Ah Pierces Pass now this is a place we were sooooo looking forward to. We had been told that the access might be misleading by more than one person and reading the book the climb we had our eye on to test ourselves on would normally take a 6 to 7 hrs car to car. So we were at the car park by 8am knowing we had the whole day and started the walk in. Because most of the cliffs are below road level, you either have a steep decent track of a leisurely walk to a rap. For this one it was the latter, after following the ridge we meandered our way through gully crossing the creek three times:
Then it was a walk along lunchtime ledge, quite a long walk but pretty safe as it was good and wide. You may get a glimpse of the scale of this place in the background. We were still 100m above the base of the cliff and above us at this point there was another 40m above us. The day was looking good, a blue sky and not too hot but the wind was threatening to pick up a bit with the promise of gusts of 40km/hr or so:
We found the rap station first time with no back tracking required, success so far. I had parent alert going off inside my head so let Rongy take the lead on the abseils, it had simply been way to long since I had been as adventurous as this on an approach. There were two abseils to make both of them would stretch a 50m rope but we luckily had two 60m ropes, unfortunately both singles so we were dragging a bit more weight than needed with us:
The first rap got us to a ledge that was good enough for a few to stand on but it felt like you were floating on a cloud. The next rap took us all the way down and for two thirds of it we were to be hanging in space which is a pretty eerie feeling. Many of you will know I’m not a fan of abseiling and only do it out of necessity. Curse those insurance people who reckon it is safer than climbing!
After pulling the ropes we had a short walk along the base to find the start of our climb, by now we had a good all over body warm up. We found a little sign indicating BBB for Bunny Bucket Buttress, a big classic mountain day out that was supposed to have two scramble pitches in its impressive 8 pitch covering 270 glorious meters. I had first lead which involved what many say has the hardest move of the climb right at the start. It certainly was a bit thuggee and even had a glue hold on it, but we will forgive them that:
Pitch one was awesome and then came pitch two, the rock was solid and the climbing was nice and consistent. The first two pitches were not too long but after that they started to get up to 40m and you could really get into the climbing (and feel the weight of two single ropes being dragged up behind you). We travelled light, ropes, gear, a few snacks an, water and a thin down jacket. Thanks to Chris who leant me his, while I did have my Buffalo with me and did use it on these big multi-pitch days his jacket was brilliant:
Pitch 3 was mine and what a pitch it was the quality kept coming and dare I say improving. It was a thinking pitch that made you wonder which way it went. While the climb is fully bolted the path of least resistance weaved about a bit and kept you continually looking and loving the moves with great exposure. As with the sport climbs we had encountered you were never far from a bolt which could be the only downside of this (and many other) great climb:
I’ve skipped a few pitches now as we had the scramble pitches, of which only one forced us off rock and onto shaly vegetated slopes. The one that stays on rock while never hard still was great fun and consistent, so we didn’t feel that it detracted from the quality of the climb in any way. So here Rongy is setting off on pitch 6, an impressive traverse into space and then he disappeared round the corner and kept going:
That is where we found out where the climb got its name a massive 70m buttress that is made up almost entirely of big juggy ironstone holds. The shapes where so good and the holds were unbelievable, it was never hard but sooooo much fun jugging up this wall on holds that you might think would break but seemed solid as. That said we both agreed it was not the sort of terrain you’d want to take a fall and some of the edges got pretty sharp and the ropes probably wouldn’t like that:
I had the upper pitch on the wall 40m of steep juggy climbing – woo hoo! With lots of space below and the big blue sky above it was one of the most pleasurable pitches I did on the trip. Of course it had to end but not before the rock changed to a rounded sandstone finish just to add that extra sting in the tail, and then Rongy came up to join me. The wind had behaved and while we got a bit cold especially the fingers the gusts were not too bad and never interfered:
Rongy headed off leaving me to enjoy a great belay spot with awesome views out across the valley. This place certainly did hit the right spot and we both loved every minute of the climbing. It also made us even more eager to get back here to jump on the other classic we had previously spied – Hotel California. A longer and harder climb but we were feeling good about the idea if the weather held. On this last pitch I picked up a few small broken ironstone holds as mementos to bring back, one of which is now on my desk at work:
After topping out we had a snack or two and enjoyed the scenery before packing up and trudging back out to the car. This is certainly the place that we both agreed was worth coming back for, lots of great multi-pitch lines on offer and simple stunning scenery. What was however interesting was that so far we had seen very little if any reptiles, birds or even flowers:
The walk out takes a different path and after 30min or so we hit the road and had to follow that for a km or so. It wasn’t the best way to round the trip off and the sudden sign of litter, car fumes and noise hit us pretty hard. The verges are not the widest and the road gets busy with big trucks so we had to watch ourselves on this leg:
We did however come across these beautiful flowers on the road side, and I have no idea what they are called. We found them a few more times in bush locations but they were not widespread, so I’m guessing they were not weeds. It was lovely to see a splash of colour that didn’t involve a fast moving vehicle or the litter that some bogan had thrown out of their window. We got back to the car by 1pm so a five hour round trip – not bad. A lot of that we put down to our belay set ups, we were quick and prepared for change overs, as the guide said waste 10min on each station and there’s an extra hour and half:
Hot dam we were back at the house at 1:30 and needed some warming up so, time for a very dignified spot of lunch and hearty cup of tea while sat in the sun on the decking. Now it is not clear as to why this decking which is separate to the house was built facing the house when if it looked the other way you can just see the valley and at least look through the trees? But it faced the sun and that is what counted at this point in time:
I mentioned before that the lucky Chris and Sirja could walk to their local crag, and seeing we finished so early we decided to check one out. So we headed to Engineers which was literally a 300m walk from the front door. We had been told that there was a climb here that simply begged to be climbed and after working our way to the abseil point we looked down and admired the top half of Catch the Wind. It looked good but hard. Being a single abseil of only 40m I was more than happy to go first and headed down to check out the full line:
Unfortunately it was seeping in the bottom half so we decided not to go for it. Being a sustained layback finger crack that required smearing on the slick face it just felt that the start would not be enjoyable. This was the one and only place where we encountered seepage in the whole trip, and besides there was an impressive looking wall to the left that we had to play on anyway. I say that but they looked steeper and harder and so I offered up the lead to Rongy:
He plumped for Passing Wind, no seriously that was the name of the climb. A seriously steep but beautiful orange wall awaited and off he set. Along with learning to jam on his globe-trotting climbing trip he also learnt the art of shaking out. He managed to find a hold and hang there for some time while shaking one had out at a time. So I soon learnt how hard a climb was going to be by the amount of shaking out going on. On this climb there was a LOT of shaking out:
After a long time he made it up and bagged yet another very impressive on-sight. Gulp, then it was my turn and the battle was on from the offset. It was the type of Blue Mountains sandstone climbing we had expected. Crimp and high foot it up, move after move after move. I worked my way up higher, and higher but with a possible shake out hold in sight my forearms were close to busting and I slipped. I simply didn’t have the same stamina and couldn’t shake out as well, and it showed on a few of the harder climbs we tried. So while I had a rest I was still chuffed with the style of the second but felt shattered when I topped out – the face is not put on. I did however have energy for a fist pump to celebrate a storming lead, something Chris and Rongy introduced me too:
While I may have been pooped it was still too early to bail so I plumped for a slab that we had abseiled down, which looked fun. A nice easy lean-into-it climb that didn’t require forearm strength but delicate footwork and balance. It was probably one of the shortest climbs we did starting halfway down the abseil, but that was all good and it was a more relaxed climb on which to finish the day:
After a good night sleep we were ready for action again. While we tried not to head back to the same crags, we were drawn back to Sublime Point due to a few classy looking multi-pitches that people rated. The last time we were here we climbed some short but fun lines and did two longer harder lines which were on the Ben Trovarto Wall, which can be seen in the background. The line we were heading for this time was a three pitch climb called The Sublime and the Beautiful. Today the winds were forecast to be higher with gusts of over 80kmph, and we were not disappointed:
With the very blustery conditions we both felt awkward on the first pitch, but started to come good towards the belay ledge that was thankfully a good size. I was being buffeted about on a big ledge while Rongy set off up a long slabby pitch that had sections which seemed devoid of holds, it was super thin in places and he had to hang on and wait for the wind to abate to be able to make the next move. At times the draws on our harnesses were no long hanging down and the conditions certainly added a lot of atmosphere to the climb:
After the third and final pitch we had to head back down. We certainly didn’t want to hang about to enjoy the glory of the ascent or the great views, we were way too cold. So I rapped down first, and due to the high winds we didn’t dare drop the ropes instead flaking them out on either side and letting them out as I went down. It was kinda fun and I was concentrating so much that I missed the anchors and ended up using a single bolt. Rongy used the bolt above so we were not hanging off just the one. But there was a bit of a silver lining and we got down in two raps instead of three:
We were a little unsure of what to do next the wind was not letting up and if anything getting stronger. But we were here so we went to check out the Sweet Dreams Wall on which our next proposed climb of Whymper was. Surprisingly there were a number of parties already there, three lined up for Sweet Dreams and one for Whymper, but none had started. The guys getting ready for Whymper offered us the chance to go ahead as they felt they may be slower, which we gratefully accepted. How could we back off with so many others there! We were glad we did as we were up the top of the fifth pitch while they were still working the second:
The wind was crazy but the way the crag faced the climb was somewhat sheltered so it added atmosphere but didn’t blow us off. The climb was a pearler, every pitch was storming with the most amazing situations on a hanging arête over nothing but big amounts of space. The rock was again full of ironstone flakes and very enjoyable, this time we had to use bolt plates and a couple of times the bag in which we carried them tipped upside down but we fortunately didn’t lose any. We had considered to go back down to climb Sweet Dreams but with so many people there and the conditions not letting up we bailed and headed out:
Back at the house we once again had a spot of lunch and warming cup of tea to wash way the worries of climbing in high winds. With the bulk of the afternoon still ahead of us we thought we would sample another local crag, this time heading for Zig Zag which was named after the zig zag path constructed by the convicts way back in the 1870’s. We didn’t know what to expect so walked along the base looking at lines until one jumped out at us, which happened to be Just for Fun and it was. We were learning that a mixed route that had carrots was in most cases full bolted, with carrots. Maybe carrots are considered tread gear over east? Still we were in the bluies and the use of bolts is something to expect:
Rongy fancies Black Bart another mixed route and this time he did indeed use some trad. The arête didn’t look anything special but was full of interest and had several tricky sequences. Being 30m it was long enough to get into the swing of the climb and become absorbed by yet another type of sandstone formation that we had not yet encountered:
Everywhere we looked there were crags and it reminded me of being in the peak district in the UK, home of the infamous gritstone. With great crags that followed the top for the valleys for miles on end. There is so much rock here and much of it unexplored, so for the adventurer this place certainly would provide endless adventures and new routing:
Time for one more climb we decided so I plumped yet again for a slab that just sang out to me. So time to put on my Dress Rehearsal Rag and tippy toe up yet another delightful crimpy slab with the occasional jug to give the finger tips some respite. The day was wearing on by now and the cold setting in as indicated by the reappearance of the down jacket. So despite there being a number of lines that looked appealing we decided to call it quits and head back:
I couldn’t resist this image. This chunky old but good looking peg was on a line we abseiled down, which looked very inviting. It was quite cool seeing all the variations in bolting from carrots to pegs, chain link bolts, ring bolts (only half in), fixed hangers and floppy hangers. It seems that the same bolting freedom exists here as in WA and you have to wonder which to trust and which not too. I guess with the excessive bolting that happens if one fails it won’t be too far to fall before you need to pray that the next one will hold:
Day six and Sirja was not working so she was going to join us on a day out to place I had been eager to see. Cosmic County looked to have some fine trad climbing, so this time as we packed the bags we made sure we had a good assortment of gear and with three of us tramping it in we could share the load. Each night and morning we would diligently unpack and sort the gear and then repack it. Sometimes we had a good idea of what was needed down to how many draws and plates or specific trad gear but other times there was a bit of guess work required. Certainly when on mixed lines there was no guessing what would and would not be needed:
Not being a premier sports crag and having what some consider a big walk in at 25min this place does not get much traffic. So not surprisingly we there the first at the carpark and probably only ones, as we didn’t see anyone else all day. The access goes past residential properties and there has in the past been some issues so they ask that you give the houses a wide berth and keep quite. That was not an issue for us as we made our way through the trees. They had been burnt some time back now and there was lots of regrowth coming up, and the contrasts between the green lush understorey and blackened dead looking trees was striking:
It was a good walk with a bit of variety, and we were soon lost from any sound of civilisation. We could however hear the train as it made its way through the mountains. At the crag we were on the opposite side of the valley to the train and it was pretty cool to see it appear and then disappear as the track wove behind the rocky headwalls. The train doesn’t run that often so it was not too disturbing and by the time we were there all day we kinda didn’t notice it:
By the time we got to the crag and wandered along it was probably more of a 45min walk but the sky was blue and there was not a breeze in the air so it was a very pleasant and relaxed walk. It only seemed right to be gentlemen and offer up ladies first (lead)! Sirja didn’t mind that idea and was eager to go, but I feel like I gave her a bum steer. Checking the area out the night before I spied a selection of climbs named after one of my favourite films – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and was keen to try a couple of them. So off she set on Blondie (The Good). It proved to be a solid lead at the grade with some run out sections, but she once again showed her resolve and made her way up without losing it:
The Bad and The Ugly didn’t look that great after closer scrutiny, so I contemplated another line that I had spied some time back. TZ was described as a good finger crack and I am partial to that kind of jamming. It is also the name of a dish I used to have when I lived in Ghana. With all that going for it and after looking at the line my mind was made up. The first pitch was a glorious corner with great stemming before the steep crack above which turned out to be more a crack for gear as you used the face and did the occasional hand jam where it opened up. It felt sustained and committing but damn good and I thrived all the way up, even if I had the jitters along the way:
It was certainly a classy line and we all enjoyed it thoroughly, it was a great warm up for Rongy’s next line and Sirja styled it even pulling out her jamming gloves. They are the same one that Kym has got and certainly seemed to make a difference, the crack was sharp in places and while I lost some bark she cruised up with an ear to ear grin. This line gave me confidence that the place had some great lines on offer after the mediocre start:
Rongy had fallen in love as soon as we walked past this little number, and it was obvious which climb he would jump on for his first lead. Interstate 31 is renowned for being one of the best cracks in the mountains. It’s a consistent 2.5 friend wide splitter thankfully with some horizontal breaks for us mere mortal and less seasoned jammers. We had probably five bits of gear that would fit it so there was a bit of walking the gear up required, but that didn’t irk him as he lapped up jam after jam. We both managed to follow up but not in quite the same style and had to agree that it was a stonking line:
One Sirja’s next line I kept my mouth shut and left her choose where to go! The choice was a fun corner crack which happened to be right next to the route I had my eye on. So while belaying her I kept an eye on what I had in store for me. The corner was fun and had a great ledge atop to sit and admire the view out across the valley. On the other side are the Railway Cliffs and the Freezer, which offer hard sport lines. With our mind on trad we left them for another time. Instead I jumped on the “most popular route in the county”, which followed a hanging arête that is unfortunately broken with two big ledges. However, from each you have to step into the unknown above a worrying amount of space:
Time for one last climb in this idyllic place that we had all to ourselves. Having enjoyed a good jam so much it was time for what looked to be another harder jam crack. If you go back to the image above of Rongy’s first lead you’ll see this line close to the arête to the right of Interstate 31. The guide says it should get done more often and we can only agree with that, there was not too much jamming but it was a great and varied climb with some great positions and moves. It also was in a perfect position to get some good shots with the valley stretching out behind the crag:
We had already decided that it was about time that we treated ourselves to another pub meal, so after the walk out and a freshen up back at the house we walked down to the local establishment. After another hearty meal we grabbed a second beer and hogged the fireplace to warm up. Despite the lovely day the evening temperatures quickly dropped so we worked on increasing our thermal mass in preparation for the cold walk home:
The next day, and despite my misgivings about such an idea, it was forced upon us to have a rest day. The rain came down at times in torrents, then clearing up a bit before hitting us again. So we made the most of it by heading to Katoomba to stock up on food and beer in the house. We also checked out the local climbing shops as someone was hankering to see if he could get a good bargain on a new rope, which didn’t happen:
In the afternoon we went to the local Mount Vic Flicks, a quaint and old style place. We decided from the selection of films to see an animated film called Kuba and the Two Strings, which was surprisingly good. The experience was made all the better by the fact that we could buy a bowl of very tasty lentil soup with a roll from the snack bar to munch on while watching the film. The place could probably hold 100 people and Sirja was shocked at how busy it was saying she had never seen so many people in there. I reckon it must have been only one third full, so it is pretty amazing that it keep going if that was a busy show:
When we emerged we were greeted with blue skies and sunshine, um maybe time to squeeze a local crag in – but then again maybe not. Instead we headed home for a good meal and once again an early night. I have to admit that the day off probably was a good idea, we had been going harder than I had expected in the first six days but wasn’t complaining. We still had another three and bit days ahead of us and I didn’t want to burn out too soon:
Below is the route tally for the middle bit. In the end bit (that I hope to get to over the weekend) there will be more big wall fun, disappointments, sport climbing frenzies and us taking on “the hardest route in Oz”.
Mon 26 Sept
Pierces Pass
- Bunny Bucket Buttress 270m 18****
Engineers Cascade
- Passing Wind 30m 22***
- Catchit 12m 19*
Tue 27 Sept
Sublime Point
- The Sublime and the Beautiful 75m 22**
- Whymper 145m 19***
Zig Zag
- Just for Fun 30m 15***
- Black Bart 30m 19***
- Dress Rehearsal Rag 15m 17**
Wed 28 Sept
Cosmic County (plus Sirja)
- Blondie (The Good) (P1) 20m 14*
- TZ 30m 18**
- Interstate 31 25m 17****
- Bell Bottom Pants 20m 15*
- The Eighty Minute Hour 30m 18***
- Bairds Effort 35m 19**
Thu 29 Sept
- Shopping (real and window)
- Watching a flick
Sandbagged 