Date: 20/12/2025
Trip leader: Adam H
Party: Terry, Kristen, Daniel
I am yet to head off to Mt Wilson without an array of goodies from the German bakery in Wentworth Falls and I am yet to not be in there while SUBW canyoners are looking for me, I suppose being such an important part of a canyoning trip, this marks the start of the trip and thus its inclusion in this trip report. Sorry all who have had to wait for their ride to a canyon, the promise of a pretzel that has been steaming in a canyon keg is all too luring. Only a few minutes of delay is necessary for this vital task, and we were on our way to Mt Wilson.
At 8:58AM, we set off ready for our gobs to be utmost smacked by Gobsmacker Canyon. Also setting off for a gobsmacking was a commercial group of 6 which had me a little bit concerned. As someone who has done Empress 11 times in the past 8 weeks (humblebrag, it’s my local pool at this point), I am all too familiar with waiting behind commercial groups for an anchor to be free. It often takes a bit longer for commercial groups to abseil for a number of reasons including top belaying & just slower descents by their clients. This is no fault of the commercial group or the participants, and it is indeed a wonderful thing that they exist to share the awesome experience that is canyoning with all. Not a complaint, it’s just the way things are and I was a little bit concerned that we would be in for a slow run if we got caught behind them. I was keen to overtake them so our two groups wouldn’t be affecting one another.
Thus, we made quick pace on the walk in before Terry experienced the stiffness of brand new La Sportiva canyoning boots and did something to his ankle going downhill. We took a few minutes to recover and then pressed on regardless to our landmark anthill that signalled the turn down to reach the canyon. OSM dubs this track “Anthill Creek Track” which seems like a perfect name: it is signalled by an ant hill and follows a creek…
It was in that creek that I slipped on a log. Misadventure #2 and we hadn’t even made it into the canyon yet. After another few minutes to recover, we once again pressed on regardless down to the junction with Bowens Creek. It is in this lower section of Bowens Creek North that Lower Bowens Creek North (the proper name for Gobsmacker) is located.
The benefit of these 2 minor slip ups, whilst perhaps not instilling great confidence in ourselves that today was the day to canyon, was that the commercial group had a bit of a head start and they must have been pretty far ahead of us at this point.
One of the best feelings is the rush of cold water into your wetsuit on a hot day as you hit the first pool. Abseil #1 was short but provided exactly that. Having not been bothered to flake the rope into my bag at home like I usually would, all 50m of coiled rope that had to be thrown down was then be packed up in the water, avoiding having to do it in the dry with a wetsuit on.
A bit of swimming found us at abseil #2. Discussions were had about whether it could be jumped, but we all erred on the side of caution and went down on the rope. The option to abseil down to a ledge on river right and jump (only 3m as opposed to 8m) exists but nobody ended up taking it. It was also here that we first caught up with the commercial group ahead, and they were just sending their last couple of clients down so it wasn’t too long of a wait.
A few downclimbs, and more swimming through what was so far a pleasant canyon saw us at abseil #3.
Abseil #3 has two options – one unobstructed around a sling on a tree and the other going down into a “hole” in the creekbed and under a chockstone and through the flow. We of course went for the much more fun latter option.
It’s a bit of fun but it’s really not that constricted, camera angles just do a wonderful job of making things look a bit more hardcore.
Three were down and enjoying the pool at the bottom, then came the other strand of the rope and finally Terry attached to it.
The canyon is exceptionally pretty from here on and is a few pleasant swims, downclimbs and scrambles out to the exit track.
We had lunch, complete with a share of Terry’s mochi & Daniel’s chocolate, just before the exit track and headed back up to civilisation.
The exit track was overgrown in places but easy to follow and not impenetrable. It was a shame that while we were in the canyon someone must have constructed a big uphill section on the fire trail just before our cars that we all agreed definitely wasn’t there on the way in.
A good day out in a good canyon.
Photos by Daniel, Terry & myself.
