Date: 6/9/2026
Trip leader: Adam H
Party: Elias D, Ilana B
The troop was bound up the mountain on the first train of the morning to meet at Wentworth Falls at 6:10AM. For two of us, this was all too familiar having been here at the same time ahead of the previous fortnight’s foray into the Carmarthen Labyrinth. This time, we would be heading down Ranon Canyon, taking the Mistake Ravine entry to save time.
An hour later, we were off from the Claustral carpark and heading down a spur to Mistake Ravine. Elias and I were meant to be here a day prior, however 90km/hr wind gusts, extreme fire danger, and the realisation that Elias was still at the pub at 11:30pm the night before (having not yet collected the rope he needed to bring) made the trip seem a little untenable. This postponement to the following day meant everyone was able to get enough sleep and Ilana was also able to join.
Spirits were high as we bashed our way down, repeating the cycle of finding a footpad and then promptly losing it until we were down in the creek.
We were soon down the first major downclimb aided by a woefully short fixed handline.
We continued along, downclimbing the second drop and abseiling the third. To abseil the drop, we suited up in our early-spring-appropriate wetsuits to save having to reharness later. Given there was still ~400m of creek walking to the first actual swim, this turned out to be a mistake. This walk, whilst through excellent canyoniferous creek sections, was unpleasantly sweaty to say the least. The sunk cost fallacy had well and truly reared its head with none of us wanting to stop and desuit along the way.
Thankfully, this had come to a head when we reached Ranon proper and our first abseil. Apparently we had missed bolts (that or they have been chopped) on an earlier drop that we just downclimbed by rigging a handline around a boulder. I rigged the abseil and made sure to take a photo with my excellent new helmet sticker representing Dan Murphys’ own Uncle Dan and his Lowest Liquor Price Guarantee (Ts & Cs apply).
We continued along with the feature of a fun 3m slide down a log until we reached the two main spectacular abseils of Ranon.
We were only at the junction with Claustral by 11am. I checked this time against our Claustral run two weeks earlier, and we were an hour behind on the time trial.
Out came the Whisk & Pin biscuits for a quick snack break around the mighty hulks fist.
We made quick time through the remainder of Claustral, skipping Thunder and passing a dead wallaby absolutely infested with maggots that was not there on our last run. The high quality constriction was very much enjoyed by Elias whose slot canyon resume had previously consisted only of Grand.
We reached the exit, and I came to terms with the unfortunate retirement of my $8 Bunnings glove that had now been in service for 52 canyons and many a dry abseiling trips. Its wear had now rendered it ineffective. It will be dearly missed.
We stopped for a cool wetsuit-less dip and lunch before beginning the climb up and out Rainbow Ravine.
On the way to Camels Hump we took many prolonged breaks sitting around chatting including an educational break discussing polymorphism and contracts for Elias and his object oriented programming course, mainly to delay the inevitable elevation before us.
These moments of indolence meant the sun was very much setting as we reached the final stretch, and we stopped for another near the very end to enjoy the sunset.
An obligatory stop at Cattlefish in Katoomba ensued. A great day out was had by all despite the day being prolonged by our lazy exit pace.
