Malaita Wall and Point
May 21, 2011
Party: Kosta, Mary, Mel, Peggy, Scott, Sky
Online with pictures:
http://fatcanyoners.org/2011/05/21/malaita-wall-and-point/
After leaving Sydney during some misty weather, this turned out to be a beautiful day up in the Blue Mountains. The original plan was to do two abseiling trips down Malaita Point and Wall, but we decided to replace Malaita Point with Boars Head Rock trip and do Malaita Wall in the morning.
So we started rigging the first abseil and went 45m down a vertical wall onto a nose. Some needed some more detailed and motivating instructions about how to tackle this one (“Just do it!”) and everyone made it down well. From the nose we continued a drop further down. After that came the big (surprise) overhang that caused some squeaks, but rewarded by a stunning view around over the valley. We continued with the final two drops and reached the Federal Pass Walking Track.
Scott on the 2nd abseil of Malaita Wall.
Peggy and Sky already started heading while the rest of us finished the last abseil and packed up the ropes before following them. We walked up the Furber Steps, past the cable cars and then up the road to the cars. There we were surprised by the fact that Peggy and Sky were not around and we realised that we were in front of Sky’s car without a key. A few of us headed back Scenic World to search for the missing ones and we already prepared to wander along the tourist tracks for a search mission. However, when we reached the car park, Peggy and Sky turned up claiming tu just have been to the loo and refilling water.
Then we drove over to the start of Boars Head Rock and had lunch on a nice and sunny rock there before looking for the start of the first abseil. This turned out particularly tricky due to many foot paths in the area and interesting track notes saying “right (east)” in a situation where you can only reasonable be facing a southish direction. After a while of exploring the area, we figured out that we were actually wrong, went back to the road and went a few meters up to continue the search. Here we had some more luck and found the first anchor and came to the conclusion that the track notes should have been “right (west)”.
Ready to go, we had a look at the time and realised, that we will get into the dark during the way out. Considering that we did not know the area and Peggy and Scott did not bring their head torches, we decided that we rather be on Federal Pass and Furber Steps in the dark than down here and opted to go back to the original plan and do Malaita Point.
With all the experience from the first half of the day, we were able to do the seven abseils of Malaita Point a lot faster than the five we did at Malaita Wall. We looked over to the route we took earlier and some stated that they can’t believe they went down such a long and exposed wall before. Doing Malaita Point that late during the day proved to be really nice as the valley gets very quiet and the cliff lines and Three Sisters glow very nicely in the low sun.
The beautiful view across the valley while the sun is setting.
Being almost at the bottom, we spent the remaining daylight time we had to do some weird swinging abseils of an overhanging tree. Kosta, Mary, Peggy, Mel and Scott all went for the swing whereas one unnamed member of the group decided to bail out on this.
After that we climbed up the Furber Steps in the dark and went back to the cars without any problems. We concluded the trip with some beer and a good meal at the Blue Mountain Hotel in Lawson before heading back to the city. In the end, every one had a great day out and I believe no one stayed up late that night and opted for the bed instead.
Cheers,
Kosta
