A Great 3 Days

The pictures in this post, plus many more can be viewed at Just Pictures.

Had a big 3 days with Sunshine recently. Firstly, we went canyon in Empress again - this time doing the big walk out along the beautiful National Pass Trail.

Sunshine dropping off Empress Falls.


If you look closely you might see the National Pass Trail half way up the cliff, on the right hand side. The Trail actually traverses this entire cliff line, half way up!

Then we drove down to Sydney to meet Mum for YumCha and to pick up a new laptop.


Then we spent the night in the van overlooking Shelly Beach at Manly.

It was our first night sleeping in the van and it was comfy. It rained all night, but with so much room inside we were not affected by it at all.

In the morning, while a beautiful sun rose over North Head Sydney harbor, we opened the door to let Mistisa (our dog) out. She ran after some joggers not even to return 2 hours later...

we picked her up later that morning at the Manly pound!


We drove home that afternoon and headed straight out to Narrow Neck to climb a 3 pitch, 67m, 3 star, grade 13 climb called Cave Climb. Getting the the bottom of the cliff was a real drama. The guide we had was more than 10 years old and when it described steel ladders to climb down, all we found were dodgy, rusty things that looked a bit like ladders with a water fall falling over them. While it was a bit of an adventure going down them, it was actually quite beautiful.


Cave Climb was a fare old hike from the base of those ladders, but when we eventually found it we weren't disappointed.

The starting pitch was a challenge but we both did it with the aid of a little tree.

The second pitch was adventurous, stepping out under over hangs and across big open cracks, finally reaching an amazing belay anchor in a huge cave.

The 3rd pitch unbelievably went up into the cave, popping out through a little hole in the top, and stepping out onto an amazing view over the impressive reach of cliff we had climbed.

Onwards and upwards to the top for a beautiful sun set, and a starry eyed walk out.



So ended a great 3 days with Sunshine. And what better way to end it than with another one of our afternoon sunset climbs.

Empress Canyon with Sunshine, Chris and Sara

Took Sunshine and her brother and sister down Empress Canyon today. Sara had never done a canyon before, and Chris never an abseil canyon, so I thought it would be good to start them on something memorable...

While the canyon went well (Empress is wonderful for jumps, slides and swims if you start from the top), the abseil went badly. Sunshine showed amazing confidence and launching off the 35 metre over hanging waterfall, but Sara freaked out and decided there was no way she was going to be able to do it - I agreed to walk her out. Brave little Chris started the abseil well but had a mishap with a prussic line I stupidly had him use for safety. If I hadn't have made Chris use that prussic he would have completed a great first abseil without trouble.

What happened was I had set him up with his own figure 8 to lower himself with, while I belayed him from the top for safety. This alone would have worked well enough, but I wanted to be double sure (over precautious), and had him use a prussic line over his figure 8 as well.

For those who don't know, the figure 8 is the friction device used to lower down. The prussic line is just a small bit of rope tied from the harness with a special knot to the main rope. If Chris had of accidentally let go of everything and fell, the knot would tighten on the main line and stop him falling. For those who do know, this is not necessary as I was belaying him from above. If he fell, I would of caught him on the rope I was lowering him with.

Anyway, as Chris approached the lip of the over hang he did everything well. He kept his feet apart while he lowered over the lip of the overhang. Unfortunately, as he stepped down below the overhang, he placed the knot of the prussic line straight onto the lip effectively engaging the safety knot and stopping his descent. He continued to abseil a little further and subsequently loaded the prussic line with all his weight. He was trapped in mid air, just below the lip of the overhang, by the prussic line.

Chris's alarm and panic at this was quite unnerving, so I tried to pull him up. However I did not have the strength or proper equipment to do this, and it seemed to be causing him more discomfort anyway. I had on the previous day shown both Chris and Sara how to use prussic lines and they both knew how to ascend rope with them. But Chris was understandably very afraid and uncomfortable hanging in his harness up a 35 meter waterfall. To his credit though, he managed to pull him self together and listen to me as I called reminders to him about what he had learned the day before. He grabbed for his second prussic line and tied it to the line to step up on with his foot.

While this did seem to bring back Chris' confidence for a brief moment, the foot line was unfortunately too long for his short legs to step high enough to take weight off the prussic line that was engaged above him. At any rate, the weight from his foot line was still pinning the knot on the edge of the overhang so he wouldn't have been able to release the prussic knot. He was well and truly trapped now, and very freaked out by it.

I decided to anchor the line that I was belaying him with and prussic down to him (As both lines were weighted I couldn't abseil - nor did I want to, I need the flexibility to move up and down the line quickly). It was only about 5 meters and not at all steep so I was comfortable. When I got to him I tried to talk him through the the prussic routine, but it was quickly clear that Chris was not only losing his head, but a lot of strength with it.

I had to find a way to lift him myself. The best I could manage in the short amount of time that Chris' state was permitting was to lower myself as close as I could to him and pull him by the arm. Before I did this I called down to sunshine to go for help.

On about the third attempt of my reaching down to him, Chris managed to grasp my arm with a firm monkey grip and I pulled him up enough for him to release the prussic and lower it below the lip. Chris was then able to resume an abseil position, untie his foot line and wait for me to go back to the top to give him slack on the belay and let him lower himself down.

Sunshine had not yet departed for help thankfully, so the alarm was not called. Although there was a small crowd gathered below, and I can't be sure if no one in that crowd had risen an alarm.

The relief was overwhelming and I took a while to recover back at the top. It would have been a whole nother story if Chris was too heavy for me to lift. I'm not sure what I would have done - probably have him prussic up the belay line would have been the only option... When I did finally recover, Sara and I retreated back up the canyon and to an exit track.

When we were finally reunited with Sunshine and Chris, Chris was quick to say that the trip was both the best and worst thing he had ever done in his life. He also said that he is looking forward to his next canyon and another abseil!!

What a relief that it all went without tragedy. One of those rare but sudden reminders how costly a mistake in this activity could be. Next time I will most certainly not use prussics as a safety feature! Good for going up, but not for going down.

Blue Mountains Accident Register

The Blue Mountains Accident Register contains a list of accidents and incidents that have occured in the outdoor and adventure environment in the Blue Mountains region of Australia.

The principal aim of this site is to provide accurate and timely information on accidents and near misses that occur in this region. It is felt that the circulation of this information has benefits for all users of the outdoor environment and has the potential to increase the awareness of outdoor users and adventurers as to the likely contributing factors and causes of accidents. We hope that this increased awareness leads, in turn, to people having fewer accidents.

Empress Canyon with Robbie and Karin

Robbie stetching out just before the abseil of Empress Canyon, and Karin and Robbie swigging the Conservation Hut Cafe coffees on the Nature Walk access in.

Empress Canyon rates way up in my favourite Canyons list now. With the access via the Nature Walk from the Conservation Hut the canyon is longer and has some fun slides and a great 4 metre jump in. And after the abseil exit, rather than walking back to the Hut, we walked the National Pass Trail to Wentworth Falls. This exit walk really topped it off. Its so beautiful!

I wore my wetsuite out on this hot sunny day and it kept me cool through evaporation all the way. It wasn't till we got to Wentworth Falls that it bagan to dry out and heat up, but by then I was plunging into one of those lovely water holes on the halfway ledge of the falls.

Robbie and I swore to come back and climb one of the many lines we observed on the amazing cliffs around there.

Wollamgambe 2

Sunshine, Mum and I down the Wollamgambe Creek Section 2, by far the best section of the canyon yet! Unfortunately I ran out of film before the last bit which happens to be the most beautiful... Mum made it no worries.

Wollamgambe 1

Had a great day today with Sunshine and her little brother Chris, doing the first section of the Wollamgambe Creek Canyon.
It was a top 25-degree day while we floated down the canyon on KMart LiLos and a truck tire tube. The Tire tube turned out to be better as it was tougher and easier to carry, but it was slower to paddle. Next time a might take a snow shovel as a paddle.
I found a really nice climb over water in which I got about 5 meters up before letting go. There's probably a lot more round if you look.
Took a drive around Mount Wilson after the canyon, and what a fancy town of mansions that place is. A really scenic little drive worth doing.

Claustral Canyon

What a classic canyon. It was a lot longer and harder than I remembered it to be, but it was great to introduce Sunshine to a more adventurous canyon.
We started typically late, leaving the car at about 11am. With only 3 of us, we were back in the car just before dark (daylight savings). All of us were pretty tired at the end of it - the walk out, though scenic, is pretty exhausting.