Handsome Crag has quite a decent amount of reasonable sandstone. There is quite a lot of potential here for bouldering, and there has been a rapid amount of development here since it was kicked off by Dave Humphries, Jon Nermut and Campbell Godfrey in May 2008
A locked gate has been put at the bottom of the old access road, but you can still use other access roads and some walking to reach the crag. The crag is on Crown Land and administered by Forestry Tasmania.
NEW APPROACH
Instead of turning right off Back River Road keep driving for another 400m or until you get to Handsome Cave Road. Enter Handsome Cave Rd, park on the green patch to your left immediately after you've turned. If you have a 4x4 with A LOT of clearance you can keep driving on Handsome Cave Rd over rough terrain. At the first fork you get to, which is right after the BIG hole in the road, it does actually not matter whether you take the left or the right road since they meet up at the top,....for hikers I would recommend the left Rd and for cars the right,.....at the top where the two roads merge again follow the road to the left, past a shack on the left. Park here (if you've driven) as further up the road a gate has been flattened by trees and is impassable. Just past this gate is another fork; take the left hand road and follow the trail. The path bends around the valley and passes under impressive caves (walk left past them). Two minutes on is a cairn marking a foot trail on the right - if you reach a small creek-bed crossing you've missed it. This trail is relatively easy to follow if you stay observant and look for cairns. At the top of the cairned track you arrive at the old access road. Here turn left to get to Weakhold or right get to Stronghold. The main Handsome Crag climbs are ten minutes to the right. The starting tracks to these areas are marked with cairns.
OLD APPROACH
To get there head up to New Norfolk and cross to the northern side of the Derwent River. Head up river and take the first right, followed by a left. Follow this through the outer suburbs of New Norfolk to the T-junction: to get to the cliff turn right along Back River Road. The turn-off to the crag is about 2km along Back River Road from the T-junction. Turn right at the driveway to house numbers 658, 660 & 662 (this is the old access road which is now locked via a gate) Another possible access which involves about 40 minutes of walking is the Handsome Caves Road. Park at the beginning of the road, hike to where the road turn into a walking track and follow to walking track to the caves area. From there follow another faint track leading atop the caves and hill towards the Weakhold end of Handsome Crag.
The operation and use of drones by park visitors on reserved land including national parks is not permitted
Peregrine Falcons nest from July - December each year. It’s important that climbers don’t climb near active nests during this period. Known sites (non exhaustive) are: Sand River (Far East, The Panopticon), Bare Rock (R of the Boneyard, L of Bisso of Orange), Rocky Cape, Pubic Wall/Duck Reach, Hillwood, Gunners Quoin, Lowdina.
Please note that Tasmania has notoriously patchy phone reception for particular service providers. Telstra is the most reliable. An emergency Personal Locator Beacon or similar is recommended kit when climbing in remote locations.
For more information - follow the link below for some local tips + tricks on how to better reduce your impact during your next Tassie climbing holiday
Did you know that you can create an account to record, track and share your climbing ascents? Thousands of climbers are already doing this.
Author(s): Gerry Narkowicz
Date: 2021
ISBN: 9780646841946
Cracks, sea stacks, big walls, remote exotic locations, volcanic columns, no crowds and your choice of the predominant dolerite, some quartzite and a little sandstone to remind you of the mainland. Many a wilderness climbing experience can be had within a 2hr car trip from the main centers. By Gerry Narkowicz. This guide features 1280 routes.
★★ Gorilla Monsoon 22 - 12B62198-F1A7-46E1-A44F-F6C5DE8C2423.jpeg
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