Climbing community at Boronia Point

Most of us were locals, living in Blue Mts. They just came to the crag two by two in the afternoon as if we appeare to our local jym. South-East facing toward Mt Boyce, well shaded and cool in the afternoon. Only a few and myself were Sydney siders.

Jes is on Green Eggs & Ham G28. I did not attempt this. But tried two G23.

There are some easy routes like G17, 18, 19 and 21 to warm up.

Day 1 of my daughter Anna's outdoor climb

It was so hot day in Sydney that one of my friends mentioned that he measured 41℃ in Penrrith around 3pm. The forecasted wind was about 25kms/h in Blackheath. I was looking for some shady easy routes without gust effect for the beginner climber. My thought was in Dam Cliffs with a swimming option.

As reaching Blue Mts it became cloudy a bit, and was cool at Medlow Bath. To save our time we popped into The Block.

The 1st climb was Ole Biscuit Barrel 15m (grade 13) in The Block. i know the grade here is hard for the number. She had some good experiences resting on rope. This south facing wall was well shaded even after 3.30pm. A gust brought our rope bag up in the sky while she was climbing. So it was the COOLEST climb.

Her 2nd climb was Manana 22m (13), west facing. So it was in the sun, however, was overcasted by that time. it was comfortable climb too.

Manana, a view from a bit back.

Trickles 21 at Narrabeen Slabs

See this video, as it's only 40 seconds. This wasn't me, but my friend. I was recording him last october. Last Saturday I went up a bit farther than him, but couldn't make it too. So its still our homework to find how to move. I hope it must not be so hard for me as its graded 21, but it probably requires the sequence that i don't move naturally. When I was on the rock I didn't have time to think much how to move as I constantly was fighting against gravity. Sounds very good puzzle, isn't it? It truely is.

camping and climbing in Nowra

I had a chance to climb at 2 areas in Nowra last week for the first time. One area was called Tompsons Point, the other side of the Shoalhaven river from Ski campsite. The crags we climbed were called Orca Area which was above those bolders left handside in the pic. That is West facing so we went there by a canue in the morning,

then a water dragon joined us.

The top of Snoop Dog was visible from our campsite.


The other area was called The Grotto Cliffline which was North of campsite and South West facing, 20 min speed walk through track. The track however never takes you to any crags unless you step into bush on your left.
Wary ticks. i got 3 bites, and my partner could not sleep for a whole night.

Nankeen Kestrel at Barden's

Last October I got the email below.

Rockies
Blue Mountains local Mitch Warren reports that there is a pair of Nanking Kestrels nesting in the cave three-quarter way up the above route. Anyone who has climbed this route will have seen the guano and bones littering the hole, which seems to have been abandoned in recent years.
It is probably best to stay off the route until nesting season has ended (mid to late summer?).
Regards

Niall Doherty

SRC President

Then I went Track Care this month.

= = = Jolley Good Fellow = = =

After the volunteer work I climbed Jolley Good Fellow which was the closest route to the nesting cave other than Hermione. I guess it's less than 3m away from the nest.
When I was at DRB I noticed one of the Nankeen Kestrels couple flew away. The falcon stayed at the most right of the wall (pic) which was above Hang on to Yourself and Lady Grinning Soul. The other was flying around, came back (pic) and forth to the nest many times. Later I feel sorry to them when i thought that if the latter was female which supposed to incubate eggs, though I was not close enough to see their nest nor eggs.
So I will stay away even from Jolley Good Fellow for a while to be a good jolley fellow to them. If you are a sport person, the warm up route would be Little Trigers (19) instead. Or Kooks (16) which is fully bolted except bottom 3m which is fairly easy.

Mt York, Refusal

4 of us went on Mt York despite of rain on our way to Katoomba. While i was climbing 1st route in sprinkling rain and belaying my 2nd in rain, all of us wore rain jackets. Of course we ENJOYED climbing. Then had morning tea in a cave for about half an hour. So it probably rained for about 1 hr and a half. Looked around dry surface. These 2 corners were the best. John and I went left crack, which is called Refusal, trad 14 that i felt more than 14. The crack line is vertical which the pic does not show.
Everywhere was dry after these routes.

Mt York on Saturday 26th September.

It was fun. a team was retreating from a crag when we met at the middle of Wentworth's Gully around 9.30. the wall was too cold, but 7 of us kept going down to our targeted crags, westside of Mt York and started climbing. Our crag was Deep Freeze Area and the other was Dragons Tooth Area. Soon it started sprinkling, then changed to snow quickly. The snowying wasn't much but carried on with strong wind. by lunch time 4 mates from Dragon team went to the other side of mtn where no wind came. 3 of us decided to keep climbing at Freesed area.

At the middle of a wall, however, i was pushed to a side by gale. Luckly the routes were short enough that we could communicate. But it was too cold to belay from the top.
On seeing developing darker cloud we stopped climbing. As soon as we drove off, there was sleet storm. 3 of us climbed 5 routes. Well done Mates!

i'm adding this route into my homework. I'm not sure its name, probably called Serious Leather or new route which is the first pic that Mike is climbing. 2m right, 3rd route from arete which is the 2nd pic.

Ben's 1st climb at Medlow Bath

The 1st ascent of the day was at The Sandpit area due to a big party's occupancy before us. The rain-proof Hootenanny, the corner crack under the large rotten roof, trad, 12m, G13 was our warm up.

For 2nd we had to skip Manana and Katoomba brothers area again. The next available route was Ole Biscuit Barrel, carrot bolts, 15m, G13 consists of vertical small holds, started left end of the Block area, finished at the 3rd anchor. I remember many people said this was more than G13.

Due to its popularity at the Block, the 3rd was trad Rumdoodle, 15m, G13, at the most left of The Sunbath to scramble up to its corner, and Schwing's 2nd pitch, carrot, 25m, G15. We took a few photos at the top.

We had fully warmed up and saw no one else at the Sunbath. Lucky! So our 4th was the 1st pitch of Schwing which had big solid holds with rooflet, 20m, sport, G18. I was amazed that Ben succeeded the rooflet without any rest on rope. Here I practiced double ropes which was good, though i still was wondering whether there was any advantage of using double ropes at this particular route.

Walk to the top of BBB along Ridge

You'll see these views as you are becoming close to it 10 min after car park. On your right.



In front of you. Turn right soon aroud here. There is no obvious foot path. If you turn left soon you'll go to top of Hotel California.

Walk to the top of BBB along Ridge (Cotinued)

Facing valley, turn right as walk down



Keep walking to this direction.




Behind him is the top of BBB.
Now you must go to the top of Mirrorball to rap in.

Mt Boyce special 5th September 2009

Scramble Syndrome, Shipley Upper

Scramble Syndrome, grade 20. This is my homework from Shipley Upper last Sunday. At my 5th attempt i could pass the section in the middle of the route.

Mt Boyce