Today I returned to Crouching Dragon stream with Richard with the goal of removing the “rope” which had broken away from its anchor on the final cliff of the route. Instead of falling cleanly to the bottom of the gorge it had snagged on a knob in the rock, and was hanging precariously down the cliff.
This “rope” was weighing on my mind since I discovered it in this state last Thursday, because it literally begged someone to climb it, being the only “rope” visible and reachable from the ground. I put “rope” in quotes because, as you’ll see, once I hauled it up I discovered it wasn’t a single length of rope at all, but something that had been haphazardly patched together.
We also had an eventful hike in – it began raining as we left the main trail and entered the upper stream, and within 5 minutes we watched a significant new stream and this 5m waterfall develop where previously there had been no flow at all! On our return a few hours later this waterfall had completely disappeared again.
It added considerable flow to the stream we were descending, even this near the top, and meant we had to be very careful picking our way down towards the cliff edge.
Normally you can cautiously make your way down this dry ramp and peer directly over the edge into the gorge, but when we first arrived today there was too much water flow to do that safely:
Using a proper rope however we could move down to the edge and see the snagged “rope” was still there:
We headed left and crossed over the end of the slot, and inspected the first anchor point on the opposite cliff (not visible in the above photo). Sure enough, we found around 2m of frayed red rope dangling from a tree.
This we removed completely. We then traversed further along the treeline. Along the way Richard, whose backpack always seems to contain everything except the kitchen sink , helpfully pulled out a saw and made the path a bit safer by getting rid of a couple of awkward branches, and also producing a small pair of pruning shears and doing a bit of general gardening š
Once we reached the anchor point of the rightmost fixed rope we rigged our own top rope, and both abseiled down to the middle of the cliff.
From the middle of the cliff removing the snagged rope proved to be a bit of a challenge – not because the terrain is difficult, but because the cliff was still fairly wet and slippery in parts. To reach the snagged rope I climbed up the ramp above from (3) to (4) and down climbed the slab past (1).
With the luxury of being on belay, I had time to look around and noticed a few head-sized flakes on the regularly climbed area that could pull at any time – the biggest is on the un-roped slab at (1). The thick rope coiled at (4) doesn’t quite reach down to the base of the slab, so if you choose that way up be very careful. It’s probably much safer to follow the green line and traverse right and then leftwards up the ramp from (3) to (4) – but beware another large loose hold on that ramp!
After sending a few waves down the dangling rope it finally unhooked from the knob of rock (2), and I started hauling it up. This wasn’t easy because it was soaked and dragging heavily – this was the main reason I didn’t try it it last Thursday when I was unroped. Today, however, once I actually had it all pulled up it was easy enough, even with an armful of soggy rope, to return by tension traverse to Richard belaying at (3) , where I stashed it in my bag for later study.
When I arrived home, I laid out the “rope”:
The presumed detachment point from the anchor rope is highlighted in the red circle. As you can see, it’s not so much a rope, but a collection of twines and shoulder straps that were put together in a pinch – or perhaps it was repaired multiple times. Whatever the case, I was not willing to add yet another segment and re-anchor this rotting “rope”!
We cut off the snagged rope from the “V” of the two remaining ropes and tied off the tail at (3).
Of the two remaining ropes, the one on the left as you face the cliff (4) is fairly thick. The one on the right (5) is very old red rope twisted with knotted static line of maybe 7mm – the red rope disintegrates in your hands:
Overall we were appalled at the condition of the ropes, and the dangers involved in soloing either of these two routes, especially in the wet but also because of the loose flakes. We considered removing the other two ropes, but after much soul searching, coupled with the fact that they start in the middle of the cliff, not from the bottom, we decided to leave them there as a possible lifeline of last resort. Please don’t take this as any indication these old disintegrating ropes are safe. They’re not. Don’t use them! Far preferable would be to properly lead this cliff as an easy trad climbing route. Or turn back and reverse the stream if you’re at all uneasy. There’s no prizes for scaling this cliff.
The traverse across past (2), which I did last Thursday, is the easiest and perhaps most solid terrain but is often wet so it still requires great care. One slip on the wet ramp, or wavering in your balance and you are taking what will probably be your final ride down the absolutely vertical 15-20m wall of the slot gorge. Clearly, as it aged, the “rope” which previously “protected” this traverse couldn’t even hold it’s own weight.
Before leaving we couldn’t resist using our top rope for one last climb straight up the cliff, and with the added safety of being belayed, able to turn and admire the incredible views all the way down the Crouching Dragon gorge to Wong Lung Hang.
Looking at the time we realised we’d been playing around on these cliffs for nearly 3 hours, and it was already late afternoon, so it was time to climb out, pack up all the gear, and leave.
When we returned to the “viewing platform” most of the flow had stopped and it was once again safe enough to scramble down to the edge for one final look.
Huge thanks to Richard for spending a wet Sunday with me cutting out this snagged/dangling “rope” and removing a tempting but lethal situation. He also took most of the photos and videos, hauled by far the heaviest bag, and did all of the gardening work on the cliff š¤£. The rain certainly ensured an adventure but, despite being horrified at the fixed roped situation, it was a fun variation on the usual stream trek.
MarkT 