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Diamond Bay / Rosa Gully Sea Cliffs

Diamond Bay is one of the most popular climbing destinations in the Eastern Suburbs. It has great public transport access (382 bus from the city or a 387 or 389 bus from Bondi Junction all stop at Diamond Bay Bowling Club), and even has some shops a 5 minute drive down the road. The only real disadvantage to climbing here is the horrible descent down into the gully (a line of chipped holds, steel rings and a manky, rotten wooden ladder). You might prefer to abseil in.

The large wooden diamond that used to stand on the top of the north side of the bay was removed during August 1996, so some of the climbs on the northern face are now difficult to protect from the top (The Corner, in particula).

The guide for the area is the newly published Sun, Surf and Sandstone online guide book. This crag is described here and here.

Diamond Bay

The climbs:


Recommended Sport Photo Gloucester Buckets 12m 20
Marked. This climb seems to be quite a favourite, as there's always someone on it when you want to climb it. Its pretty sustained, but the chipped holds certainly make the going somewhat easier. Two belay bolts on top, perfectly placed to set up a bottom belay. A must do climb while at Diamond Bay. Note that one of the holds on the crux move snapped off during January or February 1997, making the crux somewhat harder. Its still probably only grade 20, though.


Recommended Photo LP 10m 16
A good warm up climb. Nuts and RPs up the crack then a #3 camalot in the hole in the roof (make sure you leave space for your hands!). Round the corner and up to a large ledge with two slightly rusty fixed hangers off to the left (they're not really essential). Either straight up just to the right of the hangers (harder), or up a short, easy corner 3m right (1 ring bolt but watch the drag).


Sport Sleazy Mission 10m 20
I grovelled and cursed my way up this climb, and really didn't enjoy it, but its probably worth a look in (particularly as Mike Law gives it one star). 2 rings bolts on the face, then either step right and finish up Thin (one bolt + cams), or step left and finish up the easy corner on LP (1 ring bolt).


Recommended Recommended Photo Thin 15m 19
Probably my favourite climb at Diamond Bay. 3 BRs, although the first one is quite high so a #1 nut or RP is useful as a first placement. Cam placements higher up help protect the top out. No BBs on top, so take enough gear to rig a belay station (large nuts or hexes, slings and optionally some cams).


Recommended Photo The Corner 18m 16
A really straight forward and fun layback, although most of the climb is doddling up the ramp to the start of the layback. Take 5 or 6 cams (#2, #3 and #4 camalots) for the crack. The belay station is now very difficult to set up, since the large cement block that the wooden diamond was embedded in has been removed. Small cams (eg. Aliens) are probably your best bet.

Rosa Gully

I haven't actually climbed in Rosa Gully, but I had a bit of a look there late one afternoon after climbing at Diamond Bay. The cliffs are a lot higher than in Diamond Bay, but also significantly more grotty. The gully is quite narrow, so it doesn't get much sun and is thus quite slimy and wet.

The guide book lists climbs from 10m to 78m in height and grades from 13 to 24.

The ladders at the mouth of the gully lead to a quite spectacular ledge that follows the cliffs around for hundreds of metres (we walked around for about 500m and didn't get to the end). I think this ends up at the Trendies Corner area mentioned in the guide book.


Map of Diamond Bay/Rosa Gully sea cliffs


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