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Crag X

Type
Altitude
300m
Part of

Location
On the eastern side of Mt Pleasant just south of the summit ridge, and just west of the old World War II concrete gun emplacements. The crag faces west, and runs south from the zig-zags in the track.

Climate
There's good shelter from the north-east, and it's nice and sunny on a winter afternoon. It can be hot in summer. It's exposed to the south, but there's a degree of shelter in a north-wester, though others would be preferred.

Climbing
Climb grades range from 14 to 24, concentrated in grades 19-21, and many are excellent climbs. Most routes are well protected, many with bolts, but three of the oldest routes, on the right end of the cliff, are awaiting re-bolting and the bolts may not be safe.
The rock is the coarse-grained Mt Pleasant trachyte, which gives excellent friction. As with all the Mt Pleasant cliffs, beware of loose flakes, especially as many climbs have had only a few ascents.

History
The initial climbing by Brian Fish and Joe Arts in 1981 of five routes on the south-facing right hand end was an odd quirk in the development of Christchurch climbing. At Lyttelton Rock, Scratching Julius, which was the catalyst for development of that crag, had not yet been done. To reach Crag X more accessible crags were bypassed, and the largest part of the crag was ignored. Little wonder that the crag was mostly left alone for a decade, until Joe Arts started a second phase of development in 1991-92, of which the notable route was the crag's showpiece, Gripping Scales.
Finally, in October 1997 Lindsay Main and Joe Arts set some kind of a record by doing eight new routes during one hot spring day to clean up most of the obvious remaining lines.
 

Image
Walktime
15 min
Aspect
West
Lat/lon
POINT (172.733865 -43.591213)
Topo50
BX24 785 733
Access

Approaches
The fastest approach is to park on the Summit Road at the pine trees and walk south across Greenwood Park, southward along the vehicle track to the gun emplacements. Cross the fence at an old sign and pick up the track that zig-zags downward the gully toward Lyttlelton.

You can also park at the Major Hornbrook Track, as for Lyttelton Rock, and walk along the Bluffs Track. However this is quite long.

Add Place Add Route

Routes

Reference Title Grade Length Pro Quality Operations
Pig In A Poke 16
0
Fun In The Sun 14
1.02
X Foliate 17 20m
0
Out Of Control 14
1.02
When You're Hot You're Hot 20 2
0
Be My Guest 18
0
MW Modern World 22 15m 5
0
GS Gripping Scales 20 14m 5
2.01
Defence Lawyer 17 14m 1
0
Black Magic 20 4
0
Something Fishy 20 14m 3
0
Unnamed 18 20m 2
0
Unnamed 15 20m
0
TS The Stylemaster 21 8m 2
1.02
SH Sheep On The Hoof 15 8m
0
Tiny Tim Blows A Fuse 15
0
OB Oily Bullah 15 8m
0
MW Mysterious Ways 18 4
0
Calling the Flock, 25 21 8m 2
1.02
The Rubbish Run 19 15m 4
0
MF No Scrap Metal 19
0
Mind The Fuchsia 17 2
0
Cash Cow Machine 20 12m 2
0
Salvaged Ego 16 12m 2
0
Repressed Anxieties 21 12m 2
0
Space Junk 24 4
0
Existential Climber 20 12m 1
0
Champagne Breakfast 19
0
Frogs' Legs 17 4m
0
Fish Out Of Water 21 20m
0
Comments
petemoore

Grades & Bolt counts aren't being copied from the Pitch info for some reason?

Thu, 25/10/2018 - 15:30 Permalink
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Attribution
Lindsay Main
UUID
 
a2861a01-e905-4389-9dd6-36e8bda0b3ef