One of the less visited canyons in Mt Wilson beckoned and we headed the call.
The section we did is more or less a creek walk with an abseil but it had some pretty bits and was a relaxing way to spend a rainy morning out.
The theme song for the day was that song by The Presidents of the United States, Leeches. “Millions of leeches, leeches for free. Millions of Leeches all coming for me”
We start down an old tourist trail, cross a small creek then spear off into the scrub, cutting below a parcel of private property. The scrub was nowhere near as bad as expected but the rain had turned the ground into a slippery mud slide.
We had a Grid reference in the main creek below the next tributary upstream and while we doubted we needed to go that far up we also knew there was only 1 main feature in this section and we didn’t want to miss it.
Skirting the private property we optioned to stroll down the nose of the ridge rather than battle our way down the creek line. It was easy going and brought us to a small cliffline over looking the junction of the trib and the main creek.
We roped up and made short work of the 10m drop then scrambled down to the creek.
Waterfall creek itself is a tributary of Bowen Creek and has that lush beauty about it.
She is fernalicious, pondalicious and delicious
H, not on the phone, honest.
The creek tries to canyon up. But we are too high in the strata for a consistent slot.
A fun little abseil in the most canyony bit
And before long we come to the pool known as “Happy Valley”
The rain had turned the water a little murky but the greenery of outstanding
We could have kept exploring down stream but know this is an easy exit option and for today, that’ll do.
A lot of work has gone into the trail in and out of this little pool. It might be a nice spot for a swim on a hot summers day, though it’s a steep haul out.
If leeches ate peaches instead of my blood, then I would be free to drink tea in the mud: E Autumn
I don’t generally bother blogging our Empress trips anymore. We’ve become Katoomba locals and a quick arvo dash through Empress is like a morning walk to the park. However I’ve just got a new Outex water proof case for my camera so I thought I’d test it out.
Oh, and Darcy was up and hadn’t done Empress before so Why not
Kylie leading the way
It was misty morning and the diffused light added to the charm
The Outex case uses a flexible shell with optical glass. It’s an interesting design though I was a tad nervous swimming with the camera.
I don’t usually like repeating these canyons that regularly but I’m still recovering from injury and have been meaning to catch up with these legends for ages so it seemed like to good an opportunity to miss.
Oakie doakie. I’ve had this rope for a bit over 12 months now so it’s time for some updated thoughts.
And I’ll say right off the bat. I don’t think this is a good rope for beginners.
It’s a high performance rope.
Like any high performance thing it’s extremely good at what it sets out to achieve but the users need to know what they are doing.
You wouldn’t put an L plater who’d never riden before on a Ducati Streetfighter V4.
High performance generally = uncompromising
CE4Y makes light weight, super static, strong ropes.
To achieve this the sickline 8.7 uses a UHMPE (That’s dyneema to us uncouth types) and Polyester sheath and a Polypropylene core.
Using UHMPE in the sheath was a concern of mine when I bought it
Dyneema can be a bit melty when things get hot, so CE4Y ropes aren’t recommended for abseiling on while dry. That said CE4Y claim “tests have shown that abseils up to 50m on dry ropes with a standard sized figure-8 kind of device can not damage the rope fibers due to heat generated by the friction of the abseil device.”
Still if I’m doing a dry abseil to reach the start of a canyon I try to throw the rope in a puddle before setting up the abseil just to get it wet
OK. Let’s recap the important details.
Cost: At around $6:60 per metre It’s not cheap but not the most expensive either, being a lot cheaper than the CanyonLUX for example.
Specs: CE4Y lists the rope specs as
Model
Breaking Strength
Weight
Sick Line 8.7
20kN
42g/m
So on the weight and strength you’d give it a tick with it being in the ball park with the premium canyon ropes.
Colours: To paraphrase Henry “Model T” Ford, You can have any colour you like as long as its a weird rose taupe speckled with blue.
Handling: It’s soft and supple, knots easily. Not much else to say really
Control: She’s fast!!! Damn fast.
Long term thoughts: It’s still fast.
I wouldn’t recommend a beginner try it single strand with something like a Hydrobot or standard figure 8 set up. Experienced friends even found it difficult to control on a Pirana. Even double rope it needs a bit of caution.
On a more modern canyoning device such as a Crittr or Palikoa its fine but if we are on a trip with mixed ropes I make sure to remind people at the anchor “We are on the sick line, add friction.”
Also being a little concerned about the wear rate of the sheath against the abrasive sandstone we get in the Bluies for a while I was reserving the sick line as our back up rope or using it as the pull strand.
I’ve got over that now and have been using it as our main rope and most trips I take it. But again it’s high performance so to get the most out of it you need a good operator. Rope placement and having an abseil technique where you are not bouncing all over the place like Ice-T in tank girl is important.
Weight.
This is where the sick line excels
Using the dodgy bathroom scales my 43m sick line comes in at 2.2kg, comparable to my 32m Imlay Canyonfire at 2.1kg. (both numbers include the plastic container I used to hold them on the scale)
All good for the dry weight but my perception was it absorbed more water and took far longer to dry.
To test this I submerged both in a bucket of water for 10min and weighted them again. And was very surprised. The Sickline went up to 2.5kg while the Canyonfire climbed to 2.7kg. I would have swore the Sick Line held more water but that proves me wrong.
What about drying time. After hanging in the sun for 30min on a hot day even though the Pick Line felt wetter it was back down to 2.3kg while the Canyonfire was still at 2.4kg. 100g less for 10m more rope. Not bad CE4Y. Not bad at all.
Shrinkage: Another thing you need to consider.
No just in cold water.
All kernmantle ropes shrink a bit from new as the fibres settle in from use. Mine measured 45m when I bought it and now measures around 43m. Not big deal. I always allow for 5-10% reduction in length of my ropes over time.
Pro tip: remeasure your ropes every now and then especially if you tend to go light weight and have just enough for the longest drop. a 30m surveyors tape cost 4/5s of frack all at Bunnings.
Would I but it again?
Tough question. the weight saving makes it very appealing but not long after I brought the Sick Line I also purchased 60m of the Pick Line 9m. At 45g/m it’s a slight weight penalty over the 8.7mm but I feel it’s a more robust rope that doesn’t run quite as quick. It’s still high performance so again I wouldn’t recommend it as an all day every day work horse for beginners in dry(er) sandstone canyons. But I’d probably go this again over the Sick Line.
If you are after a durable work horse for use across a range of stuff including dry abseils go the Imlay.
However if you are an experienced canyoner after a light weight rope for areas with more water and smoother rock the Pick Line 8.7mm is an excellent choice.
sleepwhenwearedead 