Mount Arapiles

Mount Arapiles

Mount Arapiles is a rock formation with a maximum height of 369 m in the region Wimmera in the west of the state of Victoria, Australia. It is part of the Mount Arapiles - Tooan state parks and is located about 10 km west of Natimuk, Victoria. The traditional name of the Aborigines is Dyurrait (also Djurite written ). The cliffs of Mount Arapiles are a popular destination for rock climbers because of the great variety of climbing routes.

History

The first ascent by a European was in 1836 by Thomas Livingstone Mitchell. He named the mountain after a hill in Spain, near which the Battle of Salamanca had occurred. 1963 acquired Mount Arapiles attention in modern climbing scene by a visit from Bob and Steve Craddock, in which the first routes were climbed and recorded in this area. Other climbers and thus routes followed in the next years and decades, and influenced the local climbing history. Mention may be made, among other climbers as Henry Barber, Kim Carrigan, Louise Shepherd, Wolfgang Güllich and Stefan Glowacz. By 1999, over 2500 routes were already listed, the most difficult of them rated XI ( UIAA scale).

Geology

The rocks consist of quartzite and thus from metamorphic rocks. Originally, it was mainly to quartz-rich sandstone, sedimentary rock that had been deposited 420 million years ago in a giant river system, which also included the Grampians among others. Under this rock magma that never reached the surface, but solidified as granite underground collected. Due to the enormous heat of the overlying sandstone recrystallized partially quartzite. The still remaining sandstone eroded so that only the part of the metamorphic rocks to this day remained.