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Australian Capital Territory 1,936 routes in Region

  • Avg. Height: 21m
  • Style: Trad,Boulder and other styles
  • Favorites: 163
  • Circuits: 1
  • Ascents: 7,046
  • Aka: ACT

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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:

http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=p&msa=0&msid=202220939889529959331.0004614316914ba5e0cf2&ll=-35.469618,149.136658&spn=1.263842,2.103882&z=9

Areas

Map Name Style Climbs Ascents Height Grade Band Topos
1Booroomba Rocks Crag Mostly Trad 3492,29441m 21
2Orroral Ridge Crag Mostly Trad 3351,03419m 23
3Orroral Valley Crag Mostly Trad 973720m 3
4Gibraltar Peak and Corin Road crags Crag Trad,Sport and other styles 2571,12416m 20
5River Crags Crag Sport,Trad and other styles 1811,16818m 10
6Southern ACT Crag Mostly Trad 662749m 2
7Mount Coree Crag Mostly Sport 7944317m 2
8Black Range bouldering Crag All Boulder 1511555m 9
9Corin Road Bouldering Crag All Boulder 971314m 41
10Pierce's Creek Bouldering Crag All Boulder 177483m 45
11Cooleman Ridge Bouldering / Chapman Crag All Boulder 1154793m 69
12Miscellaneous Crags Crag All Trad 1145m
13Buildering Feature Boulder,? 71421m
14Black Mountain Bouldering Crag All Boulder 22874m 8
15Mount Ainslie Quarry Cliff All Unknown 2410m