Climbing in Western Australia’s South West

After having written a number of mini-guides for areas in the south west of Western Australia, I was encouraged to write an article describing climbing in the area for Australia’s climbing magazine Vertical Life. I forget now which edition the article was included but it would have been in late 2012, I also do not recall which images were used and as such below I have only included the text from that article:

Wait Awhile

After five years of racking up first ascents in Central Australia, where it seemed every trip we bagged a new line, the pace of Western Australia’s sleepy South West corner seemed positively sedate. It didn’t take long to realise why WA is often referred to as ‘Wait Awhile’, but then again, eventually all good things come to those who do precisely that.

The southwest of Western Australia is probably best known to climbers for the impressive Steel Wall at Willyabrup, near Margaret River, mostly thanks to Simon Carter’s spectacular photos in Rock Climbing in Australia. Many visiting climbers make a beeline straight for it, however, the shame is they often miss the amazing settings and great variety at smaller, less well-known areas nearby. Once you start to look you realise it is possible to crank overhanging limestone sport routes, balance up smeary faces on gneiss, levitate using faith on rounded, granite holds or crimp down hard in a granite quarry all within one-hour(ish) of Bunbury. Each location offers at least several days’ worth of great climbing.

To spread the word about all these great places I have been busy producing a number of miniguides to capture the latest development and to help both local and visiting climbers. These are available on the Climbing Association of Western Australia website (there have been issues with this website, and you can now find them here Mini-guides for crags of the south west of Western Australia).

When I first arrived here in late 2005 it seemed all the possible climbing areas had been discovered and developed. Then in late 2009, during a walk from Smiths Beach (not far from Dunsborough), I stumbled across an impressive-looking wall. After checking out what was known of the area it was obvious this place had been spotted before but had received little attention, and only Kym Hartley had recorded any first ascents. Six weeks holiday gave me a chance to grab a couple of sessions a week to visit the crag, which I dubbed Smiths Beach Rocks, dragging long anyone who was keen and within a few months over 30 routes up to grade 23 had been established.

We kept Smiths Beach Rocks a fully traditional crag, with all my first ascents bar one being ground-up with no prior inspection. The one that eluded me was the very bold Holy Grail (21), its crux sequence is protected by two small RPs and so it felt very sketchy. However, this is not characteristic of the crag and the protection here is bomber and plentiful. I am especially fond of all the routes on Camelot Wall, which sports some very heady leads on rounded holds through steep terrain like the my first route here Lady Guinevere (16) and other blind cracks King Arthur (17) and the brilliant Excalibur (19).

The other walls at Smiths Beach generally provide less heady climbing but equally impressive lines – how no one else who visited this area realised its potential still surprises me. Cape to Crack (17) is a great line and once you launch into the final crack it keeps going until the very end on smeary feet and slopey hands. While I did my best to jump on all the worthy-looking lines some were simply too hard and remain unclaimed.

Moses Rocks is the first place I climbed in Western Australia, and with only a few harder lines it does not attract the same attention as other crags. In some ways it is the little brother to Smiths Beach, being less steep and for the most part having easier lines – a place to go when you just want to have a bit of fun in an awesome setting. I was originally attracted to the place by a climb named Hathersage (15), which is a village in the heart of the English Peak District where I used to camp. The climbing here does have similarities to grit with excellent friction. However, the boldness of many of the lines has been tamed because, unlike true grit, bolts make for a safe experience.

Another aspect of Moses Rocks that caught my attention was the Zawn. While there are no hard lines the climbing starts with the waves lapping at your feet. The walls in the Zawn are steeper than the rest of the walls at Moses and offer great positions and more sustained climbs. In December 2010 I visited the crag with Ryan Doe and, as usual, popped my head over the edge to see if the Zawn was an option only to be greeted with an amazing sight. Not only was the tide out further than I had seen before and the rock was bone dry but nearly the entire base was covered in sand rather than the usual boulders. I have only ever seen this that one time and it gave us a chance to try the great-looking lines on the outer edge of the northern wall which is normally sopping wet. On that day we put up the two hardest lines in the Zawn, Hallucinations (16) and The Beach (16). Both have great technical starts and the latter has a continuously steep headwall to negotiate on slopey holds that all seem to be angled the wrong way. While nothing too serious they proved worthy additions to the growing number of lines established at Moses, which now sports over 70 routes up to grade 23.

While Moses Rocks is detailed in the 1996 Margaret River Rock guidebook, it has been out of print for some time and is becoming increasingly difficult to come by. So I started to ponder whether I should pull all my records together and develop a miniguide. However, it was not until I again came across Kym Hartley in late 2011 that I decided it was a worthy thing to do. This was in part due to Kym also deciding to give something back to climbing by rebolting numerous crags in the South West, including Moses. The first time Kym and I actually met, we headed out climbing together and established Rude Awakening (17), a very aptly named climb for Rumpoles Rocks, which is located at the southern end of Moses. I won’t give too much away, so you will have to head out there to see what all the fuss is about.

As 2012 wore on my family life seemed to get busier and finding time get out climbing was getting harder. Reluctantly, I decided it was time to investigate the crag closest to home, Wellington Dam Quarry. I had visited it handful of times before but had never paid it much attention, partly because it is a sport crag, but probably more a result of the scuttlebutt that implied the bolt placements at the Quarry were thoughtless, leaving the potential for some nasty falls. However, after several trips out there the place started to grow on me, and as I worked my way up the grades and chatted to other climbers I felt that other than a few lines the bolts seemed well placed. There are a few tenuous clips but the landings are usually safe enough if you don’t make it.

The great attraction for me was that I could get up at the crack of dawn in summer and get several hours of fun, hard climbing in and still get to work at a reasonable time. Around the same time I started to frequent the quarry I came across Dan Meester. Dan, a seasoned quarry climber had recently started to investigate and equip a heap of high-quality new lines. Dan would email me the details of what he had been up to and then I would head up there to attempt the second ascents and verify the grade. I didn’t contemplate getting involved in route establishment at the quarry, having only ever placed one bolt in my climbing career and that was done by hand drilling. However, Kym liked the idea and turned his drill towards the quarry. The main wall was getting pretty congested but we managed to find a great feature and set about equipping it in one session during the pouring rain. As such we called it Raging Torrent (19), a fine line more reminiscent of traditional techniques than the crimping and cranking of so many sport routes.

With relentless energy Dan pumped out enough lines to increase the offerings by over 50 percent and the quarry now has over 30 lines up to grade 27. The selection provides an opportunity to jump on relatively easy juggy walls, test your traditional techniques on fine features, push your finger strength to the limit with thin, technical and sustained wall climbing and check to see how much you are prepared to trust your feet on smeary slabs. With all this activity it seemed only right to let others know what was happening so I developed yet another miniguide. This was not only to provide details of the new routes, but also restore faith in the bolt placements from the late ‘90s by the earlier pioneers of the area including Amanda Watts, Adam Coffee, Glen Henderson, Jeremy Scott, Boyd McNamara and Matt Tiller.

So, now I have the miniguide bug and the big question is where I should focus my attention next. I mentioned earlier the South West offers overhanging limestone sport routes, and many will have seen the impressive photos of Bob’s Hollow and Walcliffe. These places have seen a lot of development work since publication of the 2002 Western Australian Rock, which covers both crags, if not in abundant detail. While I‘m not convinced I have what it takes to crank up Bob’s Hollow and Walcliffe’s harder lines (yet), maybe this is the next area for documenting. You may just need to ‘Wait Awhile’ before to give me time train up.