Climbing in Australia

Hey,
I was wondering if anyone will be climbing or knows of people who climb in Australia and will be doing so in the next month. I'll be there until May 21st and am pretty willing to go to any part of the country that I can. Please let me know!

Depends... where in Aus are you likely to be climbing?

Australia is a big country, can you narrow it down a bit?

Jump on some Australian based websites. Chockstone.org technically is only for the Victoria area (Araps and Gramps) but I found info and partners on there for Canberra, the Blueys, Frog, etc. There's a few other website, but Chockstone is by far the best. I had no problem finding partners to climb with in Oz, it's almost scary how friendly people are. And I showed up to Araps without a rack.

I think Arapiles is one of the best crags I've been to on this planet and would highly recommend it. You could also give Frog a look - up north by Brisbane - but it's probably still too hot. And you've always got the Blueys (outside of Sydney) for a wide assortment of trad and sporto stuff and moderate temps.

I'm about 3 hours out of Melbourne right now and I'll be heading to Tasmania on the 28th. Then I'll be hanging around the Sydney area until the end of May. Thanks for the website and suggestions, I'll be sure to look them up!

Yeah, some of those guys at Chockstone will know a fair bit about Tassie and even the Bluey's. You may also want to try Qurank.com, which is Brisbane-based. A few of those guys have spent a fair bit of time in Tassie and you may find a few of their trip reports there too.

As Ryan has said, Arapiles and Frog are up there in the better crags... there is also a plethora of other quality crags, like through the Grampians, the You Yangs (both in Victoria); Ben Lomond, Mt Wellington and Freycinet (in Tasmania); Nowra and Point Perpendicular (south of Sydney).

If you're in the Blueys most of the action is around Katoomba, so you may want to find a place to base yourself there. Around this time of year it may be starting to get cold up in the mountains, so you might want to head down to Nowra, which is on the coast for some quality sport (some trad too).

Season in and around Brisbane is just starting up so if it's getting too cold for you (especially down in Tassie---brrrrrrrr) head up there and climb at Frog, which is IMO one of the best crags I've ever climbed at for single pitch trad. Every second line is three star classic!

Have fun!

I lived in Melbourne for almost a year. Went to Araps and Gramps all the time. Both are spectacular! Araps is still maybe my favorite non-big wall climbing destination in the world... but most of the moderate stuff at both of these places is trad. Bigger granite, there is Mount Buffalo, which I never climbed but I heard is sweet.

Around Sydney there is a bunch of climbing along the coastline, but it is sandy and erodes fast due to the salt water so think of it as single-pitch alpine. Also climbed in Nowra, a really cool dark sandstone. Well worth checking out. The Blue Mtns are a awesome, Utah-esque red sandstone with lots of climbing too. Tassie has the Totem Pole, which looks amazing, but the logistics seem potentially rough if the tyrol isn't already up for you.

ooh and for sport climbing at some of the older areas you will need to buy hangers at one of the local stores. they use a lot of carrot bolts, basically just the bolt sticking out and you have to place the hanger before the draw... keep the hangers floating around in your chalkbag so you can get to them easily.

Enjoy! and eat some meat pies, vegemite & tim tams!

Araps kicks ass! To quote the guidebook, "nuts that are fiddly as a f*ck!". Loved it.

Check out cragx.org
I found a few partners through that site when I was down under.