To see all photos go hear Blackwall & Bogas Cave - NEW.
 Once again some of the Sydney-bound Sushiclimbers joined the Central Coast Climbers to explore one of their many premier crags near the picturesque coastline of Ettalong and Umina. Last time Phegans Bay saw a visit and Jason’s recommendation was to explore the crags on Blackwall Mountain near Ettalong. This time: Di, Ben, Mansour, Jason, Gordon, with a guest visit from Martin with Leo and Oliver joined us in our climbing adventures. The local crag resident Jason also joined us on our climbing tour of this Central Coast classic crag.
Blackwall Mountain
 |
 |
 |
 |
Kit Kat Wall |
Blackwall Boulders |
Blackwall views Lion Island |
Ben on Chocoholic |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Roman: Better Breaks Than a Kit Kat |
Mansour: Hell No It’s Twins |
Lion Island views |
Gordon on Waffer Fingers |
 As is customary we assembled at Zanzibar café in Gosford to refuel for the day and headed down Brisbane Water Drive along the seashore to WoyWoy where we turned onto Blackwall Road and parked at the end of Mullbong Road. The short uphill walk past several huge boulders with established problems in the guide were impressive, but we were keen to see the crag first. After a short climb we reached Jason’s home – a large cave in the rock at the start of KitKat Wall.
Even though some of the classics were wet from a downpour we spent the morning working our way across the crag from KitKat Wall to Red Hat Wall and Offspring Wall. There were too many classics to mention them all, but some of the highlights were:
- Waffer Fingers 19** (hard traverse to a hueco rest)
- Better Breaks than a KitKat 19p*** (Centre Crack with hard move between two ironstone edges)
- Suspenders will do it 19*** (hard finger traverse start with very cruxy move across the roof)
- Hell no it’s twins 16*** (gorgeous rounded arête moves)
Bogas Cave
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Ben on Gonzo's Grilfriend |
Ben & Mansour |
Lower Bogas Cave |
Roman on FarOut |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Jason on Gonzo's Grilfriend |
Gordon on White Out |
Bogas bush bash |
Gordon on Gonzo's Grilfriend |
|
|
|
|
Roman on White Out |
Diane on Gonzo's Grilfriend |
|
|
 Blackwall kept us busy till early afternoon but there was the well-hidden treasure of Bogas Cave waiting to be explored so we moved our camp across the top of the mountain past gorgeous vista’s of Lion Island and Barrenjoey Lighthouse towards a sea of overhanging verticality. It was an epic just to find and get to the bottom of the massive cave system stretching for a good one hundred meters with a 10 meter roof at its thickest. The grades were pretty unforgiving and the sole warm up: Gonzo’s Girlfriend 18 was tricky, hard, awkward and exasperating not necessarily in the same order.
The two classics we played on were:
- White Out 24** with a hellish start
- Farout 25** with a tricky dyno
But before long we were welcoming the mercy of the orange light signalling the end of a very long day. There was still the bush-bash out of the cave back to the top of the mountain to drain us just a little more before the comfort of our cars back home. Ben, Mansour and Jason had a quick look at Point Claire and then we all departed with big smiles.
Climbing Rule 2:
Roman 19 April 2013.  |
