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Just booked a trip!!!

eatsleepclimb

14-Nov-2011
8:52:57 AM

Hi all,

i just booked a trip to Aus coming from the west coast of the US for about 2 months. I chose the dates March 13th to May 17th. Should i adjust that for weather etc. at all? This is the autumn time so the flights are way cheaper at this time. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Also, what's the prime classifieds website to find a car for cheap once i arrive in Sydney? I'm planning on buying an old beat up car to travel the country with. Suggestions? Thanks.

I will be looking for partners during this time as well so any suggestions on who to talk to/venues to find people will be much appreciated for sure!!

Matt

citationx

14-Nov-2011
8:59:28 AM

I thought you were going to say you booked a ticket to Tanzania to climb Mt Kilimanjaro...


rodw

14-Nov-2011
9:01:40 AM

Great time to come for climbing.

Aussie classifieds site for cars...

http://www.tradingpost.com.au

Re were you should climb...what type of climbing do you like? were are you flying into?

kieranl

14-Nov-2011
9:09:10 AM

On 14/11/2011 eatsleepclimb wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>i just booked a trip to Aus coming from the west coast of the US for about
>2 months. I chose the dates March 13th to May 17th. Should i adjust that
>for weather etc. at all?
Congratulations, you've made life easy for yourself by picking prime time. Lock in those dates.
Have no idea about the used car market.
For Arapiles and the Grampians, just go to Arapiles, which will be perfect at that time of year, and work things out from there.


Eduardo Slabofvic

14-Nov-2011
9:15:44 AM

Buy a Kingswood

citationx

14-Nov-2011
9:32:44 AM

oh right. in all seriousness, there's the backpackers car-market thing at kings cross. can't remember the exact street. You'll be sure to find a suitably crap, beatup and lived-in-by-smelly-hippies at bargain, never to be repeated, cheaper than the amount required to remove the smell prices.
Otherwise you can always do the whole sydney.gumtree.com.au thing. they also have plenty of dirt-bag vehicles as it's free to post with up to 4 photos...

turtlespit

14-Nov-2011
10:22:32 AM

Sydney's great for sport climbing. Blue Mountains a few hours west, Nowra a few hours south, and a lot of micro crags around Sydney if you only have a half day available. See http://routes.sydneyrockies.org.au/display/nswrock/Home for the Sydney crags. Guidebooks exist for the Blue Mountains and Nowra.

If you climb trad, Arapiles is a must do, though it's a 13 hour drive from Sydney. Easter is a good time to go, as there are plenty of potential partners, and there's a good vibe. (Locals might say it's too busy, but comparing to some of the popular crags in the UK, I found Arapiles over Easter to be fine).

Grampians is also close to Arapiles, so you could drop in there as well.

eatsleepclimb

15-Nov-2011
5:42:31 AM

I want to sample the whole burrito. I like sport and trad so Gramps and Arapalies are an obvious must. The blue mountains i've heard much about but don't know what the climbing is like so much. Definitely going to do some research there. I'll be flying into Sydney and touring around there and then heading out to the climbing areas from there. Thanks for all the links folks, will check up on those!!

tariadamar

15-Nov-2011
8:33:56 AM

http://www.pinnaclesports.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=1381&utm_source=getprice&utm_medium=cpc

this is the guide book for the blue mountains and hes alot alot of info in it great pictures and everything you will need for the blue mounatins. as for cars you can also try out
http://www.carsales.com.au/
http://www.carsguide.com.au/
http://www.carpoint.com.au/

these are just a few other options but maby i little dearer you can also get some off ebay.

One Day Hero

15-Nov-2011
8:42:00 PM

Hey, hows it going? Don't listen too much to clowns who offer you beta on crappola, half-day crags........I suspect they've never been on an overseas climbing trip.

Here's the heirarchy of crags in oz. How you divide your time between them would depend on whether you prefer to really get to know a place, or sample a lot of different stuff.

AAA crags (worth flying over from seppo-land for)
-Araps
-Gramps
-Moonarie
-Tassie (I know its an island and not a crag, but if you go all the way down there, you'll want to check out lots of shit to make it worthwhile........its worthwhile!)

AA crags (worth spending serious time, once you've flown over here anyway)
-Blueys
-Frog

A crags (worth checking out as you drive between the other stuff....if its not chewing into your time at the AAA crags)
-Pt Perp (if you value amazing setting and scenery enough to put up with intermittent choss, this place is AA)
-Nowra (if you like steep sport climbing, this might also be in a higher catagory)
-Bungonia (if you like 4-7 pitch routes on ok limestone, with probably no one else around, this gets bumped up too)
-Bungles (like all the others in this catagory, its heavily dependent on taste......long, easy, alpinish routes up mega lines with nothing but loose blocks? If you like that stuff, this is a prime destination)

B crags (pretty bloody good climbing areas for locals, but not up to the standards you're expecting on an overseas trip)
-Booroomba
-Mt Buffalo
-Any mainland granite crag, its just not very good rock compared to west coast N.A. granite

F crags (shit climbing and a total waste of time, even if you live just down the road)
- "New Nowra"
- Wingello
- Any crag closer to Melbourne than the Gramps is
- Pretty much anything anyone suggests to you as 'a good half-day crag'

Enjoy, your timing is impeccable

NEVERCLIMBED32

16-Nov-2011
1:55:48 PM

If you want a real adventure then watch "Wolf Creek" on DVD. Classic aussie tourism doco suitable for the whole family. When you get to Oz, ditch the whole car idea and then hitch down to Araps. Now there's adventure.

climbingjac

16-Nov-2011
8:42:45 PM

Sound advice from One Day Hero there about the pecking order of the crags. He's hit the nail on the head.


MisterGribble

16-Nov-2011
9:13:09 PM

I'm in agreement, I think it's one of the most concise and accurate posts in a long while


Eduardo Slabofvic

16-Nov-2011
9:36:26 PM

On 16/11/2011 MisterGribble wrote:
>I'm in agreement, I think it's one of the most concise and accurate posts
>in a long while

Except "Old Nowra" should also be in the F category


IdratherbeclimbingM9

17-Nov-2011
12:15:38 AM

ODH wrote sound, concise and accurate advice?

OK, I'll bite.

Nowra is an A cliff, and Booroomba and Buffalo are B cliffs?
~> Serious sandbag there I reckon...

I understand not necessarily travelling from overseas to do them, but I wouldn't even travel interstate to do Nowra*!

(*Since when does a half ropelength become an overseas desirable cliff to travel too?).

Wendy

17-Nov-2011
7:36:30 AM

I think the F list needs expanding.

The Rock - if anyone tells you it's worth stopping off on the drive from Sydney/Araps, they are wrong. If you had to detour anywhere on that road, Bungonia, Buffalo and Booroomba would be much better choices.

Any Sydney suburban crag - I didn't bother going to a single one of them a second time even when I actually lived in Sydney. Except the bouldering. I did spend a bit of time a Sissy and Lindfield. But they are definitely not worth wasting your limited time in Australia at!

The main problem will be too much rock, not enough time. If you decide to go to Tassie or Buffalo, go straight there before it gets miserable. If you decide to go to Qld, do that last or you'll bake. Anything else will be just about perfect throughout that time period. And it takes ages to drive anywhere in Oz. Allow 14 hours Sydney/BlueMtns-Araps, 12 hours Araps-Moonarie, 7 hour Araps-Buff, 20+ hours Araps-Frog, 10+ hours Blueys-Frog, the ferry Melb-Tassie is overnight, but getting around the east coast is relatively quick once you're there.

Araps/Gramps/Moonarie/Blueys alone would have way more climbing alone than you could fit into that trip and give you a good variety of spectacular locations, fab climbing and make a reasonable loop trip without ridiculous driving. You could do it in the reverse order as well and squish in any of Buff, Booroomba and Bungonia (or even Pt Perp/Nowra, not that's I'd particularly reccommend it - Buff would be my detour of choice, stunning spot, make sure you get some route recommendations though, it has some horrors) on the Blueys-Araps leg if you wanted.

citationx

17-Nov-2011
9:10:21 AM

On 17/11/2011 Wendy wrote:
>Araps/Gramps/Moonarie/Blueys alone would have way more climbing alone
>than you could fit into that trip and give you a good variety of spectacular
>locations, fab climbing and make a reasonable loop trip without ridiculous
>driving.

Not that i've ever been, but i have never had the impression moonarie would give you a long, non-repeating climbing experience...


mattjr

17-Nov-2011
10:32:14 AM

On 17/11/2011 citationx wrote:

>Not that i've ever been...

Doesn't that say it all?

Wendy

17-Nov-2011
10:38:24 AM

WTF is a long, non-repeating climbing experience?

citationx

17-Nov-2011
10:45:54 AM

On 17/11/2011 Wendy wrote:
>WTF is a long, non-repeating climbing experience?

That you don't have to do the same thing over and over and over. For gr25 and below, how many routes are there? really enough to spend two-three weeks without repeating a route?

and mattjr, it doesn't say a thing. there are things called "guidebooks". If you look at them, you can see how many routes there are. If there are only 10 routes at a crag, you can be fairly sure you can make an accurate guessimate how many days worth of climbing you're (not) going to get out of it.

It was a simple statement. You can just say "No, there are more crags than just the great wall and there are around 600 routes". better than all this other friggin around with pointless posts trying to prove your superiority in the knowledge of the crag. There are so many stupid retorts to my original post that it's pointless me deleting it now.

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