Australia 

One thing you should know about Australian climbing is the carrot bolt. "Carrots" are machine screws with the threads filed off, then pounded into slightly undersized, pre-drilled holes. They aren't used any more, having been ousted by modern hanger bolts, but there are still many in use that haven't been and likely won't be replaced. Trust carrots as you would trust any other piece of fixed gear of unknown parentage - carefully, and with deep suspicion. Some of them are still bomber, while you can remove others easily by sliding them out of their holes. Also, carrot bolts generally don't have hangers - they're just bolt heads sticking out of the rock. You will need to carry somewhere between 5-10 "bolt hangers", available in most Aussie climbing shops and hardware stores. The leader puts a bolt hanger on the carrot bolt head, then clips the hanger; the second comes along, takes the draw, then also takes the hanger. I prefer the hangers at a 45-degree angle, myself.

Here are some examples of:
Bad carrot bolts - www.safercliffs.org/code/photos.html
Bolt plates - www.mtntools.com/cat/rclimb/bolts/rpkeyholehanger.htm

One of the great joys of the Australian sport climbing experience is desperately slotting a hanger on a carrot bolt, then reaching up with a quickdraw only to bump the hanger off the bolt sending it tumbling to the ground. Hopefully you've saved enough juice to holster the draw and try again...

Great to see the Aussie section coming alive. It's looking great.

A car is absolutely mandatory for climbing in Australia. It is possible to visit some of the Blue Mountains crags using public transportation, but it would be a serious tragedy to travel this far and not get onto the open roads.

If on an extended trip, the best option is to buy a car. This sounds daunting, but is in fact relatively easy, especially if you are starting in Sydney. Once in town, go to the infamous "King's Cross Car Market", located at the King's Cross Car Park in the King's Cross burough of Sydney. This market is a bit of a curiousity in itself. World travelers from across the globe converge here to buy and sell cars that they have owned or will own for only a few months. The staff at the market will mechanically inspect cars, help you register your purchase, and sell you the legally mandated amount of insurance.

Just a comment on the organization of this section. Wouldn't it make more sense to list areas by state, as you do or the US?

Hi,

just like to let you know about some fantastic on-line info in case you're not aware of it:


The Australian Climbing Association
www.climb.org.au/index.php
has a fantastic website with quite a few decent on-line guides (some like Taipan Wall are totally up to date) but others are not yet sorted. It also has a reasonable web forum. This site has National information.

Chockstone
www.chockstone.org/chockstone.asp
is a very popular web forum and a great place to talk to people in the know (that's not always the case!!!) so you can find out where to get good info.

Tassie climbing: TheSarvo
www.thesarvo.com/confluence/display/thesarvo/Tasmania
Has some fantastic on-line guides and also a forum (although Chockstone is much more popular in terms of the forum)

If you want good print guides, or some more info I'd suggest you try these guys:
www.osp.com.au/
www.onsight.com.au/
www.sydneyrockies.org.au/
www.vicclimb.org.au/Site/index.php?location=publications

I'd also like to flag that there is a new "Best of Victoria" guidebook coming out later this year. Some details on that here:
rockmaster.com.au/

I hope this is useful for anyone planning a trip to Australia.

PS the "Best of Victoria" site currently has a "preliminary" GPS file so you can more easily find the remote camp sites, cliffs etc in the Grampians. Any feedback most welcome.

Kind Regards,



Josef Goding

As a local I'd add a few things- I think Arapiles is the best easy trad crag in the world. Sport climbers may be disapointed or scared. The easy routes (up to 22 or 5.11a)are great. Harder routes are better in the nearby Grampians. The most common trip has one staying at Arapiles and making daytrips to the Gramps to do various routes. There are a lot of climbers living at Arapiles and nearby Natimuk, and none in the Grampians. There is a bit of sport climbing in the Grampians, but most of the best routes require some trad gear too. Taipan is awesome, everything is hard for the grade I think.

NSW has more sports climbing, in summer (September through till may) most people climb in the Blue Mountains, there's a but of trad, lots of single pitch sport, and some multi pitch sport up to about 1000'. very vertical. Nowra is the sports venue in winter (single pitch, steep, undergraded).

Moonarie (South Australia)is great as it gives you a taste of the outback. Western Autralia has some great climbing if you are there.

I don't know why there's a photo of me on the seacliffs, I've added shots of a few other areas.

Grading is variable as anywhere, as a general rule, multiply the decimal bit of the YDS grade to arrive at an Australian grade, 5.9 means 9x2=18. This works up to 5.12. Older trad routes can be shockers.

Great to see the Aussie section coming alive. It's looking great. Jazz

Been to OZ lots of times (with work, NASA has a deep space tacking complex west of Canberra) - I remember the first time arriving the pilot said "we're just passing over Botany Bay" it was such a fantastic and wondrous moment to see a place i had read about when i was a kid, learning about the voyages of James Cook.

Ill be in sydney for a week, no plans for renting a car and can only spare 1 maybe 2 days to climb. Id really like to get on a moderate multi pitch sport route, any suggestions? Or any super classic single pitch moderates closer to town? (Moderates in my mind = 13-20/8-10d)