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Bannockburn Bridge - Cromwell

Type
Altitude
200m
Part of

Nice crag by the lake. Mostly good rock. The routes are described from left to right, starting at the small buttress to the left of prominent east facing wall. This wall is shaded by early afternoon and the steeper northeast facing routes are in the shade by 5pm in summer. There is a good swimming hole just a few metres from the base of the crag.

Image
Walktime
3
Aspect
East
Lat/lon
POINT (169.169669 -45.080248)
Topo50
CC12 985 010
Access

Driving from Cromwell to Bannockburn on Bannockburn Road, cross bridge over the Kawarau River, turn left onto Cairnmuir Road. Pull over at first pullout on left and walk down and left to crag. It is easy to walk to either the top of the crag to set up topropes or to the bottom to lead.

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Routes

Reference Title Grade Length Pro Quality Operations
Sluice Box 23 12m 4
1.02
Flash in the Pan 21 12m 6
1.02
The Tardis 15 7m 1
0
JAM JAM 21 8m 3
0
CG Chain Gang 15 14m 4
0
BB Bogan to the Bone 16 15m 6
0
HD Heart of the Desert 17 15m 6
1.02
SAA A Shade of Afternoon Arête 19 15m 6
0
NE No Excuses 22 16m 7
2.01
BOW Take a BOW 21 15m 5
1.02
Pick and Mix 18 0m 7
0
CP Cherry Picker 20 14m 6
1.02
Just in Thyme 24 3
1.02
Sands of Thyme 24 10m 4
2.01
A Thyme to Remember 21 13m 6
0
It's Business Thyme 19 15m 5
1.02
Space-thyme continuum 12 16m 6
1.02
Thyme is Money 11 15m 6
0
Thymeless 14 16m 8
0
No thyme to die 10 10m 5
0
Quick Thyme 12 10m 5
1.02
Thyme Sharing 14 10m
0
Warrior on the Edge of Thyme 16 13m
0
Comments
Kieran Parsons

Hi Dave, yip, I'm local. Great work on all that cleaning, sounds like you put a lot of effort in. I went and had a scramble round on the slab and it looked like a lot of the loose rock has been removed. From experience, a leaf blower helps a lot with that final clean ;-) Thanks for adding the extra lines. I'll get in contact via email if you I have any further thoughts on the bolting. Feel free to reach out to the local climbing page called Central Otago Rock Climbing on Facebook if you're back in the area sometime and want to get out to some other crags - loads more development options available too.

Sat, 25/06/2022 - 12:50 Permalink
Dave Ryan

The beginner slab at the beach now has x4 bolted beginner lines, ranging from grade 10-14 ("Space-Thyme Continuum", "Thyme is Money" [existing climb], "Thymeless" and "No Thyme To Die"). Beware the new climbs are currently dirty and will need a good rain and/or scrub. Some loose blocks were removed, though keep an eye out for more. New climbs' grades are open to moderation. A great spot for teaching leading.

Mon, 13/06/2022 - 15:46 Permalink
Kieran Parsons

In reply to by Dave Ryan

Hi Dave, just reading through the descriptions of the 3x new lines. Space-Thyme Continuum is mostly new so you can probably claim the FA on that one (looks like a nice line too) as I've only seen the bottom handful of moves top roped from the Thyme is Money anchor. Thymless has been top roped and abseiled for years. We did a couple of hours cleaning of that line back in 2019 with the intention of bolting it to lead and then decided the rock was pretty marginal for bolts... No Thyme to Die has been scrambled on before. The rock is pretty loose the further right you go on that slab. One consideration is that the beach can have up to 20 people there on a hot summers days. Have all the loose blocks been removed? It's one thing to break a little crimp but another to pull a block out...

Tue, 14/06/2022 - 09:58 Permalink
Dave Ryan

In reply to by Kieran Parsons

Hi Kieran, cheers for your comments. Nice to hear about some of the history of the climbs. I can understand your concerns - for sure the rock quality decreases as you head R on the slab, and there are definitely places you wouldn't place bolts due to rotten rock. We certainly took a long time assessing each bolt placement to make sure they went in to good rock, and we yarded, yanked and kicked at blocks and got a tyre-iron involved too. We pried off 3 computer-screen sized blocks and a number of smaller ones. Due diligence was completed, but it would be remiss of me to say that we definitely got it all (as would be the case with any natural rock crag). I take it you're a local? It's a great resource you've got down there. Feel free to email me any feedback about the routes: dave.mark.ryan@gmail.com. Cheers and happy climbing.

Wed, 15/06/2022 - 08:57 Permalink
UUID
 
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