Frog Buttress and the Scenic Rim

WELCOME TO OUR LOCAL LORE COLUMN, WHERE WE DROP A PIN ON THE CLIMBING MAP AND ASK LOCALS TO GIVE US THE BETA. FROM LOCAL CLIMBING LEGENDS AND LORE TO MUST-DO-ROUTES AND HISTORICAL DEEP DIVES, WE’RE LETTING OUR FAVOURITE LOCALS LOOSE ON THESE PAGES TO TELL US HOW WE SHOULD BE SPENDING OUR TIME IN THEIR BACKYARDS.

Calm down, deep breaths. My heartbeat is deafening. I question the decisions that have led me to my current position. I am perched high on the flank of an open corner, frozen in a precarious stance, a row of small RPs connecting my lifeline to the cliff. The sun has come out and black lichen is sticky on my clammy skin. A passing friend offers me a wave, but I lack the capacity to wave back. 

The route I am climbing is aptly named Barbwire Canoe (25). I feel like I’m up shit creek without a paddle. Why am I doing this? 

I glance down and see my patient belayer Frosty casually seated on a rock while still attentively feeding out rope. “You’ll be right just keep feeding them in,” he calls up to me. 

Yes, gear would be really nice right now. Why didn’t I just lead Infinity? That next hold doesn’t look very solid, must remember to not pull too hard. I glance down again, but the last RP doesn’t look any closer. Maybe I should pursue something else instead of climbing, like stamp collecting? How did I get here?

My journey into traditional climbing started like many others. During my childhood growing up in country Beaudesert, I’d stare southwards from pretty much anywhere and see the same serrated horizon. The Mt Barney massif dominates the skyline of the scenic rim.

The first European to venture into this gagged landscape was Patrick Logan in 1828 ascending Mt Barney by the North-East ridge of east peak now known as Logans Ridge. Nearly a century later in the 1930s, climbing began to be embraced as a recreational activity. Early bushwalking groups and university clubs ventured out of the city to explore the many peaks of the scenic rim.

Climbing quickly consumed me. It became an obsession. The feeling that steals into the heart in a place of rugged beauty and peaceful silence. As a pimply faced teenager, I don’t think I fully understood the path I’d set myself on. 

In the post-war 1940s, more people were drawn to the mountains. Bushwalking became steeper and more technical. Clubs employed the use of ropes and pitons from new techniques learned in Europe. This advancement led to longer and harder walls. The 1960s produced the tallest routes on the mainland: Mt Barney’s East Face of East Peak 300m (17) and North Face of Leaning Peak 400m (14). Climbing in this period was predominantly restricted to tall peaks with long adventurous wall routes, many of which were situated in the Glasshouse Mountains.

“WHERE A HAND IN A CRACK IS LIKE A CRACK IN THE HEAD… YOU’LL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN!” — STUART CAMPS

AS AN APPRENTICE TRADIE JUST OUT OF SCHOOL, I DROVE PAST AND GAZED UP AT THE BAND OF JUMBLED PILLARS. SOMEONE HAD TOLD ME ONE DAY, “THERE’S SOME GOOD ROCK CLIMBING THERE APPARENTLY”.

The emergence of single pitch traditional climbing in Queensland is often thought to have been in November 1968, where Rick White and Chris Meadows made a rainy day reconnaissance to a craggy outcrop on the flank of Mt French. They named the cliff “Frog Buttress”. As an apprentice tradie just out of school, I drove past and gazed up at the band of jumbled pillars. Someone had told me one day, “There’s some good rock climbing there apparently”. 

Frog has been described as a library of rhyolite books standing tall above the grasstrees and goannas, burnt, and cracked from a millennium under a harsh Australian sun. These books hide many 

KYLE ADDY ON BARBWIRE CANOE (25). PHOTO BY SANDY ADDY.

stories in their cracks, tales of struggle and reward. The escarpment of columns and flutes hold the best and most accessible crack climbing in Australia. Unlike the holdless dolerite mega cracks of Tasmania, the rhyolite of Frog can be very sympathetic, offering face holds and stances with cracks of every size, from finger cracks to chimneys. 

Throughout the decades, Frog took centre stage of Queensland climbing and has remained the forefront of hard trad climbing. Since its discovery, Frog has seen every grade jump in Qld trad climbing to date. 

“Brown Corduroy Trousers” (28) has remained the hardest pure trad climb in Queensland for 40 years; it is described in Joe Lynch’s Frog guidebook as, “Not a route ergonomically designed to facilitate the upwards progress of a human being.”  

The earlier days saw climbers local, and interstate, whittle away at moves on the plumb lines, establishing some of the best crack climbing in the country. 

Crack routes of mega status include:

• “Resurrection Corner” 18
•  “Infinity” 19
•  “Devil Dihedral” 20 
•  “Conquistador” 21
•  “Child in Time” 22
•  “Deliverance” 23 
•  “Impulse” 24

Over time cracks got thinner and thinner producing fantastic technical seams including: 

•  “Stars look Down” 20
•  “Epic Journey” 23
•   “Worrying Heights” 24
•   “Voices in the Sky” 25
•   “Voices in the Sky” 25

Inevitably, people began to read between the lines. Occupying between the vertical flutes and corners came striking bolted aretes, such as:

•  The barn dooring layback “Hard Nose” 25
•  The brilliant face “Time for Tea” 27
•   Fridge hugging brutality on “Debrilla” 28, and
•   Technical wizardry on “Pokamokoand the Valley Girl” 30
•   “Voices in the Sky” 25

It’s easy to find the classics, but there are also many amazing routes that sometimes get overlooked. 

•  “IF” 16 feels like a typical SEQ adventure
•  “The Anti From” 21 is a memorable lead up an exposed pillar
•   The link up of “Inquisition and Catcher in the Rye” 23 is a sustained  groovy crack climb
• “Gone and Forgotten” features desperate technical arete climbing 
• with just enough gear, and
•  “Chook Fear” 26 is a delicate and technical blank corner. 

However, not all SEQ revolves around Frog; the Southeast holds many hidden delights. Mt Maroon is home to many seldomly travelled classics with the East Face offering a range of multi pitch undertakings. 

“Ruby of India” 16 is regarded as our best moderate trad adventure 

“Phaedra” 21 provides some old school spice in a seriously classy atmosphere. 

The Antichrist is an historic route up the centre of the face and in 1971 it was the hardest aid line in the country. Graded M7 it exceeded the standards of the hard aids on Lord Gumtree and Ozymandias at Mt Buffalo. The route has been freed at a lofty grade 28 and is yet to see a second free ascent. 

Located just down the hill from the east face, “Wedgies Place” sports some of the best rock in QLD. The upper tier has the classic finger crack “Ejaculatory Powers” 22–arguably purer than those at Frog. 

The tier is accessed by other shy classics either the arapilesian “Something special” 23 or fine corner “Nothing Much” 18. Down the hill further is “The Nympho” roof crack. An eye-catching feature that has had very few ascents due to a nasty reputation, when in fact, the protection is quite manageable.

Mt Barney is another destination that is frequented with many bushwalkers ascending the mountains numerous ridges and peaks. It is perhaps Queensland’s only “real” mountain. At 1359m it holds a magic alpine atmosphere.

Although Barney trad routes usually come hand in hand with trip reports of “rock the consistency of kitty litter” “portable holds” or “whole pitches of vegetation”, those not fussed on this style of chossnanza can find sanctuary on new age adventure, “The Governor” 22, a 320m sport route on the East Face. The Gov offers a spectacular big day out in a breathtaking position.

Don’t blow it, just one move at a time. Concentrate on the climbing, the falling will take care of itself. Focus on performance not the goal. After an hour and half on lead I gingerly clambered over the top out. Pale face and emotional, I went through the motions of establishing a belay.

Sometimes I get so caught up in the movement, I forget to relax, and listen. The sounds of cicadas and the wind in the trees. Turning back to see the grassy rolling hills and sleepy country towns that extend to the foot of the dividing range. It’s never just about the route, it’s a feeling.

That’s why I climb.