Sportclimbing i Australia

Can't go wrong with Nowra and the Blue Mountains. I was there a few months ago. Do you want to know anything specific? Most of the climbs are fitted with lower off's, easy approaches and un-crowded.

You´ve ever been there in the summer? It´s supposedly quite hot in Nowra. I´ve seen that many routes ( at least at some places )  are equipped with boltrunners and that you are supposed to bring your own boltplate( I don´t know if that is the correct term) to be able to clip the bolts. Is it a common practice and if so- is it complicated ´cause I´ve never climbed on that kind of bolting? How´s the quality of the bolting in a general aspect? Good / bad/spacious? Wich crag(s) in the BM has the best sportroutes in grades <25  (<7b)? / Marcus

Ok... weather wise, yeah its gonna be hot. But Nowra is quite sheltered from direct sunlight as it quite over hanging (has large roof systems) and is on both sides of the river. You could climb one side in the morning and the other side in the afternoon. Blue Mtns wise, well there is so many crags around facing different directions. Overall be prepared for some hot weather but its alot more mild than say a humid hot. Probably looking at temp's between 25 to 35. The bolts are referred to as "carrots" and you you'll need bolt plates. Its basicly a removable hanger. You slide them over the bolt and then when you clip your carabiner into the same hole, then they cannot slide back over. [b]You cannot however use wiregates on them[/b], as they can slide back off (usually the gate or spine of the biner is thick and resticts the plate coming off).... They are easy to use, just need some common sense. They are however a pain in the butt and sometimes fiddly and sometimes ya drop it or it pop's off when ya trip clipping it. I find the best method is to clip from underneath. So the gate of the biner faces you, then come up from under. This is also less likely of coming off. Good news is that Nowra is quite modern and has 99% ring bolts and hangers already on. As for the Blue Mtns, the easier climbs from back in the 90ties are all carrots so you'll need bolt plates, while the more modern 22+ climbs all have modern bolting. Bolting at Nowra can be a little run out for sport climbing but I wouldn't call it dangerous or bad. Its just a little out of your comfort zone. Bolting at BM is quite good and very soft. Accomodation, I stayed at the Ski Park in Nowra. When you come into the town from Sydney, take the right turn before the bridge (So heading south, take the northern side right or the information centre is on the southern left side of the bridge) then just follow that down to a shopping centre and turn left at round about then follow ya nose down. You pretty much camp opposite the crag so it is the closet and they let you borrow a boat to paddle across. Blue Mtns I stayed at the Blackheath Camp Ground. Good facilities but the owners are quite old and werent the most welcoming to climbers apparently. There are a few motels around in both area's if you dont have camping gear. Transport, You can catch a train from Sydney to Blue Mtns and walk around the area but I'd suggest having a car. As for Nowra you can get to by bus or train and you wouldnt need a car so much. The Blue Mtns are quite spread out over various places. Best Crags at the Blue's... Well apparently Centennial Glen has the most sport routes (also graded softly apparently) but I never climbed there. I however did climb at Mt York (the sector on the left side, cant remember name) and Boronia Point and both had alot of sport routes. There is just so much climbing around. Guide Books... I got the Nowra book but apparently it isn't being printed anymore as the new one is due out soon. I managed to score on from the Wollongong Climbing Gym and you can score the new Blue Mtn book off Simon Carters website onsight.com.au Umm.. Nowra has enough climbing for probably 4-5 days and Blue Mtns you could spend a good 6-9 days climbing easy. Best idea would be fly to Sydney, hire car, Do ya BM's then drive to Nowra, then head further south to the Grampains and fly out from Melbourne. I put up a trip report here... with some photos etc http://www.rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2225056;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;page=unread#unread Anything else just ask :)

6-9 days in the blue mountains????? Mate, you have climbing for at least a couple of years here. And Nowra is too hot and humid in summer (short powerful routes that require friction), and the town itself is pretty dodgy compared to the towns in BM. I would recommend you to buy a stationwagon (2000 dollars) and camp in the back. This way you can hook up with anyone who wants to climb. Grampians is the shit but here you need to go with a partner. It's not like in France and Spain where there are climbers everywhere... good luck! In most of the BM you don't need bolt plates. Most good routes are rebolted (≈1200 routes), when you need bolt plates the route is probably not worth doing...

Thanks  a lot for the info guys.