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Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

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All NSW (General) (General) (General)

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Barrenjoey - the other crags

Superstu

15/06/2012
5:05:19 PM

I'd like to hear from any body who has climbed at any of the other barrenjoey crags (ie not the popular south west Side)

Custom house rocks - my fairly half arsed attempt to locate this crag either puts it too close to the walking track or right on top of the houses. New trackworks in the area probably make the SSS access notes invalid. If youve been there any chance you can post up an accurate google maps point?

Lighthouse track - didnt look that great up close and being right above the walking track i am considering dropping from the guide.

Disorder corners - anybody been out there this century?

North palm beach - anybody actually been up there, or do we all just admire from the beach and talk about someday going there?

ajfclark

Online Now
15/06/2012
5:15:44 PM

Out of interest, do things that get dropped from the print guide still appear online?

Superstu

15/06/2012
5:31:19 PM

Case by case basis. Some pages are hidden from the public, others appear online but not included in the printed guides or iphone app.

Hidden stuff is usually either so crappy i dont want to waste peoples time, or its clearly on private property or somewhere climbing just isnt going to happen anymore. Or maybe its just a fairly lousy cliff right above a road or walking track, in which case it will probably get a sentence or two in the 'other crags' chapter but the climb descriptions etc are left on the hidden page. Dont want to fill up the guide with route descriptions of stuff nobody is going to use.

Phil S

15/06/2012
5:55:28 PM

HI Stu

Lighthouse track - Inverted Fuzzy Pumper is great, at least to the ledge - I never had the gall to top it out. It's a bit hard to be objective about those routes you grow up aspiring to do though. Fond memories of that one.

Disorder Corners - Weird varnished rock that seems to attract and hold salt crystals. I've been there a couple of times but honestly can't remember if I did a single route.

North Palm Beach - IMO the good routes are better than a lot of the good routes on the SW side. Wondered through there a few years ago and was disappointed to find the track overgrown.
- Once in a Lifetime: Great, and there's not one but two manky bolts protecting the crux - what could go wrong. The description in the seacliffs guide is gold as well, something about hurty burny paws. I'd love to see that description live on.
- A Clean Break: Short but really good on nice rock.
- Space Vampires: Awesome - One of the best routes in Sydney and probably still pretty safe.
- Same as it Ever Was: Sure is nice line.
There are some OK routes further E as well. The whole area deserves traffic.

Also, there is a very fun and at times quite exposed scrambly route off the E tip of the headland that winds its way down to the water. Highly recommended.

widewetandslippery

15/06/2012
7:24:41 PM

My memory of disorder corners is bad gear. Long tome ago.

Nth Palm as phil said has good routes. I rate the routes he mentioned and at the east there is a wall with 3? Routes that are good. No current fixed anchor info I can givre but it would be 30yr old hand drilled stuff so it should be tops.

ARidgley

15/06/2012
10:28:37 PM

Wow. Testing my memory here. I climbed at North Palm Beach in the early 90s. I remember the climbs being much more 3D than the SW side and a lot more adventurous. Much more like sea cliffs (strange that) than the rest of Barrenjoey. My guide ticks say I led 'A Clean Break' and 'Space Vampires' and seconded 'Same as it Ever Was' and 'Joker Hysterical Face'.

I have no record (in my guide or in my dark recesses) of them being overly friable, poor gear, or otherwise horrific. I think 'steep' rings a bell, good moves, commiting, but less intimidating than they looked from below. I'd definitely include the area. I think we approached from the lighthouse trail down somehow rather than up from the beach.

pmonks

16/06/2012
6:26:35 AM

My notes from 15-odd years ago are here (scroll down to get past SW Barrenjoey). WM's notes (mostly from the same trips) are here.

Of the non-SW-Barrenjoey climbs I only have memories of "The Holy Hour" - good, but hard and rubbish fixed protection (ancient mild steel carrots). At the time I didn't know the difference between a good bolt and a bad bolt... It's also not as high as SW Barrenjoey (despite appearances) - it's just more prominent since it's sticking out of waist high scrub.

I also remember walking around to Disorder Corners and thinking it looked alright - it's the only patch of even remotely decent rock on the entire northern side of Barrenjoey, and looks quite good. The problem is the fixed gear looked like absolute crap and there's no top access to top-rope it (steep loose hillside above). We also caught a couple "in the act" around there - thinking back it was a bit odd that they didn't move somewhere more secluded after we parked ourselves under the crag for half an hour (strictly to check out the ~~root~~ route potential, mind you!).

Superstu

16/06/2012
9:10:33 PM

I had a similar experience stumbling around the top of yosemite falls one rest day, they were srarkers and banging away at an arms length from the precipice. Some kinda wierd kinky danger sex thing going on, quite bizarre.

Oh and thanks everyone for their notes so far.

Superstu

18/06/2012
9:31:33 AM

I had a look around North Palm Beach on the weekend. Will update the online guide soon, but here is a summary of my notes.

(a) there is a pretty well defined walking track all the way to the cliff from the lighthouse. Tourons are finding their way to the cliff-top lookout, to photograph each other, throw rubbish, fornicate, etc.

(b) Judging by the thick regrowth at the base of all climbs, nobody has climbed here for a while.

(c) Found quite a few old climb initials which weren't in the SSS guide. I got fairly disorientated by this until I finally got my bearings with Frecky, worked backwards, and found Ode to an Orange and Stick It are lines previously initialed with LER and IFP. I assume if they were 70's routes they might have been top-roped, but still, not even mentioning the original markings on your own 'new routes' descriptions when the markings are still visible in 2012?

(d) Same Reality (17) which is left of Plenty Enough (24) which is left of Freck's Effort chimney. SR has two bolts up high on the face. There is an obvious flake leading up to the bolts on SR, is marked "HS", and was not documented, despite being more obvious than the bolts!

(e) The bolts on Plenty Enough look stainless, everything else around is total rusted mank.

(f) The access ledge at this end of the cliff is treacherous. Any crag rejuvenation should consider rap in access. But bear in mind tourons visit the top of the cliff.

(g) There is a small plaque beneath HS in memoriam to somebody who died in 2008. It's fairly discrete.

(h) Back to the main crag, lots of shitty rusted bolts, an impressively manky piton on Once in a Lifetime (23) that is an obvious candidate for rejuvenation, some undocumented bolted faces that probably never got a clean ascent, some undocumented stainless carrots left of A Clean Break, and a new set of rings heading up a wall left of Once in a Lifetime, details anybody??

maxdacat

18/06/2012
10:40:16 AM

Haven't been for years but just curious as to the state of the bolts on the main SW crag like on Liquid Insanity etc? Do people still climb there?

Superstu

18/06/2012
10:59:59 AM

Main SW crag fully rebolted by SRC.

Probably the most popular crag on the northern beaches.

maxdacat

18/06/2012
11:04:59 AM

Ahh....good to hear.

sbm

18/06/2012
12:32:53 PM

Ashamed to report that despite doing lots and lots of climbing at SW Barrenjoey, I've never climbed at any of the other crags, beyond some scouting of Trackside and Customs house when walking up to the lighthouse, and a promise that "we really should check out Disorder Corners next time".

I think it's a combination of access (2x to 3x the walk) and the fact that the main crag has been gloriously rebolted in stainless, while the guide promises hideous mank at the other crags. And besides the well-worn classics, the obscure climbs at SW Bjoey quickly become pretty grotty and cobwebbed anyway. There's an element of "if I'm getting this sandy and dirty gardening cracks at the popular crag, I shudder to think of the unpopular ones". May as well go looking for new stuff in Garigal NP or the sea cliffs, which we have done several times.

Perhaps the charm of Barrenjoey Head as a whole is that while it's kinda classified as a Sydney urban crag, it's really a pretty long way to go, and in a relatively wild location (jungle island national park, with 270 degree water views, joined to the mainland by a sandbar).

pmonks

19/06/2012
1:34:57 AM

Stu, I only crag checked SW Barrenjoey for SSS. The other crags were visited before SSS was a twinkle in anyone's eye.

There are 14 messages in this topic.