Monday 24 March 2014

Blue Mountains Extravaganza 2014

A campsite sits tranquil and calm, a bare handful of campers spread out across the wide clearing. The air lies cool and still, laden with the promise of rains to come, but content to hold back its damping mists for now.

Gravel crunches, light flaring and sending shadows dancing through and around the trees. A car swings off the road, headlights sweeping across the campsite as it weaves its way to a halt. The engine’s rumble cuts off, plunging the campsite back into silence. Serenity returns, darkness creeping in to cover the camp once more.

Another droning engine cuts through the night, then another and another. Trickling slowly at first, but soon rising to a torrent, they stream into camp. Headlights blossom, chasing the shadows and pushing them back into the trees. People are everywhere, the beams of their headtorches rounding up the remaining shadows. All remnants of tranquillity are gone; the ANU Mountaineering Club has arrived in force.

The Blue Mountains Extravaganza is one of several annual mass-migrations from Canberra, filled with adventure seekers. In winter, they migrate south to the frozen landscape of the Snowy Mountains, bearing skis and crampons. Late spring sees them carrying their cocktail dresses and suits into the Budawangs. Summer finds them in Namadgi, feasting atop Baroomba. Autumn carries them east to the coast with kayaks and climbing shoes in tow. In the shoulder season, as summer relinquishes its grip, the pilgrims seeks the Blue Mountains with every canyoning and climbing rope they have. A long weekend in the ACT provides ample incentive for the trip, while a lack of a corresponding public holiday in NSW means the mountains aren’t overly crowded. Perfect.

The basecamp location changes every few years, meandering between those large enough to contain the mass arrival of cars and people. There are many such campsites, of course, but few that are conveniently close to canyons, sport and trad climbing, but aren’t so far down back roads that the convoy arriving late on Friday night risks getting lost on the way there. This year’s choice was Megalong Valley, near the town (and bakeries) of Blackheath.

Every morning for three days, a dozen different trips set off into the surrounding wilderness, a scatter of beginners among participants largely made up of trip leaders. This is their weekend, a chance to plunge into a canyon that’s been lurking on their to-do list for a few seasons, spend a day working on a multi-pitch climb whose top has thus far eluded them, or enjoy the novelty of taking part in someone else’s trip. There are still beginner trips but, more so than on most mass-pilgrimages, they are in the minority.

Attending with virtually no canyoning experience in 2013, I had spent most of my weekend on two beginner-friendly bushwalking trips. This year, I was preparing myself for a few new challenges. Among the many trips on offer, most of them heading to destinations on my to-do list, I set out with the aim of conquering Claustral Canyon, BowensCreek, and doing my first lead climb at Dam Cliffs.

Tent pitched after the long after-work drive, and the weekend ahead filled with the promise of adventure, I slept soundly on Friday night... at least until the alarm raised its voice in the darkness, a harbinger of troubles to come.

Day 1: Claustral Canyon

Day 2: Bowens Creek