The Cathedral, Woronora

Access to the crag by public transport isn't the best, with a 40 minute walk from Sutherland railway station the easiest way to get there. Walk west from the station, past the cemetary and then down the cement path to the river. Walk upstream and cross the footbridge, and continue upstream on the waters edge for approximately 1km. The crag is quite obvious, about 20m to the right of the track, but the path up to it isn't all that clear. If you drive, its best to park at the footbridge and walk from there (you save yourself the walk down the hill from Sutherland).

The main attraction of The Cathedral is its height. The highest part of the wall reaches almost 30m in height, making it one of the highest suburban crags in Sydney. The rock itself is also quite unusual, being much more coarse grained than other Sydney sandstones. The wall also contains some unusual rock formations (such as Ozone Action, described below), that make for interesting climbing.

A major disincentive for climbing at The Cathedral, however, are the millions of mosquitoes that seem to swarm out of everywhere whenever climbers turn up. Not only that, but a number of people have found ticks on themselves after climbing here. In other words, bring a strong insect repellent!

There's a large tree towards the middle of the cliff (above Get Out of Town), that's great as a permanent rap station if you've brought a second rope. Be careful though, since my 50m rope didn't touch the bottom when it was doubled. A better idea is to tie one end of the rope to the tree and abseil on the single rope instead.

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