Square Rock ACT

This trip was a preliminary recce of a grander scheme – to check out the crags at Mt. McKeahnie in the ACT. When I was up at Legoland with Brother Colin, widewetandslippery and wallwombat last week, I spied across the hills and far away a massive granite crag that was lit by sunlight on an otherwise gloomy day. I pointed it out to the other guys and became determined to find out what it was. On checking the topo I figured it to be Mt. McKeahnie. I studied a few of my ACT walking guides and found that there is a walk in to the McKeanie trig, then from there it is a couple of kilometres along the ridge to the top of Mt McKeahnie proper. One of my guides suggested visiting Square Rock, which is off the track on the way to the trig, and had a photo of some fine granite boulders. With a name like Square Rock, you've got to have a look, and I figured the walk in would be a good study of what the access to the ultimate objective would be like (and I hadn't done any exercise all week).

Square Rock is a big granite crag way down Corin Road in the Southern ACT. The ACT Granite guide notes it as having 'a great position and some good climbs', but a very long walk in. Woos bags, it's only three kilometres. I drove down there at lunchtime on Saturday, the plan was to assess the walk-in and maybe do some roped solo climbing (yep, I am Nicky No Friends this weekend...). To get there, you drive down Corin Road for 13.5 kilometres and there is a car park at Smokers Flat – well signed etc. The initial part of the walk parrallels the road, but then cuts across it.


Square Rock Track

Not far up the track there is a walkers register. Better sign in just to be safe. The track is open and well stomped. It climbs gently through open forest, and any stairs are well formed out of solid granite blocks. As you rise to the ridge granite outcrops and boulders start to appear and your brain clicks into climbing mode and can't help but spot small lines and problems.


Boulders on the track

I carried a pack with a full climbing kit and rope, as well as a couple of litres of water, so by the time I got to the 'Square Rock 1 km” sign, I felt like I was only just starting to warm up (i.e. things stopped hurting). The last kilometre in is easy through undulating forest. The nice thing about the forest here is that it was obviously not completely hammered by the bush fires, and a lot of the big trees have reshot and in a few years the walk in will be in full shade most of the way.


A sign of good things to come...

Square Rock is a classic ACT granite crag in the style of Orroral Ridge, but more vertical and less bouldery than somewhere like Legoland. There is lots of rock there. There is a metal tourist stair onto the top of the crag, and the main boulder on the top of this has a couple of climbs on it. Changing of the Guard (24) is obvious by the line of bolts with older style hangers. I scrambled down to the left where there is an obvious gully, and got a much better idea of the extent of the crag. It's all cracky, slabby, chimneyey granite goodness. And no other metal to be seen on the whole crag. There's lots to be climbed, with plenty of soaring exposed lines, as well as many smaller typical granite problems.

Sorry, no photos of the crag yet. Guess where my batteries went flat.

I poked around and picked out lines and scrambled back up through the guts of the crag. The only real climbing I ended up doing was soloing up a small chimney so that I didn't have to walk around that part of the crag. There are only three named climbs for Square Rock in the guide, so for practically the whole place you just have to make it up as you go along. My mind had changed about doing much climbing there as the car was a long walk away (if you had a busted ankle) and I was going to a party that night that had free beer, so discretion is the better part of ensuring your fair share of the said free beer. Also, it was really worth it just to get in there and have a look for future reference. (I should mention that as soon as I put my boots on to do the chimney, I stood on a flake of granite that was on the ground that snapped and gouged my shin as only granite will do which suddenly made me feel more mortal at the base of a big empty crag).

The walk back out is really easy due to the path dropping gently most of the way. I stopped off at one set of boulders next to the track and did a few gentle boulder problems just to get my hands on some rock. You could spend plenty of time just checking out the bits of rock that are scattered along the Square Rock walk.


Views along the track

Square Rock itself it definitely worth a visit. It would be a nice crag to walk into the night before and camp – especially in summer where making an early start is the preferred option. The track is so good that you could walk in at night with head torches without any problems. It's also nice to go to a crag that feels undeveloped - I can appreciate where the anti-bolting crew are coming from. Next, Mt McKeahnie!