Organizer:
Patrick Grant
Date/Time:
Date(s) - Saturday 14 June, 2025
All Day
climbing
This trip is for people on the Multipitch Skills group formed at the beginning of the year. There may be some spots for regular club members with the requesite experience:
– basic self rescue
– Multipitch climbing
UP TO DATE DETAILS
can be found in our usual planning doc –> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QoHRf4t5Kk8kh85-yZR-AbBsOTGJhU9uFJ_z3Tlz6Jg/edit?usp=sharing
MEET UP
10am – Meet-Up @ Darkes Forest Trailhead
THE GOALS
The primary goal is to practice multi-pitch climbing in a higher commitment scenario with some big exposure. This is the real deal. Hanging belays. Steep pitches. Overhangs. Fear. That said, the climbing itself is moderate and the grading is soft for the Illawarra.
The secondary goal is to get the Whale of a Time photo for your online Dating profile. They say it’s even BETTER for attracting future spouses than a picture of you on a boat holding a giant fish.
GEAR
Team to supply gear for climbing in teams of twos and threes.
BEFORE THE DAY
Reflect on what went well and what needed work on our last trip
Recap on the things you feel need development
Refresh your prussiking skills – seriously – people find themselves dangling from the end of a rope on these overhang routes all the time. When this happens to you, you’ll want to know how to progress up the rope while rattled.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
Routes: What routes would be appropriate for me?
Approach: How do I find the routes?
Abseil: where are the abseil anchors? Do we set fixed lines or pull the rope?
Retreat: What are the retreat options if we get stuck?
Glory: How do I make sure that I’m the one in the photo and not the one at the belay taking the photo?
ROUTES
Scarborough cliffs on the Crag https://www.thecrag.com/en/climbing/australia/wollongong/area/351925620
These two are almost obligatory
Whale of a Time (16) three pitches,
Big Fat fin Slappers(18) three pitches and a V0- boulder problem,
Some other good options
Krill Bill (19) two pitches.
Old man of Oi (19)
Double Smoked (21)
Greyblade (17) Trad
The Nar Wall (17) mixed Trad
Hectose Perfectose (19)
RETREAT
There are options to set fixed lines for retreat on WOAT and BFFS. Remember to bring prusiks.
A common and hilarious reason for retreating up a fixed line is that you abseiled to the bottom but you forgot to bring the climbing rope with you. You go to tie in and you realise that it’s nicely coiled in a bag at the top. Not saying that this ever happened to me (not here at least!) but it has almost happened multiple times… maybe almost every time.
In the event that you get stuck and need to lower off and walk off then it’s good to bear in mind that a walk off is possible (although not much fun). From the base of the climbing routes you can abseil down steep scrub to flat ground in open forest. There is quite an easy walk through leaf litter to the north for about 1km where there are ramps to the top of the escarpment (approximate location here) . From the top you can reconnect with the ‘forest trail’ and walk 5 min back to the Whale Wall abseil. I’ve done it and enjoyed the experience. I would NOT like to do it in the dark without a head torch.
