3 Sisters

The classic 3 Sisters climb is the "West Wall", a 225m grade 12, that basically travels up between the 2nd and 3rd sisters. From the end of the climb you must traverse back to the mainland, offering a great opportunity to climb to the tops of all three sisters.

Note: the 3 Sisters are now officially off limits to all climbing and abseiling. See the climbing news page for details.

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

Pitch 1 21m 7
Climb up a nice easy bit of rock to a couple of dirty ledges with trees and bushes. Continue uphill until you see two BBs about 3m back from the edge. The guidebook says to belay from the first ledge, but it's easier just to continue to the BBs and reduce the walk to pitch 3.

"Pitch 2" 5m walk
From the BBs walk right around the corner to a small cairn below a hollow corner.

Pitch 3 12m 8 (with a 16 move off the ground)
Straight up the hollow corner to a BB. Because of severe erosion, the first move is a real bugger if you're short or carrying a pack. The cairn helps a bit, but it's very loose, so be careful!

"Pitch 4" 27m walk
Walk left until you find a couple of BBs at ground level and a single BB on the face to the left of the BBs.

Pitch 5 23m 9
Up the scrappy corner then left onto face. One BB on the face and two BBs on top.

Pitch 6 40m 10
Stay right at the top or you might end up off route. Two BBs on top.

"Pitch 7" 80m walk
Follow the obvious path up the hill and to the left to the base of a short slab and a V chimney. This is the base of the final cliff line.

Pitch 8 35m 12 (crux)
One BR on the initial slab, and one on the right hand side of the chimney about half way up. Two BRs at the top of the chimney on the left, but continue climbing up to the ledge/cave (one BB on the right). The tree is very dead, and only good for flaking out the rope as you belay. An excellent pitch with the biggest exposure of the climb (particularly while you're belaying the second).

Pitch 9 21m 11
Can either be climbed as a very tight chimney, or reach out onto the lip of the roof for some big jugs (easier than the chimney). One BR just under the roof on the right to start with, and one BR higher up in the chimney. Many BBs on top (3 sets that we could see!).

From here it's an easy scramble up to the third sister (a handline is recommended for the first 5m).

The easiest way back to the mainland is around the tourist traverse, but it's also fun to climb straight up the face of the 2nd sister ( ) then rap off to the gap between the 1st and 2nd sisters.