Return to Donkey Mountain

[FatCanyoner]

Donkey Mountain is about as close as I can imagine to what bushwalker heaven might be like. An amazing island of rock, soaring out of the valley, ringed by towering cliffs, dotted with distinctive pagodas, the rock fractured by countless cracks, canyons and caves all waiting to be explored.
It is a playground for big kids, and despite looking quite small on the map it seems to contain an endless array of new places to discover and be completely blown away by.
I’d only been there once before, on a very enjoyable trip two years earlier. On that occasion we’d made a late start on the Saturday, thinking there couldn’t possibly be enough in this one little area to fill a whole weekend. How wrong we were!
Since then I’ve been pining to get back, especially as we’d found the amazing sketch maps by Geoff Fox on the last trip that cover off so much of what can be explored and provide a constant reminder of just how much I’ve missed out on.

Full trip report and plenty of pics on the blog: http://fatcanyoners.org/2012/06/02/return-to-donkey-mountain/

[climberman]

Are the sketch maps published ?

Nice looking walk !

[FatCanyoner]

I found the sketch maps with the log book on the mountain. I'm pretty sure they're still there (although I didn't check on this trip).
I'm sure if you ask around you could also find them. Geoff Fox is a pretty friendly fellow, so would probably send them to you, although I think he has deliberately not published them online!

[climberman]

Thanks fatone. Sounds like a great excuse to go there...

[FatCanyoner]

Turns out the maps are published online, just in a very subtle way. You can find the latest version (May 2012) here: http://s842.photobucket.com/albums/zz349/foxes9/Donkey%20Mt/02%20Donkey%20Mt%20Maps/
These ones are slightly updated from the ones I have, and there are a few new features / areas he has clearly gone back to re-examine.