Australian Capital Territory
1,936 routes
in Region
- Description:
-
Generally - must love granite. The ACT is ringed with a large number of cliffs - for such a small geographical area - the majority of which are granite. Trad and mixed climbing is a focus, with Booroomba Rocks, Gibraltar Peak, Orroral Ridge and other such granite areas presenting opportunities for single and multi-pitch climbing up to hundreds of metres tall. Many of them also present interesting opportunities to test the mental faculties above large runouts as well!
However, don't be fooled by the name of the local guide (ACT Granite), sport climbing on other types of rock is by no means unrepresented in the area with a number of crags such as Red Rocks and those to be found in the Mount Coree area providing opportunities for late teen to late grade twenty climbing on river-style rhyolite rock. The ACT currently has climbs of grades up to 28/29, with the opportunity to free some (very) old aid climbs and move the route grades into the 30s. Bouldering is up to V11/12. Climbers new to granite, slab and/or crack climbing are encouraged to jump on a few lower grade climbs before throwing themselves headlong into an epic!
Climbing is fairly accessible in the ACT, with both Kambah Rocks and Red Rocks within easy reach of the city itself. A number of other crags close to the city have either seen access closed (Ginninderra Falls, Michelago) or have fallen off the radar of current climbers in favour of the established granite cliffs and tors.
Bouldering in the area is mostly on granite and generally quite accessible, particularly Cooleman Ridge. For a break from small granite crimps, a reasonable number of boulder problems can also be found at Red Rocks. There is reasonable potential for new problems in a number of areas around the ACT.
If you are having difficulty finding the areas - and some can be very difficult to find, the following link may be of use:
Areas
| Name | Style | Climbs | Ascents | Height | Grade Band | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Booroomba Rocks Crag | Mostly Trad | 349 | 2,294 | 41m | 21 | |
| 2 | Orroral Ridge Crag | Mostly Trad | 335 | 1,034 | 19m | 23 | |
| 3 | Orroral Valley Crag | Mostly Trad | 97 | 37 | 20m | 3 | |
| 4 | Gibraltar Peak and Corin Road crags Crag | Trad,Sport and other styles | 257 | 1,124 | 16m | 20 | |
| 5 | River Crags Crag | Sport,Trad and other styles | 181 | 1,168 | 18m | 10 | |
| 6 | Southern ACT Crag | Mostly Trad | 66 | 27 | 49m | 2 | |
| 7 | Mount Coree Crag | Mostly Sport | 79 | 443 | 17m | 2 | |
| 8 | Black Range bouldering Crag | All Boulder | 151 | 155 | 5m | 9 | |
| 9 | Corin Road Bouldering Crag | All Boulder | 97 | 131 | 4m | 41 | |
| 10 | Pierce's Creek Bouldering Crag | All Boulder | 177 | 48 | 3m | 45 | |
| 11 | Cooleman Ridge Bouldering / Chapman Crag | All Boulder | 115 | 479 | 3m | 69 | |
| 12 | Miscellaneous Crags Crag | All Trad | 1 | 1 | 45m | ||
| 13 | Buildering Feature | Boulder,? | 7 | 14 | 21m | ||
| 14 | Black Mountain Bouldering Crag | All Boulder | 22 | 87 | 4m | 8 | |
| 15 | Mount Ainslie Quarry Cliff | All Unknown | 2 | 4 | 10m |





