Bellbird Wall area Guide

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Contributors

Thanks to the following people who have contributed to this crag guide:

Jason Lammers Peatey Richard Pattison Brendon Flanagan Rene Provis Macciza a.k.a. Macca Niall Doherty Jamie Spencer james ritchie Nick Murphy

The size of a person's name reflects their Crag Karma, which is their level of contribution. You can help contribute to your local crag by adding descriptions, photos, topos and more.

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1. Bellbird Wall area 9 in Crag
2. Index by grade

1. Bellbird Wall area 9 routes in Crag

Summary:

Seasonality

Sport climbing and Trad climbing

Lat / Long: -33.620573, 150.329275

summary

Crag temporarily closed to allow bushfire vegetation recovery and reconstruction of damaged tourist track and lookouts.

description

Steep North East facing wall, 100m high, and a 50m high lower cliff.

access issues

The Blue Mountains are a World Heritage listed area. The Grose Valley, the cliffs around Katoomba and much of the Narrow Neck peninsula are part of the Blue Mountains National Park which is managed by the NPWS. The Western Escarpment - where most of the climbing is - is Crown Land managed by the BMCC. While the NPWS Plan of Management nominates several locations in the National Park where rock climbing is deemed appropriate, the majority of the climbing remains unacknowledged. 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.

Practically all crags are either in National Park or in council reserve: dog owners are reminded that dogs are not allowed in National Parks at any time and fines have been issued, while for crags on council reserve the BMCC leash law requires that dogs be on-leash.

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/

inherited from Blue Mountains

approach

A good wall for hot afternoons (take a jumper, it can be very cold if the wind picks up) and cold mornings (we've climbed in t-shirts while it's snowing there). There are also some older routes described in the Warwick Williams Grose Guide on the wall below the lookout and on the actual 'Pulpit' Rock below the lookout, and a modern mixed route on the lower cliff directly below Bellbird wall area.

Access: Park at 'Pulpit' Rock (Hat Hill Rd, Blackheath) carpark and walk down towards the 'Pulpit' Rock lookouts. Turn off left at the 12th drain (wide wooden drains cross this track) about 200m down the track. Follow the evident track that trends right leading you to the cliff top. The left most rap station is over 'Stone Poem'. The rap station over the Next Doctor (also used for Bellbird) is to the right and further down hill. A single bolt can be seen and clipped as a safety to help reach around to the two RB anchors. There is a third anchor at the top of Bellbird but this is not recommended for rapping unless you were to leave extended slings

BellBird Wall is in Red, other routes as marked on Topo. BellBird and 'The Next Doctor' have shared rap station.

'Under the Influence' is accessed from the base of the 'Bellbird Wall' double raps, then by walking around sandy alcove (climbers left) to short rap off bolts down gully, and another rap from the routes belay bolts to base of lower cliff. See topo for this route.

GPS co-ordinates for the top cliff rap point are S33 37.244 E150 19.739

ethic

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.