Climbing in the Blue Mountains: a guide for gym climbers

For climbers in New South Wales who learnt indoors, the Blue Mountains are the obvious next step. theCrag lists about 7,300 routes there, and its editors say that for most people the area is now "really a sport climbing destination". This guide, written in October 2026, covers where to start, what the rock is like, when to go, the rules and how to learn the skills that gym climbing doesn't teach.

Where to climb

• Blackheath, which theCrag calls the heart of Blue Mountains climbing, has nearly 1,300 routes. Centennial Glen has 125 short, very sporty routes and a car park that gets very busy; Upper Shipley has more for intermediate climbers, and Porters Pass and Logan Brae are close by.
• Mount Victoria, 6 km beyond Blackheath, has Mount York, the area's instructional crag, next to a free first-come, first-served campground, and Mount Piddington, its premier trad crag. Bardens Lookout and Boronia Point are mostly sport.
• Medlow Bath is a quick walk from its station, and The Sunbath has a good spread of easy to moderate sport routes. It is on private land owned by the Hydro Majestic Hotel, like several crags nearby, so access isn't guaranteed: park near the railway, not at the end of Belgravia Street.
• Katoomba and Narrow Neck: the Narrow Neck plateau has sport crags such as Diamond Falls, Farside and Boganville, and trad climbing at Boars Head. theCrag warns that Glenraphael Drive, the road onto the plateau, is closed to vehicles after a landslip, so you walk or cycle in.

What the climbing is like

The rock is sandstone. Sport climbing on bolts is now the most popular style, but gear and bolts have long been mixed, so read the route description before you set off: some climbs need a rack. Routes carry Australian Ewbank grades, which are plain numbers: theCrag's grading guide gives the example of a route graded 26 in Ewbank and 7b+ in the French system. Don't expect a beginners' playground. theCrag rates the mountains "nowhere near as good as Arapiles or the Grampians" for beginners, because the easier routes tend to be the looser ones, but excellent for intermediate and advanced climbers.

Sandstone is soft, so look after it. theCrag asks climbers to brush off chalk and tick marks with soft brushes only, never steel ones, and the Australian Climbing Association NSW (ACANSW) says not to climb on wet sedimentary rock, which weakens and breaks.

When to go

Katoomba's weather station sits at 1,017 metres. Bureau of Meteorology averages give it maximums of 23°C in January and under 10°C in July, when nights average under 3°C, and January to March are its wettest months. Sunny crags make winter days pleasant; in summer, look for shade. NPWS advises against climbing after heavy rain or when rain is forecast. Before you go, check NPWS park alerts and any Total Fire Ban: parks and tracks close for bushfires and hazard reduction burns.

Access and the rules

The cliffs around Katoomba, the Grose Valley and much of Narrow Neck are in Blue Mountains National Park, run by NPWS, while most of the climbing is on the western escarpment, Crown land managed by Blue Mountains City Council. The park's plan of management names several places where climbing is considered appropriate, but theCrag notes that most climbing remains unacknowledged, so treading lightly keeps it open. Dogs are banned in national parks and must be on a lead on council reserves.

ACANSW, the peak body for recreational climbing in the state, publishes a code of conduct: top-rope through your own gear rather than the fixed anchors, which theCrag says are hard and expensive to maintain; use existing tracks; don't disturb nesting birds; pack out your rubbish; and follow fire restrictions. Old bolts are replaced by volunteers funded by the Sydney Rockclimbing Club's rebolting fund, which puts the cost at about $10 a bolt and relies on donations.

Guidebooks and theCrag

Simon Carter's Blue Mountains Climbing (2019 edition) covers 3,429 routes at 58 crags in 448 pages and costs $59.95 from his publisher, Onsight; his Best of the Blue ($36.95) picks out the best sport crags. theCrag, the free online guide, has route lists and access warnings, including recent closures.

Learning to climb outside

Gym skills only go so far. The Sydney Rockclimbing Club expects everyone on its trips to belay properly and tie in with a figure-of-eight knot, lists lead climbing and setting up anchors and top ropes as the next skills, and suggests learning to lead in a gym first. In Sydney, the Australian School of Mountaineering runs two-evening Learn to Lead courses at Climb Fit in St Leonards and Kirrawee, and other roped gyms run their own: see our Sydney page. Then, in the mountains:

• Blue Mountains Climbing School runs Learn to Lead Climb, billed as an indoor-to-outdoor conversion, which teaches you to lead single-pitch sport routes, at crags mostly within 20 minutes' drive of Blackheath.
• Blue Mountains Adventure Company, based in Katoomba, runs a full-day introduction for people who have never climbed, listed at $360 in October 2026, and climbs at sites including Mount York, Mount Piddington, Zig Zag, Narrow Neck and the Wolgan Valley.
• High and Wild, in Katoomba since 1989, runs a full-day rock climbing trip for up to six people for $340.

Once you have the skills, the Sydney Rockclimbing Club's member trips go to crags such as Mount York, Mount Piddington, the Soft Parade and Mount Boyce, and climbers bring their own gear, helmet included. Non-members can join one trip to try it, and since 2025 the club has refunded members 40% of most climbing course fees (80% for first aid), up to $200 a year.

Getting there, and the gyms on the way

theCrag puts the mountains about an hour and a half's drive west of Sydney, and the Blue Mountains train line runs across the plateau, with stations such as Blackheath and Medlow Bath close to crags. There's no gym in the upper mountains now: Katoomba's community bouldering gym, Camp Street Climbing, closed in 2023. The last walls on the way up are in Penrith, at the foot of the mountains: The Climbing Centre, whose tall top-rope walls you climb with a partner holding the rope, and Climber Collective, a bouldering gym in Jamisontown. Neither has lead climbing, so practise leading at one of Sydney's roped gyms. Our New South Wales page covers the rest of the state's walls.