Routes as trad in Mt Barney

Description partially taken from Rob Rankin's Secrets of the Scenic Rim, and the original guide linked below, with modern amendments. Most tree/shrub belays have disappeared from these guides. http://www.qurank.com/guides/Guide_MtBarney.pdf

This 297m route takes the obvious central chimney which splits the face, formed by two dykes.

1. 30m (12) - Starting at a small cave right of the two main dykes, climb diagonally - L to R - across and up the buttress which lies at the base of the face below the obvious central chimney and finish at a tree. One already feels the exposure.

2. 25m (13) - Continue up the buttress to a scrubby patch at its top, with a cave behind. Belay off bolt and gear in the cave.

3. 30m (13) - Move right and diagonally up into a chimney, past a bolt, and continue up this, battling past prickly scrub, to where a small tree belay used to sit. It is best to link this into p4.

4. 25m (14) - Move right onto the face and up to another small tree belay. A natural belay can be found above the tree.

5. 25m (14) - Continue up the face and to back left towards the chimney, to a small ledge with an old double bolt belay. Belaying in the cave above may be a better alternative, but gear is scarce.

6. 27m (17) - Chossy class! Traverse left into the chimney and climb this to the overhang. On the first ascent a tree was lassoed at this point but the tree has long since gone. Therefore, find your way up and out of the imposing roof chimney by any means, and ascend to a tree belay in the main chimney above.

7-10) 120m (14) - Follow a series of vegetated chimneys up to the exit gully.

The line of least resistance up the East Face of North Peak. A pleasant adventure climb with delicate slabs, decent protection, and runouts typical of SEQ adventure climbing. It is contrived to finish up the last pitch, and the natural top-out is to scramble right off of the major platform below the summit head-wall. This route would be a good introduction to Mt Barney adventure climbing if the last pitch is avoided.

Start at the obvious flat belay area below a wide corner system reached by hiking up Rocky Creek, following your nose and bush-bashing right off the track and towards the face when it feels right to do so. May take a bit of an explore.

1. 70m (12) - Climb the face left of the wide, scrubby corner, passing intermittent diagonal seams to reach the obvious R-facing corner crack. Follow this corner to its end, on top of which is a comfortable grassy ledge with a shrub belay. Long pitch.

2. 70m (13) - Climb directly up off the belay up some slabby moves with dicey protection. Continue up the slab, veering right towards the weakness in the centre of the looming head-wall above. Either small shrub belay or there is gear to be found.

Either scramble R off the large ledge to the shoulder of North Peak or:

1. 30m (17) - Continue up the weakness that divides the summit head-wall. Climb the short corner crack through tough moves to a grassy ledge. Continue leftwards and up the next corner with Committing moves through the dirty corner. Good training for East Peak's East Face. Natural belay above.

1. (6) 40m Scramble up gully/face to the tree on the ledge at base of North Wall. Protectable if needed.

2. (10) 60m Follow the corner/slab up to the top. Some good gear if needed with easy and surprisingly enjoyable climbing. Very comfortable scramble or freesolo on good rock with some fun exposure. Would be a fun alternate finish for Logans Ridge!

PS - Super fun views and some really beautiful/interesting rock on the wall above this route. Could protect this climb with just some slings and a few nuts. Highly recommended for any veteran Barney adventurer or capable bushwalker looking to spice things up :~)

Start at Lower Portals carpark, follow the track over the first ridge to Rocky Creek. Leave the track and follow the creek system upstream to the base of the ridge, noting that it can be difficult to find. The ridge is relatively open and leads directly to the summit of Isolated Peak with steep sections in the upper portion.

Lower Orange Wall, Isolated Peak, Mt Barney

Approach. Approach from Lower Portals Carpark on Lower Portals Track. At the saddle, continue straight into the bush heading 210 degrees magnetic all the way to Isolated Peak. From leaving the trail you will follow a very old fence line until you cross a dry creek. Continue straight towards the East Wall of Isolated Peak keeping a little left and over 2nd little creek crossing and straight on to a 3rd creek crossing. Continue straight to East Ridge/left side of East Wall of Isolated Peak. As you get closer, there is large steep ridge/talus on the eastern most part of the mountain and you can avoid this by traversing up and right as it becomes steeper. The start of the climb can be identified as the first major right leaning crack from the eastern most park of the ridge/cliff. Most of the bush is open bush. Bush navigation can be aided by use of available GPS trail.

1. (15) 50m - Best belay is on ledge about 7m scramble up to the start of the corner. Begin on easier terrain up the left leaning corner towards the right leaning crack. Once on the wall there is some fun climbing with good gear between a couple run outs. Continue up the crack/face and pull through exciting roof to belay from the tree.

2. (12) 17m - Climb up past tree and right through slab section onto a large ledge on the left. Watch for loose rocks on ledge. Belay from large rock on ledge. (Natural line continuing straight up right - looks doable but not super fun and with poor rock quality).

3. (20) 25m - Start on overhang just to the left of the big boulder. Much of the pitch overhanging, the first moves are the crux. Compulsory small blue alien (size??) protects the technical start with a couple small-mid sized cams protecting a few moves immediately above of similar grade. Creative slightly easier climbing continues up to a short hand jam crack that tops out with a mantel onto the ledge. Belay from tree and careful of loose rocks on top of the climb.

Descent can be done with a beautiful scrabble up the ridge to the top of Isolated Peak, or as a 2-pitch abseil.

From tree belay at top of 3rd pitch, climb up and left to the ridge line. Stay on ridge line to the summit with some slight deviations left and right as required. Top section gets steeper and more exposed.

The name says it all. This route follows the distinctive weakness which runs diagonally across the face to the right hand shoulder of Isolated Peak. Only two sections require roping up. When confronted by a steep vertical but shallow chimney, climb along a ramp (crux) on the northern wall to regain the gully above the chimney.

Starting just right of Grotesque Gully, take a line of natural weaknesses up the face. Interesting terrain threading through large orange crack features.

This route originally traversed off right at the gully to join the northwest ridge of Isolated Peak, however it makes more sense to combine both the lower and upper faces as one direct line. Start on the centre of the Northeast Face below a large orange cave, traversing left at this cave and finding a line trending up and left toward the apex of the lower face. Cross the gully with some scrambling to find a line on the upper face, climbing this to the summit.

A broad, sloping ledge connecting the North-Leaning Saddle with the top of Leaning Ridge just below the summit of Leaning Peak. From the saddle, traverse the exposed ledge on the North Face until a way up can be found on the far side of the summit. No trees at crux, cams required.

The climb starts at the 750m contour line about 200m up the right hand gully which slopes diagonally right across the face and intersects Leaning Ridge. This starting point is below a hanging rock and right of an overhanging lip. The start of "Chockstone Gully" can be found about half an hour above Barney Waterfall where Moonlight Slabs eases briefly to a series of open, low angled expansive slabs.

The climb is a long adventure route, with classy slab climbing leading to the summit headwall. Single rack will suffice, takes mostly medium cams. Despite the grade, this is a remote climb and good routefinding skills and good headspace for long runouts are a must.

APPROACH: From Lower Portals car park follow the track to The Lower Portals (3.8 km) and once at the portals bypass them by taking the steep track on the right. Up to the ridge and back down to the creek. Rock hop upstream until you get to Barney waterfall (on your left). Scramble to the top of the waterfall on the left and walk across the waterfall, the route starts here just above water pools scooped in the slab.

ROUTE DESCRIPTION:

1. Follow the bushy ridge until some open slabby sections are reached.

2. Scramble up for about 100m or so finding LLR until a new bushy section is reached.

3. From here either follow easy grade 4 rock leading right and up or jump left on a juggy wall (cleaner climbing but harder) to a ledgy area below an exposed blank wall.

4. From here the route traverses left on a bushy ledge until you find a low angle easy juggy ramp leading up and right, or alternatively climb straight up on grade 10 rock but runout.

5. Keep climbing up until a bushy gully on the left leads up to a bouldery move to exit on a shaded ledgy area

6. Carefully scramble over blocks and thin exposed ridge for 50m until top of a notch. Downclimb into the saddle over a chockstone with big exposure either sides and back to the ridge.

7. (crux) From a belay tree (optional), climb up trending left to a black boy and ledge on grade 4:

   a) Keep climbing up (grade 5/6) with a couple of trees as protection or solo until easy ground, or

   b) Traverse left, sling solid tree and climb up easy grade but exposed over big drop.

8. Walk to the summit.

To descend: Walk along top of peak towards East Peak and walk down until bolted anchor is reached, from here, abseil (60m rope recommended) into the saddle.

Notes:

1. A 50m static rope will safely take you to the bottom of the abseil, if weight concern is an issue. No downclimbing involved.

2. As of 2022, Queensland State Emergency Service (SES) has added a bolt with two rings high on the ridge to aid the staff in their rescuing efforts. Please do not remove it.

3. As of mid June 2022, there's now four bolts with rings on the so called crux aka. final scramble/climbing section, shortly before the summit. Presumably also installed by SES to assist with rescues. These could be used to lead or top belay people thru this section if necessary, but rope drag would be horrendous and will damage the vegetation that the rope will have to drag over and/or thru.

Approach the Leaning Peak from the Short Leaning Ridge. Two cracks become obvious apart from the face. The left crack separates Leaning Peak from North Peak. Descend into the right crack and belay of tree in right crack.

1. 30m Up past block and small crack top right. Left to tree belay.

2. 20m Up easily to tree belay.

3. 70m A wandering 40m to tree, followed by a 20m pitch.

4. 50m Vertical mank bash. Tree belay. At this point, the Meadow's route traverses left.

5. (13) 25m Tree belay 6m above end of Pitch 4. Climb up face to bridge on belay tree and wall to a micro-ledge. Left of bulge and up 12m to V-crack. Tree belay.

6. 35m Weave up to overhang. Traverse from left to right to small pillar. Up pillar to tree belay.

7. 30m Wander up. Tree belay.

8. 40m Up crack between blocks or traverse to mantel up the blocks. Tree belay.

9. 20m Up wall and crack on right-hand side. This 12m wall is severely delicate. Tree belay.

10. 20m Move up left away from overhanging crack. Dicey traverse right above overhanging crack. Notable exposure up to summit.

"This spectacular gully can be seen from a very long way off. It is the gully on the left side of Leaning Peak North Face and appears to separate Leaning Peak from the rest of the massif. First climbed in 1976 by Barry Ingham and Peter Paterson, the route at first is straightforward with the difficulty gradually increasing towards the top as it should be on all great climbs! There is poor protection (and rock) on the difficult sections." - Rob Rankin's Secrets of the Scenic Rim

Some tricky scrambling on exposed rock. The first challenge is a large slab past the first pinnacle. Bypass this slab by following the base of the slab to the west. After this second pinnacle you'll reach the massive slab which traverses to the east towards Short Leaning Ridge. Follow the slab down and Eastward until a large horizontal crack makes a traverse across the slab to some bigger trees doable. Head up and Eastwards avoiding danger by following the vegetation up until you are forced to make a mad scramble up over an exposed arête on good footholds and handholds. A rope may be handy here. The next obstacle isn't encountered until the long scrubby ridge comes to a minor peak and heads down into a rocky saddle. Progress is now only possible by heading down to the West of Leaning Peak and up a gully eastwards to Leaning Peak. Short Leaning Ridge route is eventually joined and a couple of exposed cruxy moves are encountered before the final scramble to the summit.

Note: An alternative way of bypassing the second slab is by heading up eastwards until a corner with a crack on it is encountered. It is a 4-5m grade 11 climb which can be done unprotected (use the bollard past the crack to secure the next move) or place a nut (size 9) to protect the crack. The ridge is easily accessed by scrambling the face past the short climbing section.

Nestled in a crevasse between two boulders to the right of the first major cliff you come to on the walk up from Mt Barney Lodge. This chossy monstrosity is only worth the trip out if it is hot and there are no alternatives. Shady is about the only thing this climb has going for it follow the weakness on the summit side. Aptly named, as upon topping out I was bleeding, cramping and screaming but lived to fight another month. Protection is okay until the top where a runnout through the crux is required. Two large trees at the top make a great anchor.

The best climb on Gillies. A well shaded beautiful lay back finger crack with good protection. A little choss but some beautiful moves. Top belay and rap from small tree and boulder at top.