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Description

Extensive area of boulders on RHS of river (going upstream) before the swing bridge

Access issues inherited from Blue Mountains

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.

Approach

Drive to Cox's river campground from Great Western Highway, via Jenolan Caves Rd, Lowther Siding Rd, Ganbenang Rd, CullenBenbong Rd, GlenChee rd, Six Ft Track (watch for walkers and bike riders once on Six Ft track) 2wd drive in the dry, 4wd in wet. Park at Cox's campground carpark. Walk along six ft track past the eco lodge and then cross river or cross river at Cox's campground and walk along the track on RHS going upstream. Or a better way - once at the campground, cross the river and walk up to the six foot track (the one on the opposite side to the eco lodge). Walk along the track for about 300m and left down into the river.

Ethic inherited from Blue Mountains

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.

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.

It would be appreciated if brushing of holds becomes part of your climbing routine - do it with a soft bristled brush and never a steel brush!

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. However, the fast growing scrub can conceal walking tracks in mere months, so bringing a pair of secaturs and pruning as you walk is a good way of helping out with the constant task of track maintenance. Some appropriately discreet pruning is a far better alternative then track braiding (which causes far more damage). It's also a good warmup for your forearms! However, do so only on Council land and not in the National Park.

History

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Haines and Filan begin a new phase of exploration. Heaps of potential with the added bonus of swimming. Literally 100's of boulder problems to be done. The problems at this stage remain ungraded so as to avoid chasing numbers. Our feeling is there is something really enjoyable about assessing the difficulty of a problem as part of the challenge of climbing it.

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Routes

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Grade Route
1
★ Magnetic Wave Boulder 3m

Short and desperate mantle

2
★ Microtimes Boulder

left of Pointilism - a three move wonder - mantle onto polished shelf.

3
★★★ Pointillism Boulder 5m

up steep slab - left hand ledge is off. Mid level crux adds to the excitement. It is maybe possible to escape left if you feel like you are blowing the crux foot moves. Climb with finesse through to the point.

4
★★ Reverse It Boulder 3m

High step and backwards to polished jugs

5
★★ Step It Boulder 3m

High step right of Reverse It, up to water polished jugs to top out

6
★★ Its Gonna Rain Boulder 3m

Flakes and smears to mantle top out

7
★★★ Untitled BoulderProject 4m

layaway's in seam to flat jug and then slab top out.

8
electric dihedral BoulderProject

far left hand dihedral - delicately up the dihedral - 3 pads will really help if you fall off the top out. Bad landing potential. Has been climbed all the way to topmost holds but bailed from the mantle till it is properly cleaned.

9
★★★ Crypt Right Hand BoulderProject

Right hand arete of the crypt. Use whatever you can.

10
★★★ The Keeper Boulder

In the amphitheater south of the main wall. In the middle of wall on rhs of the crypt. Line of large holds for feet and smaller layaways.

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11
★★ Tame the Impaler Boulder

Relatively unassuming Monolithic Triangular block (MTB) in the general area known as Kubrik's. Starts on right hand face and turns around onto front face and delicately up the arete and over the top (with a straddle perhaps) onto back low angled face to get off.

12
★★★ Game Set Snatch Boulder

Middle of the slab and over the top onto the back face.

13
★★ Dude Skewed Boulder

Left hand arete of front face

14
★★★ Phasing Out Boulder

Starting left hand side of MTB and up the arete with a balancy top out

15
Stitches extension BoulderProject

Stitches extension starts at adjacent boulder and traverses along the lip into stitches proper

16
★★★ Stitches Boulder

On the overhanging boulder with a flat face, hanging nose and brilliant architecture opposite the MTB. Up heading right to mantle from nose.

Activity

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