UKC

Hi All,

I'm heading over to Australia over xmas and new year and looking to get some climbing in whilst im travelling around. Will be mostly on the East Coast around Sydney / Melbourne / Tasmania.
Just wondering if anyone has any good reccomendations of places to climb? I've had a quick look but since this is my first time in Auz- would be great to get some pointers.
From what I've been reading it seems to be mostly trad in Auz- but wondering also if theres any good sport crags there?

Also if anyone is in Auz from 15 Dec - 14 Jan- let me know as I'd be keen to find climbing partners as well.

Cheers,
Paul

In reply to pwhite85:

I don't know NSW, but Arapiles and the Grampians (esp the northern end) are fantastic and have a good mix of sport and trad. The former is about 3.5-4hrs from Melbourne, the latter is nearer but covers a bigger area, so it's harder to be specific about journey times.

I'd suggest a search on this website - there's been quite a lot of discussion of options in Oz over the years. One last thing - beware drop koalas at this time of year, as conversations on here will illustrate, iirc.

In reply to pwhite85:

Arapiles is ace, I went a few times when I was over in Aus, including for a week before Christmas with my dad. It will be hot, so we tended to do earlier starts, to climb before the heat, and climb when it cooled in the evening as well. There's loads of shaded bit at Araps as well. There are generally plenty of climbers at the camp who are there reasonably long term, so finding partners shouldn't be too hard, the Aussie version of UKC is http://www.chockstone.org/forum/forum.asp if that's of any help.

In reply to pwhite85: yes, chock stone is the place. In the main there isn't much in Sydney at this time of year as it's hot and humid. Depending on weather Canberra has some fantastic granite and there is the Blue Mountains but I've never been lucky with weather Dec/Jan.

Tassie yes.

In reply to aostaman:
Hi, You will have a great trip. Heat could be a problem. I was in Melborne for a while. It was 40 degrees C for a month. Climb early morning, evening.
Got a mate Josef Goding. Hes on fb. Would gladly show you some of the sport crags he has deveoped.
Good luck

In reply to pwhite85:

Note that you cannot just rock up to the Pines campsite at Araps anymore. You have to book online.

In reply to pwhite85:

Spent 2 wks on Tassie last Dec/Jan. Heat was not a problem but not too rainy either (at least the eastern 1/3rd of the island; Frenchman's Cap in the west...never got a chance to see it - perpetually socked in). Stuff we did was not big but exciting - swims and snakes. great fun.