7 routes
Grade search
Leaderboard
Instant PDF
KML- Description:© (nmonteith)
-
An spectacular 80m high tower that sits about 7m out from the south face of 'Dalpura Head'. The Blue Mountain's answer to Yosemite's 'Lost Arrow' Spire. Surprisingly this appears to have been unclimbed until 2003, when Tony "Mad Taffy" Williams dragged himself away from the bar to bolt several routes. 'Surely' some old mountaineer managed to get up this in the dim dark past?
- 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'.
- Approach:© (nmonteith)
-
Park at large pull out 2.2km west from Mt Wilson turn-off on Bells Line of Road. Cross road to south side and locate well worn foot path. Follow this for 15 minutes (it turns into an old road) until it disappears. Follow yellow coloured tape markers through bush and down ridge to small col. Drop down right side (keep folowing the tape markers!) and follow cliff edge into gully and back up the other side. Continue along semi-open ground following tape markers for another 15 minutes. Navigation is quite hard as you don't have any points to aim for. It is highly recommended to take a GPS (Carpark -33.5353, 150.3195 Halfway -33.5436, 150.3140 Lost Pillar -33.5489, 150.3099). Locate carrot bolts on top of cliff above the Lost Pillar (peer over edge to locate this!), fix either a 100m rope, or two 50m ropes and rap straight down into notch between the pillar and the main wall. Scramble down the gully between this notch in an eastern direction to get to the bottom. Once you've had your fun on the pillar you will need to climb something on the main wall to get back to the top - the easiest is 'Welsh Dragon' (19 A1) which climbs the wall opposite the pillar. For descriptions of these routes go one level up and click on 'Dalpura Wall'.
- 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)
Hello!
First time here?
theCrag.com is a free guide for rock climbing areas all over the world, collaboratively edited by keen rock climbers, boulderers and other nice folks.
You can log all your routes, connect and chat with other climbers and much more...
