Wolgan Valley climbing

More trad climbing was planned for the weekend, Pete had always wanted to climb to the top of 'Old Baldy' in the Wolgan Valley, so we drove up late Friday night for an early start the next day.

It was refreshing to wake to the cool crisp valley air, a nice change of pace from the sweltering mornings we've had down in Sydney of late. After coffee and breakfast we set off towards the nearby trail-head, and we off hiking by 8:00 AM. It was cloudy and cool but we soon broke into a sweat hauling heavy gear and hiking up the steep embankment to the base of Old Baldy Lower. We followed the faint trail and occasional cairn to the cliff face, then followed along the base until we arrived at 'Room to Move', (two pitch, 65m, grade 16).

I racked my gear and tied on to lead the first pitch, but backed off the first gymnastic move off the ground due to the still recent muscle tear in my chest. Or maybe leading trad just psyched me out.

Pete took over the lead and climbed the first pitch. I seconded without problem and soon arrived to a nice big ledge with a view out over the Wolgan Valley. We swapped leads, I made my way up the short crack without drama and then had to find a way up several grassy, dirty, loose ledges to a large tree to belay Pete.

We had made it up the Old Baldy lower section, and after some scrambling and searching found the base of an impressive crack route called Scimitar (four pitches, 91m, grade 18). It was now past 1:00 PM, with the longer and harder route ahead I left it to Pete to lead the entire climb. Trad climbing is much slower than sport climbing, we still had to get back down the mountain so finishing the climb before dark was imperative.

We scrambled up a short pillar with an even better view to the lower valley, and started up. Pete decided to string two pitches together to save time, he soon disappeared from view. I followed, the climbing was a mixture of cracks and face holds in an amazing position. I soon joined Pete in a cramped small cave, where after swapping gear he started up the final section. He made short work of the tricky chimney start, before disappearing from view once again. A little while later he was at the top and it was my turn.

I struggled up the chimney, not quite fitting, but then came out onto another beautiful section of climbing. I joined Pete at the top of the climb around 6:15 PM, took a moment to admire the view, then proceeded to set up the rappels back down.

We abseiled down adjacent to Scimitar in two rappels, by the time we arrived at the base of Old Baldy upper the light had almost faded. By the time we were at the top of Old Baldy lower the light had completely gone. I was carrying a head torch, but Pete's was back in his pack, so I gave him mine to set up the rappel.

It was both eerie and exhilarating to abseil in the dark, I soon found myself back on firm ground where we packed our bags to descend the track back to camp. This was a lot easier said than done, the path almost invisible even under the light of the head torch. After a few trips traversing the base of the cliff looking for the right gully to descend we eventually found the path and started down.

It was a much easier hike out, we were back to camp by 8:30 PM. Two cold beers and a big hot bowl of spaghetti was enough to knock me out, I slept soundly through the night, only waking occasionally to the feeling of both legs cramping up.

 
I awoke at the crack of dawn, seeing Old Baldy looming over the camp ground, the elation of the day before still strong. Coffee and breakfast followed as we broke camp, then drove the short distance to the Coke Oven cliffs, named for the decaying reminders of the coal mining days.

We hiked up the steep path to the base of the cliffs, it was my turn to lead so I sized up Grunter (two pitches, 51m, grade 16) and started up the crack. The first pitch was graded easily, but the crack was filled with dirt, loose conglomerate and leaves / bark which didn't inspire confidence.

I eventually got my head in the game and finished both pitches, trusting myself and my gear placements by the end I was starting to feel some flow. But it is slow going, by the time we got back down it was past midday and time to start heading back home. We get back to to the car, dumped our gear, stuck our heads in the nearby creek to cool off, then set off home.

It was great to send such an amazing climb, a classic of the area. I had wanted to get on the rock ever since I went canyoning there, it was great to realise that dream in such a major way.

I'll return to tick some more routes when I get back. Can't wait.

More photos here

Telstar

With the weather finally cooling and my climbing trip to the states soon approaching, it was time for some more trad climbing. Pete decided that we should try the 80m multi-pitch trad route called Telstar (19), so I left Sydney before dawn on Saturday and made my way to the Blue Mountains.

We drove out to Mt Victoria and took a corrugated dirt road out to Ikara Heads, parked the car and followed a fire trail out along the ridge.

The skies were grey, threatening to rain, and as we made our way across the Asgard swamp the winds started hammering along the cliff line.

The route was pure trad and well outside of my comfort zone to lead, so Pete racked up and set up the first pitch. He reached a chossy ledge under an imposing roof and put me on belay.

I started up the crack, being buffeted by the winds as I went. I had a thinner diameter rope (for rappel) trailing from my harness, the higher I got the more the rope was whipped around by the immense wind. I eventually reached the cramped belay ledge, swapped gear, and Pete began the second pitch.

The climbing from this point involved wedging yourself up and onto a tiny ledge while placing small pieces of protection in a thin crack that ran above the roof. From there, you had to wiggle yourself out into a chimney, out past the ledge, the ground 40m below. There was no protection past this point, any slip would cause a big swing into the air, out of reach of any rock. Luckily for me, Pete kept a cool head and climbed out past the roof, turning around in the chimney, then up the face for a few more metres until there was a spot to place some protection.

I sat and belayed, pushing the thoughts of falling out of my mind. Soon it was my turn. I tried to get up onto the narrow ledge, but couldn't. The weight of the trailing rope was weighing on my harness, and I just couldn't contort my body into a small enough package while at the same time doing a reverse dip to try and sit on something solid.

I had to resort to pulling onto some of the projection so that I could pull myself up and out to a point where the ledge got wider and the roof higher. From this point I had to squeeze myself into a chimney and wriggle out towards the face, twisting and contorting until I could reach a hold. From there it was only a few metres to the next belay, but the exposure was unforgettable!

The last pitch started up a vertical crack, Pete made short work of the section and before long it was my turn again. Looking down, I saw that the end of the 60m trailing rope had wrapped itself around a dead gum tree branch due to being flailed about in the wind. I gave it a few tugs but it was going nowhere, I untied it and began to climb.

Again I struggled, unable to figure out the crack climbing required, so I pulled on some gear to aid past this section and climbed the last part to the finish.

We were once again exposed to the gale for winds, we found a slightly less exposed spot, racked our gear, and went looking for the rappel. Our idea was to abseil with two ropes, tying them together to make the second 50m abseil to the ground. This was no longer an option, but we found with enough rope stretch that we could land on a detached block at the base of the cliff line and scramble the last few metres down to the ground.

By this time it was late in the day, after a few mouthfuls of warm coffee we packed our gear and headed back, making it to the car just as the sun set. A memorable climb to say the least...