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Fort Rock Crag

Access: Do not walk through school grounds!

Access has changed to these areas (2020) as the Christian School has stopped access to the general public across their land. Please refer to approach details here - and ignore what is in the print guidebooks past and present.

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Created 3 years ago
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AU

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Description

A densely packed little orange wall where every route is probably grade 22. It is quite easy to polish off all the routes here in a quick two hour session if you are keen. Especially if you need a better warm up for Gateway than a tweaky 24. Crag faces west-southwest and is slightly overhung, so its shady until mid arvo. All routes rebolted as per the 2019 print guidebook

Access issues inherited from Gateway, Doomsday & Fort Rock

Access to these crags has changed (2020) - there is no longer public access across the Christian School land (no entry signage and cameras have been installed). Do not enter their land day, night or on weekends without direct permission from school.

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Approach

Access to this crag has changed (2020) due to the Christian School banning access to the public crossing their land - so ignore the print guidebooks. Don't confuse this crag with Fort Rock Lookout, which is the 4m high rock outcrop / lookout on the bushwalkers track 200m south east from the Fort Rock crag (and marked on Google Maps). The crag itself is hard to spot from the approach track and is located at GPS -33.6325, 150.2724.

There are a couple of ways of accessing this crag. Refer to map and follow the paths - but stay out of the "red zone" of the school.

Option A - park at Bundarra Street. Walk 400m down track to creek crossing, over this and up the hill on the other side (ignoring side track to Centennial Glen) for 350m until you reach Fort Rock lookout (marked on Google Maps). Walk downhill on continuation of track for 200m - and try and spot a small rock cairn/ climbers track on left side (GPS -33.6322, 150.2731). Follow this down for 80m and it arrives directly under orange face with bolts. Scramble up onto small ledge to belay from.

Option B - park at west end of Thirroul Ave. Follow signposted track "Fort Rock" leading west from end of road (do not enter school ground). This well defined track goes through the bush and down a set of stairs, crosses a major track leading downhill and continues contouring around to T junction at a second major track leading downhill. Walk right down this track for 130m to hit a T-junction. Turn left and walk 300m and try and spot a small rock cairn/ climbers track on right side (GPS -33.6322, 150.2731). Follow this down for 80m and it arrives directly under orange face with bolts. Scramble up onto small ledge to belay from.

It is also possible to walk in from Burton Rd carpark (Celebrity Crag) and walk south to meet up with option B track.

Descent notes

All routes have lower offs

Ethic inherited from Blue Mountains

Although sport climbing is well entrenched as the most popular form of Blueys climbing, mixed-climbing on gear and bolts has generally been the rule over the long term. Please try to use available natural gear where possible, and do not bolt cracks or potential trad climbs. If you do the bolts may be removed.

Because of the softness of Blue Mountains sandstone, bolting should only be done by those with a solid knowledge of glue-in equipping. A recent fatality serves as a reminder that this is not an area to experiment with bolting.

If you do need to top rope, please do it through your own gear as the wear on the anchors is both difficult and expensive to maintain.

At many Blue Mountains crags, the somewhat close spacing of routes and prolific horizontal featuring means that it is easy to envisage literally hundreds of trivial linkups. By all means climb these to your hearts content but, unless it is an exceptional case due to some significant objective merit, please generally refrain from writing up linkups. A proliferation of descriptions of trivial linkups would only clutter up the guide and add confusion and will generally not add value to your fellow climbers. (If you still can't resist, consider adding a brief note to the parent route description, rather than cluttering up the guide with a whole new route entry).

If you have benefited from climbing infrastructure in NSW, please consider making a donation towards maintenance costs. The Sydney Rockclimbing Club Rebolting Fund finances the replacement of old bolts on existing climbs and the maintenance of other hardware such as fixed ropes and anchors. The SRC purchases hardware, such as bolts and glue, and distributes them to volunteer rebolters across the state of New South Wales. For more information, including donation details, visit https://sydneyrockies.org.au/rebolting/

It would be appreciated if brushing of holds and minimisation/removal of tick marks becomes part of your climbing routine. Consider bringing a water squirt bottle and mop-up rag to better remove chalk. Only use soft (hair/nylon) bristled brushes, never steel brushes.

The removal of vegetation - both from the cliff bases and the climbs - is not seen as beneficial to aesthetics of the environment nor to our access to it.

Remember, to maintain access our best approach is to 'Respect Native Habitat, Tread Softly and Leave No Trace'. Do not cut flora and keep any tracks and infrastructure as minimal as possible or risk possible closures.

For the latest access related information, or to report something of concern, visit the Australian Climbing Association NSW Blue Mountains page at https://acansw.org.au/blue-mountains/

History

History timeline chart

One of John "Crunch" Smoothys favorite areas.

Tags

Some content has been provided under license from: © Australian Climbing Association Queensland (Creative Commons, Attribution, Share-Alike 2.5 AU)

Routes

Add route(s) Add topo Reorder Bulk edit Convert grades
Grade Route

Short route on left edge of wall. Was originally graded 18 but holds seem to be declining so the grade is increasing.

FA: J. Smoothy, 1989

This is the middle route with shiny FHs and lower-off.

FA: John Smoothy G.Williams, 2002

Use shared lower-off with Remember the Alamo.

FA: J. Smoothy, 1989

More great wall climbing on orange rock.

FA: M.Wilson, 1989

Sustained orange wall finishing right of the corner

FA: D.Whitehouse, 1989

Right side of crag.

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Selected Guidebooks more Hide

Author(s): Simon Carter

Date: 2019

ISBN: 9780958079082

The latest comprehensive, latest and greatest Blue Mountains Climbing Guide is here and it has more routes than you can poke a clip stick at! 3421 to be exact. You are not going to get bored.

Author(s): Simon Carter

Date: 2019

ISBN: 9780958079075

Simon Carter's "Best of the Blue" is the latest selected climbing guide book for the Blue Mountains and covers 1000 routes and 19 different climbing areas. For all the sport climbers out there, the travellers, or just anyone who doesn't want to lug around the big guide that's more than 3 times the size - cut out the riff-raff and get to the good stuff! This will pretty much cover everything you need!

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Wed 19 Apr
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