Geronimo Canyon Photos - 26th Jan 05
Geronimo Trip Report 26/1/05
Dave, Nicole, Roger, George, Ian, David, Lyn, Sharon.
We started out from the Fire Shed around 10am with dark clouds
and only a hope of it clearing up for a nice day. Ian was the only one who
had done Geronimo before. We took a 30m and 35m rope plus two handlines. We
took the standard Wollangambie #1 entry track and branched off left, and it
wasn't long before we hit the Wollangambie. Although the water was only knee
deep I piggy backed Nicole across the water. The track leading up the other
side was easy to find although it soon vanished into a mess of tree debris.
We scrambled with a bit of difficulty up the left hand side of the cliff and
then went right around the next cliff line and up a small gully only to find
the track leading from a rock pagoda on the right. Presumably the correct
path up is via the right hand side of the cliff? (Done this canyon several
times before have you Ian? :->)
Heading left took us up along the ridge line for a fair way over several pagodas
until the track eventually vanished on the left hand side of another rock
pagoda. At this point we scrambled left down through the scrub, sliding down
a small slab which bought us back onto a well defined track again. This lead
to a big but easy hand-over-hand into the canyon. We used a small shrub as
the anchor. We suited up here
but Ian told us not to harness up, and sure enough a minute or two down the
creek we hit the first abseil!
The first abseil is a ripper, from an anchro tree on the right, about 10m total down a slope and then into the slot. There was plenty of water gushing over the falls and bouncing off the walls making for a great wet abseil.
The second drop is about 5m down from here from some slings
around some logs in the water.
I don't know why you'd want to combine these two abseils, you'd need a long
rope and it would be a very tricky retrieve. Once one rope you can climb down
to a lower ledge on the right for an easier start. This is a great abseil,
again with the water pounding you if you take the right path. It would be
possible to keep mostly out of the water. You can land in the water or on
a log, or possibly even on a small ledge a meter or two above the water from
where you could jump. A short swim leads you through a nice slot section.
The 3rd "Geronimo" drop is soon reached. This is an
8m drop from some slings around a large chockstone. I had heard many horror
stories about this drop, but it was fairly straightforward. I don't know why
you'd go down any other way than against the wall on the left. Jumping this
abseil would be foolish indeed, the water was not all that deep in many places.
Roger found his Leatherman was missing after climbing out of the pool.
Eventually it was found at the bottom of the drop buried under the sand after
several dives and blind feeling around. A lucky find!
Another short stroll brigns you to a rock slide into a head
height pool, and then you reach the final drop. We set up a safety line to
get across the ledge on the left safely. This ledge leads to an abseil tree
for the final 15m abseil. Once again, this a nice abseil which lands in a
shallow pool.
A short stroll and scramble leads to the Wollangambie. I was very surprised and a bit dissapointed at how short the canyon was, it seemed to be all aver as quickly as the fun started.
At the gammbie we were able to jump into a srong current flow which took us hundreds of meters downstream on our backs all the way to the beach and the exit. The rapids were great fun, and it was much better than creek walking!
I think it was about 5.5-6 hours all up, you could certainly do it a lot quicker if you needed to, we really took our time.
None of the abeils had Quicklinks but all are classic cases were one is warranted. Unfortunately I didn't have any with me this trip.
My impression of Geronimo was that it was a terrific canyon, all of the abseils were great fun, and the slot is very nice. It was however dissapointingly short compared to say Whungee Whungee which is the same effort for the walk in/out. The overall length was probably similar to Water Dragon. Also, the small bit of scrub bashing required to get to the canyon might take the shine off for some. The 2nd and 3rd abseils are a bit tricky, so probably not suitable for complete abseiling beginners. Would be good to combine with another canyon in the area if you are after a longer day out.
Definitely a canyon to do if you haven't done it.