Crag Review: Cataract Gorge / South Esk

This summer past I managed to haggle my boss into letting me stay and work down in Tasmania for the entirety of the cricket and basketball season. Between the months of December and February I managed to knock out around 125+ climbs all over Tassie (Not including the repeats and indoor climbing!)

It was the trip of a lifetime, and the island has certainly left a major impact on me and my climbing. I've already got my next trip planned to knock off some of the places that slipped through the cracks!

Riley, displaying his well developed hiking setup prior to a Tyndalls Expedition.

During the trip I ticked a lot of the big names that the island is famous for: Freycinet, The Organ Pipes, Tasman Peninsula, Cradle Mountain, etc. But surprisingly out of all those places, there is one in particular that comes to mind the most when I think back on my time there: Cataract Gorge.

It's a little unexpected, and upon first glance you really wouldn't think too much of the climbing potential there. Scraggly grey trees, murky brown water, and small broken buttresses litter the sides of the Gorge. But surprisingly this crag proved to be one of the best training grounds that I have ever come across in Australia.

Once I spent a bit of time climbing the gorge and the esks, the lack of immediate and obvious glamour gave way to reveal perfect short rippers, with such easy access, in a low stakes and approachable environment. A perfect and intimate playground to build and develop your skills as a climber.

Tanmay topping out his first grade 18 trad climb! Lingham.

I think Robert McMahon says it best:

"The sculptural buttresses of Cataract Gorge are to El Capitan in Yosemite, for instance, what the Rosetta Stone is to the great pyramid of Giza. Like the Rosetta stone the intricacies of the Cataract Gorge have to be deciphered." - Cataract. (McMahon, 2000.)

In terms of access and facilities, the car park is about 5-10 minutes walk from the buttresses with built tracks going to most of the crags. There are good facilities too, with toilets onsite, plus two cafe's. You can also go swimming in the first basin if it's a hot summers day. It doesn't get any better.

Having never really tried anything of any remote difficulty on trad before my visit, I came back to the mainland significantly more experienced and confident climber specifically because of my time there. Sure, there are places with more adventure, bigger lines, better prizes. But if you are looking to learn or bolster your trad skills (or climbing skills in general) I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better place for it.

Pros:

• Incredibly easy access.

• Good facilities.

• Low stakes environment, easy to recover gear.

• Lots of low/medium grade climbs.

Cons:

• No 3 star routes below 20.

• Not as particularly inspiring or adventurous as the other crags in Tassie.

• Dolerite climbing can be a bit whacky sometimes. Cracks and Aretes are great, face routes can be a bit funky or rough on the fingers, especially on all the less travelled one and zero star climbs.

Routes to try:

• Thin Fiend (20) ★★★

• Lingham (18) ★★

• To The Crux And Beyond (20) ★★★

• Brazen Serpent (25) ★★★

• Double Dozen (22) ★★★

• Gabriel (17) ★★

• Westham (14) ★★

• Cacodaemon (19) ★★

• Seize the Day (26) ★★★

• Ramona (18) ★★

Final Consensus:

This crag is an absolute boon for climbers who are learning to trad climb, looking to start climbing harder on trad, or are just looking for a nice chill day out. It doesn't get any more relaxed and low key than this. Also some great easy-ish cracks with bomber gear to learn the craft of jamming on. Don't go here if you want a big adventure or the "Tasmanian experience", you won't find it here.

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Trip Report:

Over the course of the summer I managed to spend about 4 days there, 2 in the Gorge, and 2 in the South Esk. I also spent a day at North Esk which is worth mentioning as it has quite a number of worthwhile routes.

The first day was a throw away. On a nice day an American man and I went to the South Esk looking for some good hard sport routes. We got lost on the way to Allodynia (22)* and Red Sweater (27)* and both the climbs were just confusing and uncomfortable. Perhaps we didn't understand the style, but for a "Warm up 22" we could not figure it out. Just cranking off tiny little crimps better suited for a V9. and the rock was ROUGH. It HURT man. Not fun at all. (Probably part of McMahon's deciphering process)

So we thought "Let's not waste any more time on these one star climbs" And popped down to Ground Zero (25)**. We thought "OK, something in our grade range and 2 stars, should be good" But we both couldn't even pull off the ground! Arete climbing sucks! So we left and went swimming with the crowds. Chatted to some girls then popped down to the Du Cane brewery.

The South Esk River and tourist track, as viewed from Feltham Buttress.

You'll often have an audience climbing here.

After that particularly unexciting experience we finally struck gold. I came back a month later with my buddy Tanmay and thought "Ok, I'm gonna go for the classic tourist experience and just go to the Feltham Buttress". I can tell you it is definitely one of the best and most popular buttresses in the Gorge for a reason.

It has only a handful of routes but my golly goshness they were TASTY. I lead my second ever 18 that day with the gorge classic Lingham (18)**, and what a dish it was. Technical jamming, Interesting movement and bomber gear on perfect dolerite, couldn't ask for more! After climbing so many long, easy multi's at Arapiles, it was so freeing to just take a little rack of nuts and a few cams for the short 15m route. I can say it was probably the first time I'd ever felt so unburdened and free climbing trad since I started, and it felt great!

We also ran up Westham (14)**, Feltham (16)*, Out of Date (19)* and I had a brief play on Brazen Serpent (25)*** but once again had my arse kicked by the classic bouldery arete. They were all worthwhile. We rang up a great number of pitches for a morning out, and left by lunch once again FOR THE PUB.

We spent the next day in the South Esk, and it was quite a serene little spot. We sauntered down to the Long Knife buttress and were confronted by all the litter sitting at the bottom of the crag. This was also the first time I had seen graffiti painted on a rock wall, and feeling quite wild despite only a 10 minute walk from the car, it was an interesting dichotomy between the urban and natural world. There was also a plastic chair there with a doodle spray painted so it looked like you had a big willy when you sat on it. That was good fun.

The little ghost on the bottom of the Long Knife Buttress, South Esk.

We jumped on the impressive splitter crack "To the Crux and Beyond" That was apparently the very first grade 20 in Tasmania!! It also happened to be mine. Tentatively I set off up the widening crack, a desperate start on ring locks and thin hands turned to giddiness on bomber hands and fists. A heaven sent rest right before the crux allowed me to sling in McHugh's lucky number 11 hex. Bomber! I placed in an arm bar on the offwidth crux, and as I stood up on it I slid right out. No struggle, just pop and whoosh!

I took my first every trad whip. All the anxiety and fear leading up to that point just climaxed into this burst of emotion, like "OH MY GOOODDDDD!!!!" I was shooketh and never felt more ALIVE! I topped out, rapped off the bolts and cleaned it, gave it another go and it went. My first 20, and my first whip. After that it was like a switch just flicked. I just felt so free all of a sudden. I could climb hard moves on trad, and my route reading and technical abilities were no longer marred by fear. It was such a strange and liberating experience, and since then the climb has been cemented as being among one of my best climbing experiences.

The next day was not remarkable, but we did do Thin Fiend (20)***. DO IT! That is all I'll say. Brilliant and sexy climbing.

THE NORTH ESK:

The last day we headed down to the North Esk. Got lost multiple times trying to follow Gerry's map but found our way eventually, but I also very nearly stepped on a brown snake!

Tanmay and I warmed up on Life Support (16)* (meh) Before popping over to Bullfrog Buttress. I started up the sparkling gem Kickstart (19)** and had a whale of a time, an absolute CORKER mate.

Just brilliant technical moves up a striking 11m finger crack, I took 2 Grey BD's, 2 Purples, 2 Greens and a Red #1. Once again, it was so liberating to be climbing with such a small rack. Now that I had flicked the switch I felt like it was the first time I could climb uninhibited, I got the onsite and felt great!

Then we popped over to the crowning jewel. Reculer Pour Mieux Sauter (21)***. ZOOWEEEMAMA was this baby a treat to be savoured. It was a quintessential experience, which represented and showcased the best of all the technical brilliance of the little dolerite cracks around the Esks.

I took my second ever whip on a bomber 0.3 C4 on this route, same thing, exhilarating. Stripped it and got it second go, bumping my trad grade from 17 to 21 in 4 days. The transformation was complete. I had emerged from my cocoon as a beautiful trad climbing butterfly.

Mark down the 29th of February, 2024 as the day that I, Riley, fell in love with trad climbing. Thanks Tassie.

Riles - 21/07/2024