Upper Gara Gorge Sobre todo Búlder 753 vías en escuela

Ironically, the Gara boulders area was discovered by accident by Rob Dixon and Brian Birchall whilst returning from a day at Nettle Buttress. The year was 1975. On this day they completed “Hope” (16) and “Charity” (14). Development continued through the following years with one of the best being the classic easy route “Illusion” (13).

1978 saw the arrival of the infamous Joe Friend in Armidale. Foregoing the short routes of the Boulders he went further down the gorge to the Bastille, unearthing it’s first route “Geronimo” (20) though a rumored wooden peg found on the first ascent may point to the possibility that Friend may have been beaten to the cherry. Friend went on to do more routes over the river at the Fortress such as the frightening off-width “The Chop” (18).

1980 was the first real route-finding rush of the area. Inspired by Birchall’s “Savage Amusement” (20) (now 22 since the large spike was inadvertently removed) Mark Colyvan and John Latanzio climbed “Inertia” (22) and “Anticipation” (18) respectively. 1981, and the pace was kept up by Colyvan’s superb “Psychosomatic” (23) arguably one of the best routes in the area if you have the bottle for the first few moves. The same year saw the first sport-route (not recognised as such at the time) with Al Stephens’ ever-popular “Heavy Metal” (18).

1982 and the year of greatest productivity with over 20 new climbs developed in the area. This was also the year of one of the greatest controversies in the local scene. Frustrated with waiting for Ed Sharpe to break free from his alleged weekend hangovers and finish his project at the Private Sector, Paul Bayne finally went out and rope-soloed the first ascent of “Never-Ready Eddie”. Tempered by everyone’s plea’s (no-one wanted to find Paul’s body at the dump) Paul eventually called the route “Slackers and Robbers” (22) Also in this area was Latanzio’s Trajectory (18) which met an unpleasant demise when the bottom half fell down the slab. It has since been resurrected by Gordon Low. Straightened out with a couple of new bolts it has become a testy little 22. Other notable routes of this year were Colyvan’s “Private Sector” (22) and the classic overhanging crack “Thick as Thieves” (21). The same year saw a renewal of interest downstream where a direct finish was added to Geronimo (at the Bastille) compliments of Colyvan and Stephens. Across the river at the Fortress Bayne made significant inroads into freeing the classic double roof “Kiss Me Deadly” (22M1).

The next few years were a bit of a veritable new route drought with interest being focused in other areas. Two exceptions were Colyvan’s scary Don’t Get Cute” and Geof Robertson’s ascent of “The Hot Pearl Snatch” (26). Present on the day Stephens seemed more chuffed at the fact that Colyvan had been beaten to the ascent rather than the fact that New England now had it’s very own 26, even if it was less than ten metres long.

1988, the bicentennial year, brought a small stir with Brendan Halliburton producing 5 new routes, all in the area of the Swimming Hole. Most have since been lost in the mists of time but one standout is the excellent, exciting traverse “Careful He Might Hear You” (17). Before leaving town he also bolted a line left of “Don’t Get Cute” but the first ascent of “Leaving on Your Mind” (21) was left to the opportunistic Colyvan to clean up the following year. 1989 must have been the year for cleaning up as Stephens was also on detail. When Graeme Stewart was kidnapped by his wife and unable to return and free the last bit of aid from “Picnic at Hanging Rock” (25) Stephens was the first in to snaffle it up.

The following years brought a lull in activity though some interest was shown in the Bastille. Several routes were put up. Of these, “Innocence” (18), courtesy of Stephens, is probably the best easy slab this side of the divide.

The summer of 93-94 could be seen as a reemergence of the Boulders to the centre of attention. Too hot to climb anywhere else, Stephens and local boy Ben Christian focused on a few short tricks at the private sector. The pair managed to successfully pull a few rabbits out of their sleeves with Stephens’ “Yoda” (24) (just as popular as it is short!) and Christian’s exciting “Ninja” (22) being the picks of the litter. Shortly later Christian came down with severe tendonitis and everybody else’s attentions were elsewhere.

1995 started off with a bang with Christian letting everyone know he was back by quickly dispatching his old project “Black Dog” (25). The following day Gordon Low had finally lost enough weight to drag his sorry arse up “Sweet Surrender” (24), ending his two-year affair with the line.

Later that season Christian cleaned up an abandoned project next to “Sweet Surrender” on the “Shooting Star Buttress” to produce the frightening “Rodney’s Garibaldi Metwurst” (26-and quite a poisonous mouthful!). Finally heeding the plaintive bleating of would-be suitors, too scared to do the route without dangling slings all over it, Christian has since re-bolted “The Metwurst” to make it a little more consumer-friendly.

Downstream, between the Bastille and the Fortress, Low began development at “The Kitchen”, which is at water level, with several others in tow. The best routes so far are the easy classic “Get Nuked” (15) done by visiting Brisbanite Bill Briner, though it has been recently pointed out that Paul Bayne actually soloed the first ascent 10 years ago, and Low’s more recent “Lean Cuisine” (23).

Winter 1995 saw the arrival of The Swiss route-machine Andreas Audetat.

With his strong fingers and European sport climbing tactics Audetat was the one to drag New England, kicking and screaming, into the new age during 95 and ‘96. Though most of his efforts were focused further down the gorge, Audetat did do many high-caliber routes around the Boulders and further downstream. Below the Fortress, Audetat teamed up with Low and Tim Hill to Develop The Sea Cliff. Best routes here are Hill’s “Se A Cabo” (26) and Audetat’s extremely powerful “Ravage” (29). Up on the Bastille Audetat bolted and quickly completed (in two days) the striking yellow streak on the main face to give a product with “No Frills” (29). At the Fortress Low and Stephens continued to unearth the goodies through the early months of ‘97 with the hit being Stephens’ “Morning Glory” (22) -”What’s the story?”

At the boulders Audetat managed to fill in nearly all the gaps on the Shooting Star Buttress - the best being “Hitman” (29) as well as grid-bolting a large boulder in the farmer’s property. The “Ring-Pull Boulder” (anonymously named by a stunned local) has almost a dozen skin-ripping classic sport-routes on it but unfortunately a recent change of ownership and the usual litigation fears has closed this area to climbers.

Since the departure of Audetat back to Switzerland and the discovery of new sport climbing areas on the sandstone of the coast, development in the gorge has once again gone into hibernation, with the exception of the occasional route by the regular local crew. One of these was the so-called last great problem on Motor-head Buttress. “Paper, Scissors, Rock (25) finally submitted to a siege tactics onslaught by Matt Rizzuto and Low, with Rizzuto finally claiming the glory of success. But don’t be fooled, there is still a veritable cornucopium of unclimbed rock down there. Stephens is still sniffing out the occasional classic and Low is still making hopeful forays to the Bastille to waste tape on his optimistic project. Rizzuto, as well as tearing his way through the local test-pieces, is gradually notching up a good collection of hard boulder problems in the V5+ range.

So if you ever get fed-up with long approaches and slogging uphill to your favourite crag, remember why we climb in Gara gorge - because it’s not there!

Pay us a visit, there’s plenty rock for everyone.