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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
Two ropes and two long (double rope, approx 50m) rappels are required for the descent. Use your helmets, knot the ends of your ropes, and carry prusiks and know how to use them to ascend your ropes if you get stuck.
Approach:
Park at the Pierces Pass top carpark, at the start of the Walls Lookdown track. Walk down the Walls lookdown track for approx 10 minutes until you reach a clear footpad breaking left, about 200m before reaching the lookout. Follow this footpad left and down into a small gully with a creek at the bottom, then continue following the footpad downstream until the path wraps left onto the Lunch Ledge. Continue following the path along lunch ledge for approx 300m, past a seasonal waterfall. There are multiple possible rappel points here.
The first rappel point you come to (the Mirrorball rap) descends the top pitch of The West Face Of The Mirrorball, then the gully either side of the pinnacle. It is approached by a 3m scramble down from the main ledge to a small ledge protected by a fixed rope. On this rappel, ropes can become stuck in windy conditions. The rappel is broken into 2x pitches, with the second rappel anchor directly above the pinnacle, on your left as you descend. You can rap down either side of the pinnacle depending on the wind - left is best, but downwind is better if you don't want a stuck rope.
The next rappel point is the most spectacular and cleanest descent. It goes down just to the right of Bionic Booger Boys. Beyond the first rappel the track drops behind a large blade of rock protecting you from the drop to your right. When this blade of rock ends, exposing you once again to the drop, there is a pair of ring bolts above head height. This is the top of the second rappel point. It is a 45m rappel down and slightly left, to a large ledge a few metres to the left. While descending, manoeuvre left so you can reach the ledge rather than hopelessly looking at it while hanging in free space a few metres away. Have the first person down retain the rope ends so subsequent people can be towed to the ledge if they can't reach it. From this ledge it is a second 45m free hanging rappel to reach the valley floor.
Once at ground level, walk down and right from the cliff following a footpad below the Old Skule pinnacle and along the base of the cliff. The BBB&HC sector begins beyond this pinnacle.
Exit:
From the top of these routes, the simplest exit is to head about 100m up to the top of the ridge and then follow the footpad back along the top of the ridge to Bells Line of Road, then turn left and walk 300m back to the upper carpark.
Escape:
To Escape! If you don't have a torch, go back and hide behind Mirrorball pinnacle.
See topo below There are 2 routes out, down the ridge below Old Skule is easy (1 hour down) but you end up at the Grose river,. Walk upstream (right) for 50m or so and find the tourist track back up (1.5 hard hours slog up = 2.5 hours).
Walking around the 'base' of the cliff is hard navigation and scrub/jungle bashing. 50m past Mirrorball is a watercourse below Critical Mass, drop down about 50m here to get below a small cliffline. Continue through a big jungle below Samarkand and another creek, stay about 20-30m below cliffline. Once you are past Walls Lookdown go up to the base of the cliffs and hope to find a good Basejumper's track (about 1 hour so far). 15 minutes along this till you drop down to the Pierces Pass track and 30 minutes up this. Less slog an much more bashing. About 2 hours but easy to get lost and have epics.
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.
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 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, making remote and less popular crags slightly more difficult and fun to navigate to. Some appropriately discreet pruning is a far better alternative then track braiding (which causes far more damage).
However, do so only on Council land and definitely not in the National Park. 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.
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Some content has been provided under license from: © Australian Climbing Association Queensland (Creative Commons, Attribution, Share-Alike 2.5 AU)
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Selected Guidebooks more Hide
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!
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