Blue Mountains Canyon News - Archive 2

1999

December 23

• Craig (or Mandy?) Flynn has emailed some information about the accident mentioned below near Galah Mountain (Dec 21 report):

  Just a quick note about the guy who died in the accident near Mt Galah.

  Apparently the well equipt party of 2 had been down Twister late sunday afternoon. They navigated the canyon OK but missed the exit track. Realising they were not heading the right way and it was getting late they decided to climb out onto the ridge to gain their bearing. Although the spot they chose to climb out looked relatively easy 2 holds broke loose near the top and the climber plumeted 15-20m to his death.

  This is the second incident requiring a rescue bid in recent weeks in this relatively easy canyon area due to parties having trouble finding the exit track. With the ever growing popularity of the area perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea to place some sort of signage marking the way out. While this may alarm the purists I'm not suggesting the way in be marked. But signs at the Twister exit point and at the bottom of the hill may help to prevent futher tragedies.

  Flynn

  Thankyou to Craig or Mandy for this information. Personally I would not like to see any signs in this area (for the same reason that I don't like signs in Wollangambe Canyon or bolts and fixed ropes in canyons) I feel if people want signs - then they should be prepared to stay in the city where there are already plenty to cater for their needs. Canyon areas are wild places - and should not be desecrated in this way.

December 21

• It seems there were several serious canyoning accidents recently. On Sunday 19 Dec, some members of a party I was in, coming back from the Blue Mts, heard a news report on their car radio about a person being helicoptered out from a canyon near Mt Wilson. Also - in todays Telegraph was a short report about a person who fell 30m to their death whilst climbing near Galah Mt. Presumably they were either abseiling or climbing out of a canyon in the area.

November 29

• Nigel Hardiman (see story November 4), who is doing a PhD in canyoning has emailed me a copy of a survey and has asked canyoners to take the time to fill it in and either post it to him or send him an electronic copy. From the start of the survey, Nigel writes:
  As a keen bushwalker and canyoner myself, I am undertaking research as part of a Ph.D at the University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, aimed at answering some of the above questions and providing input to management policymaking by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). To do this, I need your help.

  The enclosed questionnaire will take approximately 15 minutes of your time to complete and will provide invaluable feedback on this important subject. Please note that although I will be making aggregate results of the survey available to the NPWS, individual responses will remain completely confidential.

  I have placed a pdf version (adobe acrobat) of the survey here for those who want to print it out and post it (post free) to Nigel. To email your responses - use the html version - and copy and paste the survey into the body of an email (and delete choices etc which do not apply as you complete the survey). The survey has Nigel's email and postal addresses at the end.

• I have placed a revised version of the NPWS list of commercial canyons here.

November 15

• Andrew Valja has set up a new webpage on Canyons in the Blue Mountains - a Photo Gallery with many attractive photos of canyons - including Crikey, Whnugee Wheengee, Rocky Creek and others. This site is worth a look.
• Chris Dow, a friend of Nigel Hardiman (see story Nov 4), who is helping him with his research has emailed saying that on a recent trip, whilst coming back from Galah Mountain - they noticed a koala on the road. Other canyoners, including Dave Lockwood have seen koalas in that area before (near Galah Canyon) and back in 1976, on an early trip down Surefire Canyon, the party I was with spotted a dead koala on the floor of the canyon.
• It is sad to report that Bryden Allen, one of Australia's pioneer rockclimbers was badly injured whilst scrambling at Mt Araplies in Victoria. Bryden suffered serious spinal damage. Bryden was a member of the first party down Heart Attack Canyon early in 1976.

November 4

• You may have heard on the news last Friday that a member of a group doing some "Cascading" had been injured on a waterfall near Galah Mountain. The injured person, Nigel Hardiman has sent this email (in response to an earlier report I had here about the accident):

  Although I do happen to be a member of Wild Dogs Bushwalking Club, the link is purely coincidental and my trip had nothing to do with the club. I was in Rocky Creek with two female friends to undertake biophysical research into canyon ecosytems as part of a university Ph.D degree. The accident occurred around midday of Wednesday 27th in the "washing machine" and, although I am a very experienced canyoner, was solely the result of my error of judgement in what turned out to be too strong water conditions. The result was a broken ankle. My two female companions did reverse out, but as we had entered RC via Twister, they had had not actually done the walk - in track. Shouted instructions by myself were not helped by needing to be heard over the waterfall noise. One girl was found by the helicopter at the same time as myself on Thursday evening, and the other was picked up by a ground party following a phone conversation between myself and NPWS Blackheath staff early Friday morning. Both girls were tired but uninjured.

  Thankyou Nigel for this correction and amplification to my earlier report.

October 19

• I was emailed a copy of the NPWS canyoning code. I have placed it on the web here. It seems a reasonable document and should be adopted by all who visit the Blue Mountains canyons.

October 5

• Craig and Mandy Flynn recently sent me a photo showing hail in Rocky Creek. I have added this and a saftey warning to my Canyoning Safety page. You can see more pictures of their trip on their virtual canyoning tour of Coachwood Canyon - the last picture showing hail at the Galah Mountain carpark is awesome!

September 12

• An interesting American commercial canyoneering website http://www.canyoneering.net /index.html has definitions of "canyoning" and "canyoneering" and also has uses an interesting rating system for canyons (which is derived from a German rating system). An example given is a canyon that has a rating of 3-2C-3X V5.6 - where the numbers refer to things such as swimming, abseiling, possibility of exits, climbing to get out etc. Have a look.
• The French canyoning website Verdus has a a new URL - http://members.aol.com/verdus/
• Keith Jones has emailed this interesting bit of information about Hartleys Mistake Canyon (Wolgan):

  You ... may be interested in some history relating to Hartley's Mistake canyon which pre-dates the visits you have recorded.

  I was involved in a Macquarie University Mountaineering Society trip towards the end of 1972. We climbed up to the plateau directly up the spur across side of the river behind the Newnes pub as it was then located and followed the ridge line heading towards the Constance Gorge saddle. However, part way along decided it would be interesting to drop into one of the creeks to see if there was a worth while canyon, this as it turned out being what I believe is now Hartley's Mistake canyon. We abseiled the first drop from a tree to the right - this is not being really necessary as we discovered when looking for the best way to retreat that by enlarged a hole behind the chockstone forming the (dry at the time) waterfall that we could climb up or down this way. There was a major drop into what appeared to be deep water and a long pool just past this point and there we decided to retreat as we were not adequately equipped. We returned to Newnes by abseiling into Zobel's Gully. We would almost certainly have left no obvious traces of our visit and saw no traces of previous visitors to the canyon.

  Included in the party were Barbara Cameron-Smith (whom I caught up with at a MMS reunion last weekend and was able to confirm details), Greg Retallack, myself and others whose names I forget.

Aug 10

• The Blackheath office of the NPWS is organising a series of activities to do with ridding the Grose catchment of weeds. Volunteers (with abseiling experience) are needed for some of these. More details can be obtained here

July 31

• There has been major press coverage of the canyoning tragedy in the Swiss Alps. The local news coverage seems to have been fairly responsible. Dave Lockwood has supplied the following links of interest: BBC news reports here and here. The press release of the adventure company can be found here.
• It is interesting to see what the media has said about canyoning as a result of this tragedy. According to the BBC - the sport was thought to have begun in France about 15 years ago. Canyoning has been a recognised sport (separate to bushwalking etc) in the Sydney area since at least the early 1960's (this is how it was refered to in bushwalking club programs - ie as "canyoning trips") - did this term originate in Australia? Quite possibly. News reports also refer to canyoning as being also known as "body rafting" or "white water rafting without the rafts" - this may be appropriate for some European Canyons - but does not describe the sport as described here. I can remember the alternative name of "gully jumping" being used in one magazine article on canyoning in the 1960's that I read in a library. Another term in use in those days was "canyoneering".

June 16

• The "Our Country" show is (probably?) scheduled for Sunday 27/6 at 7pm on Channel 9. It features Wollemi National Park and includes a section on Rocky Creek and Twister Canyons.

June 8

• The "Our Country" show mentioned below has still not appeared on air. Watch out for it after the cricket finishes.
• Dave Lockwood advises canyoners to set their VCR's to record the "Living Edens" show on Channel 2 (&:30 pm) this Sunday - as it features the Utah slot canyons.
• And from Belgium:

  Hi there,

  I just had a look at your page about canyoning security: very good to have included some pictures of flash floods. Most people do not realize or grasp the meaning of a flash flood in a canyon, even better is to include one from the same spot with normal water levels. I do have another small suggestion to make. You advise a double fishermans knot or a double 8 to tie two ropes together. A double fishermans knot is not ideal for an abseiling situation for two reasons: it is very hard to get it loose afterwards, but more important, this is a knot that catches very easily on anything uneven when sliding over a rock (while trying to recuperate the rope from below). A double figure of 8 knot always turns itself away from the rock when sliding over it and can be trusted fully, even with ropes from different diameters. Make sure that the loose ends measure at least 20 cms after tightening each strand and "pulling the knot open".

  Best regards and merry canyoning,

  Koen Viaene (Belgium)

May 9

• "Our Country" on Channel 9, 7pm on Sunday 16th May is on Wollemi National Park. Part of the show will feature Twister and Rocky Creek Canyons. Hmm - looks like this show may be postponed a week or two - keep looking in your TV guides. (update 13 May)

April 27

• I heard report that a girl drowned in the Wollangambe somewhere a few weeks back. Anybody know any details?

April 25

• "Press On Regardless" the Sydney University 50th Anniversary Magazine has finally been published. Copies can be obtained from SUBW. A web based version has been put on-line here and a mirror version her e. This publication contains first hand accounts of the discovery of many canyons (including Thunder Canyon, Kalang Falls, Wollangambe Canyon, Dumbano Canyon, Exit Canyon, Burramin Canyon, Contradiction Canyon, Newnes Canyon, Roggenbrot Canyon, and others)

March 15

• There seemed to be a bit of a flash flood in the Wollangambe area last weekend. First, from Dave Lockwood:

  there was a flash flood in Bell ck sat arvo. We did Geronimo sun morn (in flood) and met a group which had been benighted and injured in Bell the day before. The gambe had been up about 1 metre.

• And from David Hood:

  On Saturday 13-3 we were doing an "easy day" in DuFaurs/Bell/Wollangambe Creeks with an group that included a few beginners so they could get a feel for it. To make life more exciting there had been a massive thunderstorm on Friday night so when we landed at DuFaurs Ck the water looked to be about 12" deeper than usual, muddy brown and fast flowing. It was also colder than what seems normal (I lost my temperature logger so can't confirm this). We plunged on and went up Bell Ck from the bottom under sunny skies although there had been a few ominous rumblings (around 11.30am). I guess we had gone about 250m past the first left and right hand bends, when the rumbling became very loud and looking up, the sky had gone dark-grey black. As you can surmise we turned around and moved very quickly back to DuFaurs and made it just as the rain started.

  At the junction there was another group who had not been in the system before, and they asked us the quickest way out (noting the weather), since they were intending to reverse Dufaurs back to "Joes Canyon", but then followed us downstream when I said it was probably quicker and you were going with the current.

  (Now the real point of this E-Mail)

  Halfway between this point and the Wollangambe junction is a pile up of boulders with the "little" water chute. As we approached I could see a group of people sitting about. Due to the high water and rain we were moving slower than usual over the rocks and I suppose it took us around 10 minutes to get there. We found a group of around 10 people (boys and girls) between the ages of ~9 and 16 with an older guy (19-20) in a wet suit. They had only had an inner tube each (which were down the waterfall!!), tee shirts and shorts, no food, first aid gear or other equipment what so ever (except a phone and non-water proof matches). The looks on their faces were a mixture of terror, impending hypothermia and total confusion, simply because they could not figure out how to get down the chute. They were sitting doing absolutely nothing with the rain coming down.

  Initially we tried to bypass them along the walls, but I guess responsibility took over and some of our team scrambled down the chute to see how tricky it was. I went down to the guy in the wet suite who was their leader (a church youth group) and basically said what the hell are you doing, you have to get out of here now before the water rises and these kids freeze to death!! He looked stunned (probably the rubber ducky tied onto my helmet didn't help) and said "I was here on Wednesday and it wasn't like this". My reply was to the effect didn't he know about the weather last night and today's forecast on afternnon storms? You can guess the answer with included look of disbelief.

  We riggged a hand line which seemed to snap their leader into action and then proceeded to herd them down the water chute holding the handline, with two of our stronger guys helping them off at the bottom. They moved on. The other group behind us caught up and came down the line as well and we travelled with them from that point on (None of our team had any problems, even the begginners so I don't think it was too hard). I thought, well the youth group should be alright, but I was wrong.

  About 100m above the junction of the Wollangambe they were huddled under an overhang on the bank rubbing down a boy who was shivering badly, had cramps and was lapsing into hypothermia. The others were shaking hard enough to lose teeth. We stopped again and I tried to hurry them along since the rain looked like increasing and we gave them a thermal blanket and a lilo. Most of our team and the other group moved on since they were starting to feel the cold, but we left three of our group (including an occupational level first aider) and moved to the junction where we left out gear. I told the beginners in our group and the others to continue on since the exit was only 250m away. I returned with two other guys to the youth group and bascialy took over. The boy was put into the leaders wet suit and loaded onto the lilo. My group took him down stream and I guided the others down to the exit. I think they reached it with a mixture of relief and excitement at the adventure!! (@#$% yeah right!!). The boy had recovered enough to walk without problems.

  At this point the rain really started belting down and I could see the Wollangambe rising up my legs so without any further ceremony we pushed them in the direction of the track out and said that way. We decided it was just too cold and wet to change so we walked out in our wetsuits. I think you can guess what happened next. We passed them about halfway during a break in the rain, but not long after the rain really started with hail and lightning crashing in the trees around us. The temperature dropped as well and the wind came up. We hurried. About 2/3 of the way up we found three guys (fully kitted for the conditions) standing under a rock ledge and we had a brief chat then bolted. I could hear the youth group in the distance.

  At the top we met the guys who had been hiding under the rock and they said the youth group had joined them. Their casualty was deteriorating again and these guys basically harried them out to keep walking and try to keep warm since they could make the top in about 20-30 minutes or so. This they did and they were a sorry looking lot indeed (luckily the rain had stopped sometime before). I questioned some of them and they said they would never do canyoning again. Their leader looked very chastised indeed and I say lucky not to end up being in deep shit.

  I don't think too many comments are needed here about this saga, but I wonder if these people really understood the implications of what they were doing. Since there didn't seem to be anybody behind us and we had started late, I wouldn't have been surprised if they had suffered fatal casualties either through hypothermia or drowning because no-one would have been there to save their skins.

  David Hood

  PS1 I lost a Hastings Tinytag Temperature Data Logger in Dufaurs Ck between Joes Canyon and the first major swim section downstream. It is a yellow plastic waterproof box about the size of a cigarette packet with three LEDs and three pin conector on one end. It broke free of the line I had it on and sank in the muddy water. (Which was only chest deep, but 30 minutes of searching turned up nothing).

  There is a $50 reward to anyone who finds it and returns it (ph 02-9849-0525).

Feb 10

• Reports indicate that a ring bolt has appeared in a side tributary to Bell Creek Canyon. This is the side tributary that is often used as access to Bell Creek from Mt Wilson. Apparently the bolt is just above the first short drop in this side canyon. Anybody visiting this canyon in the near future please take a wheel brace or similar and remove the bolt.
  
• From Glen Morris:

  I was down at Wollangambe River (1 Feb 99) doing the popular lilo section and found that some vandals had painted with bright blue paint their initials on numerous rocks over the length of the canyon.

  Tried to rub them off with a small rock but the paint was too tough! Suggest that someone take a metal scrapper or something down to help scrape the mess off.

Feb 7

• Welcome to the new year. I have recently come back from a spell of bushwalking in Tassie. After a bit of recent rain - its good to see the canyons with plenty of water in them. The rains have also seen a big regrowth in the Wollangambe Wilderness after last summer's bushfires - and the road along the Waratah Ridge (see reports below) is starting to grow back nicely. It seems to be relatively free of 4WD's although a trail bike went along it past the barrier on 6 Feb.
  
• From a correspondent:

  Next time you do wollangambe take the shifter there are two bolts on the exit climb... Both have fixed hangers and are in dubious locations... One is bolted to a boulder that looks loose and the glue seems to be very soft! They are on the harder climb to the left of the roots.... Collected some rubbish on weekend, it seems when a li lo goes flat you just leave it floating in canyon!!! some people just dont care.

• An email from John Hempton:

  A little rescue in Claustral just before Christmas.

  Went off to do a canyon off Newnes Road between Christmas and New Year and had car troubles.

  Net effect. 1 pm at Lithgow. Not enough time to do what is wanted. Ah... GO DO CLAUSTRAL. Funny, I was the only person in party who had done it before.

  Anyway we got there at about quarter to two which is kind of late, especially with some (fit) beginners.

  A rotund guy (Andrew) heads off as we are getting ready at car. I ask him about his experience and suggest that most parties take a bit over seven hours making it dark by the time he got back.

  He thought he might be a bit faster than that so he headed off. He said "I have a headtorch".

  We met him where the track meets the creek. He was putting on his (brand new) wetsuit. I pointed out it was a long walk to water.

  Anyway, when we got to the first wade we stopped to put on our wetsuits and he caught up with us. He put on the abseil gear.

  We got to the abseils which we did on his ropes. I figured at the time that (1) we were ahead of him so he would either have to wait for us or go with us, and (2) I could set things up a fair bit faster. He was carrying two ropes, a 9mm 50m job and a 11mm 16m piece. Both statics. Both new.

  We alternated the ropes.

  Discovered that he coiled them an old fashioned way putting a twist in each coil. Net effect was a few extra tangles. He also insisted on lowering his pack down all the abseils.

  I was getting distinctly nevous and suggested to party that we should wait and make sure that he was alright.

  So we went rather slowly to junction with Thunder. Got there at 5.10 pm.

  We woofed down a cold, quick and very late lunch. Offered him some. I suggested that I might carry a rope from his pack... he misheard me and thought I was offering him the chance to learn the John Hempton approved rope coiling technique.

  He pulled out a stove and started making a brew. We suggested that this was inappropriate as we were racing against darkness. That he should get a move on.

  He insisted that we do not wait for him.

  So we went on. Besides we could hear the voices of a party behind us. (The party behind never caught us so they must have come out with torches.)

  We wandered on and eventually got out in the (very) last strands of daylight.

  Andrew. He came out later, got benighted. Lost around the Camels Hump. Called the police on a mobile phone and search and rescue came out to find him.

  What can you do? What are your responsibilities?

  John H.

• And here's another:

  Some people here went to wollangambie.A girl fell over before lilo's got inflated and displayed sypmtoms of a broken rib.So guess what they did? They called a helicopter............and everybody went home without doing the canyon.