Soon enough, Good Friday arrived, and Sam and I began the 700 km drive to Bright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, we\u2019d left our planning too late, and all the good campgrounds were booked. Our fallback was Ah Youngs Campground in the Buckland Valley, a place our friends had previously described as a chaotic blend of leaf blowers, drones, rowdy 4WDs, and a fragrant mix of horse (and human) manure. Read about their trip here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thankfully, midway through our drive, Keira messaged with an address, one of her friends in Bright had kindly offered us their bunkhouse. Not only would we escape the crowds at Ah Youngs, but we\u2019d also have a roof over our heads for the 50 mm of rain forecast on Sunday. We settled into our weekend home and set our alarms for a 5am wake-up to start the first canyon of the trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stephen, Keira, Sam, and Jason<\/p>\n\n\n\n To ease into things, we chose Running Jump Creek: a long but technically straightforward canyon with over 900 metres of abseiling across 34 pitches, and a glorious 0 metres of elevation gain. While it\u2019s often done as an overnight trip with a mid-canyon bivy, we opted to do it in a single day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the usual morning faff, we sorted the car shuffle and began the walk-in at 8am<\/p>\n\n\n\n We wetsuited below the Dickinson\u2019s Falls Lookout and tackled the first two abseils. On the very first pitch, the rope wedged itself in a crack during the pull-down, but I was able to scramble back up and free it. Then came the hardest part of the day: a 600 m creek bash through dense scrub and unstable rock, which dramatically slowed us down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, the creek steepened, waterfalls reappeared, and my fear of an all-day scrub bash was replaced with excitement. We picked up the pace, leapfrogging through the canyon. I reminded everyone of my hatred for whistles (why use them when hand signals exist?), which, naturally, encouraged the group to blow their whistles loudly<\/em> any time I made eye contact, even when we were five metres apart. It even disrupted one of my canyon naps\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n At one of the pitches, after pulling the rope, I noticed a biner missing from my harness. I looked up and saw a shiny orange glint still hanging from the anchor. Luckily, I was able to scramble up a slab river-right to retrieve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rest of the canyon flowed easily, many straightforward abseils and one short slide. As we changed out of our wetsuits, the sun was setting, and we began the creek walk out by headtorch. Somewhere along the way we realised if we did Crystal Brook tomorrow and left the car at the top of Mt Buffalo tonight, we\u2019d save ourselves a two-hour return drive tonight. At 6:30pm, we reached the car and demolished a bag of salt and vinegar chips on the way back to camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Running Jump felt a lot like Box Creek at Kanangra - only with four times as many abseils. Both are open granite gorges with stunning views into the valley, and excellent spots for sunny mid-canyon naps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stephen, Keira, and Jason<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a more reasonable 7am wake-up (to Keira\u2019s delight), we drove up Mt Buffalo for our most technical canyon of the trip. Rain was forecast in the early afternoon, so we aimed to start early and move efficiently. We wetsuited up in the carpark and stopped at the coffee cart for a pre canyon espresso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By 10:30am, we were at the top of the falls, scouting for the correct anchor. We found several options but chose a set of glue-ins right at the edge. Stephen rigged the rope, and I began the descent (coffee in hand) searching for the next anchor - an \"off-camber, semi-hanging anchor about 3 metres right of the flow.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although this pitch was listed as 38 metres, I found myself near the rope\u2019s end, hanging in free air, with no anchor in sight. Eventually, I spotted bolts on a ledge about 15 metres below. I called for a lower and traversed across a narrow ledge before climbing awkwardly up 2 metres on slick holds to reach the belay. I clipped in, secured myself, and decided it was the perfect time for a mid-canyon Instagram post (and maybe a quick scroll through some reels).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Twenty minutes later, Keira arrived. I threw her a long safety line so she could avoid the awkward mantle I\u2019d just done. With her two-way radio, we communicated with Stephen up top, though in hindsight, I had reception the whole time and probably could\u2019ve just called. It turns out I\u2019d skipped P2 entirely and gone straight to P3. The rope pull looked good, so we committed the group to the ~50 m abseil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We moved down to P4, where the anchor sat directly in the flow. Packing the rope here was a chilly experience - at one point, I got a brain freeze from the 9\u00b0C water pounding my helmet. P5 involved a slippery approach to a hanging belay. I belayed myself over, clipped in, and swung into position. At P7, the bolts were unusually high, and Keira and I got a good laugh watching Stephen channel his inner ballerina to reach them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the final abseil, we got changed, had lunch, and began the tricky walk out. The climber\u2019s route was steep, with several handlines and scrambles. We admired some of the mega-classic climbing routes like Ozymandias<\/a><\/em> and Where Angels Fear to Tread<\/a><\/em> - the site of Daniel and Margot\u2019s recent epic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Halfway up, the rain finally arrived, making the rest of the walk a slippery slog. No surprise we didn\u2019t see any climbers. At 3:30pm, we returned to the car park to find Sam huddled in my car with the heater on full blast. We changed into dry clothes and joined him.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDay 1 \u2013 Running Jump Creek<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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