Blackheath

Friday night I left Sydney and drove up to the Blue Mountains looking forward to a full weekend of camping and climbing. I stopped at Perrys Lookdown well after dark and proceeded to set up a basic camp. It was such a beautiful night that I discarded the fly of my tent and fell asleep under a full moon silhouetting the towering gum trees above.

I woke at first light, it was only a short walk to the lookout where I arrived just in time to see the sun rise to the east.

I packed up camp while I made breakfast, and had a leisurely start to the day, not needing to meet Jen, my climbing partner, until a few hours later.

It was only a short drive back to Blackheath where we hiked out to a climbing area called Heathcliff. We arrived while the cliff was still in shade, but the rock wasn't too cold and we set up off some nice long routes. After climbing a couple of multi-pitches, then a few longer multi-pitches, we decided to have a crack at a difficult multi-pitch to end the day.

Jen lead the first pitch of 'Leighsageezer' (grade 22, 23m) which began as a very steep will with lots of delicate thin moves on tiny crimps. I lead the second pitch (grade 23, 25m), a steep wall that led to a small roof about 35m off the ground. It took me a few goes to find the sequence, but it felt amazing to pull over the roof and get back onto some easier ground. The view was amazing, and I belayed Jen to the top and enjoyed the scenery.

We abseiled back down and called it a day, we had climbed nine pitches and about 180m and wanted to make the long hike out before nightfall.

I drove back to Perrys Lookdown, once again set up camp and was in bed relatively early sleeping under the stars. It was another relaxed start on Sunday morning before meeting Jen again at Porter's Pass.

It was another stunning day, we climbed a few more routes during the day, on lines that required a nice mix of strength, balance, endurance and technique. By mid-afternoon we were spent and hiked back out to the carpark, where an esky full of half melted ice awaited to soothe our tender hands.

My idea of a perfect weekend, I returned to Sydney very relaxed.

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Evans Crown, Tarana

The long weekend rolled around and once more I set off towards the Blue Mountains to do some climbing. This time though I continued back down the plateau, passing by Lithgow and eventually arriving to a small free campsite called 'Flat Rock' at Tarana. The goal for the weekend was to do some slab climbing on granite rock at Evens Crown reserve.

I arrived late Saturday afternoon with a few hours of light left, set up camp and settled in for the night. Although the camping area was nice the atmosphere was ruined by a large group of bikers who decided to have a bogan disco (complete with a petrol generator running a large set of speakers and a gazebo adorned in flashing lights), and another group of people deciding to spend the night intermittently chainsawing pieces of wood for their fire by the swollen creek.

Thankfully it all seemed to die down around 11 PM and I settled down for the night while the temperature plummeted.

I awoke the next morning to temperatures in the single figures, and a thick fog blanketing the surroundings. The fog burned off as the sun rose, and the morning warmed while I made breakfast and packed my gear to go climbing.

After some miscommunication on my part and the added confusion of daylight savings which kicked in overnight, I arrived at Evans Crown an hour late to meet my climbing partners. Still, it was a crisp clear day and after a short hike up the trail we arrived to a maze of granite boulders and slabs.

It took me a while to get my head into the slab climbing mentality, the granite only having the slightest of ridges in the rock for your hands and feet, you really have to trust your footwork and hope that the sticky rubber on the soles of your climbing shoes are up to task! A slip or fall would probably result in leaving a lot of skin on the rock, cheese grater style.

Thankfully we didn't have any mishaps, but after a solid day of climbing our fingertips were raw and we were ready to return to camp.

Back at Flat Rock all of the undesirables had left camp, we started a fire and had dinner as night fell. It wasn't long before the lure of bed became too much, and I soon retired to my tent.

I awoke during the night to the sound of rain, and when I awoke in the morning I took advantage of the break in the weather to pack my tent up given that it was my best chance of keeping things dry.

No sooner had I done so then rain started up again, this time heavier and unrelenting. The slightest amount of rain would make slab climbing impossible, so I left back home to Sydney.

No sooner I had driven back up to the Blue Mountains Plateau than the skies cleared and the sun came out. Rather than waste the day I decided to stay up there and do some hiking.

I walked the 'Ruined Castle' track from Katoomba, scrambling up the rocky formation to relax, have lunch, and wait for some friends from Sydney to arrive. We then hiked towards Mt Solitary, before heading back to Katoomba in the late afternoon.

We waited out the worst of the traffic in the Old Bank pub at Katoomba before finally heading back down to Sydney.

More photos here