Firestarter Traverse

2 Stars
DWS
 6b S0

Adjacent Routes
<< None < None  |  White Rino > White Elephant >>

350m. A great expedition. From the boulder beach at the base of the gully, climb the face out of the bay and on. Essentially, the route takes you through a series of bays, past the White Elephant Area, continuing on to pass a number of cleverly-built fishermen's concrete ledges. The natural finish is at the ladder to the right of the Bruce Lee Buttress, and the grade will depend on your exact line as you pass through the White Elephant Sector.
FSA. Julian Lines, Mike Robertson (swinging leads) 9.2005

USER COMMENTS

Great route! Several comments though. First off, the diagram on p242 is labelled wrongly: what is marked as Bruce Lee Butress is in fact White Elephant Rea, and what is marked as Jellystone Buttress is in fact Bruce Lee Buttress (Jellystone Buttress is hidden), and the dotted line should continue right to the edge, where you can almost see the ladder (as on p244). Nevertheless, the entrance to secret lagoon is correctly marked.

Second, is the traverse under White Rino and White Elephant really 6b? Looked well harder to me. I walked along the higher ledge at this point. Even doing this, the route is solid 6b in 2 places (20-30m from the start, and crossing Bruce Lee).

Also, the access descriptions are a bit inadequate. It's not at all complicated to scramble over the top of Bruce Lee Buttress, allowing you to do the last bit of Firestarter Traverse on it's own (which is a superb 6b in its own right), or access White Rino/Elephant by an easy traverse from the north (4).
john bull - 10/Nov/08

Login to your ROCKFAX account to add your comments - Search for comments.