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Hello all-
My wife and I are on our honeymoon and will be driving up to Darwin starting next Monday, and were wondering if anyone has compiled a list of good bouldering areas along the way.
TRhe last two weeks we’ve been sampling the climbs in the Great Southern and the Southwest–Fantastic! Best kept secret in climbing, I reckon.
If you have any info, please email me to deuce4@mac.com.
Thanks!
Hey, I’ll be doing the same in a couple of months (driving up north for my honeymoon) and my fiance and I would also like to hear of some good bouldering stops along the way… Thanks…
Mike
Well, we didn’t make it up to Darwin, It looks still too wet up there for our 2WD Falcon Panelvan. Sometime we’ll return with a Troopie– my dream rig for OZ.
Didn’t find too much bouldering on our trip to mid WA. Between Exmouth and Karijini there were a few outcrops worth a scramble.
Around Newman, there is lots of Banded Iron Formations to find and climb. Awesome stuff.
Near Mt. Magnet are the “Granites”, where we found a few gems on solid featured granite, but most of the rock there is decomposed choss. Interesting Aboriginal art too(we didn’t climb on the boulders with art, of course).
Outside of Sandstone are chossy granite formations, including the rock around the “London Bridge”. The rock is large crystal grained and poorly well attached, but the walls are swoopy and curvy enough to find some interesting overhanging stemming challenges where the assumption that the rock will part company with its mother wall is implicit–reminds me of climbing loose sandstone in the U.S. southwest!
Now we’re visiting Kal and then heading to Adelaide via the Eyre Highway across the Nullabar. Next stop Peak Charles.
Cheers
John Middendorf
This may sound funny, but are you the American John Middendorf author of “Big Walls”. Just curious
Dear Curious-
Yes, I am. My big wall website is http://www.bigwalls.net, and has a new forum as well.
All the best
John Middendorf
Hi all,
Have just done the big move from Victoria to WA and staying in Kalgoorlie for a bit. Anyone know of bouldering area’s close by?
Heh, in terms of climbing you’ve just gone from one extreme to the other! Kalgoorlie’s pretty much dead flat! Supposedly there is a few disused quarries dotted around and Toc reckons there’s a boulder in the Arboretum(?), tree park over in Lamington (don’t laugh, that’s the districts name!).
Not to mention Peak Charles which is a few hundred kms south of Kal.
My advice is to check out the climbing “gym” and talk to the locals. It’s at the YHA over towards Boulder. I can’t remember what days it’s open (Mondays & Wednesdays?) but there’s a few regulars that might know of a secret area or two. Talk to the guy that runs it, Mark, he should be able to point you in the right direction. Or you’ll probably see my brother, James, there. My climbing obsession is infectious!
Good luck!
P.S. – If you find out any extra information post it and let us know. =)
Hi Lisa,
Ah yes, the boulder at the Arbouretum, I don’t even know if the Arbouretum is still there, but it was in West Lamington. Cave Hill is closer than Peak Charles, but still around 80 kms away, reasonable climbing though, hard as you like but not tall (15-20metres), needs bolts. Other granite domes that I know of are pretty rounded, but I probably never got to see everything. Started climbing just before leaving Kalgoorlie so I hadn’t taken as much notice as I might have. The quarry between Kambalda and Kalgoorlie was not leadable unless you were into soloing on loose rock, (might as well be soloing, I don’t think anything would hold in it).
Esperance your local beach, (only 400km), has a lot of granite as well, but I wasn’t climbing when I lived there and don’t know what’s worth looking at.
Cheers,
Toc.
Also found a few spectacular granite boulder problems in Cape Le Grande. Beautiful domes, mostly low angle soloable slabs on the bigger rocks.
Peak Charles was awesome!
Now in Flinders, SA.
Cheers!
Hey John,
Sounds like you’ve done heaps of places across the country. Are you going to a bit of a story on your website? It would be interesting to know about the adventure.
Hi Ben-
It has certainly been a great tour of Australia’s moderates–nothing too hard (travelling with but a rack of hexes and a couple cams), but it has been amazing. We climbed the flying buttress on Moonarie last week–what a fantastic place.
I’ll plan to compile some notes probably after we return to the US.
Arapiles tomorrow for a week or so! Bard here we come.
Best
John Middendorf
