Pushing her limits on Bunny Bucket Buttress in the Blue Mountains led Explorer Georgia to question if we’re adequately preparing new climbers to understand the skills, responsibilities, and risks involved in the sport.

We Are Explorers acknowledges Dharug and Gundungurra Peoples, the Traditional Custodians of the Country on which this adventure takes place, who have occupied and cared for the lands, waters, and their inhabitants, for thousands of years. We pay our respects to them and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.

 

‘Dude, you’re a total badass’, I exclaimed, turning towards Taleah as I finally reached her at the top of the climb. We were seven pitches into an eight-pitch multi-pitch climb, and I was buggered.

Multi-pitching is a type of rock climbing where you climb a rock face that requires more than one length of rope to ascend. In this case, we had a 60m rope and about 300m of climbing to do, so Taleah and I took turns leading each pitch or climbing up second.

The climb we were in the middle of was called Bunny Bucket Buttress (BBB) and it’s one of the most famous multi-pitch climbs in the Blue Mountains, if not Australia.

Hearing About BBB and the Subsequent Discouragement

At Grade 18, BBB should be a relatively chill climb that can be completed within a morning. Yet, it has a reputation for making a fool of even the strongest of climbers. So much so that there are entire forums dedicated to instructing people on how to not stuff it up.

For as long as I’ve been climbing (about three years), I’ve wanted to climb Bunny Bucket Buttress, but whenever I asked my friends and fellow climbers they always advised me against it.

‘It’s too hard’, they’d say, or ‘maybe come back when you’re stronger’.

The comments were all relatively reasonable at the time. When I started climbing, I wasn’t very strong and I hadn’t learnt many rope skills yet, which are definitely needed for an eight-pitch multi-pitch climb.

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Considering the Three Key Elements of Climbing

Climbing is an inherently risky sport and it’s important that you have the skills to mitigate any unnecessary risks. Of course, strength is important, but if you can’t get yourself out of a bad situation, then you could put both yourself and others in danger.

I like to think of climbing as composed of three key elements: skill, strength, and risk.

1. Climbing Skills

Skill refers to your rope-and-rescue skills. These might include hauling, prusiking, and first aid. It also includes knowing what to have on your harness and what to do if you don’t have what you need. Improvisation and creativity are really important here!

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2. Climbing Strength

Strength can be quantified by the highest grade you can climb consistently. Keep in mind that how hard you can climb is also influenced by factors such as nutrition, sleep, and menstruation.

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3. Climbing Risk

Risk is a bit harder to quantify than skill and strength but I like to think of it as a combination of the two. When considering risk you might ask yourself, ‘Do I have the skills and strength to finish this climb? Can I self-rescue if things go wrong?’.

Knowing the answer to these questions is really important when considering how risky the particular climb might be for you.

Another important element of risk is the factors you can’t control. These include weather, other groups on the climb, and potential injury. These factors make having the right skills even more important.

You might be able to climb super hard, but if you don’t know how to help your partner when they break their leg, then you’re putting yourself in a bad situation.

Training and Preparation

An ‘epic’ is an adventure that didn’t quite go to plan. Where you had to bail or otherwise get yourself out of a difficult situation. As I mentioned before, Bunny Bucket Buttress is generally an epic. So, my first plan of action was to figure out our bail options before we started climbing.

Oddly, bailing is probably the thing I look forward to most when I’m planning my adventures. Although I don’t necessarily like the idea of not finishing what I’ve started, the idea of getting myself out of a tough situation all by myself is absolutely thrilling.

A few days before we’d planned to do BBB, a group of friends who knew the area well planned to do a climb nearby. I asked if I could come along to suss out the approach and route.

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From what I’ve read, one of the biggest contributing factors to people having epics on BBB is getting lost, which inevitably adds unwanted time to the day.

Sussing out the route beforehand kind of felt like I was cheating. If my friends hadn’t already been going, I might not have checked the approach beforehand, but I’m glad I did. Making sure you have a reliable navigation app to help you find your way is a must.

Assembling My Team

It was also important that the party I was going with knew what they were doing. These included knowing how to prusik up a rope, knowing how to haul a partner who has lost contact with the rock, and knowing how to haul a pack. It was also important that they felt confident that they could climb 300m in one day.

Luckily for me, the group I went with included two badass climber gals (and one badass guy), who’d already been eyeing off the route and were well aware of the risks involved and skills required.

I met these climbers as part of the University of Queensland Mountain Club. Over several years I’d come to know them across lots of climbing trips, particularly on the annual two-week trip to the Blue Mountains. All of these people are incredible climbers. They’re strong, skilled, as well as kind – all of which makes for a great climbing partner.

My goal with this climb was to go on an adventure that has tested so many other brilliant climbers before us and prove that we could absolutely do it too. Despite my own self-doubt, I knew that my friends and I had the skills and strength to match the risks we faced.

I wanted to show others who might doubt themselves that if you’re mindful about the way you climb, you’re more likely to have an epic than a disaster.

The Bunny Bucket Buttress Climb

Without a doubt, climbing Bunny Bucket Buttress was one of the best experiences of my life. When I got to the top, I teared up as I looked out at Pierces Pass in the Blue Mountains below me and contemplated what I’d been able to overcome.

My fear of failing. My fear that I was not strong enough. And, greatest of all, the fear that I was leading my friends into a situation that I would not be able to get us out of.

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I’d felt so much self-doubt before doing this climb. The grade of the climb, Grade 18, is at the top end of my limit. And, after hearing so many people talk about their epics, I knew that my skills and performance on the day would have to be better than ever before if I wanted to stay safe.

Without telling you too much about the climb (known as ‘Beta Spraying’), let me tell you that climbing pitches six and seven felt like ascending a ladder to the climbing heavens.

I didn’t find all the moves easy. And I was very, very scared many, many times. But with each move I managed to stick, I felt my confidence growing. On pitch seven I even took a deliberate ‘whipper’ – climbing term for a big jump or fall – almost 200m in the air! 200!

The Way We Talk About BBB Needs to Change

Part of our responsibility as climbers is understanding when the risk is worth it, and when it’s not. The problem that I faced is that no one tells you this when you start climbing.

All you can think about is getting stronger and doing crazier adventures. And if you’re like me, being terrified of making a bad decision.

I find that the hardest part of climbing is knowing when I have the skills and strength to balance the risks I’m taking to prevent any bad decisions from being made.

The question is, how do we communicate to new climbers that climbing isn’t just about strength, it’s also about skill?

And, on the other hand, while it’s okay to be scared or nervous, it’s also important to recognise your own skills and abilities. Risk is inherent to climbing.

And, although epic adventures are incredibly appealing as climbers, it’s important that we can rely on our own skills to work our way out of these tough situations.

If we want to see more people pushing their limits while still climbing responsibly, then we need to start talking to new climbers about this more.

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments.

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This piece was brought to you by a real living human who felt the wind in their hair and described their adventure in their own words. This is because we rate authenticity and the sharing of great experiences in the natural world – it’s all part of our ethos here at We Are Explorers. You can read more about it in our Editorial Standards.