Site navigation

The Sporting Complex 5 routes in Cliff

  • Avg. Height: 36m
  • Style: Sport,?
  • Favorites: 1
  • Ascents: 87
List view Guide view Chat Directory Downloads
Action

Grade search

Leaderboard

Instant PDF

KML KML

Description:© (mjw)

A fantastic morning out. Rebolted on the day the Medlow fires broke out! Craig and Mitch were literally chased up to the car park in Belgravia St by the fire. The rap point is at the top of 'Smoko' - you have to scramble down a few metres to them. If you want to it is possible to do all the routes off the ledge. Life of Riley has lower off anchors. You will need a 60m rope although there are rethreading anchors on all the climbs for those with only a 50m rope. All the routes start off the same small dirt ledge, so it can be cosy if more than one group is here. The sun hits the crag at about 1:30pm in summer. Leave the ants alone!

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'.

Ethic: inherited from Blue Mountains

Mixed-climbing on gear and bolts has generally been the rule in the Blueies. Please try to use available natural gear where possible, and do not bolt cracks or potential trad climbs.

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.

It would be appreciated if brushing of holds becomes part of your climbing routine - do it with a soft bristled brush and never a steel brush!

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. Generally it's best to leave all this sort of stuff to the local climbers.

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

Routes

RouteGradeStylePopularity
1 *** The Life of Riley

Rebolted 2004

FA: G. Child, J. Smoothy, 1993

25
Sport 35m
2 ** Smoko

Rebolted 2004, and much appreciated. However, be aware that the first bolt was moved lower, unfortunately into some very hollow rock.

Start: Start where the abseil lands you.

FA: G. Child, M. Law, 1993

23
Sport 35m , 16
3 ** Get a Black Dog Up Ya

Up LaCS pitch 2 past 1 or 2 FHs then, where LaCS's FHs trend R, head a little left and up following rings. If you top out straight above the last ring, belay options are poor (one old carrot about 10m up over the top). Probably better to step R from the last ring to find the chains of LaCS.

Start: Start at the belay atop p1 of LaCS.

FA: J. Smoothy, 1999

24
Sport 35m , 9
4 ** Like a Cut Snake

Traverse out right from ledge following FHs to belay. Then up the arete to chain belay at top.

  1. 15m (21) Step R and up off the ledge, then follow the traverse line 5m R to near the arete. Up face on jugs, then step R to finish on the arete. 'Rusty' bolts and dodgy rock.

  2. 20m (21) Follow the FHs up and R to chain belay on top.

FA: G. Child, M. Taylor, 1993

21
Sport 40m , 6
5 Mystery bolt line

About 8m R of p2 of LaCS is a line of bolts. It looks like you'd have to rap in as it starts in the middle of nowhere.

Unknown
Recent ascents Recent updates Crag chat