Tiger Snake Canyon

Day 2 of the bi-annual Sydney North Region Canyoning Course and one of my favourite canyons. It’s a dry canyon, which means you only get your feet wet - it’s a shame that it’s not longer. If you want to make a day of it, then you can follow up with Penrose Gully.

David had to head back to Sydney so there were only 5 of us for day 2.

We got off to a reasonable early start and headed off down the walking track by 9:00am reaching the first option abseil at around 10:00am which we all downclimbed. By this stage Chris' group had caught up with us along with a couple of late comers.

[Tiger Snake Canyon]

Nathan down climbing the very narrow cleft at the start of the canyon.

[Tiger Snake Canyon]

Nathan decides that the collection of twigs forming the anchor for the second abseil needs a bit more weight to hold it in place. This abseil ends in an ankle deep puddle of water.

The next section of canyon is very tight so it not recommended for the more rotund canyoners out there.

[Tiger Snake Canyon]

Here’s the abseil we all came here for - 17m and most of it in space.

[Tiger Snake Canyon]

Ross, being a bit of a rebel tries a different approach to abseiling.

By this stage, one of the late comers Ben had caught up with us, so in order to speed things along he headed off to setup the next abseil into the next narrow section of canyon. I’ve usually done this canyon section by heading straight down into it, but this time Ben introduced me to a different entry point which goes up and left before the canyon section. You then do a 25m abseil off either one of two trees into the canyon. The canyon walls are quite close here making for a fun abseil. Once you’ve reached the floor you can then walk and scramble back up the canyon.

[Tiger Snake Canyon]

Patrick and Nathan at the end of the canyon section.

We stopped for lunch at the Mound at the end - some of the keener younger members explored the rather large cave on the left side of the canyon walls.

[Tiger Snake Canyon]

Paul scrambling up the Exit Pagoda. This is where a lot of people get misplaced as on first appearances, the track appears to head to the left of the Pagoda as you approach it.