope refused to join
us at the bottom. After much pulling and huffing and puffing, I got the
loops out and prussiked back up. Deja-Vu. Did exactly the same thing 2
or 3 years ago. It was in the fog that time. This time it rained.
Thought I found the problem (twist in the rope creating friction) and
abseiled back down. Rope still wouldn't budge. Rod put a Kroll on the
rope and jumped off a rock and gained half a metre. So he grabbed a huge
boulder and tried to pull it up to add more weight while he hung off the
rope. Gotta get me a DVD camera!

Well perseverance pays off and eventually we were stuffing the ropes
back into bags and decided to give the Chockstone abseil a miss. Didn't
want to tempt fate for a third time! Finished the day with a visit to
Summit Gear where we enjoyed a great discussion about OzCanyon discussions!

Photos -
http://imageevent.com/jburton/abseiling/boarsheadandkilimanjaro060708

Julie

[Timmy Hills]

Cool Julie, thanks for posting.

Interesting, each time I've done Boars Head we've abseiled the other way from beneath the slot (28m) then traversed around below to do 2 other abseils. I was there just two weeks ago wondering about abseiling the way you went, I must try it sometime. 65m eh?  I'd need some longer ropes 

Timmy

[Julz]

.

Interesting, each time I've done Boars Head we've abseiled the other way from beneath the slot (28m) then traversed around below to do 2 other abseils. I was there just two weeks ago wondering about abseiling the way you went, I must try it sometime. 65m eh?  I'd need some longer ropes 

You can abseil the back way in two pitches - there's another anchor about 20m down where you can reset. Once at the bottom, a short scramble down the track  to the right before swinging back to the left. you'll encounter a sling around a tree here. Ignore it as it is two shorter scrubby abseils. A little further along you'll find the usual final 50m abseil.

Julie

[Aegist]

Thanks Julz. That is a crazy narrow looking slot you're abseiling through there....

[Julz]

Thanks Julz. That is a crazy narrow looking slot you're abseiling through there....

That's just the slot you traverse in Boar's Head to get to the 2nd abseil. Most people prefer a traverse line to be set in place. It probably looks more familiar from this angle http://imageevent.com/jburton/abseiling/katoombaarea080507?p=0&n=1&m=24&c=4&l=0&w=4&s=0&z=2

Julie

[Timmy Hills]

Hehe, that's a good photo Julz. I hope that was a warm day for the shorts wearer. In June last year we had a bloke in shorts and I can't imagine how uncomfortable he was. It was blowing a gale of course, as it often does through there 

And thanks too, you've answered something for me - last time I was there I went for a wander along the ledge from the final abseil and wondered about that other anchor above the 'two shorter scrubby abseils'.  Anyway, I must try the back route next time.

Timmy