Jerrara Falls

28/01/2023

Kylie, Hywaida, Kris, Jason and meeeeee

I’m not sure I’m keen enough to drive down, says Kylie. But I haven’t caught up with them in ages.

The others were already at Bungonia canyoning away.

How about we meet up somewhere and share the bulk of the drive? Say I

Deal says she.

We enact the plan.

The others look a little wrecked from the previous day.

It was hot, say they, and the creek water was horrid. We almost ran out of water.

I throw in an extra water bottle.

And we are off.

We reach the creek without too much effort but the day is already heating up. I’m glad I left the wetsuit in the car.

The pool below looks so inviting

Kris heading in as Jas sets the next abseil.
There a some nice creek walking interspaced with jumps and swims.

Then we get to a larger drop. The notes say bolts on the right but they look a bit sketchy to get to ( thou belatedly we spit a traverse bolt)

We opt for a sling on a tree up to the left. This gives us about a 42m abseil into the pool below.

The pool is full of string algae and pulling the ropes throu is like fishing for slime monsters..

Some more cool pools and a 12m abseil follow

Kylie and Hywaida waiting on me to descend.

Which Jason opts to jump

And then we get to Jerrara falls themselves

At this stage I’m a little confused with the notes. They say the full thing is 85m. But it can be split in 2 doing 60m (bypassing a small semi hanging rebelay) and 35m or in 3 doing 30m, 35m, 30m…. Or sumfink

I don’t know if maths has changed since I was a boy but when Brother John taught me my sums those numbers did not add up.

Still Bro John also said, quiet frequently, You’re strong in the legs but weak in the heads boys. So maybe the calculation issue was on my end.

So the notes indicated a 5m scramble to the first bolts. It looked bigger than 5 and exposed AF so I opted to abseil off slings on a tree. As I’m abseiling down Kris walks over a knob and scrambled down to meet me on a big sloping ledge. We can see anchor bolts just over the edge where it starts to get steeper.

There are also bolts at the back of the ledge which I urge the others to use. it’s a reasonably grippy surface but sloping and a big drop below so we want to opt for caution.

I go down to the anchor and set the 70m rope thinking we are going to bypass the first rebelay and do pitch 1 and 2 as one.

In hindsight I think I’ve just come down pitch 1 and the little ledge I’m standing on is the semi hanging rebelay at the start of pitch 2. But there’s no way it was 30m from the top. I’d say it was well less than 15 and I couldn’t see and bolts further up that would match the description for the pitch 1 anchor

Anyhoo we needed to swap out ropes as I’d come down on the short rope and we are thinking we’ll need to keep the 2nd long rope as a pull chord and send the short rope down to set the last pitch.

As they sort ropes I’m on a baking hot ledge in full sun in short sleeves. I’m roasting. Eventually I remember I have sunscreen in the top of my pack. I lather it on to my face shoulders and legs. did I mention it’s hot? It’s baking freaking hot. Soooooo hot. Oven hot

Eventually the ropes are swapped and Jason heads down. And signals to take rope up. I had about 65m out and pull up about 10m before he signals stop. That doesn’t make sense.

Things are a little confused, there’s a large group in line of sight with us in bungonia canyon and so whistle signals are getting a little crossed.

Kylie heads down. And signals rope up. I take up another 15m or so.

This is not making any sense with our plan.

The rest of us head down. We get to a big sloping ledge, there’s anchor bolts, Jason’s is on a ledge about 20m below and out to the left. None of it matches the small rebelay ledge we bought the long ropes to bypass but we haven’t gone down enough to be on top of pitch 3. Have we?

There’s some discussion on whether there’s 1 or 2 pitches left.

There is no way that is 65m to the pool says I. But we rig the 70m so it can be lowered with the 60 just in case.

Kylie goes down and signals rope up

I’m sitting the the spray of the waterfall longing to get into the pool below but I’m anchor bitch a going last.

Eventually we all get down.

It seems we have done the 3 pitches as described but the heights are off, especially for the first pitch.

Anyhoo, slightly older and not very much wiser we continue down

There had been some discussion about taking one of the short cut exits. But given the choice between scrambling up an exposed, loose knife edge in the baking sun or boulder hoping down and walking up the tourist track at a slightly cooler time of day everyone opted tourist track

Once through the boulders there was some nice sections of gorge lined with stunningly colours cliffs. The water was skinky from the string algae but it was hot, damn hot, so we threw ourselves in each pool to cool off along the way.

And then we reach the junction with the red track.

Ok National Parks down here have a much more liberal idea on what constitutes a “tourist track” than those softly graded , full of stairs and boardwalks tourist tracks found in the bluies.

The start was a hell of a lot more scrambley than I had expected.

Nothing overly difficult or exposed but different to what I was thinking.

But the start was in a shady gully which was nice.

Coming out of the gully onto the open ridge was like hitting a wall of heat. But it snaked it’s way the ridge easy enough and I hightailed back to the campground and grabbed the ute thinking I’d do the gentlemanly thing and save the others another 2km walk

But they got to the top of the hill and took a sharp right., following the green trail back. So I missed them and the bastards beat me into the showers 🤣🤣

All in all another great day with awesome people.

“Let a man walk ten miles steadily on a hot summer’s day along a dusty English road, and he will soon discover why beer was invented.”
— Gilbert K. Chesterton

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Mt Boyce

A quick morning climb with Libby and Russ. It was good to dial back the difficulty and concentrate on trying to unlearn some bad technique that I have found myself falling in to.

Pun not intended.

Wait, yes it was.

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The Eyrie

22-01-2020

After our (my) botched attempt prior to new years we had to go back an do it properly.

For such an easy climb it has a lot of atmosphere

Life is like a box of chocolates: It doesn’t last long if you’re fat: Joe Lycett.

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Mt Alexanda 17-08-2019

17-08-2019

Jeremy, Aleasha, Russ, Madie and Me

Road trip!

For one reason or another I find myself picking up Madie and Russ and pointing our wheels south to meet up with Jez and Aleasha for some climbing at a popular little crag near Mittagong.

It was a perfect winters day and for a while we had the crag all to ourselves.

Madie, Russ and I set up on a nice looking 14, Selective Cleansing. It was a nice way to warm up

It was a short climb so we each have a lead and move around the corner for another 14, Open to Public Scrutiny. Basically 1 smeary move down low and a walk up the wall

Again Madie places the gear, then we pull the rope and each have a lead and leave the gear in place to swap routes with the others

Mean while had Jez and Aleasha set up on a more ambitious 21…. Crimp a Buttock They both have a quiet, smooth style. They are nice to watch.

The crimps to get over the over hang were a bit much on lead and Aleasha takes a slight detour around the overhang on a 17.

Jez would eventually follow her on lead while Madie and Russ manage the direct route on top rope.

I had the holds, just didn’t have the strength or confidence to pull them, even on top rope, and eventually with rock solid forearms I resorted to the by pass.

Feeling confident after the top rope we decide to have a lead on something a little more challenging, 17 or 18 would be nice… A slight miss read of the guide saw Madie leading up Silver Fox, 20

Now a just a few weeks ago we dragged each other up a 15 on top rope and were over the moon…. Well, I’ve never known her to back off a challenge and bang, she leads her first 20. While Gibbo and Aleasha are quiet and precise, The Mad One is pure determination, power and self belief, oh and a “little” more vocal 🙂

The challenge is out and I surprise myself by following her to bag the hardest climb I’ve done in over 20 years.

But that would pretty much be my last win for the day. With blown forearms I attempt to follow the others up a few more routes but fail.

Still stoked for the day. If you’d have asked me on the way down I would have said I’d be happy if a managed to second a 17. Bagging a 20 (with pre-placed gear) was a pleasant surprise.

Mt Alexandra is such a cool crag. Interesting routes on nice rock with a good mix of grades. No doubt we’ll be back.

Routes.

Selective Cleansing 14: Madie, Russ, me

Open to Public Scrutiny: 14 Madie, Me, Russ, Aleasha, Jez

Crimp a Buttock 21: Aleasha, Jez (17 variant on lead). Top rope: Madie, Russ Jez (Direct route) Me (17 Variant)

Silver Fox, 20: Madie, Me, Russ, Jez, Aleasha

Three and a Half Thousand 20: Jez, Madie Aleasha. Top rope Russ, Me (Failed)

Corner from Heaven 18: Aleasha, Jez, Madie: Top rope Russ

Madie and Jez then lead some pumpy little over hung route in the cave. Aleasha had a fair crack on top rope. Me and Rus were done

Make sure you become part of the glorious past in someone else’s future: A Penny

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Scrub, Slots and knots

22/06/2019

Little Miss Sunshine, The Russian Gangster, The Dare Devil, Badass Barbie, Archie, White Water Wizard and Meeeeeee (the eeejiot)

When Kylie said her crew were keen on a trip to this area and invited me along I jumped at the chance and then pretty much rearranged the trip… But they were cool with it.

Anyhoo

There has been a lot of good discussion on the Australian Canyoners group about rigging releasable contingency anchors and with Mark’s guidance we took the opportunity to practice setting up with a figure 8 block. A method I’ve not used before but one I’ll make use of in the future.

I’ve always like the idea of releasable anchors and have used munter-mule knots in the past but found them too much of a pain in the arse to bother with on most recreational trips, however there are a bunch of devices out now that take the hassle out of the equation. And for those not into buying more gear (weirdos) most people would have a spare figure 8 in the gear bag somewhere. I was surprised at how simple and quick the figure 8 block was to rig.

But I get ahead of myself.

It’s -4 when Little Miss Sunshine arrives at my place, minus the sunshine, and we head off to meet Mark and the others. I know the others only from online interactions so it’s cool to finally meet them in person.

After a gentle stroll up the hill, wait. No, that’s not right. After slogging up the hill we dump bags and set off for a side trip to our first canyon of the day, slipping up the usual pass and short cutting through the scrub to the top of the slot

Badass Barbie, AKA Aimee, dropping into Crooked Crevice with Kylie on belay down below
Badass Barbie, Little Miss Sunshine, The Dare Devil and the Russian Gangster contemplating the squeeze abseil off a classically ridiculous Blue Mts anchor consisting of a sling hero looped around a nub of rock.
Archie, AKA #adventure_matt squeezing on down. Someone may or may not have got a little wedged in here. and before you lot point your fingers at me guts are apparently more conforming than other parts of anatomy. “I’m stuck by my lady lumps.” I believe was the call.
It’s a great little slot

An hour or so later we are back at the bags and make our way around to visit the next slot/micro canyon

Kenobi
It’s short but the light is always impressive
It was bad enough they were twinning…. 🙂

And then it is up my pass and onto the tops for some views followed by more scrub

Kylie checking out the views up the Wolgan towards Donkey Mountain

Aimee getting her squeeze on and having one of her #lil_blondes_adventures, ©Mark
Kristo getting thrown through the moon door
Matt in the cave/ tunnel
The water is lava and not even the Dare Devil, AKA, Hywaida, wants to get burnt
The hole we just emerged from
The second last abseil see us descend out of the hidden slot into the open

1 abseil to go and as I was pulling rope across for Mark to feed it through the anchor there was an almighty rumble, the world shook and a car sized boulder broke off the cliff above and went sailing past about 10m to the right of us….. It was impressive to witness but scary AF when it happened

Mark racing down the final abseil
Little Miss Sunshine, AKA Kylie aka #wild_elly, high above the Wolgan

And then its a combination of walking, stumbling and dirt skiing back down to the cars

Another great day in the bush with great people visiting 3 short but very different canyons

Party Size: 7

Time: 7hr 15 car to car

There’s no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there’s no excuse for boredom. Ever!: Viggo Mortensen

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