Quite a spectacular looking orange wall, clearly visible 500m downstream from Atlantis. Doesn't quite live up to first impressions due to limited starts and grainy rock. The wall gets sun after midday - and is nicely wind protected from winter westerlies. The lovely canyon below the cliff offers great swimming in summer. This crag is just inside the Blue Mountains National Park - so the usual restrictions apply - no dogs, smoking, fires etc.
The Blue Mountains are a World Heritage listed area. The Grose Valley, the cliffs around Katoomba and much of the Narrow Neck peninsula are part of the Blue Mountains National Park which is managed by the NPWS. The Western Escarpment - where most of the climbing is - is Crown Land managed by the BMCC. While the NPWS Plan of Management nominates several locations in the National Park where rock climbing is deemed appropriate, the majority of the climbing remains unacknowledged. 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.
Practically all crags are either in National Park or in council reserve: dog owners are reminded that dogs are not allowed in National Parks at any time and fines have been issued, while for crags on council reserve the BMCC leash law requires that dogs be on-leash.
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/
This crag shares the same carpark and start walking track with the Atlantis crag. Turn off the Great Western Highway on to Hat Hill Rd at Blackheath. Drive along Hat Hill Road to where it turns sharply right after 3.1km, and after a further 500m, turn left in to Godson Ave (unsealed). Drive 350m and turn right at the intersection and park in the first pull in bay on the left (GPS -33.613, 150.315).
About 10m past this, walk down a fire trail on the left. Do not try and drive down the trail! Blue Mtns City Council have blocked it with logs as it was being used as an illegal dump point for asbestos (which has now been removed - 2023).
Ignore a foot track to the left at a cairn after 150m - this leads to the climbing area of Atlantis. Continue down the fire trail until it peters out at a burnt out car, and then keep walking down the ridge on well worn canyoners track until it ends at creek. The crag is clearly visible as a large orange wall 50m up on the right side of the canyon.
About 20m before the creek, bush bash up to the right side of the wall - and then walk left along cliff base to cave and first bolted route. If you hit the creek you have gone too far. Its about a 15 min walk-in and 20 - 25 min walk back up again.
Rap anchors on all routes.
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/
Neil and co weren't the first visitors this to cliff. They found one old FH and dynabolt and some ringbolt notches on the left wall - circa 2000s?
Did you know that you can create an account to record, track and share your climbing ascents? Thousands of climbers are already doing this.
Author(s): Simon Carter
Date: 2019
ISBN: 9780958079082
The latest comprehensive, latest and greatest Blue Mountains Climbing Guide is here and it has more routes than you can poke a clip stick at! 3421 to be exact. You are not going to get bored.
Author(s): Simon Carter
Date: 2019
ISBN: 9780958079075
Simon Carter's "Best of the Blue" is the latest selected climbing guide book for the Blue Mountains and covers 1000 routes and 19 different climbing areas. For all the sport climbers out there, the travellers, or just anyone who doesn't want to lug around the big guide that's more than 3 times the size - cut out the riff-raff and get to the good stuff! This will pretty much cover everything you need!
20 | ★ Dinosaur Train | ||
21 | ★★ Yucadoo! | ||
22 | ★★ Fedora | ||
23 | ★★ Swallow the Fly | ||
24 | ★★ Hat Trick | ||
25 | ★★ Mad Hatter |
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