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Wave Wall

22

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Description

This mighty impressive wall contains a great range of quality routes at all grades in the 20s. Gets sun from about 2-3pm.

Routes are described right to left, which is the order that you get to them from the walk in.

© (aca_admin)

Access issues inherited from Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains are a World Heritage listed area. The Grose Valley, the cliffs around Katoomba and much of the Narrow Neck peninsula are part of the Blue Mountains National Park which is managed by the NPWS. The Western Escarpment - where most of the climbing is - is Crown Land managed by the BMCC. While the NPWS Plan of Management nominates several locations in the National Park where rock climbing is deemed appropriate, the majority of the climbing remains unacknowledged. To maintain access our best approach is to 'Respect Native Habitat, Tread Softly and Leave No Trace'. Do not cut flora and keep any tracks and infrastructure as minimal as possible.

Practically all crags are either in National Park or in council reserve: dog owners are reminded that dogs are not allowed in National Parks at any time and fines have been issued, while for crags on council reserve the BMCC leash law requires that dogs be on-leash.

For the latest access related information, or to report something of concern, visit the Australian Climbing Association NSW Blue Mountains page at https://acansw.org.au/blue-mountains/

Approach

This crag is on Blue Mountains City Council Land. The BMCC in general frowns upon dogs being taken into bushy areas of BMCC land. At this crag in particular, it is known (first-hand) that the BMCC are concerned about the ACTUAL OBSERVED impacts of dogs. Many climbers have put in a lot of hard work to cultivate strong relationships with the BMCC to ensure that climbers in general are seen as a sustainable user group, to ensure that all climbers' access can continue. Dog owners are asked NOT to stuff up this relationship for the rest of us; please don't bring your dog.

© (aca_admin)

Ethic inherited from Blue Mountains

Although sport climbing is well entrenched as the most popular form of Blueys climbing, mixed-climbing on gear and bolts has generally been the rule over the long term. Please try to use available natural gear where possible, and do not bolt cracks or potential trad climbs. If you do the bolts may be removed.

Because of the softness of Blue Mountains sandstone, bolting should only be done by those with a solid knowledge of glue-in equipping. A recent fatality serves as a reminder that this is not an area to experiment with bolting.

If you do need to top rope, please do it through your own gear as the wear on the anchors is both difficult and expensive to maintain.

At many Blue Mountains crags, the somewhat close spacing of routes and prolific horizontal featuring means that it is easy to envisage literally hundreds of trivial linkups. By all means climb these to your hearts content but, unless it is an exceptional case due to some significant objective merit, please generally refrain from writing up linkups. A proliferation of descriptions of trivial linkups would only clutter up the guide and add confusion and will generally not add value to your fellow climbers. (If you still can't resist, consider adding a brief note to the parent route description, rather than cluttering up the guide with a whole new route entry).

If you have benefited from climbing infrastructure in NSW, please consider making a donation towards maintenance costs. The Sydney Rockclimbing Club Rebolting Fund finances the replacement of old bolts on existing climbs and the maintenance of other hardware such as fixed ropes and anchors. The SRC purchases hardware, such as bolts and glue, and distributes them to volunteer rebolters across the state of New South Wales. For more information, including donation details, visit https://sydneyrockies.org.au/rebolting/

It would be appreciated if brushing of holds and minimisation/removal of tick marks becomes part of your climbing routine. Consider bringing a water squirt bottle and mop-up rag to better remove chalk. Only use soft (hair/nylon) bristled brushes, never steel brushes.

The removal of vegetation - both from the cliff bases and the climbs - is not seen as beneficial to aesthetics of the environment nor to our access to it.

Remember, to maintain access our best approach is to 'Respect Native Habitat, Tread Softly and Leave No Trace'. Do not cut flora and keep any tracks and infrastructure as minimal as possible or risk possible closures.

For the latest access related information, or to report something of concern, visit the Australian Climbing Association NSW Blue Mountains page at https://acansw.org.au/blue-mountains/

Tags

Some content has been provided under license from: © Australian Climbing Association Queensland (Creative Commons, Attribution, Share-Alike 2.5 AU)

Routes

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Grade Route

The easiest warm-up here abouts, and the third most popular route in all of NSW. Considered solid at the grade.

FA: Frey Yule

FA: S. Richardson & F. Yule, 1992

One of the popular classics of the grade. Ringbolts and chalk show the way. All good fun. Lower-offs added 2004 and replaced 2021. This route originally went to a set of chains a couple of metres above the lower offs. The chains are still there. Was grade 26 but was chipped some time after the first ascent.

FA: J. Smoothy, 1992

Extension to Rubber Lover. From the anchors head up and left (runout) to the anchors of Microwave keeping away from the top of the cliff.

FA: rowan druce., 2004

Another Wave Wall classic. Was 28 until a combination of lightning and Justin Clark removed some holds.

FA: M. Baker, 1992

Start as for Microwave, head steadily left across Point Break and Tugboat and finish as for Tsunami (not Tugboat). Monique

FA: G. Miller, 1998

3m L of Microwave. Independent climbing to halfway then join Microwave just below its flake.

FA: L. Cossey, 2000

Start up Tug Boat then move R into Point Break/Microwave. Roman

FA: Roman Hoffman, 2013

Start as for Birthday Salmon and truck up direct-like to join Staring at the Sea at the rest hole. From there bust straight up through the boulder problem that earns you the grade without stepping left into Tsunami!! Chug out the roof and finish at the top.

FA: zac vertrees, 2006

Was once one of the hardest routes in the Blue Mountains, and one of Mark's finest hours. Now a popular testpiece. Start in the middle of the wall. Stick clipping the first bolt is strongly recommended. WARNING: the fixed clip-n-go biners at the top are the dodgy cast ones which can snap. Inspect them for cracks, clip both, and if in doubt thread something else. Leah

FA: M. Baker, 1991

Radness start to Tsunami. Start just right of Tsunami / Smoked Mussels, and boulder your way into Tsunami at the 3rd bolt.

FA: Benjamin P. Cossey. Done on my birthday., 2004

Stick clip. Up to 2nd bolt of Tsunami then head left and up past 2 more. Good bouldery moves the whole way.

FA: Mark Baker

Start as for SM and climb it until just before the lob to the break and bust left and up to enter Sea Air crux.

FA: Benjamin P. Cossey, 2004

Short, sharp with some hard to clip bolts. (Has been upgraded after a hold broke off.) chris

FA: M. Baker, 1997

Rebolted 2004.

FA: J. Smoothy, 1992

One bolt extension of Jaqueline Hyde.

FA: Toby Benham

Really good fun sport climbing with plenty of jugs in the roof. Very popular.

FA: D. Noble, 1990

Punchy crimping to ledge then steep and tricky. Start just L of SW.

FA: W. Payton, 1992

The least popular route on the wall. Dawdle up steep start to large ledge. Boulder out steepness above (lots of close together bolts) to - no anchor? Backjump. Bolts on this route are not recessed and potentially bad.

FA: W. Payton, 1992

A fun warmup with a sting in the tail. Left trending line with a couple of restful ledges to break up the action. Old spinning bolts replaced 2018.

FA: M. Pircher & Z. Vertees, 1997

The groovy traverse on the far left side of Wave Wall. Good name.

FA: K. Klein & W. Payton, 1992

Start about 15m L of The Tube.

FA: M. Adams & S. Bell, 1997

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Selected Guidebooks more Hide

Author(s): Simon Carter

Date: 2019

ISBN: 9780958079082

The latest comprehensive, latest and greatest Blue Mountains Climbing Guide is here and it has more routes than you can poke a clip stick at! 3421 to be exact. You are not going to get bored.

Author(s): Simon Carter

Date: 2019

ISBN: 9780958079075

Simon Carter's "Best of the Blue" is the latest selected climbing guide book for the Blue Mountains and covers 1000 routes and 19 different climbing areas. For all the sport climbers out there, the travellers, or just anyone who doesn't want to lug around the big guide that's more than 3 times the size - cut out the riff-raff and get to the good stuff! This will pretty much cover everything you need!

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