{"id":11074,"date":"2020-02-04T22:42:11","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T11:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/?p=11074"},"modified":"2020-08-05T23:05:06","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T13:05:06","slug":"trip-report-whitewater-canyoning-on-the-mid-north-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unswoc.org\/wordpress\/2020\/02\/04\/trip-report-whitewater-canyoning-on-the-mid-north-coast\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitewater Canyoning on the Mid-North Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nicola, Nadav, Liam, Grace and I (Sid) spent a weekend up in Dorrigo (near Coffs Harbour), doing some whitewater canyoning practice before Nadav, Nicola and Liam head across the ditch for the 2020 NZ canyoning festival. It was a pretty enthusiastic schedule for a weekend - Grace and I arrived at 1am, and the others at 3am.<\/span><\/p>\n

We planned to do two canyons; Rosewood on Saturday afternoon, and Gleniffer Falls on Sunday. Rosewood access is a simple loop walking track, but Glennifer requires a car shuffle (1.5hrs each way) so we left our bottom car on Saturday morning, expecting to pick it up Sunday afternoon and complete the 3hr return drive to get the top car.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sid and Nicola at the top of the first abseil in Rosewood Canyon. Goggles on to check depth for the 6m Jump option! \ud83d\udcf8Grace\u00a0\/\/ Liam cruising down the 40m third abseiil<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Liam on the second-last chute abseil in Rosewood.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We descended Rosewood on Saturday in mid-to-low flow conditions and had a great time, camping out in Dorrigo NP that night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Nadav's free shower. Open 24\/7. Cold water only. Enjoyment may vary.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
\"I wonder why it's called Red Cedar Falls?\" The beautiful view from the top of Rosewood Canyon's final 45m waterfall . \ud83d\udcf8Grace<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sunday\u2019s plan was to descend Glennifer Falls, a significant canyon I was fortunate enough to re-establish and bolt with some mates earlier this year. This canyon is the hardest I have done in Australia, and is a serious undertaking. The main slot drops 350m in about the same horizontal distance, with 14 pumpy abseils of up to 80m, recirculating hydraulics, extremely sharp rope-cutting edges and no possibility of escape once committed to the main slot. The rock doesn't allow for natural anchor placements and there had been a few serious flood events since the last known descent, so we went into the canyon equipped to re-bolt every drop.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the huge drive the night before, our 5:50AM alarm wasn't very welcome, and the group wasn\u2019t particularly efficient at packing or getting ready. By 9am, we had driven our car to the top spot (~1hr from the campsite) and were walking in. <\/span>The entry requires 2km of off-track bushbashing, followed by 3km of creek walking. This took us 3hrs, much longer than expected, and we arrived at the top of the falls at 12pm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Nicola being 'helped' by giraffe-legs Liam through one of the many wades\/swims in above the canyon.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The actual canyon went fairly smoothly, with no major slip-ups - and while we were slower than I would have liked, that was somewhat to be expected given the fairly high flow rate - especially as the water level picked up at the more technical section of the canyon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Liam, looking down on a fairly enthusiastic mandatory cold shower.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We leapfrogged abseils effectively, rigging and de-rigging in teams of two and Nicola and Liam were able to practice a bunch of releasable SRT, water hazard and rope management techniques.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Nadav dropping in as the canyon walls close in on us.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The only technical issue was some difficulty with Nadav's brand new 80m Imlay 9.2mm rope becoming dangerously knotted and twisted on a technical 70m abseil, at several points trapping me in heavy flow with a knot below my descender. We rigged all abseils single strand and top-releasable, so some frantic waterlogged whistle blasts signalled to Nadav that he needed to drop the rope, and quick! Once I had escaped the worst of the flow, I could ascend, lock off, and fix the twisted rope.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Nadav about to enter the flow.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Liam abseiling beneath a chockstone \/\/ Grace and Liam watch on as Nadav de-rigs the abseil.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The final 70m chute. The flow rate had definitely increased - likely due to some un-forecast rain upstream within the massive catchment area.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
We're out! But it's a long way home. Still time for a cheek-y photo though...<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the time we had finished the 14x abseils, it was 7PM and we still had 5km of difficult creek walking, navigating a maze of house-sized boulders, swims and impassable drops. We headlamped up and committed to a slow walk out. After navigating the worst of the boulder maze, with 4.5km left to go (8PM), we decided that Liam and I, as the fastest, should split off, get to our bottom car and reception to alert our emergency contacts that we were ok; no injuries; just slow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Both groups had a phone with offline topo maps, a first aid kid, and a registered PLB.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Liam and I reached the bottom car at 10:15PM. By this time, our emergency contact had arranged for someone to start walking in from the bottom of the creek, and we met him about 500m from the car. Liam and I drove out to reception and alerted our emergency contact (as well as everyone we could) soon afterwards.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We picked up some snacks and beer from the mate's farm, then returned to grab Grace, Nicola and Nadav at 11:50PM. <\/span><\/p>\n

All-in-all, a 15hr day car to car - or 18hrs if you count from when we woke up and started preparing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Lessons:<\/strong><\/p>\n