Written by K2 Team Member - Jeffrey Olivier
We recently took on a scouting trip to Wayne's World with a couple of climbers (goats) from the "Be the Goat" climbing group. We were looking to familiarise ourselves with lesser-known local crags that cater to newer climbers with fun, lower graded climbs. We had never visited Wayne’s World at Beerwah before and hearing that the crag stays in the shade during the day, we decided on a late start for the adventure.
Thanks to the delayed start the group were able to head straight for the Glasshouse Mountains Lookout Cafe. Where I watched my friends look on in awe as I indulged in their massive farm style burger.
The approach to Wayne's World
Using The Crag's approach section, our GPS led us to "the car park" off a motorbike trail. Had we taken the right turn, our little Toyota would have managed, but instead one wrong turn off found us thankful for our friends’ 4X4. To add to this, our little Toyota Corolla had already taken enough of a beating getting to Point Pure at Brooyar the previous weekend...
As a test, we were using the WikiLoc app, designed for recording bush trails, for our walk to allow other members to easily find the entry. With the path being not too well worn and consequently there was a little more bash bashing involved than expected. There was a little knotted rope left behind to mark the entrance of the crag. Beautiful.
The surprise warm-up climb
Using our Climbing SE QLD guidebook, the warm-up took place on a simple two-pitch trad climb. The route relies on carrots so we bought some bolt plates on the previous day in preparation. Initially the carrots were a little difficult to spot, but with some confidence in researching that we were at the beginning of the climb, we set off on the ascend.
Check this link out to find out more about climbing on carrots for the first time: https://climbingschool.com.au/climbing-on-carrots/
The climb itself was particularly thin with not much in the way of trad placements and 6 metres up I was yet to find my carrot.
Coming over the lip I came to the carrot location and, to my surprise, I found that the carrot had been replaced by new ring bolts with a little tag on them reading "Do Not Use"...oops!
Luckily, there were some other bolts about 5 metres to the right that I could traverse to with the help of a small nut placement.
The new climb was 4 grades higher than my planned warm-up and with the added rope drag I was very warm by the top of the pitch.
I remembered from the guidebook that the second pitches were pretty easy. By the time my second climber had made his way up I was eager to jump on the second pitch. The book suggested mixed trad and carrots, so I found a spot for 1 DMM offset on the whole pitch which was in the middle of a 10 metre run out. I was thankful for it.
It was a windy day and watching the trees thrashing about was mesmerizing. After taking in the beautiful view we decided to rappel down. We found that my first pitch on the new unplanned climb was longer than 30 metres and my rope was not going to be long enough.
The way down
Making sure to tie knots at the ends of our rope we planned to simul-rappel down, hoping that with the static elongation of the rope and both our body weights the rope would stretch enough to make it to the bottom. We were only 3 metres off but thankfully we landed on a ledge putting the rest of the downclimb within our skill levels. Back on the ground.
The rest of the day went by without too many incidents, it was great climbing with great people. When climbing at Wayne's World again I will double-check the crag.com for updates.
I would recommend taking along mosquito spray, a stick clip and some small nuts or hexes.
All in all, our scouting trip was a success and I will be back with the Goats!
