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Black Gold Buttress

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Access issues inherited from Blue Mountains

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/

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/

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

Routes

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Grade Route

Start: Corner 20m right of the cave. 3 pitches.

FA: M.Law & J.Worrall, 1974

A classic ramp?

Start: 6m to the right of 'White Light'.

  1. 18m (-) Up the flake to belay.

  2. 24m (15) Up 2m to traverse line, up to cave, up to belay on ranp.

  3. 20m (-) Up the ramp.

  4. 24m (-) Up to the chimney, into the back and through to the other side. up.

FA: M.Law & J.Worrall, 1974

Exposed and steep arete - all ringbolts. Best to use double ropes to stop rope cutting potential as some of the moves are on the opposite side of the arete to the bolts.

To get to the start belay, either climb first pitch of 'Attila', or fix a rope and just rap in from above (easiest) to tiny ledge belay (double rings) about 6m left of the arete. Traverse out right above void (3 rings) - then up the black arete.

FA: J.Smoothy & G.Bradbury, 1987

Rap in, climb out long wall with a hanging belay. This is High 'n' Wild's 50m abseil! Fix a rap rope and abseil straight down the front face to belay on lip of roof and tiny ledge for your toes.

FA: M.Stacey & B.Maddison, 1997

The line of u bolts from base of buttress intersecting Texas Tea traverse at 15mtrs and continuing up face. A strenuous and extremely chossy first pitch. This route shares 6m of climbing with Screen Gems however if your following carrots you're off route. Has gained a few grades after it was mentioned it shares Screen Gems crux and gained three extra bolts (20/11/14) after J.Smoothy tactfully convinced route developer that broken ankles and shattered shins and knees are not in vogue and never have been. Climb in one pitch (recomended!)from ground with 20 draws (a couple of long ones too) or use DUBB at 15mtrs and multi. Pull mantle crux and dance on up for ever. Take one or two #0.4 camalots for break near top (essential). DUBB @ top.

FFA: Evan Wells . Jacindi Jackson, 2013

The right arete of the buttress. Start either for for Screen Gems (original start), or Long Distance Relationships (better).

  1. Up and traverse leftwards to belay on arete.

  2. Up technical arete to top.

FA: J.Smoothy & M.Stacey, 1986

Nice name? Big and Interesting!

Start: As for jungle bash of previous route. To short arete,up through bulge past a couple of carrots. Up.

FA: G.Bradbury & M.Baker, 2000

Start: As for the previous two routes. Straight up the wall.

FA: G.Child, R.Muehlen & J.Smoothy, 1990

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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!

Accommodations nearby more Hide

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