Arapiles is known as the climbing Mecca of Australia and for good reason! The rock is stunning quartzite, the climbs are very walkable to from a large sprawling campsite, it's remarkably beautiful and there's literally dozens of routes at grade <15. It's impossible to go and not love it. Araps is truly the best place to learn and/or build confidence on trad because the rock quality is excellent and the protection is so good that you could sit down on any beginner climb or throw your rack at the rock and several pieces would have auto-placed themselves.
So it's appropriate that we make an ANUMC expedition there over the September/October long weekends! I haven't personally been at this time of year but I'm pretty excited because you're allowed campfires unlike at Easter, and it's meant to be less crowded than Easter.
The climbing will be predominantly trad and multi-pitch. I probably don't need to point out that this is more committing, harder (in terms of technical skills, not necessarily climbing skillz) and possibly more scary than your average single-pitch sport climbing day. There is more potential for stuff to go wrong. On the trip it's impossible for me to be everywhere and keep an eye on everything (and also I want to climb too) so I need to be confident in every participant's capacity to be safe and competent and to exercise good sense. There also needs to be enough climbers going who can lead. Thus signing up does not guarantee a spot.
There will be *limited* spots for people who are confident sport climbing but haven't led trad before to second climbs and learn about gear placements.
More logistics and information will appear closer to the trip - at the moment this trip is a placeholder to determine who's keen and available, to roughly gauge cars and the mix of experience. At this stage it's fine to sign up if you *probably* can make it (although do state this), but 1-2 weeks from the trip we'll have a pre-trip meeting and I'll ask people to commit by then: for a trip of this scale it's a massive pain if someone bails two days out when car and climbing partner logistics have already been sorted. Things i want to know when you sign up:
- dates: please confirm you're happy with the default dates (drive down 23rd pm, return on the 3rd) - I could work with variations to this depending on what people want but no promises
- can you bring your car (let me know if it's a manual) and if not, can you drive
- your level of trad and multi-pitch experience if i haven't climbed with you
- do you need to hire a rack or part of one
If you have any questions please get in contact! My email and number are here, or just Facebook message me.
EDIT 6/9/16: The trip is going ahead, and we will have a compulsory pre-trip meeting on Thursday the 15th in the gear store. Logistics are being sorted out via email!
Leave Canberra ~5pm Friday 23/9 and drive to Arapiles, stopping to camp overnight probably at Greens Lake. Climb. Drive back Monday 3/10.