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Warrumbungles

A mighty range, the sheer extent of it not really being apparent until you summit one of the peaks and have a look around. What's incredible is that what's left is merely the dribs and drabs of the volcano that was here millions of years ago - imagine the size it must have been! So anyway, here's the essential info....

Getting there

Drive to Coonabarabran, it is 6hrs from Sydney whether you go (a) through Lithgow and Mudgee, or (b) up the F3 to Freeman's Waterhole then through Denman and Merriwa (Coolah is the place to stop for a good meat pie). Coona has a supermarket (only open until 6pm weeknights, 4pm Sat, and 1pm Sun), and also has newsagents, petrol stations, cafes, pubs etc. From Coona, the road to the Warrumbungles National park is well marked, it's about a 30min drive to the Visitor's Centre, where you pay your car and camping fees, and be sure to collect the key if you're staying in Balor Hut!

Accommodation

For climbers, the accommodation options are fairly limited. The main concern is how far you are from the climbs - from all the carparks the climbing is at least a 6km steep uphill walk away!

The most popular seems to be Balor Hut, a very basic tin shed with concrete floor and four dilapidated double bunks (some are very rickety!). You need to book it in advance, and it's usually padlocked so collect the key from the Visitor's Centre! It's very basic, but compared to a tent it's luxury, especially at night or when it's raining. Balor also has clean tank water almost permanently (but check with the Park Rangers before you go - 02 6825 4364). This is important considering how much extra weight water would be on the walk up the hill!! If the hut is full there is limited room outside for a tent or two, and you can just use the hut for cooking. The hut is located a 5.2km walk from Camp Pincham, only about 200m from the Breadknife. The walk involves 3.5km of mainly flat easy walking, then about 1.5km of absolutely gutbusting steep uphill walking - though at least this section is nearly all paved. The walk takes about 90mins if you're loaded up with a few days worth of gear, or about 60mins with a light daypack. At a brisk walk both times could be trimmed by 10-15mins but it would be a fair bit of effort.

The main other option is Dows Campsite, at the base of the Bluff Mountain track. The big advantage here is the quick access to the monstrous routes on Bluff Mountain. However, it's a 2hour killer walk with all your gear (maybe 90mins without gear), and you'll probably have to ferry water over from Balor Hut (6km return walk). There is a small creek at the campsite but it only flows after solid rain, and even then only for a few days. If you're like me and don't sleep very well in a tent, then stay at Balor and just get up 30mins earlier for the routes on Bluff.

Finally, it's possibly worth considering camping down the bottom at Pincham or Blackman etc. This avoids the one-off killer walk with all your camping gear, gives you all the luxuries of car camping, and gives excellent rainy day options (eg the pub, the observatories etc). The downer is that every single day you're looking at walk-ins to your chosen routes of something like 2hrs to Crater Bluff, 2-2.5hrs for Bluff Mountain (via Ogma& Dows - maybe less if you head straight up through the bush soon after Ogma), and 1.5-2hrs to Belougery - and then walking all the way back down the hill again at the end of the day. This is possibly more worthwhile if you only have one day free for climbing, but it would probably be too much effort for consecutive days.

Crater Bluff

Notable for two climbs of much fame in Australia - the beginner's classic Cornerstone Rib (14), and the 1962 cutting edge route Lieben (17) which even today remains an intimidating and committing proposition.
Access: Get to Dagda Saddle (75mins from Pincham, 12mins from Balor, 15-20mins from Dows). Head S into the bush following a good "climber's track". This track is also marked with white tape around trees (in Oct '01), hopefully the tape will be removed because the access would be obvious even without the track and the tape! Anyway, the track heads gently downhill following a growing gully, and crosses the gully once or twice. About 8-10mins from Dagda another gully (similar size but more likely to have flowing water) joins the first gully from the L. From where the two meet, break left (East) uphill aiming straight for the centre of Crater Bluff (the W Face), you'll get there in about 10mins. Lieben is probably 30-80m R (S) of where you meet the cliff, while Cornerstone Rib starts 150-200 metres around L (N). To access CR, get right up close to the cliff proper then head L. Stay high - above some lower drop-aways, from where a 30 degree scree-gully against the base of the cliff proper leads up to a platform from which the rib is obviously visible. Continue 30m round L to where there is a slab which is obviously the start of the major rib. You can start here, or solo a short gully up L (grade 4) to a ledge, which saves a little time. (Add 8m to P1 as described if you start down low).
Descent: The most foolproof way to find Green Glacier is to descend from where Cornerstone Rib tops out - literally within about 2 metres you'll be going down, very steeply. About 20m down here is a tree with rap slings on it, here you need to either rap 15m or very carefully downclimb (looks ok (grade 8?) if the rock is dry). From the top of CR, you can also get into Green Glacier about 8-10m further over towards the logbook and summit cairn, this avoids a rap but instead involves a 15m downclimb, very dangerous when wet. Do NOT go down the other major gully on the far (E) side of the logbook and summit cairn, this leads to a 40m death fall! After the short abseil into Green Glacier proper, continue down the incredible ferny gully, about 50m down is another downclimb (luckily stays dry), then some small drops in the creek bed (if its wet here there's nothing for it but to grovel down in the base of the creek in the water and vegetation, but it's not too bad). Wind another 150m or so down Green Glacier until you appear out on the southern side of Crater Bluff. There are rap chains on the L of the creek here (facing out), if dry you can walk down but if the creek is flowing or if there's any moisture you'll need to rope up for the last 25m off a tree, as a slip here would send you over the edge. Rap 40m off the chains (new ones installed 8/10/01) to big ledge. You're still above a 50-60m drop so take care. Walk L (facing the cliff), then diagonally down grassy slope for 40m to a short downclimb (the first "hump" from the guide), then across for 15m and back up onto the next "hump". The rap chains are on the very cliff edge on top of this hump (backed up by a sling from a carrot and a boulder as of Oct 01). From here a vertical 40m rap leads to a big ledge with a big tree. Easily walk L (facing the cliff) down and off (marvelling at Lieben breaching the incredibly blank wall above!), for 50m to where the access track meets the cliff.

*** Cornerstone Rib Direct 211m 14 (OS)
At the risk of being a bit of a party-pooper, I must say that if you consider only the quality of the climbing, this is probably only a 2 star route - there's only one pitch which really got me buzzing, while the rest is merely pleasant. However, it is a total classic when all other factors are taken into account, such as the fantastic position, the historic importance of the route and the climbing area in general, and the incredible natural feature it follows. So from me it gets 3 stars with compliments, it's totally deserving of it's iconic status in Australian climbing.
1) (48m * 10) Nice slab for 20m then long gully/groove on L to belay when rope almost runs out. (Probably nicer to step back onto the rib near the bottom of the groove). 2) (40m * 9) Great easy moves up front of rib for 30m, then easily up and L to belay at base of steep rib. 3) (30m *** 14) An awesome pitch up the steepest and sharpest section of the rib. Airy immediately off the belay!! Step L around arete (sling hollow sounding horn, and good cam just above it), then great layaways up the arete - the occasional hollow sounding rock just adds spice!! :-) Step L past PR to below thin crack then (crux) move over bulge and up steeply for 10m - brilliant!!! Rejoin arete for final moves then belay in great position on top of exposed thin rib/platform (PR, cams). 4) (48m * 13) Nice moves up steep rib off belay for 20m to easy section. Continue up steepening section - good climbing but beware many loose blocks here, choose your hold carefully. Veer R to negotiate bulge then swing airily back L (PR) around arete (would be great fun if it wasn't for all the loose stuff!) Might be better to belay 5m up R on the arete at double PR belay (rope-stretching!) 5) (45m * 8) Barely gets a star, for the exposure and the more solid rock. Up arete from PRs for 15m, then very easy ground leads up and L to the summit (the arete on the L has some loose stuff, while the gully can be damp). Don't forget to sign the logbook....

Bluff Mountain

An awe-inspiring cliff reaching nearly 400m in height. Home to the biggest Bungles routes, and a stack of classics. Bastion Buttress looks fantastic, and as for Flight, well what can I say, this baby should be on every climber's ticklist, it is tough to find a thing wrong with it. Unfortunately I didn't get a good look at the rest of the cliff, as it's not visible from Flight, and the day we walked down to Ogma it was raining (of course - otherwise we would have been climbing!), so didn't get much of a look. Ginsberg has a good reputation, and others say Aladinsane looks a great line. So much rock, so little leave...sigh.
Access: Again there are a few options. The most common way is from Dows campsite (30mins walk from Balor). Coming from Balor, the track meets a T intersection at Dows: heading left is the tourist track up to Bluff Mountain, and to the right goes down to Ogma etc. Straight ahead are 4 treated pine logs stacked across the small creek. Cross the logs into the obvious camping area and keep walking straight on. From the campsite there is no track (though lots of people and goats thrash through here so you will see some spots which might look like a track). The way to get there is to TRAVERSE the hillside, and trend slightly uphill - you want to gain about 1m for every 5m you go across. About 50m from the camp is a small gully. About 400-500m from the camp there is a scree/boulder field running for about 100m down the hill. So long as you didn't stay too low you will find it. There is an obvious cairn here at the correct height - go to it. From here on you stay pretty much at this height on the hillside (but don't lose height). Continue another 50m around and there is a slightly bigger scree/boulder field running 150m down the hillside. There is another cairn on this one, however it's about 20m too far up the hill. From this second scree field, a large (25-30m high) rocky ridge running down the hill is visible about 80m ahead through the bush. From about 20m below the second cairn, traverse round the hillside (winding through lovely grasstrees) to the base of the rocky ridge. Here you should see a big log on the side of the ridge, almost meeting the ground, and a small cairn just left of the base of the log. Climb up for 6m just R of the log, then traverse R along a good ledge 20m to a bigger cairn. Keep traversing around the rocky ridge (more cairns, if in doubt don't go down) and here the L end of the cliff (Bastion Buttress)(BB) will heave into view. From the ridge you will see low angled slabs and scree leading all the way down to the base of BB (for about 120m). A slippery-slide/ramp should be just below you, allowing access to the long scramble across and down to BB. If the slabs are wet don't risk it because there is a big cliff downhill from you. There is a convenient tree 10m R of the top of the slippery-slide for a 25m rap down a small gully and across to some safe ledges (but still above the major cliff below). The scrambling down to BB takes longer than you might expect, and it's a little tricky to find the way down. It's a very good idea to check the access all the way to the base of BB the day before you climb.

An alternate access to the cliff is to go straight up the hill from just near Ogma Gap, to join the big scree slopes below the cliff. This is probably the quickest way to go if you've come all the way up from Pincham. Some people think it's failsafe and even do it from Balor via Dows (!) but I think it'd be significantly longer coming from Balor, not to mention adding lots of downhill and uphill walking. The only first-hand info I have on this one is "when walking down from Dows, just before you get to Ogma you come to a conical hill with pine trees on it. From here head L (S), cross the creek, and up the scree to the cliff". My guess is this turnoff would be 1-2km down the track from Dows. Good luck!

Once you make it to the cliff (30mins from Dows, or 50-60mins if you had to rap), Bastion looks fantastic, and Stonewall Jackson is totally obvious up the major corner about 30m to the right. The start of Flight is 8m down R from the start of SJ.
Descent: Walk back from the cliff (if coming from Flight, trend R (SW)) to a small false summit after 30-40m - which may not be obvious in the dark! Continue walking away from the cliff (trending R) then straight up a small slope and S along the top to a huge cairn (2m high) at the true summit, about 150m back from the clifftop. The tourist track goes from here, and heads S directly away from the cliff for about 400m before dropping L (E) downhill - it may be difficult to follow in the dark for this first bit. It's 1.3km (15mins) down to Dows campsite.

*** Flight of the Phoenix 300m 18 (318m including rap) (OS)
Absolutely classic, possibly the best climb I have ever done. It's hard to find a thing wrong with this route. Ok, maybe the abseil after P2 is a pain, but it's still an incredible route!! Brilliant climbing on just about all pitches, lovely and tricky to start then cruisy middle-grade climbing for a long way to the top, awesome exposure, brilliant rock - what a classic! The Bungles provides another absolute icon of Australian climbing!! Start 8m down R of SJ at a stylish slabby 12m jamcrack/corner. A set of rap chains with a mound of slings on it can be seen 40m up and about 8-10m R of the start. Take a 2m sling for the rap after P2.
1) (** 45m 18) Up jamcrack (trickier than appears) for 12m, then step L onto nose. Up for a few moves then do an intricate (dicky?) traverse R across slab and tricky step onto nose below chains. Nice moves lead up nose to chain, step slightly L and up corner to small belay stance at small tree/bush ~8m above chain (PR, wire, small cams). 2) (*** 30m 18) Slightly harder than P1, with brilliant sustained climbing at the grade the whole way! With flaring jams and fingerlocks, tricky stemming up the steep recessed corner above the PR gains a precarious thin crack in short slab above. (From here it is possible to head diagonally R at grade 19 to eliminate the rap after P2 - though you'll miss out on a fantastic pitch!). Delicately step L on slab when possible then up next steep corner. Step R onto another short slab, then straight up with more great moves over bulges all the way to a large belay ledge. Rap and tension down R for 18m to a surprisingly airy stance in small corner at lowest point of orange 'wing' (many small wires and #3 camalot down low behind loose-ish block). 3) (*** 45m 14) Traverse R from belay (sketchy gear to start), then follow the line of least resistance diagonally R up the slab, continuous climbing at the grade in a fantastic position 100m off the deck, and following one of the most recognisable lines in Australian climbing - awesome! Generally, stay below the steep orange stuff, and at the base of the vertical black rock. Nearing the wingtip, climb up then slightly R to footledge at small bush (med. cams and wires) - a brilliant exposed belay stance. 4) (*** 42m 14) Step R off belay then straight up past the R end of the wingtip and breach the bulge at a groove/weakness ~6m R of wingtip. Straight up great wall into a vague orange groove, which leans slightly R. Belay just before this groove leans back slightly L and steepens. From here you can see a protruding prow/nose up high (about 80m above you and slightly L). The 'exit gully' (pitch 6) is about 15m L of this prow, which tells you where P5 needs to go. 5) (** 42m 15) Has some slightly grotty rock but the holds are fine and the climbing is great, and you're way up there!! :-) Up off belay then follow the slightly L leaning groove to nice moves to surmount the steepening. Continue up, trending slightly L to some "widow maker" blocks 10m above the belay (easily avoidable), from which exhilarating steep moves lead L around an arete/prow. Engaging climbing continues up and L until another great move left around another prow gains a large grassy stance at a tree, at which point the 'exit gully' becomes obvious straight above you. 6) (48m 13) Unremarkable - maybe gets a star for being 200m in the air? Climb gully/corner, straying onto L wall whenever easier. Steep moves at 40m to exit gully, then up to belay at base of pisseasy slab. 7) (48m 3) Roar up pisseasy slab to top. What a ripper of a route!

To see photos, click here.



© 2000 Will