Sublime Point

To get to the climbs, rack up in the carpark, and then walk down past the picnic shelter to the small bridge that heads out to the lookout. Scramble down left of the bridge (facing out) and (carefully!) walk/slide down the pine needle covered slope to the base of the first line of cliffs. Head around right towards the lookout, then drop off to the left down a faint path. Pretty soon you should start to see white reflectors nailed to trees. These mark the path from here right to the bottom of the descent (about 300m down). Take care on the descent, since some parts are quite steep and slippery, and quite close to the edge.

Most of the climbs start from the "red ledge", a wide bushy ledge (distinguished by orangy-red rock at the base of the cliff) which heads off the descent route to the right (facing out). The red ledge is located approximately 250m down the descent route (which continues on down past the red ledge).

The guide for the area is the "Rockclimbs in the Upper Blue Mountains (2nd Edition)" guide book.

The climb starts approximately 400m along the red ledge, below the obvious, massive orange and black wall just before the nasty traverse. To get to the base of this wall, scramble and solo (with care!) up the steep, bushy slope towards the right hand end of the wall. The route starts up the thin crack about 3m left of the right hand corner (Colosseum Corner).

Gradings of individual pitches have been added by me, and are to be used as a rough guide only. Helmets are highly recommended on this climb.

Pitch 1 20m 20 (originally graded 18)
This excellent pitch has it all: great natural protection (take a double set of wires), gorgeous rock, and sporty and surprisingly pumpy moves up a steep thin crack. Take a variety of small to medium cams (keep some small ones for the natural belay) and keep a sling for a slung block at the top. Probably not a bad idea to traverse 10m left along the ledge to the double ring bolt belay.

Pitch 2 22m 6
Easy and exposed traversing left past a big loose block (take care), past a double ring bolt belay (which is the last easy retreat option) and on to another bolted belay (1 BB plus small cams in a break above the bolt). There used to be two ring bolts at this belay too, but when we took a good look at them we realised they were loose, so pulled them out (with our fingers, which shows how loose they were!).

Pitch 3 40m 13
Continue traversing left (rusty BR and one or two natural placements) with mounting exposure to the rusty BB halfway up the steep ramp / pinnacle. Although this was originally the next belay, it's not much off a stance so we continued on. Head straight up the pinnacle on terrible rock to a foot ledge (the rock does improve considerably once you're up). Continue traversing left along this (not much in the way of gear and BIG exposure) past two big loose looking blocks (take care!). Once past the second block, head straight up the steep wall above on jugs to a comfy belay cave. Belay off mid to large cams and a big wire in a pocket. Double ropes are strongly recommended for this pitch.

Escape Route Variant of Pitch 4 30m 8
A good escape pitch should you get rained on (see )! From the belay cave head back into the gully (the original second last pitch heads up here), step across to the big ledge and clip the BB. I'd recommend you belay here to reduce rope drag. Continue along the ledge for about 10m past the BB to a break in the overhangs. Head straight up the 15m dinner plate wall above to the top (tree belay). Note that the gully turns into quite a waterfall should you get caught by rain!

Sweet Dreams is located approximately 500m along the red ledge, just past a nasty traverse. We roped up for this, since the wire that "protects" it is anchored to a sick tree on one side and a rusty bolt and bolt bracket on the other (I doubt either anchor would survive the static loading if you fell). Rock shoes aren't necessary, but they might make the step across the corner a bit easier.

On my first attempt at this climb, we had a bit of an epic on this climb, partly due to a late start (11:30am) and an early sunset (5pm), but primarily due to getting quite badly off route on the 3rd pitch (jump to this photo to see where you shouldn't be on the fourth pitch!). We didn't finish the 5th pitch until well after the sun had gone down, and thinking that we'd finished the climb, packed up our gear and put our walking shoes back on. A short walk up the hill in the gathering darkness brought us (unexpectedly!) to the base of another cliff. After 40 minutes of (careful!) bush bashing in the pitch darkness, we finally found a gully to the left that we could scramble up. Needless to say, I'll be carrying a head lamp from now on!

Gradings of individual pitches have been added by me, and are to be used as a rough guide only. Helmets are a must on this climb, since there's quite a lot of loose rock.

Pitch 1 15m 12
A rather grotty pitch (particularly if there's been any kind of rain in the recent past), but don't let it put you off! Two BRs and slung trees to a double bolt belay on a large ledge.

Pitch 2 25m 10
Head up the obvious flake/crack (a mixture of big pro and a rather unnecessary BR) to the top of the block (2 BBs). Be careful of loose chockstones in the final crack - there were some coke-bottle sized ones that rattled down and nearly came out. The ledge only has room for one, so the leader should be ready to swap leads as soon as the second arrives.

The first two pitches can be combined without too many hassles.

Pitch 3 30m 13
Step right off the belay ledge (crux), then easily up and right about 5m to the 1st BR. Continue easily up and right to the 2nd BR and the traverse line. Increasingly easy moves right past another 3 BRs to the small belay ledge (3 BRs) near the small dead tree.

Variant Pitch 3 35m 13
Continues almost directly up from the 2nd belay ledge (take care: pro is fiddly and rather sparse). Belay at the dirty ledge with the banksia, with 1 manky BB and some cams in the corner crack.

Pitch 4 25m 12
Easily up the obvious ramp to a fixed hanger (with a fixed maillon). Continue up and slightly right (past another BR) until it is possible to step across the chasm (massive exposure!). Clip the final BR then stem and quiver up the chasm to the belay ledge (2 BBs).

Variant Pitch 4 (Sweet Knight?) 52m 14
Continues from the variant 3rd pitch described above. Head straight up (crux) to a rusty BR about 10m up (extend it well). Head right (nuts, cams) on jugs to the obvious foot traverse (see photo). Traverse the entire width of the face (cams, nuts, small hexes and 1 BR) to the original pitch 4 belay (2 BBs). Big exposure and easy moves once you're onto the traverse make this an excellent pitch.

Variant Pitch 5 35m 16
A good pitch that looks much better than the chossy corner that is Sweet Dreams' original 5th pitch. Balancy moves to get onto the wall, then straight up to the first BR (extend it well). Step left and up past two more BRs (extend these two as well), then up on jugs past three more BRs (for a total of 6 BRs). At the little overlap, either head left to the ledge and doddle up the (loose!) blocks, or head straight over it and up the delicate slab above to the belay (better). The belay is off two large trees well back from the edge.

Walk and scramble up about 15m through the trees to the base of the final line of cliffs. Walk left and up about 15m to the top of the cliff. Once on top of the cliff, there's a well-trodden path about 20m back that heads straight back to the Sublime Point lookout (about 500m to the right).