A Crag Guide gives an extensive view of all sub areas and climbs at a point in the index. It shows a snapshot of the index heirachy, up to 300 climbs (or areas) on a single web page. It shows selected comments climbers have made on a recently submitted ascent.
At a minor crag level this should be suitable for printing and taking with you on a climbing trip as an adjunct to your guidebook.
This guide was generated anonymously. Login to show your logged ascents against each route.
Warning
Rock climbing is extremely dangerous and can result in serious injury or death. Users acting on any information directly or indirectly available from this site do so at their own risk.
This guide is compiled from a community of users and is presented without verification that the information is accurate or complete and is subject to system errors. By using this guide you acknowledge that the material described in this document is extremely dangerous, and that the content may be misleading or wrong. In particular there may be misdescriptions of routes, incorrectly drawn topo lines, incorrect difficulty ratings or incorrect or missing protection ratings. This includes both errors from the content and system errors.
Nobody has checked this particlular guide so you cannot rely on it's accuracy like you would a store bought guide.
You should not depend on any information gleaned from this guide for your personal safety.
You must keep this warning with the guide. For more information refer to our:
Usage policy
Contributors
Thanks to the following people who have contributed to this crag guide:
Kyle Dunsire Paul Frothy Thomson Macciza a.k.a. Macca Campbell Gome Stuart McElroy Aaron Jones Mike Garben M.Warren julian andersen Adam Bramwell
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.
Table of contents
- 1. The Quiet Place 12 in Crag
- 2. Index by grade
1. The Quiet Place 12 routes in Crag
- Summary:
-
Trad climbing, Sport climbing and other styles
Lat / Long: -33.582097, 150.238187
summary
A small section of cliff-line within spitting distance of the Great Western Highway and the carpark but almost entirely forgotten by the the current crop of climbers.
description
Showpiece is the only route that gets even slight traffic here (it's bloody good and worth the visit alone - and has been rebolted). The other routes are quirky, traddy and in most cases fairly runout. Fixed protection also dates from the late 80s so caution is advised. Bolt plates are required for all routes. The first 4 routes, including Showpiece are on a north-west facing wall and get sun from about 10am. The other routes are west or south facing - shade until at least midday.
access issues
The area is a bit of a local dumping ground - check out the cars and other rubbish at the base of the cliff.
approach
From Mt Victoria drive west out of town on Great Western Highway and as soon as you leave houses and start heading downhill turn left into large dirt road. Drive 200m along the dirt road following cliff line to far north end (marked Mitchell Ridge Lookout on Google Maps). Just past this lookout is a small green dunny on left side of road and an open section of dirt with several large rocks positioned to stop people driving to the cliff edge (and launching cars). Park here. If you are raping in - stumble through bush due west for 50m (there isn't really a track) and look below to spot a rocky ledge with two giant boulders perched right on the cliff edge. This is the top of Showpiece (easily identified by the weird button head glue-ins at approx. 33°34'54.8"S 150°14'17.3"E ). There is a large gumtree to fix a rope off and rap down to base of cliff (best way is down the north side corner). Alternatively it is only a 5 minute easy walk to cliff base via the bush next to the highway (same carpark).
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.
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/
|
||||||||
Route | Grade | Style | Selected ascents | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The first four routes are on the left side of the cliffline on an orange overhung wall that gets sun from 10am. The first couple of routes share the same start - a vegetated, unprotectable low angle corner that leads to a small ledge with a tree growing on the left end. | ||||||||
2 |
★ Snail Special
Starts up vegetated open corner to tree & ledge then straight up slab to line of closely spaced manky carrots going up overhung scoops and over a short roof. Finish up heading left up ramp on spaced gear to top and tree belay. FA: Lucas Trihey & W. King, 1987 | 20 | 25m, 4 | |||||
3 |
Controlled Burning
Squeezy and with poor rock. Same start as Snail's Special onto ledge - slab up to bolts just right of that route - through a bit of steepness via sandy scoop - then right and up finish of Public Spectacle via couple of BRs. Medium cams supplement the bolts. FA: Lucas Trihey & C. Jackson, 1988 | 23 | 25m, 4 | |||||
4 |
★ Public Spectacle
A crappier variant finish to Showpiece. Up that route to first bolt - then head left away from the arete into pocketed rock and up past a couple of BRs and jugs to finish on dirty jugs. Medium cams supplement the rusty bolts. FA: Lucas Trihey & W. King, 1987 | 20 | 25m, 3 | |||||
5 |
★★ Showpiece
Remarkably steep for the grade and probably the reason you came here. The route originally started with the same vegetated corner as previous 3 routes - but a much nicer start is the arete 5m right of the corner (protected by medium cams) up to right end of ledge. Traverse right boldly across slab to first BR just left of arete. Follow arete upwards with much air below the feet. Bring a single set of cams between 0.5 to 2 Camalot. Rebolted with unusual button head glue in machine bolts - removable hangers still work (you will need 5 for the route and 2 for the top belay). FA: L. Trihey & W. King, 1987 | 19 | 25m, 5 | |||||
6 |
Unclimbed major line?
To the right of Showpiece is a proud overhung corner feature. It starts out as a short crack to rooflet - over this - then up corner and face right of corner? Someone should do this - it would probably need several bolts. | 30m | ||||||
|
||||||||
Route | Grade | Style | Selected ascents | |||||
7 |
Workmates
Impressive names on the first ascent - much less impressive route. Start on back (southern side) of Showpiece buttress below short left facing corner. This is looking pretty mossy.
FA: Lucas Trihey, Geoff Wiegand & Mike Law, 1987 | 21 | 40m, 2, 6 | |||||
8 |
★ Smashbook
Open-book corner 2m right of Workmates with flake and single FH near the top. Rap from bolt anchors on ledge equal to end of Workmates pitch 1. FA: 24 Apr 2020 | 18 | 17m, 1 | |||||
9 |
Rollover
60m right of Workmates at grey left arete of orange and black wall. Start near narrow gully on left (at ground level). Up right to arete (hidden BR). #2 Friend and 2 BRs to runout wall. FA: Lucas Trihey, Geoff Wiegand & Mike Law, 1987 | 22 R | 30m, 3 | |||||
10 |
Hot Prospect
Starts 4m right of Rollover on left end of ledge. BRs, cams and wires. FA: Lucas Trihey & W. King, 1987 | 21 | 20m | |||||
11 |
★★ Punks on the Pass Direct
First two bolts of Punks on the Pass then straight up the flake which blanks to crimps. Finish as for original route. FA: Aaron Jones & Heath Black, 28 May 2020 | 25 | 25m, 8 | |||||
12 |
★★ Punks On the Pass
A great airy journey up an overhung wall and only 1 minute from the car! Starts in the middle of wall. Up subtle flake to first bolt then traverse up and right (shallow pockets) to creaky flake (take care). Continue traversing right and up to far right side of face, up a move then traverse back left and up juggy small grey corner. All ringbolts - no hangers required. Belay off small tree way back. FA: Lucas Trihey, Geoff Wiegand & Mike Law, 1987 | 23 | 30m, 7 | |||||
13 |
Tarantula
Has some of this fallen down? Large amounts of fresh rockfall and mini landslide thwarted attempts to cross check this route with original description. Original description reads: Start at big yellow corner capped by roof on right of cliff.
FA: K.Royce & R. Reynolds, 1968 | 14 M3 | 52m, 3 |
2. Index by grade
Grade | Stars | Name | Style | Pop | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
14 M3 | Tarantula | 52m, 3 | |||
18 | ★ | Smashbook | 17m, 1 | ||
19 | ★★ | Showpiece | 25m, 5 | ||
20 | ★ | Public Spectacle | 25m, 3 | ||
★ | Snail Special | 25m, 4 | |||
21 | Hot Prospect | 20m | |||
Workmates | 40m, 2, 6 | ||||
22 R | Rollover | 30m, 3 | |||
23 | Controlled Burning | 25m, 4 | |||
★★ | Punks On the Pass | 30m, 7 | |||
25 | ★★ | Punks on the Pass Direct | 25m, 8 | ||
? | Unclimbed major line? | 30m |