The Bidji

Darug Country – The Bidjigal Reserve is a 186-hectare reserve in the City of Parramatta, Sydney. Is home to a wide range of native flora and fauna, but mostly consists of dry sandstone gully forest on sandstone base soils. The reserve is also known for its abundance and diversity of fungi. 🍄

Another Gem of Sydney’s suburban bouldering mecca. I first checked this place out some years before the the last major development period around 2022. I definitely saw plenty of potential.

This place is tricky however as the rock although mostly solid can be quite sandy in parts & as well, many of the blocs are often damp for large parts of the day. As this gully is very sheltered it also does not seems to get much of a breeze, so basically finding a proper dry period can be somewhat of a challenge.

I checked out this line a few weeks before and was pretty keen to come back and give it a good lashing. It is located just to the right of Odin’s Ravens V10 and ‘appeared’ to not have been climbed.

So on the way back from a big Nowra session the previous day, Calem & I lugged a heap of pads, rope, ladder & fans down to said boulder. After some decent scrubbing and chalking of holds it was ready for some action.

Stand starting with some tension toe hookery you set up for the crux move which is one of the single most crazy fun moves I have ever done. Something like an overhead dyno to a sloper loaf, which in all its tradition was damp and slippery, as well as most of the other holds. How I managed to hold it whilst paddling to get some kind of grip & swinging wildly I do not know. Once in my grasp & after a quick reset the easiest way to do the next move is to again jump for a medium edge as the footholds are somewhat limited. Then its just a matter of keeping it together and shuffling along the break on moderate holds to the top.

After contacting some peeps about the ‘new line’, I found out it had been done the season prior by none other than one of our local legends Sam Healy. Definitely surprising how quickly any trace of previous action disappeared.

So there you have it, another Sydney classic, Ymir the Fallen V11

‘Beta Note, Sam also started with his left hand next to his left foot for the FA.

A suuuper cool line indeed 🙌🏼