Date: 20/6/2026
Trip leader: Elias Dunstone
Party: Ben, Ilana, Noah, Terry, Thomas, Wei
When planning this hike, I was looking for a good challenging, long distance hike in the Blue Mountains. Looking into Narrow Neck, a massive sandstone peninsula separating Jamison and Megalong valleys, I found out about the Narrow Neck passes, 13ish bushbashing/scrambling routes that (one would think) lead from the top of Narrow Neck to the valley below. After doing a fair bit of research into the different passes, I came up with a 32km route from Katoomba, linking Redledge, Rockpile, Mitchell’s creek, Blackbilly head, Carlon’s head and Devil’s hole (not a narrow neck pass) passes. This route had many opportunities to bail and head back along the main firetrail, and was an ideal scenario. Our actual route ended up differing very slightly to this ideal plan, due to some minor inconveniences we faced.
Due to the difficult nature of this hike, with exposed and technical scrambling, challenging navigation and bushbashing, and long distances, I was sure to choose a sufficiently qualified group. After a last minute signup we had a group of 7, who all seemed pretty competent. We decided to catch the 5.24am BMT from Central instead of the 4.24am, to get some more sleep. Thankfully there were minimal logistical problems getting the train, and we soon all grouped up. After an incident with spilled sunscreen (sorry transport nsw), we arrived in Katoomba to start our road/firetrail bash down to the first pass.
It was fairly chilly, as expected, but also very overcast, despite the forecasted lack of rain. Luckily the forecast ended up being correct, and there was no rain. The main street was busy with the Winter Fair being set up, and we soon made it down to the firetrail, and then a few kilometres along to the indistinct track to our first pass, which I missed, and we had to backtrack a little.
The track down to Redledge pass was quite obvious, and with a bit of scrambling, and complimenting the good condition of the track (rookie error, shouldn’t have talked so soon), we made it down to Lizards leap falls, a very nice waterfall down into a fern filled amphitheater. From here it was a little bit of bushbashing to find the track continuing on the other side of the creek (maybe we missed a more obvious path), and then out onto the red ledges that give this pass its name. This was a highlight of the trip, as from our narrow but not too exposed ledge halfway down the cliffs, we had great views over the cliffs going North, and the Megalong Valley.
The first issue of the hike happened as we were getting to the end of the pass. Me and Ilana continued along following the cliffs, past a chockstone which I had read in the trip report marked the route down to the valley. Since we were intending on following the cliffs for some time, we wouldn’t go down that route. Since Terry had done the pass before, he followed his memory down this chockstone route, as did everyone else. After realizing this we called everyone back up and kept following the base of the cliffs. Annoyingly, the ledge we were on promptly ended in a drop down to a massive landslide, so we couldn’t continue. This meant we went back and followed Terry’s original route to get further down the landslide to be able to traverse it.
Crossing the landslide was quite fun, the scrambling wasn’t especially hard and the rocks were mostly stablish. There were a lot of very cool rocks, with some great layer patterns and some very satisfying crunchy rocks. After the landslide, we started heading back up towards the cliffs, since the scrub near the cliffs is typically less dense than further down. We made our way up a bit of a difficult scramble, and then followed the base of the cliffs for a bit. The others stopped for a break, and I went on around a corner to see the nice, wide, unexposed ledge we’d been following turn into a very sketchy looking ledge, which was narrow, sloping and covered in scree. I went along the ledge a bit to see if we could continue, before leaving my bag and coming back to get the others to have a look. Ilana and Ben, who I’d thought would be the most likely to be ok with going along the ledge, both said I was crazy and there was no way they’d go along there. Maybe my risk assessment reasoning is slightly warped, although I was sure I could see bootprints, and kangaroo/wallaby prints, indicating that I wasn’t the first to go along this ledge. So I went back along the ledge to get my bag and came back fine. Going slowly, the ledge was manageable, but the knowledge that a tiny slip could instantly cause you to fall down a 20m cliff is not very reassuring.
After a quick food break we headed back to the dodgy scramble, and decided to rig a handline for it with the 10m of tape Terry had brought. There was a good tree to anchor on, and soon everyone made it down without too much trouble. I undid the bowline and came down last, and we headed off on this lower terrace in the same direction as we’d been planning to go before we were stopped by the sketchy ledge.
I’d seen some very dense looking scrub from up on the ledge, and was not particularly looking forward to making our way through it to continue on to Rockpile pass. We soon reached this dense scrub, and started through it. At the start, we considered going up or down the slope, trying to evaluate which one would be easier going. However, the more we progressed, the more we just accepted that whichever way we went would be incredibly slow, and it wasn’t worth the mental effort of being pedantic about it. So we spent the next hour (hour and a half?) pushing over, under and through ferns, lawyer vine, rotten tree branches and numerous leeches, which was particularly bad for whoever happened to be the first couple of people in the line, as the last people could mostly follow the “trail” carved out by those in front. We got down the creek at the bottom of this terrible gully, and up the other side, where we spotted a small landslide (bare ground!) to aim towards. We eventually made it up to this landslide, where the gully became much steeper, but much more open, with gum trees and minimal scrub. In retrospect, I thought it may have been better to go all the way down and around this dense gully, but realistically, and from what we would later experience, this would’ve likely been futile, as the dense scrub continued on for a long way. We stopped at a nice sloping boulder to look back over where we’d come, and contemplate how many people had ever sat on this boulder before.
From here, we kept heading up and around the base of the cliffs until we reached a creek below some scrambling sections below where we believed the pass to be. Since the scrambles seemed a bit challenging, and we weren’t sure if we’d be required to backtrack, Ilana, Ben, Terry and I headed up to look for the pass while the others waited below. I soon got up to the base of the cliffs below a waterfall, where we believed the pass to be, however there was no sign of anything short of a climbing route up the cliffs. I followed the cliffs around a bit to the North, getting gradually more annoyed at the lack of a pass. Heading back, I went around a small headland to the South, where the ledge became impassable. Quite thoroughly annoyed at this development, I headed down to where the others were waiting and shared the bad news. Consulting various notes and maps, we determined that Rockpile pass was, in fact, not a pass from the bottom of the cliffs to the top (possibly incorrectly). Satellite imagery very clearly showed two tiers of cliffs: gpx routes of previous trips stuck to the upper tier, and we were below the lower tier. Defeated, we set another handline with Terry’s tape to get down the challenging scramble, anchoring on a not particularly healthy tree, which was the best anchor point we could find.
Again I headed down last, and we stopped with everyone to decide what to do next. Since, as far as we were aware, it was impossible for us to get up Rockpile pass, our options were to either return to Redledge pass, through the very dense scrub we’d already been through, or to bushbash down to the Mitchell’s creek track at the bottom of the valley and then hike out via Devil’s Hole. Hoping to avoid the scrub we’d passed through before, we decided to head down to the valley, and started off down the hill, roughly following the creek we were on.
This was after 3pm, and remaining sunlight was also a concern. Another concern, which I’d gained from a trip report I’d read, was that between us and the track lay an area of private property, which the person writing the report had from someone who’d heard from someone that the owners of this property were very “trigger happy”. This was not exactly what we wanted to deal with after spending hours bashing through thick scrub. Prior to reaching the property line, we headed down a small gully, sometimes along the creek, through progressively thicker scrub. Eventually we made it to a small waterfall, and had to skirt around to the North. This section became particularly dense, and we were all grateful for Ben, who was in the lead, and whose hands bore the brunt of the very sharp sedges blocking our path. We traversed around the hillside for a bit, hoping to find a way down the small cliffline to the blissfully open and lawyer vine-less gum forest below. Eventually the cliffs petered out, opening up to a very open slope. Getting out of this scrub, hopefully for the last time on the trip, was such a relief, and some of us started running down the hill in appreciation. Unfortunately we were now on private property, and we soon came to the edge of a clearing, in (distant) sight of the house. Eager to avoid any more bushbashing, we briskly followed the edge of the clearing, across to the other boundary fence, and out their front gate onto a FIRETRAIL, the first trail we’d seen in hours. Although we still had 6km and 500m of vertical ahead of us, it felt like the hike was essentially finished. Nothing could compare to the many hours we’d spent covering all of 3-4 kms.
We stopped here for a much deserved food break, also clearing our boots of the accumulated debris and leeches. From here it was easy going along a firetrack, then Nellie’s Glen road, to the start of the Devil’s Hole track. The sun was setting around this time, lighting up the cliffs of Narrow Neck. Eventually we got out our headtorches (only one person didn’t bring one), and headed up the Devil’s Hole track in the dark. It soon became apparent that 2 people’s head torches were essentially useless, so they stuck between those with torches, and used phone torches. The climb soon began, with a fair amount of scrambling involved. We were all pretty tired at this point, but we knew it wasn’t far to the top. We stopped on the way up to see the Southern cross perfectly framed by the narrow gorge we were ascending.
We soon made it to the top, and checked the bus timetable to head back to get dinner in the main street of Katoomba. We caught the next bus, and were soon back at the Cattlefish getting dinner. Dinner was great, and Ben discussed our hike with the owner, who’d hiked many of the Narrow Neck passes before. Since we had plenty of time until the next train, we stopped in at the pub, and then headed over to the station. There were plenty of people around still, due to the Winter Fair being on. We were joined by some very friendly and talkative locals on the platform and on the train. Most of us got some much needed rest on the train ride back to Sydney, and parted at Strathfield or Central, getting home around 11pm, 18 hours after leaving in the morning.
Despite the rather disheartening terrain most of this hike was spent in, and the failure to complete any semblance of the original route, it was a great adventure, and was (mostly) enjoyable, thanks to the great group of people we had. Not to say that any of us would be keen to do it again anytime soon, but the challenges we faced definitely made for a memorable trip. However, I will certainly be back soon to complete some more of these passes!
Regarding the navigational failures of this hike, I believe my main mistake was made right at the start of Redledge pass, when we first got out onto the cliffs. Here, I was not attentive enough to track notes, and chose a lower ledge than what the route around to Rockpile pass follows. So from this point onwards, we were never going to make it to Rockpile pass. Checking gpx routes from previous parties confirms this, as multiple cliff ledges are very clearly visible on the satellite imagery. However, upon further research, Ben did find the gpx for a trip (by David Noble) which traversed from Mitchell’s Creek pass (to the South), to Rockpile pass, which appeared to go down to below the lowest cliffline, and then climb back up to Rockpile pass. The spot where David Noble went up the cliffs was a fair way further around to the South, although it may still have been a better option than the route we took down to the valley.
