Colo River - walk to a remote ridge and abseil descent

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Colo River - walk to a remote ridge and abseil descent

Postby Wollemi » Thu 19 Jun, 2014 12:56 am

Getting away from work at 2.15pm on Saturday, I dashed to the shop in Penrith's High Street to buy their last copy of the 'Six Brothers' map, a sure way to have my other copy jump out at me once at home - and it did. I also bought some of those wind/waterproof matches, which were a bugger to strike, really - the box was to fall apart upon opening, many matches snapped, the striker was too smooth perhaps - many did not ignite. Good thing i grabbed the stove at the last moment.

Rushed to the launch of the new edition book 'A History of the Blue Labyrinth' by Bruce Cameron. I never realised that I had been there countless times by simply visiting through various means what I refer to as the 'Glenbrook section of the Blue Mountains National Park', inclusive of kayaking up to (and into) the Warragamba River. Spoke to John King who built the 3km King's Link track in his own time around 1990/91. Wanted to speak to Dave Noble about what I was about to do, considering his many exploits in the Colo region though it didn't seem appropriate, considering this event. I slipped away to pack.

D1. Driving in, I encountered a couple walking the Culoul Range FT - with a pair of poles each. I offered them a lift. 'No thanks, we're bushwalking!' was the reply. Wanting to reciprocate such openness of intents, I stated mine; to walk down the Boorai Ridge track to pick up some gear left behind previously, including an 80-metre rope, climb an adjacent mountain and abseil through a prominent slot back to the Colo River prior to walking out on day three. She went quiet, then stated louder; 'Now - have you informed the police?'. No - but I had told others. And had deferred to this day due to a head cold I was getting over.

At the gear stash at the junction of the creek with the gully, I located, amongst other stuff, my down jacket and sleeping bag. Yet, I had brought another down jacket and sleeping bag with me today. Oh well... I win for the most comfortable sleep ever on the Colo, but lose for having the most monstrous pack ever carried out of the Colo gorge. I had left gear here on Easter Sunday, after realising that two days may not suit the plan - also I had been troubled then by significant sleepiness on the way in, having run the Canberra Ultra-marathon a week before (50km in 5h10m, thanks).
I worked both public holidays over Easter, when the air here was pleasant and the water warm enough to swim and wade back 800m prior to ascending out along Boorai Ridge. On this mid-June day, the overnight low forecast for Richmond was 4 degrees. I was warmed by the emergent glow-worms around me, but surprised to see they shut down their lights by mid-night.

D2. I was joyed by the picturesque creek. Not without difficulties taken on though; such as climbs to the side on occasion. Overall it is of elongated slabs of solid rock, with time made up for slowly inching my way up a tree and shoving my pack ahead upon my helmeted head to get around a pretty 'narrow-hourglass' waterfall of 6m height. It occurred to me that the drooping vine occasioning the thickness of my forearm was Cissus Hyperglauca.
I had told myself to leave this watercourse by the 2 hour mark. and at 12MD, I encountered a grey-black trench of 20cm width, lined with rounded stones. It was here, about 100m west of an old cairn of 30cm height set upon a boulder, that I left the water and crunched through deep leaf litter, and took on some dubious stances on rock, swept clean of soil by my hand, to ascend with overall ease to the dry ridge.

With the sun on my face for the first time in 24 hours I took a break, admiring a tri-foliate small plant, each leaf overlapping the next. The ridge broadened quickly for the next kilometre, and I enjoyed walking quickly through two groves of a narrow-leaved Persoonia to the terminal end, where I put on my harness and brought the rope out, while looking East - through trees - at the golden western-facing cliffs of the Colo, including the delightful lookout we all rest at when on Boorai Ridge.

Now post-2 pm, I resigned myself to finishing in the dark, though commenced my goal in good form, by way of moving only tens of metres from SH 476, sidling downslope before encountering the steep dry watercourse. Leaving the first of 5 slings or short lengths of rope behind, I abseiled down a fairly steep slope. It felt good to be taking on a personal challenge, first tinkered with a few years back.

On pulling the rope, I noticed what appeared to be a 'core-shot' - one of the sheaths of this apparently double-sheathed rope was chewed for its circumference, 34 metres from one end. This was confirmed to be done by a rodent - when I later found a tube of 'Soov' anti-itch cream I had left next to the bagged rope, stored on a high natural shelf in a cave - the plastic tube of medicine had numerous large holes chewed through it.
Following this 37 metre initial descent, a 20m abseil followed, followed by a 20m scramble and 30m abseil, starting near a dodgy large block of 2m height balancing upon an identical twin. Throughout these descents, my surrounds were no more than 3m wide, but occasionally extended back 5m from the sloping face.

At another scrambling section, I lowered my pack by hand to a shelf 10 metres below, only to have it tumble end-over-end - I made a note of testing the PLB later. A 15 metre controlled scramble on rope followed. The slot was 1.5m wide here - and the time was 4.30pm. It was quite dim now, confirmed by trundling a rectangular block, only to see many sparks fly at each bounce. I coiled the overly long rope once more, again being mildly frustrated by sticks caught in the fairly stiff strand. It was the tiny twigs of a few cm length that seem to cause the most upset with multiple bows and bends to sort through.

Below me I could see the ground widen, with taller trees - it was their straightness that hinted at the end of the chimney/slot. Abseiling from 2 metres above a bleached fallen tree of age that one can see from the previously mentioned Boorai lookout, I briefly stood on it, prior to going underneath, and abseiling over a lip into free air. I also managed about then to hook myself up in a strong strand of lawyer vine (Smilax australis), and had to deliberately hang upside down to free myself - then my boot, catching a first glimpse of a massive square chockstone above. Back into a more controlled position, it was seen that this eroded geological intrusion here went back 15+ metres into darkness. It would be possible to walk into this.

I scrambled down another 5m, confirming that there were no more abseils, put away the rope and got out a torch. It was surprisingly easy going to walk down to the river - the secauteurs were not used. It was 6.30pm by the waters edge, and then on took seeming ages to move downstream amongst vegetation - I looked at my watch again, and was amused to find it only to be 6.45pm.

Sitting on the small beach where I crossed the Colo River yesterday, I left the ropes; (one 80 metre, 9mm dia., and one 50 metre 10mm dia.), as well as helmet, harness and associated hardware to be picked up tomorrow. From here it was easy to blunder upwards towards features recognisable as being near my campsite.

D3. Prior to leaving on Tuesday, I packed out all of my body-waste. When crossing the river via a wide sand island, I aimed for a wide spot of sunlight. By the time I came back a second time with the large load of abseil rope and gear, the sun had moved five metres upstream. As I packed, I laughed and enjoyed the warm sand under my bare feet instead, prior to the now familiar but always pleasant, walk out.
Live everyday as if it were your last... one day you will be right.
Wollemi
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Re: Colo River - walk to a remote ridge and abseil descent

Postby DarrenM » Sun 22 Jun, 2014 7:55 am

Nice trip mate. Completed in good style as always and a pleasure to read.
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