Balls Pyramid Scientific Expedition Talk

One of the great pleasures of working at the climbing wall is getting to meet inspiring people and hearing about some of the exciting things they do, Vanessa Wills’ and Dave Gray’s recent expedition to Balls Pyramid is so interesting that they are holding a public talk.

Talk Details:

The talk should interest anyone interested in climbing, geology, insects or adventure.

Time: 7.00 PM – 8.30 PM on Thursday 16th November 2017
Venue: “The Grove”, 130 Garden Grove Parade, Adamstown
Tickets: $10, available from Pulse Climbing Adamstown or online at Eventbrite (a booking fee applies to sales through Eventbrite).

We will send any profits to the Hunter Valley and Central Coast Crag Care.

Balls Pyramid

At 561 metres high, Balls Pyramid is the world’s largest sea stack. It sits only 20 kilometres from Lord Howe Island, but looks nothing like the lush sub-tropical island. Balls Pyramid can be described as inhospitable, even barren.  Before this expedition, no-one had climbed it (legally) for 31 years. And only 53 people had previously ever been to the summit.

The Scientific Expedition

Vanessa Wills and David Gray climbed the Pyramid as part of an Australian Museum expedition, which consisted of specialist zoologist Dr Frank Koehler, Hank Bower from the Lord Howe Island Board, Tom Bannigan, a freelance journalist with a penchant for drone videography and six specialist climbers.

The Australian Museum organised the expedition to search for the Howe Island stick insect.  The insect was once thought to be extinct, but was rediscovered on Balls Pyramid. Scientists managed to grab two breeding pairs in 2003, which led to a successful breeding programme at Melbourne Zoo. Zoologists wanted to get more of the stick insects to improve genetic diversity.