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Summary
Sandstone
Trad climbing area in Mt Victoria. Most routes require 2 ropes to get off, or a single 70 or 80m rope.
Description
Odin Head is a great trad climbing area. Most routes are a healthy 35-45m with some jaw dropping lines. The climbing is high quality and provides the Blue Mountains with another quality trad climbing venue but it is protected from the crazy westerlies. Half of the headland faces East North East so some routes can provide pleasant shade on those hot afternoons.
Most routes require abseiling on double ropes to get off, though you can often get by with a single 70 or 80m rope unless you want to walk down the access gully. There are plenty of trees to use to abseil get back to the ground.
Access issues
Odin Head is located in the Blue Mountains National Park. Please behave appropriately, no dogs etc. No boring, over-bolted, filler sport routes either. It's a trad crag, please behave.
Approach
30-45 min
Drive 1.6km along Victoria Falls Road. Park at a little turn off on the right.The route follows an old fire trail which can clearly be seen in the ariel photo. Fallen logs have been placed along the entire length of the fire trail. From the carpark follow fire trail east, at first turnoff take the right hand branch (currently yellow tape on ground of left hand branch near junction). Continue down slight slope to swampy clearing with views north to the Grose valley, up slight slope. At the next intersection take the left branch and after just over a kilometre from the car park turn left at the 3rd intersection, follow ridge NNE till fire trail ends. Continue through open bush, stay on the crest of the ridge, occasional cairns. After 300 metres you will see large ant nest, continue a further 50 metres then turn right, eastish, and descend ridge past another ants nest and cairns to a col. From here its a further 150 metres slightly uphill to cliff edge.You can rap from trees here. Better for your first visit, from the col go 1/2 way to the cliff then descend a gully on the right, southish. Follow this gully to the base of the crag. Climbs are now to the north (left)
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. 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/
History
Bruce Cameron and Keith Bell are believed to have visited Odin Head back in the 80’s. Ian Brown and Tom Williams climbed the plum line Sharp Shooter in 94.There was more activity here in 2004 by Ant Rivers and Co.
Evan Wells inspired the revival in recent years, in which Mark Wilson, Taib Ezekiel and Marty Doolan finished off most of the other prominent lines.
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Selected Guidebooks more Hide
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!
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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.
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Accommodations nearby more Hide
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Nearby Icons
| 17 | ★★ Master and the apprentice | ||
| 19 | ★★★ Joe Blake | ||
| 20 | ★★★ True dreams | ||
| 22 | ★★★ Sharp Shooter | ||
| 23 | ★★★ Odin's Love Glove |
Photos Browse all photos
/f9/a9/f9a94763072c4f2d9a0c453d68a251ab53a396b7)
★★ Master and the apprentice 17 - 17 master and the apprentice
/b5/61/b561d5f47a89fbb2f25f7ef040779c020f16f7ec)
★★★ Joe Blake 19 - Joe black
mic on ★★★ True dreams 20 - 2017-04-23 22.05.13.jpg
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★★ Dude where's my cam? 21 - 20180425_121213.jpg
Thu 27 Apr
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