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12-Jun-2013 12:13:48 PM
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After reading about this place in old 80s magazines, and driving past it every 2nd second weekend for the last 4 years I finally popped in for a look. Apparently the 'main' climbing area is now behind barbed wire and part of a sewerage treatment works - but there is plenty of other good looking rock around. Anyone climbed here recently? Are there trad routes on these other buttresses?
There are two bolted lines on this 15m high buttress - apparently done by Andy Anderson a few years ago...
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12-Jun-2013 1:14:33 PM
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I have always heard it would be more pleasant to poke yourself in the eye with a stick (yes even a burnt one) than climb there...but I am prepared to believe that it's just a story that everybody tells each other and therefore becomes true because everybody keeps telling each other it.
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12-Jun-2013 1:29:24 PM
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The chunk of rock featured looked excellent quality. Better than a lot of Tassie sea stacks (but obviously not as extensive). Some of the other sub areas looked - great, compact clean rock. Most of the seams looked pretty closed though and the tops of the buttresses were usually dirt slopes - you would need rap chains when the rock runs out. For something totally different this looks like a great spot...
Here is a pic of another nearby buttress
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12-Jun-2013 1:35:07 PM
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I loved the climbing there, some great thin cracks but mostly crazy slick bridging. The they built a shitfarm at the base of the highest area...
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12-Jun-2013 1:37:36 PM
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I saw one or two cracks bigger than finger size - mostly it was fingernail size! The stemming looked rad.
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12-Jun-2013 1:38:22 PM
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On 12/06/2013 nmonteith wrote:
>For something totally
>different...
You mean "totally different" as in "a change from the actual good climbing at Nowra and Pt. Perp"?
Isn't this the crag from the famous quote about "Rod and Ant have what is known in the trade as 'new route fever'"? History repeating, 30 years later.
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12-Jun-2013 1:49:04 PM
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Have you been there Damo? Let me know what you think of the place when you have.
I can see why it was unpopular. It looks like a freakishly unpopular style of climbing. Marginal stemming and technical face climbing on smooth rock with shoddy thin trad gear. Climbing juggy frictional horizontals and clipping rings would be a lot more appealing to the masses.
I unashamedly like variety in my climbing (and I thought you did also Damo?).
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12-Jun-2013 3:00:36 PM
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Yes, I went for a solo abseil exploration during my brief stint as a Wollongong resident. Rapped into the cliff which is part of the old quarry, it has some established routes. (don't think it's the one in your photo).
Verdict? It was ok, but not great by a long way. Dirt slope at the top is a big pain, routes will need a brushing lap after every rain. The rock quality is not even close to as good as Red Rocks (or the Mittagong volcanic crag, if reports are correct), climbers and belayers will be at risk from rockfall (spontaneous from the dirtslope, and generated by Bombo bogans chucking rocks off). Also, lots of other user groups about, and the joint is a well known (and heritage listed) geological site. http://www.geomaps.com.au/scripts/bomboheadland.php
In short; I didn't think that the potential quality of the climbing was good enough to justify the required extensive bolting and trundling, and if it was bolted then the very few people who would actually ever go there would probably be the type of sport climbing retards who have no idea how to deal with loose rock, so an acco would be fairly likely.
You know that your bolting thing is compulsive behaviour, right?
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12-Jun-2013 3:10:00 PM
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On 12/06/2013 One Day Hero wrote:
>You know that your bolting thing is compulsive behaviour, right?
Yes. I bolted the retaining wall at the train station this morning, the wall of my office at lunch and plan an extensive bolting session of my lounge room tonight. It's going be to 'excellent'. My therapist says it's a real problem, but after I placed a dynabolt in his skull he shut up about it.
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12-Jun-2013 3:13:43 PM
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Damo, your inbox is full. How I am meant to hassle you about going to Frog when your inbox is full?
Edit: oops, actually it looks like the problem is my mail box is full so it won't send anything. Consider yourself hassled anyway. 10 days to the debut of "Climbing with the Stars" and all.
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12-Jun-2013 3:16:54 PM
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On 12/06/2013 nmonteith wrote:
>On 12/06/2013 One Day Hero wrote:
>>You know that your bolting thing is compulsive behaviour, right?
>
>Yes. I bolted the retaining wall at the train station this morning, the
>wall of my office at lunch and plan an extensive bolting session of my
>lounge room tonight. It's going be to 'excellent'. My therapist says it's
>a real problem, but after I placed a dynabolt in his skull he shut up about
>it.
Ha Ha.
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12-Jun-2013 3:18:42 PM
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Dynabolts in skulls is poor bolting, it will work loose over time..should have been a glue in.
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12-Jun-2013 3:35:58 PM
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Surely this excites someone? Only an hour from Sydney!
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12-Jun-2013 3:36:19 PM
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On 12/06/2013 rodw wrote:
>Dynabolts in skulls is poor bolting, it will work loose over time..should
>have been a glue in.
Refer the matter on to Safer Skulls Australia?
;-)
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12-Jun-2013 3:47:43 PM
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On 12/06/2013 nmonteith wrote:
>
>Surely this excites someone? Only an hour from Sydney!
Yes. I would climb that.
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12-Jun-2013 3:51:55 PM
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It excites Dave- you know how he rates Mt Eden. And he has the Bombo guide in the glovebox of his car. We had a little poke around on Monday on the way home, but due to th erain , and my shoulder, gave up and didnt see your gold....
He tells me the gear placements used to be enhanced witht the required nut size written next to it, due to the fused seams.
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12-Jun-2013 3:56:59 PM
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On 12/06/2013 shortman wrote:
>Yes. I would climb that.
Given it would be 100 * more solid than what I know you have climbed on I'm not surprised!
On 12/06/2013 vwills wrote:
>He tells me the gear placements used to be enhanced witht the required
>nut size written next to it, due to the fused seams.
Chipping sport tradsters!
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12-Jun-2013 3:57:51 PM
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it does look like a mini frog. I am assuming the rock is really awful however, because otherwise surely someone would have gotten excited about it before?
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12-Jun-2013 4:08:08 PM
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They did Wendy. In an era pre cordless drills so according to Vwills resorted to enhancing the available gear placements...
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12-Jun-2013 4:09:05 PM
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On 12/06/2013 dalai wrote:
>Chipping sport tradsters!
Is it really chipping when its a quarry?
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