Red Rocks Gorge - ACT

The crag at Red Rocks Gorge in the ACT is open again. It is closed between the 1st of August and 1st of January to allow the Peregrine Falcons to crap all over the crag in peace. I don't mind, I like taking a crap in private too.

Iceman (aka in non Chocky life as Gavin Evans) and I met at the Kambah pools car park around 4.30pm. It was a perfect Canberra summer afternoon - temperature in the high twenties, no clouds, and a touch of a cooling easterly breeze. We planned to climb Red Rocks Gorge, which is about ten minutes walk further upstream from the Kambah Rocks crag. We weren't sure if we'd make it across the river to the crag, so we were both wearing nylon shorts and sluggos in the event of a swim.

The walk in from the car park takes about half an hour, but you then need to spend at least another twenty minutes finding a spot to cross the river, which at the moment is flowing fairly well. The guide says there is a goat track leading from the main walking track down to the river, but due to no-one accessing the crag for a while, and the recent rain, it looks like the goats have not been doing their job.

We finally found a spot to cross the river at the Northern end of the crag. The water was about waste deep and required careful foot placement as the water is flowing fairly strongly and the river bed is a jumble of rocks. Make sure you have your mobile phone etc. wrapped up in plastic bags.

Red Rocks is very impressive on first sighting. A highly featured orange cliff that soars above the Murrumbidgee River. The river itself cuts through numerous small craggy gorges and boulders that we though had plenty of potential for some short deep water soloing. The other nice feature of the climbing there is that the crag is in full shade later in the afternoon in Summer. With the combination of shade and the breeze blowing along the river, the conditions were perfect.

The Neither of us had been to the crag before, so we poked around a bit trying to interpret the topo (nice simple colour one - available at Mountain Designs in Canberra). We eventually settled on doing the two easier sports routes at either end of the crag, Ingrid Bergmann (16) and Willie the Pooh (16). There was also an interesting looking trad climb, Corner Crack (14), which we filed for future reference.

We started on Ingrid Bergmann, with Iceman leading. The crux, as I was to find, is quite interesting, and Iceman got flash pumped on it trying to find the move through it. He rested for a few minutes then had another crack at it, moving up easily this time and making the lower offs with no problems. Seconding it was a bit easier as I was able to following Iceman's chalk marks, though the move through the crux was a challenge. The climb was a bit short (10m), and with a bit more time it would be nice to pump some laps on it. The only problem we found with it is that because of the recent rain and climbing ban, there was heaps of dirt covering certain sections of the climb. A bit more cleaning would greatly improve it (or is that just winging? Maybe I should just take my own advice and "toughen up Princess!!").

We then walked along the base of the crag, working out the routes according to the topo. There were some really nice looking, and much longer, 18s and 20s (Instant Inches, Red Sorghum, Tahini, Bosch Imperialist, Willy Wonka) that would be great to have a go at when we had more time. It also looked like there was the potential to put up a few more lines there as well. The dried head of a Galah lay at the bottom of the cliff as evidence of the previous residence of the falcons. Galahs still look like they are laughing even when their heads are detached from their bodies.

We got to the other end of the crag and checked out Willie the Pooh. It was a little hard to decipher at first as four climbs start in the same spot, but by getting back from the crag a bit it was easier to spot the lines of bolt plates up the cliff. Iceman headed off on lead again, determined not to get pumped again.

Willie the Pooh, even though not hard, has some great sections, the characteristics of each one being quite different from the next. The start is chunky and straight forward, the next section is a blank wall with some small holds and blocky ledges on the left hand side and top, you then move up into a blocky bulge that has some thank god juggy ledges as you come over the bulge, then the top out is over a smooth slab that leans into the cave that holds the lower offs. Iceman was hooting when he got to the top. On seconding it, I could see why. It was a great little climb with enough variation to please the whole family. And no dirt this time. Again, it would be a great climb to chuck a few laps on.

The sun was just setting as we started to pack up the gear, and I just happened to find a six pack of VB in my backpack. We had a beer and looked at the climbs to the left of where we had just climbed. They had a lot more height in them and looked much more challenging. We agreed to come back later and give them a crack.

We had a fun and soggy crossing of the river again, and finding the goat track back up to main path was more of a challenge than the two routes we had just done. The strategically placed Native Raspberry and the odd weedy Rose bush made for prickly route finding. We made it to the main track without too many scratches and slogged back to the car park with another beer while talking standard post cragging climbers crap. We arrived at the cars without much light to spare at 9pm.

I can highly recommend an afternoons climb at Red Rocks, though give yourself plenty of time. The walk in and out is much more of an epic than the climbs themselves.