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Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
All NSW	(General)	(General)	(General)

Topic Date User

Warrumbungles 2-May-2011 At 3:29:23 PM BG

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My friends and I had great time out at the Warrumbungles over the 2011 Easter Anzac Weekend. Met up with Steven Kassar and a great bunch of other people throughout the weekend. I didn't take many photographs as I was climbing every day. But my friend Matthew may have some worth adding to the guide. I'll send some through once we have gathered everyone's pix.

We managed to get up Endeavour face and Vertigo on Belougery Spire, Corner Stone Rib on Crater Bluff and Bastion Buttress on Bluff Mountain.

I was given two approach descriptions for Crater bluff from Balor Hut. The most straight forward being to make your way to Dogma gap and then follow the climbers trail (straight ahead when coming directly from Balor hut) and cairns towards crater bluff until you cross a creek bed, then make your way up the scree to the base and follow the base left (corner stone rib, etc) or right to your chosen route. The other description was provided by Alan (unfortunately I cannot recall his last name right know) and he suggested making our way up to the Grand high tops and following the major volcanic dyke down the valley and across to the base of the rib. From up on crater bluff this way appears to be reasonably straight forward.

For Bluff Mountain we used the access description from the ACA route register and found it to be pretty good. I guess the most important thing in getting to the face of Bluff mountain is to not traverse too high from Dow's camp. Once you find the large cairn on the second scree slope make your way down and around the next rocky ridge and then up the large boulder field directly under the face.

We started Bastion Buttress from where BB Variant was scratched into the base and climbed up until the grade got a bit stiff for the route description (Good rule for the Warrumbungles is definitely if the climbing is harder than suggested you are probably off route). We belayed from a large slung rock and traversed left under the arête to a semi hanging belay from a tree with loads of slings on in it. We then arced left before going right out onto the arête for the rest of the climb. Our climb didn't seem to directly follow any of the photo topo's I had seen except for when we got onto the arête. Regardless of which route you take, the first 2-3 pitches are definitely the hardest, but then things ease up dramatically.

Michael Law was generous enough to lend us his half ropes for Bluff mountain and it was really appreciated. After experiencing some of the loose rock, I would not climb in the Warrumbungles again without half ropes.

It was three years ago that my girlfriend and I did the Grand high tops circuit and made a packed to learn to place protection and come back out and climb those beautiful volcanic spires. On the trip we met so many great people that had a wealth of experience and stories to tell. We had a couple of loose rocks and "we are not in Shipley any more" moments, but all in all it was an amazing adventurous weekend.

Here's to making goals and living your dreams.