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Sport climbers - why don't you climb trad? 27-Jan-2013 At 5:35:00 PM tor.lattimore

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On 27/01/2013 nmonteith wrote:
>On 27/01/2013 tor.lattimore wrote:
>>Where in ACT/NSW can I, a beginner trad leader, go and climb 10 fun pitches
>>of easy trad on good rock? Preferably multi-pitch.
>
>The Warrumbungles comes to mind - but that is a heck of a long way from
>most of us in NSW.

I've never been climbing in the bungles and it is a long way from Canberra. This from the Sydney rockies site suggests it might not be a great place to learn trad though...

"Climbing in the Bungles is a fairly serious affair however, with occassional poor rock, poor protection, difficult route finding and long climbs all part of the game."

That doesn't sound a lot like the Bard. I've only been to the Arapiles once, by which point I was already OK at sport climbing. I followed a few experienced trad climbers and spent the rest of the time practicing leading on stupidly easy, but grin inducing climbs. I've never been anywhere since that offered such a fun fast-track route to learning to place gear.

Since that trip I've been a lot more keen on trad and have gotten on a few of the easier local routes. I'm pretty sure I learned more in those two weeks at the Araps than I could have done anywhere else though, and if I could go there every weekend for a year then I'd probably like trad climbing even more.