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Climbing Broccoli 19-Dec-2017 At 12:43:38 PM One Day Hero

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I never thought I was one of those crag developer kind of guys. You know the type, always frothing about some new cliff of theirs which is “gonna be the next Thomson’s Point”, but in reality turns out to be a moss covered pile of disintegrating grunder, decorated with burnt out shopping trolleys and a homeless dude camping down the lefthand end (maybe that’s the bloke who put up the routes?)

Anyways, long story short, some friends and I found this new cliff called Billy Billy Rocks and it’s freaking awesome, you have to check it out. Well ok, we didn’t exactly find it, turns out that bushwalkers have known about the place for years…..and some other people knew about it for a few tens of thousands of years before that. Also, the level of awesomeness will kind of depend on your willingness to suffer up a hill with a big pack then bleed on sharp cracks. But don’t be put off yet, let me sell it a bit first.

Firstly, what’s there?
30ish granite cracks, ranging in height from seven to twenty meters, and in difficulty from quite easy to rather tricky. Throw in a handful of searing bolted arêtes, beautiful views, a 45 minute slog, and you have a…….”wait a second. Did he just…?” Yeah, ok, so there’s a 2km walk up a hill to get there, but bushwalkers (including my girlfriend) think that shit is fun (I have no idea why), and your sport climber noodle-legs could probably use a bit of muscle anyway.

Secondly, what do you need?
A short rope and a long rack. Although many of the routes are only ten or fifteen meters high they can suck up triples of the same sized cam. Definitely long pants and tape, lots of tape.

Thirdly, why go?
Simple, because Shipley and Nowra are the climbing equivalent of lollies while Billy Billy is Broccoli. Your parents didn’t make you eat Broccoli through meanness (or maybe they did, because you ruined their lives just by being born…..but your family problems aren’t the point of this analogy). The point is that even though lollies taste so wonderful and sweet, you need to eat your broccoli if you want to grow up big and strong.
The coolest summits in the world aren’t reached by dynoing up sandstone slopers with a line of ringbolts to show the way. Yosemite, Squamish, Valle di Mello, Chamonix, Patagonia, Baffin Island. These legendary climbing destinations should be on the wish list of every climber, and they all require skills on granite cracks. If you’re just dipping a toe in the genre, it’ll probably seem weird and hard and horrible. But persevere and broccoli will morph from unpleasant to intriguing, to satisfying, to delicious (especially with just a splash of sesame oil and oyster sauce).

Billy Billy is Canberra’s new best training gym for global granite adventures, go and tuck in.