Mt Lyell, Bouldering

BLDV

VB-VB VB+V0-V0 V0+V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V7 V9 V11

Map

10 9 7 6 8 5 3 4 2 1

1 The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Area 2 No Man's Land 3 For A Few Dollars More Area 4 The Creek 5 Main Area 6 The Valley 7 Imported Posse Area 8 The Saddle 9 A Fist Full Of Dollars Area 10 West Spur

Directions in Google Maps

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Seasonality

Summary

Conglomerate

The Mt Lyell boulder field is a huge expanse of conglomerate boulders spread all over the slopes of Mt Lyell, just outside Queenstown. If you like climbing on conglomerate then the potential here is endless! There are small sit starts all the way to Adamsfield like giants. The rock is good as the bits that are going to break are obvious and the rest is solid. The selection of problems here is just the beginning of what will be a major new area in a stunning location, with a remote mountain feel and relatively easy access.

Description

Afternoon sun

Please note this is a very new area, most problems have only had one ascent. The easy ones with minimal cleaning and the harder ones have been cleaned for the first ascensionists beta. Check your holds before committing, especially on the high balls.

Access issues

Allowed

This is an alpine area so follow all leave no trace principals, keep cleaning and clearing to a minimum and when possible toilet before or after climbing or follow the Tyndalls guideline. Please keep an extra eye out for King Billy pines and other native Tasmanian trees.

Approach

20-30 min

Mt Lyell is 10 minutes out of Queenstown on the Lyell Highway, 2 hours from Burnie or 4 from Hobart. Coming from Burnie - go through Queenstown, past Gormanston and shortly after passing the newly revamped Linda Cafe, you will see the boulders sprayed across the hill, on the left hand side of the highway. Immediately after a small bridge (Cemetery Creek), a gravel road goes off to the right - park here.

There is a small creek (Linda Creek) running perpendicular to the highway which needs to be crossed. Some orange tags starting just upstream of the bridge may be of assistance, but essentially just head cross country (as the pad is very vague) through low grasses and a short band of light scrub, aiming for the obvious main spur.

Follow the faint pad and some cairns/ tags past Back to The future 3 to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. From here head up the ridgeline into No Man's Land. There is a few cairns heading up the ridge but the climbers track heads to The Harder The Fall which should have 2 cairns in front of it's downhill side slab. From here break away from the other cairns by turning to uphill left and heading towards the How's Your Father Face. You will then cross a small creek and be in The For A Few Dollars More area. Follow this ridgeline up past the cave to it's high point and you should be able to see the main area across the next creek. Either head down into that area or keep following the creek up into the Valley.

Where to stay

There is nice camping to found on the shores of Lake Burbury 1-2km further south. Look for a road off to the left with lots of potholes, just before you see the lake. Alternatively there is an established campsite on the opposite side of the lake, with picnic tables and toilets.

Ethic

Cleaning of loose or dangerous rock is essential here and some of that requires a bit of force and maneuvering but please avoid chipping or comforting of holds.

History

History timeline chart

Jon Nermut did some exploring and posted some photos back in 2005 with some sporadic development beginning in 2014 through to 2020. There was then a concerted effort by a small group of climbers in the summer of 2021/2022, when most the current problems were climbed.