April 20, 2009

I usually don’t take many photos of climbers because it’s a lot of effort to get reasonable climbing photos – you have to choose to either photograph or climb, for one, and after making the effort to get to a crag I usually want to climb (if you’re into climbing photos you’ll know that Simon Carter is the undisputed Aussie king of the genre, and originally from Canberra too!). Last weekend there was a rap rope conveniently close to a climb that my friends were on so I jumped on it and took some pics. The photo above is Clancy leading Morning Thunder, a beautifully thin and technical grade 20 climb at Booroomba.

Booroomba Rocks is the ACT’s biggest and most famous crag. It’s got soaring granite and offers some of the best slab climbing in the country – and to someone like me who is used to vertical face climbs with gear, some truly scary routes. It’s just south of Canberra in Namadgi National Park, about 45 minutes drive from the city, less from the southern suburbs. It was absolutely gutted in the 2003 bushfires. After the fires, the whole area was inaccessable for a good few months because of the risks of falling trees and rocks, but after a few storms with decent winds the National Parks people opened it up again. Climbing there afterwards meant being extra careful about dodgy rock, and returning covered in ash. I went to Booroomba for the first time in ages last weekend, and it was awesome to see so much incredible regrowth – blackened soil has been replaced with thickets of gum saplings that are taller than I am and difficult to walk through, and looking out over the tree tops it looks properly green.