Australian Capital Territory Rock climbing 3,858 routes in region

Generally - must love granite. The ACT is ringed with a large number of cliffs - for such a small geographical area - the majority of which are granite. Trad and mixed climbing is a focus, with Booroomba Rocks, Gibraltar Peak, Orroral Ridge and other such granite areas presenting opportunities for single and multi-pitch climbing up to hundreds of metres tall. Many of them also present interesting opportunities to test the mental faculties above large runouts as well!

However, don't be fooled by the name of the local guide (ACT Granite), sport climbing on other types of rock is by no means unrepresented in the area with a number of crags such as Red Rocks and those to be found in the Mount Coree area providing opportunities for late teen to late grade twenty climbing on river-style rhyolite rock. The ACT has climbs of grades up to 32 (granite trad), following the aid climb Vertigo being freed in 2019. Bouldering is up to V11/12. Climbers new to granite, slab and/or crack climbing are encouraged to jump on a few lower grade climbs before throwing themselves headlong into an epic!

Climbing is fairly accessible in the ACT, with both Kambah Rocks and Red Rocks within easy reach of the city itself. A number of other crags close to the city have either seen access closed (Ginninderra Falls, Michelago) or have fallen off the radar of current climbers in favour of the established granite cliffs and tors.

Bouldering in the area is mostly on granite and generally quite accessible, particularly Cooleman Ridge. For a break from small granite crimps, a reasonable number of boulder problems can also be found at Red Rocks. There is reasonable potential for new problems in a number of areas around the ACT.

If you are having difficulty finding the areas - and some can be very difficult to find, the following link may be of use:

http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=p&msa=0&msid=202220939889529959331.0004614316914ba5e0cf2&ll=-35.469618,149.136658&spn=1.263842,2.103882&z=9