Tora Bora crag sits high on the hill on the western side of the road as you enter Orroral Valley.
All of the routes at this crag have been established since 2002, and at the time of writing there were 5 completed routes. The central boulder has three bolted routes, however these were all affected by the Canberra bushfires of 2003 and are in need of repair. Have a go on these only if you’re game!
Getting there
From the cattle grid as you enter Namadgi National Park on the Orroral Valley road continue for 1.8km, parking on the left just off the road beside a gum tree. Approximately half way up the hill can be seen three significant larger boulders; the boulder to the left has a smaller triangle-shaped boulder resting on top of it. Head straight up the hill to these boulders. It’s approximately a 10-15 minute walk, the return walk being much faster.
Routes
The first lower boulder reached contains two routes that share the same difficult start.
From L-R these are:
Hei Sei 27 Stick-clip and batman to the first bolt. Proceed by following the left hand arête to double rings J Ryan, N Wales 2002
Saloth Sar 22 Stick-clip and batman to the first bolt. Follow the right hand arête to share double rings with HS N Wales 2000
Continuing 30m directly up from here is the fire affected central boulder. For information, the central boulder can be accessed from the back via a single bolt with a fixed hanger. There is an abseil chain on top.
Continue left past this boulder for another 30m to two large boulders containing four routes.
From R-L these are:
I am the black gold of the sun 23
Reach high to the first bolt, follow the right hand side of the boulder straight up reaching a slab above, continue slightly left to double rings N Wales, Feb 2005
White fella dreamin’ variant traverse 24
Up the left hand side of the boulder, traversing right at about half way to share the double rings with IATBGOTS N Wales 2005
White fella dreamin’ 24
Up the left hand side of the boulder following the arête to chain N Wales 2003
The left hand boulder with the large boulder on top contains one route:
Unnamed Project
J Ryan 2002
Continuing right from the central boulder for 100m to a large boulder on a large rock platform.
There are currently two routes here:
Project
Straight up the centre of the boulder. J Ryan 2002
Project variant
Where Unnamed Project steepens traverse left to arête through two bolts and lower off rings. N Wales 2005
Continuing straight up from behind the central boulder for 50m to a smaller boulder with a gum tree growing close to the arete.
There is one route here:
Muslim extremist’s of the world unite 15
Short route with 3 bolts following the left hand arête to chain. N Wales 2005.
Bouldering
Approximately 1.3km after the cattle grid, at the top of a small rise, is a roadside boulder with one documented problem:
Diego Garcia V6 R-L leaning traverse and top-out. C Szady, N Wales 2004
There are a couple of other unnamed boulder problems here as well. In addition, some boulders with a few established problems occur on the walk up the hill to the crag. These are undocumented to date.
New routes at Tora Bora
Routes established since the publication of the ACT Granite 1997 guide and contributed from the community via thecrag.com, are: