Sunstroke
This is a brief trip report from last weekend's trip to Canberra. I cannot believe this crag isn't on more people's radars and so let this be an ode to Booroomba Rocks. Be forewarned there was no epic nor even any real drama. Maybe the lesson is that sometimes climbing is mostly delightful.
We left Friday afternoon in a mad dash down towards Honeysuckle Campground. We were dramatically slowed by a miserable hour waiting for mediocre pizza in the darkness and cold. Literally no-one has ever left Friday night for a long drive to a campsite and slept well. I laid there for hours processing the concrete chunks of food in my stomach attempting to ignore the dulcet tones of 17 year olds singing "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)".
So two very sleepy boys made their way to reception to download some beta. After some digital consumption, we actually had to do some hiking. Hiking sucks man. Especially with a rope on your shoulder and a #5 bumping against your legs.
It did all feel worth it when we got to the top of the crag. It's a quiet and expansive slice of glorious Australian granite. We found our way down a clear gully and felt our stoke mounting at the sight of cracks and corners threading their way up the South Buttress.
We eventually decided on Running Crack (12), a true early-morning grovel. We then moved onto the second pitch of Marmalade (11). This was very fun. Perfect hand and foot jams up a well-protected corner. I then finally built a trad anchor. That felt massive.
We soloed some easy stuff up to the top of the buttress and then decided there was much more climbing to be done. The hike over to the North Buttress quickly went from pleasant to miserable. There probably is a track but we were not on it. We ran out of water with plenty of bushbashing to go and the promise of 4 pitches in the sun on a climb called Sunstroke (9). We figured we needed to suffer and so we just kept going. It was about 2:30PM and after 2 hours of bushbashing when we finally found the start.
There isn't too much to say on the climb front. It's great. It's super easy, well protected and up a clear and distinct weakness in the wall. It was getting very thirsty by the top but I was literally building the last anchor as the sun dipped behind the hills.
We basked in the well deserved cool after a long day of hiking and climbing. The final hike back dragged on and on but all was well when we made it back to the car.
Jayden and I partook in a traditional post climbing meal. Kilograms of noodles, cheese, eggs and tofu. Designed to constipate the intrepid climber. We then drove out to Black Range and had a lovely night and morning lying around in the sun-dappled glade of our roadside campsite.
We then went bouldering. But who cares about bouldering.