It was probably our last chance to escape Sydney under lock-down and what better place to self-isolate than the vast remote wilderness of the Bells Line of the Blue Mountains, with its remote rock climbing locations. Most crags are still closed following the summer’s devastating bush fires and climbers are expected to stay away to give the bush time to regenerate. So we only had two choices from a plethora of premier crags: Bells and the old-schoolies Bowens Creek.  It was remarkable to see the burnt-out landscape interspersed with green emerging everywhere. Recovery is well under way it seems. This time a small group of climbers joined us to explore the wilderness near Bells:  Louise, Roman and Chris with James, Alex and Thalia. Out choice was Bowens Creek because it was the road less traveled - very remote and inaccessible.

We basically did not see another soul all day and finding the track was made difficult due to bulldozers clearing the firetrail and erasing any cairns or tracks that might have been there once before. It did not help that my last trip there happened in the dark ages of the nineties, although the memory of the place is still vivid in my mind. Hiking down the fire trail for 25 minutes it became clear that any trails would be unrecognizable and we ended up somewhat lucky at the dead end of the fire trail, which conveniently also led to the end of the climbing area near Bull Crag. So we ended up working our way backwards towards the main crag which worked well.

"See the angels in the marble and carve until you set them free."

The bush around us was devastated, holding on to trees was like grasping charcoal with a one inch thick layer of soot. All lowering ropes we came across had been completely molten and the shadows of plastic were clearly visible against the rock. The fire had gone right down into Bowen’s Creek but not all the way to the water level. The main wall was still there unchanged after my first visit several decades ago.  Some of the routes had “recently” been rebolted in “2004.”  The warm-ups were tough at the Main Wall:

• Mr.Pink (21**) the classic sandbag which always feels desparate as a warm-up. Keep a little bit of juice for the last move.
• Kraut Pleaser (20**) it will pup you senseless as a warmup with a horrendous of kilter balancy start. It has not one but two crux sessions.
• Shut the gate (22**) grovel start mantle on tired bodies followed by very pleasant climbing to a balancy arête finish. Very nice and it felt like the best of the three warmups.

It was time for some project work now. James took the lead and jumped straight on “97% fat free (***)”. Followed by Roman Junior who flashed it, and Alex and Roman Senior, who both hang-dogged their way up slowly. This is one of the most relentless grade 25s in the mountains – I hesitate to say. The moves are brilliant and the boulder problems keep on coming right until the end. Good rest jugs in between, but it is just oh so long and steep. In a nutshell – wow what a climb. The bouldery start needs strong fingers. Then some nice moves lead to a tough undercling, followed by a crimp problem to a big jug where you need to revoer. And then it gets steep, the high crux has two options, both hard, but leading to the final boulder move: a two finger high gaston for the finish jug. It has been some time since I had that many rests on a climb. Meanwhile Chris and James were campusing their way up The Boy from Oz (26**) with some nice arms only moves through a big roof.

Roman threw himself on Lloyd of the Rings (27**) and came ever so close to the onsight. He onsighted all the way to the big roof with its double foot rest, then out the expose lip he ended up staring straight into the sunlight, cobwebs in the face and ash-covered holds saw him fall one move from the anchors. He was furious vowed revenge and send on the second shot. Louis an Thalia worked hard on grovely start of Shut the gate (22**).

"If you can't see the bright side of life, polish the dull side."

It was well after lunch and we tried to decide whether to look for the much rumored and well-hidden Alien’s Domain area.  James and Alex were keen and so we began the search. We moved along backwards through the orange escarpment of Shopping wall with its remarkable sandstone walls. Nobody had been here for a very long time or the fires had destroyed any trace of a track, so there was a lot of scrampling along burnt-out bush trails. There was charcoal everywhere and the bush was a black denseness. It took a long time to find the ramp leading downward towards the creek at the end of Shopping wall. The rope at the end was also completely incinerated, but we came prepared. Another five minutes along the rock face above the creek and we finally spotted the flying fox.  The guide rope had burnt through so we had to solo out on the wire to retrieve the rope pulley stuck in the middle. We fixed one of our own ropes so that we could pull people and gear back and forth. After a bit of trial and error we had a good system and moved six people across to search for the elusive Alien Domain. Up the hill towards the cliff line scramble along and climb up another molten rope, through the push for another ten minutes until finally a golden glow became visible. The wall is impeccably steep with Arapiles type sandstone bathing in afternoon sunshine and way too hot. But it took us over two hours to find and we needed to do at least one climb each.

1. Outer space (21*) was my climb of choice because it was the easiest. Big jugs and very steep terrain with a batman start.
2. Austri-Alien (24**) same start but straight up with Chris finishing all the way to the top.
3. Superior Species (23**) James and Roman had an absolute epic working their way up relentlessly through non-existing holds. There were several sections with groundfall potential or hitting a tree, run-outs and invisible holds. This climb took everything they had left in them and then some more.

It was now well after 5pm and we still had a long way back so we packed up in the searing fly-infested heat and headed back to the Tyrolean traverse across the chasm. We were used to it now and moved swiftly across, climbed out of the canyon and found the escape ramp at the beginning of Shopping wall, which we had missed on the way in.  Once at the canyon rim we were met with complete fire desolation. The charred remains of bush was all around us and we searched for a way back up to the firetrail.  After a little bush bashing a faint trail led us back up to the main trail. It would not be nice to get lost in here.  By 7pm we were back at the car and the first cold beer appeared at 8pm at the Archibald.

Finding Aliens Domain is a real adventure, there are no more tracks and it is a long way to go for a climb. There are now many much more easily accessible crags available, unless you are out for an adventure, then come and see for yourself. But the feat of the day belongs to Thalia, who had forgotten her shoes and covered the entire expedition barefoot end to end without so much as a word of complaint – unbelievable considering the terrain we covered. Thinking back I am reminded of the famous words: “I doubted if I should ever come back.”

Roman 24 March 2020