On a warm summer Saturday 16 Feb 2019, we had a group of 15 people visit Phegans Bay crag near Woy Woy on the Central Coast. It’s a 45min-1hr drive north of Sydney and the best features of this crag are a 5min walk from the car, an easy decent down a short gully and importantly a south-east facing wall which is shady all day. Often non-climbers use the track around this area to get an amazing view over Brisbane Water to Woy Woy, Ettalong and Umina.
For my first Rockies event as trip leader, I wanted to organise a day for people who had limited or no outdoor climbing experience. It was great to see so many new faces and all the participants were very keen on having a great day and keeping safe. Fortunately, I had a co-leader in Jeff Crass who expertly setup top rope anchors and helped observe the group to ensure that no one got into trouble. He also showed his old school method of stick clipping a carrot bolt with a wire – particularly useful for some routes with an early crux.
Nestor had some notable sends leading Sharon Stone and the wide-ish trad crack Mohamed. Stingray and HS are also nice sport climbs on this wall. Most of the group climbed 3 routes on the Roundabout buttress – Knife Edge, R and the ungraded Q (Jeff set the standard by climbing this in approach shoes). Later in the day we setup 3 routes called U, V & W further down the crag which are reasonably bolted – although maybe not spaced perfectly for first-time lead climbers.
I hope to return to this crag again in the future as it provides a nice contrast to the nearby west-facing Berowra and Mount Kuring-gai crags. I’m also looking forward to seeing this crew join us at future Rockies club trips.
Geoff Cooper
Thanks to Jeff Crass and Richard Ly for providing the photographs