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Crag & Route Beta

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

Author

Good beginner trad crag Sydney/Blue Mountains

maxdacat

2-Dec-2013
1:00:37 PM

Wendy

2-Dec-2013
1:22:26 PM

On 2/12/2013 maxdacat wrote:

>
>And not all Bluies rock is choss.....the way some people bang on you might
>think it had all fallen down by now :p

I just had another of those trips to remind me how spoilt I am ... we went to Pt Perp, which I was totally expecting to be choss and yes, whilst we did some great routes, it is a crag of chozzle. Then New Nowra, the guide we downloaded off the crag was full of claim such as "awesome rock, crazy cool rock, quality limestone pockets" etc etc - we had fun, but really the rock is not that great! Then we went to the Blueys and even in 2 days of only doing 5 star routes at Piddo (which was great fun), the rock is soft, sandy and has assorted things you are just waiting to come off even on things like Eternity. Araps is just bloody amazing rock. We did a bunch of new routes and routes that probably haven't been done since the first ascent in the northern group this week, and they were still almost all good, clean rock and worthwhile climbing. One's standards become fairly high in these circumstances.

kieranl

2-Dec-2013
2:20:20 PM

On 2/12/2013 Wendy wrote:

> We did a bunch
>of new routes and routes that probably haven't been done since the first
>ascent in the northern group this week, and they were still almost all
>good, clean rock and worthwhile climbing. One's standards become fairly
>high in these circumstances.
Good stuff, Wendy. Isn't it amazing what you can still find outside the "Select" envelope? What did you repeat?

Wendy

2-Dec-2013
2:55:39 PM

I'm not sure exactly! We did about 5 things between Four Spooner and Down and Out. 2 of them would be Wacky Mackenzie and Kansas City DF but I'm not sure about the others! Maybe the things just mentioned breifly in the text as soloed in the dark ages with no other details and at least 1 route not consistant with the descriptions at all, but we didn't have the book with us at the time so it was all guessed in hindsight.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

2-Dec-2013
8:26:57 PM

On 2/12/2013 Wendy wrote:
>I think you guys must be on a different planet to me. In no way would I
>have called most of those routes at Piddington a suitable learn to lead
>trad route. Learning to lead trad is about learning to place gear on stupidly
>easy stuff where you don't have to think about anything else. The last
>thing you want is something at all difficult, or with trad techniques like
>jamming that they probably haven't encountered sport climbing or laybacking
>like flake crack where it's difficult and pumpy to place gear or indeed
>Blue mountains rock in general. (snip)

& later wrote:
>I just had another of those trips to remind me how spoilt I am ... (snip)
>One's standards become fairly high in these circumstances.

Your 2nd statement sums up your relative position for me.
;-)

~> Luxury!
Why when I were a lad ... learning on seacliff choss; the going to Piddington was the height of Trad climbing; of all things Ewbank; and great rock quality to boot.

Who said trad climbing was meant to be easy?
Why does today's gym expat need to have it handed to them on a plate?

Learning to place gear on stupidly easy stuff?
Pffft.
It works just as well on brain numbingly fearful stuff!
Jamming and laybacking?
I pity the poor sport climbers if they never learn a bit of technique while they chase grade numbers.

PS; I now have an improvised used milk crate that anyone else can use as a soap box if they like...
Heh^X☺☺☺


Snacks

3-Dec-2013
12:20:03 PM

On 1/12/2013 rodw wrote:
>Despite all the wise araps fans here....go to mt k, it 10 ins for Hornsby
>and actually pretty good trad for lace ups for Sydney..yeah its not araps
>class...but then again its 15hrs closer too..dr nick suggestion is probably
>even closer.

+1 for a post that actually answered the question!


E. Wells

5-Dec-2013
10:43:13 AM

Wendy, when you say Eskimo Nell is ' a bit thoughtful ' at the start , what thoughts in particular might come to mind?

Wendy

5-Dec-2013
1:32:16 PM

oh fûck probably if you're a grade 10 leader.


ajfclark

5-Dec-2013
1:42:15 PM

I kept repeating the mantra "It's a 10, there must be a jug" over and over...

martym

6-Dec-2013
12:04:38 PM

On 5/12/2013 E. Wells wrote:
>Wendy, when you say Eskimo Nell is ' a bit thoughtful ' at the start ,
>what thoughts in particular might come to mind?

I would have thought the chin-up out of the cave is far more intimidating for a grade 10 than the balancey start...

martym

6-Dec-2013
12:10:27 PM

On 30/11/2013 slacey wrote:
>We can lead low 20's sport routes reasonably comfortably but have never
>led on trad gear before. So I'm looking for a good beginners trad crag
>in Sydney/Blue Mountains (something up Hornsby way would be even better)
>to practice placing gear and if its somewhere I can rig up a toprope to
>practice even better.
I remember having similar thoughts before first trip to Araps - former chockstone-mega-poster EvanBB told me to forget Piddington & just spend a few days at Bushrangers - the best place in the world to practice placing gear. He was right.
That said, there's a couple of easy cracks at Berowra you can stitch up - and at your grade, you should be able to try a few of the trickier problems there on top rope & practice placing in-situ in a controlled environment.

>Also what would be a good basic rack to take to Araps and the Grampians?
>At the moment I've got a set of Black Diamond wires sizes 4-13 and some
>Kong wires sizes 3, 5 and 9 and I'm going to buy a basic set of cams as
>well. Will that get me up those first pitches on Taipan and the easier
>classics at Araps?

Define "basic set of cams" - there are 3000+ routes to choose from; you might want a size 6 for Watch Tower or a few micros on the bluffs... If you get a 0.3-4 set you should probably be ok. Don't forget slings!


nmonteith

6-Dec-2013
1:35:28 PM

And don't buy cheap or weird cams from eastern Europe or Asia. Buy reliable quality brands such as BD Camalots, WC Friends, DMM Dragons.

PDRM

6-Dec-2013
2:40:46 PM

On 6/12/2013 martym wrote:

>That said, there's a couple of easy cracks at Berowra you can stitch up
>- and at your grade, you should be able to try a few of the trickier problems
>there on top rope & practice placing in-situ in a controlled environment.

Just watch out for the spiders in the pockets on Fox Pox Sox...

There are 33 messages in this topic.