Important update as of May 2022 for anyone intending to climb in Central Australia:
Access is an ongoing issue at many of the climbs around Alice Springs. Some consultations have occurred in the past for climbs but there is a lack of clarity around the status of many places. Rock climbers of Central Australia (RoCA) was a climbing club formed in part to clarify which places are culturally approved to climb at via consultation with the traditional owners. It is unclear if RoCA is still in existence, as such it is recommended to contact local climbers to find out the current situation regarding access. This can be done via the Alice Springs climbers Facebook group.
During my time in Alice Springs a dedicated band of merry climbers decided to start a newsletter for the local climbing community. As with all such things it didn’t outlast time and over a period of approx 16 months four editions were released. Rather than allow them to get lost and forgotten copies of the newsletters, in all their glory, can be accessed via the links below:
I had already started additional articles for RACK 5, which including the next edition of Krish’s Corner; an article on the true rock legends of Central Australia; and a tale that I felt provided a good insight into what really goes on in a climbers head while on the pointy end of the rope. These are provided in the file linked below:
Part of the reason for starting the RACK was that I published Rock Climbing in Central Australia in March 2005. The 500 copies I had printed sold out in October 2018. As such if you are keen to have a copy of this guide I have linked the PDF version (note that this is a large file at approx 100MB):
Before leaving Alice Springs we decided to release an addendum to Rock Climbing in Central Australia. It only covers a handful of lines, but again not too loose record of what we did this addendum is linked below:
Finally to wrap up this post… so as not to loose a piece of history below I have provided a link to the original guide to rock climbs in the Northern Territory, written by Helen and John Griffiths in September 1973:
Sandbagged 