Handsome Crag Mostly Bouldering 332 routes in crag

NEW APPROACH

Instead of turning right off Back River Road keep driving for another 400m or until you get to Handsome Cave Road. Enter Handsome Cave Rd, park on the green patch to your left immediately after you've turned. If you have a 4x4 with A LOT of clearance you can keep driving on Handsome Cave Rd over rough terrain. At the first fork you get to, which is right after the BIG hole in the road, it does actually not matter whether you take the left or the right road since they meet up at the top,....for hikers I would recommend the left Rd and for cars the right,.....at the top where the two roads merge again follow the road to the left, past a shack on the left. Park here (if you've driven) as further up the road a gate has been flattened by trees and is impassable. Just past this gate is another fork; take the left hand road and follow the trail. The path bends around the valley and passes under impressive caves (walk left past them). Two minutes on is a cairn marking a foot trail on the right - if you reach a small creek-bed crossing you've missed it. This trail is relatively easy to follow if you stay observant and look for cairns. At the top of the cairned track you arrive at the old access road. Here turn left to get to Weakhold or right get to Stronghold. The main Handsome Crag climbs are ten minutes to the right. The starting tracks to these areas are marked with cairns.

OLD APPROACH

To get there head up to New Norfolk and cross to the northern side of the Derwent River. Head up river and take the first right, followed by a left. Follow this through the outer suburbs of New Norfolk to the T-junction: to get to the cliff turn right along Back River Road. The turn-off to the crag is about 2km along Back River Road from the T-junction. Turn right at the driveway to house numbers 658, 660 & 662 (this is the old access road which is now locked via a gate) Another possible access which involves about 40 minutes of walking is the Handsome Caves Road. Park at the beginning of the road, hike to where the road turn into a walking track and follow to walking track to the caves area. From there follow another faint track leading atop the caves and hill towards the Weakhold end of Handsome Crag.