Point And Shoot On the 16th of September (the same day he ticked Steaming Wally (26) with Aaron Jones), Cameron Fairbairn led The Olos Slab (25) without the chipped hold (harder!). He now describes the crux as "a technical dance with your feet". To the chagrin of anyone working on the redpoint currently, there are now tentative plans to clean up the route by filling in the chipped hold and stabilising a dangerous flexing block on the headwall.  Vandals sprayed multicoloured graffiti along the base of the cliff on the night of the 23rd or 24th of September. This is a serious eyesore, and has affected some boulder problems. Hopefully it’ll get cleaned up, but it’s unlikely that the Council are going to be the ones that do it. It would be great to see climbers get down there with some paint stripper and wire brushes. The Outdoor Pursuits Group would like to warn climbers that needles have been found at the top of the cliff, so be especially careful when setting up anchors. Take special care when passing ropes through the holes in the rock wall.	Cliffcare A film and slide night was held on the 20th of October at the University of Queensland to promote the South East Queensland Abseiling and Rockclimbing Forum, and it’s proposed Cliffcare programme.  The night was a great success with around 120 people in attendance. The two films were Mark Baker’s “Wild Buffalo” and Rob Rankin’s 1976 “To Walk The Vertical” which documents an early ascent of East Crookneck. By far the most popular part of the night was Scott Camps’ slideshow, highlighting climbing in many areas of SE Queensland, Australia, and overseas with hundreds of stunning, magazine-quality images. Hopefully the local crags will benefit from the night, with the promotion of Cliffcare which aims to organise volunteers to help maintain climbing areas, as is being done in the Blue Mountains. If you’d like to get involved and give something back, please send an email to info@qorf.org.au
Froggy Fall   Maybe I can shed some light on the fall in June at Frog Buttress. I was climbing Gladiator and was about half way up (6 - 8 metres) when I slipped.    At the time I was about to place some more pro. My top two pieces of pro were cams. They both pulled allowing the rope to reach the ground. I have been climbing with Victorian Climbing Club for fifteen years.    My injuries consist of a burst fracture to the first lumbar vertebrae, which is now stabilised with pins and rods. Left ankle broken in a number of places, no load bearing for twelve weeks. Minor break to right ankle. Fortunately no nerve damage. Considering falls from four metres are fatal in 25% of cases I have been let off lightly.   --Mark Synnot	Foreign Correspondent My hit list so far completed in the last two weeks: * Leaning Tower - West Face - A2 - two days - 11 pitches - one ledge bivy * Half Dome - Regular NW Route - A1+ 5.10 - 2.5 days - 22 pitches - two ledge bivys - it snowed on us on this route during the last day! * El Capitan - Zodiac - A2+ - 3.5 days - 16 pitches - two portaledge bivys. We still haven't placed any pins - but have used lots of funky shit like cam hooks and slider nuts to get through cruxes. I took a 6m fall on Zodiac, pulling out two cams and getting bad rope burn on my hand and a busted lip and elbow. I then had to keep climbing for another two days. The walk out was epic - 8 hours. Nick & Poul did Lurking Fear A2+ (four days) whilst I went and soloed a mad 13,300m mountain route in the Sierra Nevada. It took me three days and involved full-on twin axe death ice climbing. No self-arrest possible for the entire 1km long 40 degree ice couloir to the summit. Other interesting, but not so nice news is that we all watched some base jumper kill themselves on El Cap the other day. It was in a formal protest jump with 100 onlookers. Three other guys had jumped before her and had been arrested by the feds but she never pulled her chute. She fell 1km from the top of El Cap. The sound of her hitting the scree is something I will never forget. --Neil Monteith
Boulders In The North   Several new quality problems have been added to Emerald Creek during a quick visit by Jason Shaw and Steve & Tris Baskerville. Crimpers In The Closet V2, is a short and technical slab problem, while the direct start still awaits an ascent and should weigh in at about V4. Jason added WonderBra V3/V4, a classic dynamic problem on the trackside boulder. He also added Because He Didn't Have Weetbix For Breakfast V3, a powerful problem on the same boulder. Other new problems include Stung V1, Slapstick V1, Slapangry V3 and a host of easier problems. At nearby Davies Creek a few problems were established up to about V3.   On Magnetic Island at Alma Bay Doug Hockly established a handful of problems on the Slap Happy boulder including a dangerous V5 and an amazing V5/V6. Reeven climbs a slabby wall on one fingertip pockets and a few dismal slopers and finishes via a dyno to a, quote, “ripple of rock”. A heap of other classic problems have been done, and almost all have fantastic beach landings.    --Steve Baskerville	Snake In The Box When should you work on your hardest route ever? Perhaps during the pouring rain! On the very wet first weekend of October, Aaron Jones succeeded getting through the crux on his project at Serpent - Pandora’s Box, bolted by Darrin Carter. The crux sequence involves about seven extreme power moves up a severely overhanging wall using crap holds including shallow one finger pockets and an undercling-pinch high above the head. Unfortunately, once through the crux, the angle eased enough to let the rain in, shutting down Aaron’s efforts. At this stage he was confident that he’d send the route soon at the suspiciously conservative grade of 26. On the following weekend, while working the route, Aaron latched the undercling-pinch, only to have the hold shatter in his hand. It’s now a downward sloping edge. Ever the optimist, Aaron thinks the route will still go, but at a higher grade…stay tuned.
Stuff We Like To Read Douglas Hockly's "A Climber's Guide To Townsville and Magnetic Island" was launched in Townsville on the 23rd of October with a slide night held at The Rockface Gym. The 80 page guide covers all of the crags that are currently open in the Townsville area, giving both easy to follow and accurate directions to accessing the crags. 27 full colour photos enhance the guide, contributed by various photographers. The route descriptions too are very good, mainly because Doug spent a long time visiting all of the crags and climbing many of the routes (research is tough, isn't it!). One of the most pleasing aspects of the guide is the very personal nature of it; Doug has managed to write an extremely funny guidebook, with some quite remarkable stories. The guide is also in a handy size (A6) that can easily be carried on multipitch routes. Doug has done Townsville climbing a great service by highlighting the wide variety of sensational climbing found in the Townsville area. [While this is true and with no slight to Doug, it’s pertinent for online-aware climbers to note that much of the information in the guide is sourced from online guides on The Original Queensland Climbing Reference – Ed.] If you'd like a copy of the guide, email Doug directly. It retails for $17.95. --Steve Baskerville	By Hook Or By Crookneck In addition to his exploits at KP, Cameron Fairbairn also had some fun on Crookneck’s south-east face. He got up Freddie Goes To Sybils (the stalactite roof - 21), and most of Chookneck (thin crack/face - 21) before dark halted proceedings. Aaron Jones later teamed up with Lee Skidmore to onsight both routes. Lee showed his displeasure by savagely headbutting the stalactite under the roof on Freddie and now sports a sexy scar which he tells people he got while street fighting. Gareth Llewellin onsighted the scary Red Lips, Hair and Fingernails (50m 21) amongst other things.   Other climbers active on Crookneck recently  include Scott Camps and Adam Donoghue with ascents of A Cup Of Tea, A Bex And A Good Lie Down (55m 21) and Para’s And Quad’s (70m 21), both on the very intimidating east face. Relaxing for a second on the second pitch of A Cup Of Tea… saw Adam take an 8m fall, skidding down the rock on his face! He was pulled up by a small RP.
Corrections Steve Moore and Nathan Bolton didn't get up Saint And Sinner cleanly as reported. Presumably, the first clean local ascent is still up for grabs. Kris Bourke's name was misspelt.	Guides And New Places Writing of the Glasshouse and Serpent guidebooks is still under way. The Serpent guide should be released in early 2000, and the Glasshouse guide in mid 2000. If you have any info to go in the guides, contact me. The lovely little granite-boulder area of Turkey Hill in Mareeba, west of Cairns is seeing some action, with local climber Simon Thompson beginning the guidebook process. As a cool technological aside, he's using GPS to map the boulders. Contact him for information.   New routing development is ongoing at two minor new areas, day-trippable from Brisbane. One area is overhanging and will contain around 12 sporty, hard (mostly 22+) routes when completed. The other is spread out and will host a similar number of easy to moderate routes (21 and under) on blocky walls and slabs. Both areas are shady and have great access. Beta for the latter area will hopefully be released in the January 1 issue of qurank. Information for the former area will be released once projects have been completed.