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All NSW (General) (General) (General)

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Mt Alex - NSW

Tonyk

28-Apr-2012
11:56:13 AM

Never been to mt. Alex. Can anyone give me any tips/must do routes. I am also thinking of taking my 3 year old. Is it kid friendly?? Any info would be great.

Thanks

Tony

nmonteith

28-Apr-2012
12:01:08 PM

Really nice crag. Very kid friendly (easy flat short walk-in, flat bottom of crag, minimal loose rock). Heaps of fun routes - all very well bolted with rings. Lots of different styles - crimpy walls, steep caves, pockets. Rock quality is generally better than anything in the Blue Mtns. It's not the tallest crag - average height around 15m. Good bakerys very close by. No crowds either!

Latest guide is here:
http://www.climb.org.au/index.php?page_id=10&action=crag&crag_id=245

nmonteith

28-Apr-2012
12:11:31 PM

p.s. Just follow the stars in that guide for the quality routes.

Tonyk

28-Apr-2012
12:21:30 PM

mmmm...... Bakery!!

Thanks!!! Sounds like a great day will be had. Got any camping spots near by??

nmonteith

28-Apr-2012
1:12:23 PM

The crag itself is fairly 'urban' - ie its only a few minutes away from the centre of town (even though it's in the bush). So I don't imagine you can camp at the crag carpark unless you like sharing it with drunk bogans and couples making out.

Tonyk

28-Apr-2012
2:05:15 PM

mmm....drunk bogans.

Might look further afield.

davidn

28-Apr-2012
2:12:19 PM

It's a very good crag, well worth a look. There's at least one silly 'route', but that's more than overshadowed by a lot of good ones.

nmonteith

28-Apr-2012
2:20:01 PM

I've never seen any drunk bogans there - I'm only guessing that such an accessible spot just out of town would be frequented by the local hoons.

dr box

28-Apr-2012
4:03:34 PM

heaps of good camping in "the Oaks"
down the hill from Wabbit rock on the Harcourt side.If you're coming from Melbs, turn right into harcourt then follow the road out towards Mt Alex. At a sharp left hander drive straight ahead onto dirt, then i think there is another left and then your there.
short (ish) walk from there up to Wabbit, or a 4x4 would get you there
look at the older guide there are heaps more areas then the round melbourne guide says.

dr box

28-Apr-2012
4:05:09 PM

hang on. The Mt Alex i was talking about is the one in Harcourt,
sorry if its the wrong crag

nmonteith

28-Apr-2012
4:28:14 PM

Yes wrong state! The crag we are talking about is near Mittagong about an hour south west of Sydney.

dr box

28-Apr-2012
5:38:41 PM

yeah whoops.
Mt Alex is vic is good fun too

allnewmaterial

28-Apr-2012
5:46:06 PM

On 28/04/2012 Davidn wrote:
>It's a very good crag, well worth a look. There's at least one silly 'route',
>but that's more than overshadowed by a lot of good ones.

Which one is the silly route?

Tonyk

28-Apr-2012
6:24:30 PM

Yep. Interested in beta about the nsw mt Alex. But the next time I am down melbs way I will be sure to consider a side trip to mt Alex Vic.

Sonic

28-Apr-2012
8:23:25 PM

Theres really no free camping near Mt. Alex itself, and the small area at the top of the dirt road is unfortunately considered somewhat of a local tip.

If you want good routes (unsure what you climb, but anyway):
Los Hermanos 23 in the top cave is a corker.
Biafra 26
Galvanise 20
Alpine 15
Red Room 18
Three and a half Thousand 20
Judas Escariot 21
Flying Voodoo 25 are all quality to get you going. Alot of the other routes are really good too. The only area i'd avoid is the short upper wall where Planetarium is. Its crap. Im sorry, but those routes don't deserve a stars asshole. There are few 'bad' routes there, to be honest.

davidn

28-Apr-2012
9:02:04 PM

On 28/04/2012 allnewmaterial wrote:
>Which one is the silly route?

Thomas the Tank. (beta warning for below if you don't read guides and want to onsight it)

If you follow the FA's instructions, it's a three-points off, long dyno out through a rooflet to a ledge using a hand jam, apparently 20 (!!). From talking to others that have tried it, it's probably more like 23 or 24 if you can actually manage to dyno off a hand jam (...) or even just a V3 with some bolts, but there's a better and easier way around it which means it's not even a "really fun" one move wonder, just a very short route that may not even be 20.

The number of good-looking routes with good holds and sequences is awesome. Everything on Vox Populi wall is worth a go and the stuff in the first cave is great (Los Hermanos for example - a very sustained route with great climbing and amazing to look at). It's just a shame the online guides are a fair bit of a mess, though it looks like someone's cleaning up thecrag with a few photo topos.

Tonyk

28-Apr-2012
9:28:13 PM

Sonic, thanks for the camping info. Should be able to have a play on most of your mentioned routes. Will stear clear of Planetarium. Might try and find some camping in some state forrest near by or just make it a day trip.

TonyB

29-Apr-2012
6:53:30 AM

One of the best kid friendly crags around. Short easy walk in, flat safe base. Our baby had about 7 playmates there on our last visit.

There are 18 messages in this topic.