Bunny Bucket Buttress

May 30, 2021June 2, 2021 | flynny101

Last year Madie threatened/promised to drag me up Bunny Buckets Buttress. It’s kinda the big easy of the Pieces Pass area. A mega classic grade 18 that wonders up 310m of the Grose Valley clifflines.

Unfortunately I had a series of tendon injuries and just felt I’d be a liability.

I haven’t done a lot of climbing lately but was starting to feel good again. I mentioned to her that I’d be keen once I get a bit of endurance.

OK we are doing it Saturday, Says Madie. You and me on Bunny Buckets, Leo, Lucie and Felix will go up next to us on Randy Rabbit Ridge (a grade 20 that basically parallels BBB)

OH shit!! I’d done 8 pitches of climbing in the last 6 weeks. Bunny Buckets was 8 pitches one after another, 5 of which were right at my climbing limit at the moment. Not to mention most of the pitches were longer than any pitch I have done lately…

I admit I had a bit of a anxiety attack at the thought of not being up to it. I lost sleep worrying about it. I’d hate to be one of those people who claim they are better than they are then ruin everyone’s day by not being as good as they thought

Shut up brain. Suck it up! This is an awesome opportunity. No more excuses. I’m in.

I tend to get real nervous leading up to a trip right up until I get out of the car and get walking but after a crappy day at work on the Friday I slept like a log and I woke up feeling calm and excited for the day

The car park was packed. Don’t they know how cold it is? There are a few abseil routs down, We pick the fastest one and pass one group on setting up on the other. We then meet Lucas and Ben at the bottom, they graciously let us go first and somehow weren’t put off be my floundering about pretending to be a rock climber.

I’d have to say I had a moment halfway up pitch 3 where I was struggling with a move and started second guessing myself and it took Leo shouting encouragement/threats from across the void to convince me to push on. I tried again, got the move easy and continued on.

In the end I hang-dogged the first 3 pitches, took a swinger on the traverse where had to resort to ascenders to get back on route and, I climbed ugly but I got up with out needing to be hauled (TBH I think Madie was taking a lot of my weight at times) and I couldn’t be happier.

The second last pitch was a glorious vertical wall. Once again it was right at the upper end of my skill level but more to my style than the lower pitches at that grade. I was shot, muscle fatigue had well and truly set in. I’d struggle up 2 or 3m clip my safety to the bolt and hang, resting for what seemed an eternity then I’d go again. But I loved every minute of it.

My mates really are awesome.

Walking in. Surprisingly not nervous a all

“I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy, I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.” -Anonymous

Surround yourself with awesome people, experience awesome things: Flynny

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Butterbox

April 15, 2018April 2, 2020 | flynny101

AKA, Mt Hay canyon, AKA Rocky Points Ravine

14-04-2018

Dick Madie and me

So it looked like we’d get another warm Autumn Saturday before the cold change was due to roll in so a good oportunity for another wet canyon. A few ideas were floated before Butterbox was settled on, as Julie hadn’t done it for ages and was super keen for a revisit.

Unfortunately She had to pull out last minute and so it was me Dick and Madie who set off from the car park amongst laughs and giggles. We spoke to another group in the car park who were leaving just behind us and a tour group was some where ahead of us.

With the other two offering to carry ropes I got to enjoy a relatively light pack. Winning!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Dick on the first down climb

Madie was keen to show us some alternate ways down various obsticals. Like, instead of down climbing in the creek or abseiling from the side why not slide down this log

Butterbox is an interesting creek with a very short canyon section. It’s normally the rock formations, greenery and play of light in the constriction that draws me to a canyon but the sheer amount of adventurous fun that Butterbox offers makes it a trip worthy of repeat visits

Mind you, while short the main constriction is spectacular.

We catch up to the group from Eagle Rock Adventures at the top of the main constriction.

2 tricky abseils with very little stance between them mean we are going to have a bit of a wait here.

Let’s do the Slide! Madie busies herself trying to wet down the sloping rock by using her helmet as a bail.

The water isn’t normally that deep here and it looks lower than normal. A few of the clients in the tour group are not quiet sure what to make of it all and I’m sure the guides were wondering what the hell was going on.

Me and Dick have a couple of goes to amuse ourselves while waiting, it’s bit of an effort to climb back up. Madie must have doen it a dozen times.

Did I mention the main constriction is spectacular?

We emerge back into the sunlight with a jump into this stunning pool

And that’s it for the short constriction. A bit of fun getting too it. Very stunning when you get there and the adventure isn’t over yet as the climb out, usually the most hated part of any canyon trip, holds a bit of adventure to it and is another highlight.

We follow the cliff line up hill and down dale, up and down and up again. But mostly up.

Until we find ourselfves on the halfway ledge. The halfway ledge is a feature found through out the Blue Mountains. A fault where different sandstone layers of the Narrabeen group such as the Banks Wall formation and the Burra Moko formation are separated by a thiner claystone layer, often resulting in a traversable ledge.

Sometimes the ledge disappears, sometimes the claystone erodes in under the top layer of sandstone making for some interesting scrambling.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Through the cave and then the ledge ends. Above us the sandstone cliff still towers.

A short rock climb is required to get us to the next ledge up.

Madie leading the climb out

Dick on rope. It’s a short climb but it starts a long way up

Yours truly fumbling his way up

photos thanks to Madie, click to enbiggen

and then it’s up a snotty little gully to the ridge line

The up hills not finished yet but ther are still smiling

A quick side trip to the top of Butterbox point for even more views and then an easy walk back to the cars.

Another great day in the great outdoors.

Party size 3. All experienced

Time: 6hrs car to car with about 30min mucking around on the slide waiting for the tour group to clear the chock stone abseil, a relaxed lunch, a bit of stuffing around on the climb and a bit of time at the lookouts.

You should be silly and do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.

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Koombanda Canyon

November 12, 2017 | flynny101

12/11/2017

Lewis Ben and me

So I was looking for people to go canyoning. Lewis and Ben were looking for people to go canyoning. We went canyoning together.

Koombanda is a short canyon, but it has some nice bits too it. My last trip with Mandy and Tal we started fairly high up in the creek and while there was some nice pools and features up there was also a bit of scrub. This time around we shortcut the entry a bit and entred by a short abseil down a now dry waterfall

This put us in the creek not too far up from the canyon. Unfortunitely the creek was bone dry. Last time we were wading here, and the small stagnant pool was a swim.

Anyhoo, it not before the creek canyons up and we done wetsuits and drop on in

Lewis Dropping into the short but pretty canyon

Directly below is a deep plunge pool that is a bit awkward to get out of, especially in low water, we were all able to bridge across the the, er, um, bridge today

The water was a tad refreshing. Thankfully the swims are short

Now the next abseil is just around the corner, down through a hole but we had a bit of a WTF moment as there is the anchor above a pool, no hole.

Wow says I, That’s where you normally abseil. That’s freaky.

So that is normally a hole?

Yep we’ll need to find an alternate tree down stream….

Only just down stream is the actual anchor and abseil through the hole…. No idea what the other anchor is for other than messing with my head…

The next drop is really nice down through what looks like a giant clam

Below is a very nice chamber, unfortunitely the anti fog lens cleaner I tried on my camera this morning mad it fog up worse than usual..

As we are waiting for Lewis we hear a crash-bang-karfuffle.

Are you OK calls Ben

F@#$ing kangaroo just fell into the canyon replies Lewis.

Poor old skippy takes off up the canyon. With the abseil up up stream I fear he is trapped, unless he wants to take the 10m jump down in the the next bit. In any case he wants nothign to do with us and Lewis comes on down.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

And before you know it we are at the colliery

It doesn’t seem like there is much holding up that great head of rock

So we get back up to the second car which we dropped at the exit point and Ben looks a bit sheepish. Um, sorry I think I misunderstood my keys are in your car….

Taking it back a bit. When we met up Lewis was driving and we dropped what I thought was his car at the pick up before jumping in mine and driving a coupel of km up the road to the start of the walk.

When Ben asks will I be right to leave my keys here, I’m still assuming it’s Lewis’ car and Ben has his house keys or something.

Yeah sure say I, just leave them in the car there…

Anyhoo an extra 2km walk along the railway in the heat of the day never hurt anyone.

I thought he was joking, says Lewis….

Party Size: 3 all experienced.

Time: About 3hrs car to car

It’s still early in the day so I deside to take a stroll down to check out something else close by.

Unfortunitely there was nothing to see…

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	Jeanette Learned on Wollangambe Fire trail
	flynny101 on Wollangambe Fire trail
	Jeanette Learned on Wollangambe Fire trail

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blue, mts, canyon, canyoning, mtb, mountain bike, gardens of stone, Lithgow

Grose valley

Bunny Bucket Buttress

Butterbox

Koombanda Canyon