> Will's Climbing Page > Crags > Sydney > Bronte

Bronte

The Word: Under-rated seaside bouldering, plus a mediocre seacliff.
Sun/shade: Morning sun, though you can sunbake on the beach all day!
Wet weather options: Maybe some bouldering behind the beach.
Style of Climbs: Short seacliff routes, fingery vertical bouldering, or steeply overhung beach-side bouldering.
Grades: 14-25, V0-V4?
Best Route(s): Go bouldering

Bronte Crag

The Details: Pleasant by sea cliff standards but fairly limited. This is where the roped climbing is, about 250m S of the beach.

Access: 5min walk. Approach via Boundary Road on the S side of Waverley cemetery. Where the road turns S, walk N 80m and a touch NE and you're on top of the cliff. Descend at the N or S end. Mail Sorter is the obvious roof crack near the centre of the crag. Flexi Time (24) 10 m L of MS looks good, as do Poste Haste (21) and Hook Line and G-String (23 M1).

Not Wot It Seams 18m 14 (YP)
Considerably milder than most here. Start on the blunt arete about 10m R of MS, behind giant block. Climb past BR to ledge, move L around overhang and climb wall past BR. BB well back, and friends near edge. Water rushes in here, so don't go on a rough day, unless you're a good swimmer!

? 20m 12 (YP)
An unmarked climb on the N side of the rubbishy gully, in the centre of the cemetery. Bolts at top, mantle your way boringly to the top.

Bronte Cutting

The Details: Some surprisingly pleasant bouldering which looks crap at first glance, but once you get stuck into it there is stacks of great problems. There's good traverses on either side of the road, with the better rock being in the uphill half of the cutting. Great for a couple of hours.

Access: It can be found in the road cutting 100m S of Bronte Beach (ie about 150m N of the crag). This is often used as a paid car-park on weekends, so beware cars roaring past. If you don't want to pay their exorbitant parking fees, you can reverse into the top end of the cutting for free! :-)

West Side Traverse 30m V0 Good feet, interesting hands, excellent warm up.

The rest of the problems are on the East side, described from R to L (uphill to downhill).

East Side Traverse 30m V0/1 Go either direction. Marginally harder, mainly jugs, but crap feet with the odd crank required. Your second warm-up.
** The Right Side Traverse 6m V3/4 Start in break 10m L of steps, in the middle of the compact 2.5m-high section (excellent frictional rock). Goes L to R, no hands on top! Up R to small crimps, tricky footwork to reach out R to smallish R hand. L hand cross-through to the slightly higher very slopy crimp. Extremely delicately unravel to latch good R hand at end of wall. The slopy L hand crux crimp has a few alternatives -deduct grade(s) and a star if you use them instead.
Here's a view of Peter crossing through to the crux slopy crimp. The Bronte seacliff crag can be seen 200m away, below the corner of the cemetery.

Suburban rock! There ain't nuthin better....

* Drill Hole 4m V2 Start on the initial crimps of TRST, reach out L to the drill hole. Delicately sidepull and cross through to furthest jug on top.
* Sloper Problem Number One 5m V1 Start 2m R of a waist-high alcove, about 10m down from DH. Crap feet to start, work slopers L then up, using cross throughs only - no matching.
** Sloper Problem Number Two 4m V2 Start in the small waist-high alcove. Squat/stem the alcove with hands on slopiest part of break. Up to poor L hand sloper, then up R to the last sloper on SPN1 (not the better lower one!). Crank to high jug on nose.
* Yoga Master 4m V2 From break 1m L of SPN2, reach high to L hand gaston, put your R foot next to your R hand (Yoga masters only), then crank the gaston up and R to furthest jug.

Bronte Beach

The Details: What's more, you can even do some beach bouldering! Everyone knows that the obvious overhangs behind the beach are very limited (although there is a few fun "latch the jug" jump problems). The trick is to keep an eye out for a little gem up at the northern end of the beach right next to the stormwater outlet. This little overhang offers steeply overhung bouldering 1-4m high above a beautiful soft sandy landing (well, at least until the next storm washes all the sand away!). (No liability accepted if the kids drown while you're cranking!). Problems described L to R.

* A 4m V2 About 50m R of surfclub is a good jug on the lip of one of the blank overhangs. Jump to jug/plate, then a big foot-free crank to high hold (not the lower slopers to the R!). Brave souls might even venture to the top, bring a crashpad...

At the R end of the big blank obvious overhangs/caves, the bulge/lip gets much lower (25m L of TSO). Several good short problems are here, big jugs but very poor feet make for some powerful cranking moves. Depending on sand levels the sit-start can be like going caving!

5m L of TSO is a possible problem out a slightly soft roof using a pinch and a pocket - looks like a damn good problem, if a little desperate! Probably want a crashmat unless the sand covers the rock shelf.

The Stormwater Overhang

An excellent little venue, but the landing is dependent on whether there's sand, and the height can vary by up to 2m as well. TSOT is ok regardless, though if the sand is low you must drop from the highest point (approx 5m) to ensure a sandy landing! Fun! It's hard to even reach the start holds on TOR if the sand is very low.

* The Stormwater Overhang Traverse 6m V1/2 The highball traverse L-R along the lip. Heelhook or just go foot-free. Committing when the sand isn't covering the rockshelf! Here's me fooling round out on the lip...

*** The Outlet Roof 5m V3/4 Start both hands in deep so-so break, L hand on crystally sidepull. Crank a big span move out conglomerate roof to R hand on lip. Out to hang on the lip, then tricky L hand heelhook move to jug, then fun steep cranking to both hands on top. An excellent steep problem.
* D 5m V2/3 Start R of TOR, avoid hard roof start, traverse in to same L hand heelhook move then up TOR.
There's more variants on TOR and D in the V1-V4? range.

For a complete description of all Sydney crags, go to the Sydney Rockclimbing Club's on-line Sydney Guide.