FreezeFest – Sil’s introduction to canyoning

The full group met up at the Tiger Snake car park at 9am and set off – l-r Alissa, Sil, Alan, Trish, Bill (Mule), Marcia and Rob. There were a couple of others, I wasn’t sure whether to split the group in two and carry two sets of ropes, or carry enough ropes for the whole trip and have a large group (probably against the “rules”!).

The weather was glorious, except for the cold of course.  Heather and Bill at one of the lookouts on the walk in.

As it was the first time for a few people through Tiger Snake, I opted for the first abseil anchor at the top of the pagoda, only problem was the biting wind, I’d suggested everyone gear-up down in the creek to stay out of the cold (and so I could check their gear), it was bitterly cold up at the anchor.

Alan abseiling, Alan’s producing a video to hopefully recruit members to caving clubs, he’s abseiling here with the bloody big “selfie stick” that he uses with his go pro to get close ups, we had to warn everyone not to be below him when he abseiled as the stick could fall out!

We opted to join up the first abseil with this little drop which can be climbed down, but with the cold water, no-one wanted to fall in, so we continued the abseil past the logs.  Up above I was wondering what the hell was taking so much time, when I got down the bottom I realised that everyone was super slow negotiating the logs (lol).

We did a test pull then Rob came down last, it wasn’t a nice pull down, but it made it easier to negotiate the cold pool of water!

The next challenge was another climb-down and a pool, we elected to abseil it because the rock was slippery, and again, we didn’t want to end up in the pool, which was only calf deep – but was cold.  There was a log there, but it had moved, so the last few people ended up in the water.  This is followed by a squeezy bit around to the left.

Which is followed by this climb down a poor tree’s roots (sorry about out of focus photo). It’s been five years since I did this canyon, I struggled more with the climb down the roots than I have in the past, maybe next time I’ll just abseil it!

The climb down is followed shortly thereafter by a 17m abseil from a tree.  Here’s Sil on the abseil, she wasn’t impressed with the anchor around the poor tree, there were a lot of reasons, but I can’t remember them all.

Heather on the abseil with Alan doing some footage with his big-a selfie stick (lol).

After the abseil there’s a nice walk through some open creek, lots of ferns, very pretty with towering cliffs around us.

We got to a section of the track that went up, for the life of me I can’t remember the track here but it was well trodden.  When I got to the abseil I remembered it though (lol).

Looking down at the anchor, it reminds me of the big abseil in Heart Attack.

Sil on the abseil, she had a heart-stopping moment when the rope twisted in the Rack that she was using for the first time (the rope twisting makes you stop and you have to sort of load it to make it move through the bars), she handled it well though and breathed a sigh of relief when she started moving again.

Young Matthew on the abseil, he handled all the abseils like a pro!

At the bottom of the last abseil is a nice tunnel section which is very dark, and it has a bit of a climb that you can go up (and down), I think this is Matthew on the climb down.

And Sil in the tunnel section

Once out of the tunnel section, there’s a bit of bouldering, I managed to get stuck on the top one though (legs not long enough), Rob helped me out, I do remember always having trouble on this rockpile.

On the walk out, great views from a pagoda (photo:  Alan G).

Alan brought along (Tiger) snakes to share.

I can’t believe it’s been five years since I last visited Wolgan View, some of the sections take your breath away, and many of the pagodas are covered in moss and native orchids.

Looking back to the start, constricted with nice flat floor, moss and orchids everywhere.

There’s a well trodden footpad through the canyon and it bypasses this little climb-down which is a bit of a challenge for those that aren’t that tall, adds a bit more interest to the canyon I think.

The deepest part of the canyon, it must get some flow through it when it rains heavily, or maybe the water just pools on the floor and that’s why it’s so flat.

Tree ferns in one section.

Then more constriction.

As Heather and Bill said, it’s a canyon that just keeps on giving, so close to the fire trail, and so easy to get to, why don’t we do it more often?

On the walk in/out there’s this rock formation that people have put “teeth” into its mouth, Heather recalled on our last trip that she had her photo taken with her head in the mouth, she tried to use Bill to climb up and recreate the photo, to no avail.

Finally got the shot with Bill’s help.

With Alan’s grill, sausages and kebabs cooked well over the fire.

Heather followed this up with Rack of Lamb and bbq-d vegies (thank you so much for feeding Sil and me Heather, the lamb was delicious).

Then the kids roasted marshmellows.

Fat Canyoners (they’re not really fat) around the campfire.

Again, it’s been five years since I did Deep Pass, and I’d forgotten how pretty it is.  There’s a well-worn path these days avoiding most of the pools, so we managed to keep our feet fairly dry

The first of our challenges for the day, negotiating down this slippery slope to the log, that you then walk across to avoid the deep pool.

Bill on the second log section, unfortunately, the log wasn’t out of the water so you did get wet shoes. It’s also a challenge as you’re on the wrong side of the hand-line and you have to drop under it at the end.

I think Sil thought we were crazy, Alan photographed the whole thing for his video.

The deep pool is followed by a traverse around the edge.  Years ago, there wasn’t half the infrastructure that others have put in, lots of ropes, logs etc, sort of takes a lot of the fun out of the trip.  Haven’t seen so much dodgy rope, and dodgy anchors in a canyon before.

The next challenge, negotiating your way down a dodgy slippery rock-face with a hand-line.

Lovely cliff-faces.

Challenge #4 another slippery rock.  Sil did well wearing her Scarpas, the tread on them really isn’t suited to slippery wet rock.

Challenge #5 in the effort to stay dry, a slot that you have to chimney.

Followed by a step across a deep pool.

Challenge #6 another log walk.

Then there’s a slot that you sort of have to walk through at a 60 Degree angle.

Followed by challenge #7 another slippery rockface with a hand-line.

Another slippery slope, this time without a hand-line.

And the penultimate challenge, climbing down beside a 7m waterfall (that’s a guess) using handline and footholds that are hard to see.

Alan about to go down.

Sil climbing down with instructions from Alan.

At the bottom, maybe it’s not 7m, maybe it’s only 4, but it seems like 7 when you are at the top ready to jump in the pool.

The last challenge beside another deep pool.  In summer you get heaps of people and lots of kids going through Deep Pass, it’s loads of fun with lots of jumps and slides, we were really fortunate to have the place to ourselves on this trip, and most of us remained fairly dry.

From the creek we went over to The Slot, a pagoda that has split in two, and then one side has split again, forming these amazing deep slots that you can walk through.

They’re very narrow.

There’s a small climb down to get through to the end (and then you turn around and return).

Sil, almost at the end.

Sil exiting, you wouldn’t even know the slot was there if you approached from this side.

I was going to show them the cave (it’s tagged), but wasn’t going to send them through it, then at the last minute I said “go on in, I’ll meet you at the end”.

Was never so pleased to see them coming back up to the surface. It’s no wonder that I’m not a cave leader!

Walking back through a lovely ferny glen – we surprised a wombat near his hole, first wombat Sil had seen in the wild.

Pagoda lookout on the walk out (photo: Alan G).

As we were driving in, I told Sil that I believed that Deep Pass was an aboriginal meeting place, she said “that figures” as she’d seen a few scarred trees on the drive in.  We stopped at one on the drive out, she’s not certain, but she thinks that this is a scarred tree, the bark is cut out for use in making bowls or vessels, the cut is usually just above the root system (at about waist height), and a “scar” is formed.  She wasn’t 100% sure this was one, but looks promising. I’ve seen these many times in the bush but always thought it was a branch that had fallen off, but Sil says if they’re at this height on the tree, then it isn’t a branch.  Interesting.