Date: 14/3/2026
Trip leader: Aidan, Adam, Jayden, Murray, Noah, Terry, Vincent
We’ve been planning to do this canyon for a while and every weekend, bad rain forecasts push things away. We’ve got Aidan and his friends (Noah and Jayden), me Vincent Adam, and Murray our beginner looking to try out the more technical canyons. The main challenge with organising a trip down this canyon is the climbing exit, needing someone to lead climb and someone to lead belay.
On Friday (day before the trip) I’ve packed my canyoning gear and headed to the Canoe Club boatshed for some deep water rescue training, before going up to the mountains. We’ve gone for a few swims in Elizabeth Bay, rescuing capsized kayaks, and one unexpected capsize under Glebe Island Bridge, as Adam’s kayak had its hull filled with water and became very tippy. Finishing that, I jumped into Adam’s car, heading into the mountains.
I was originally planning to grab a takeaway at a Thai place near Central Station, have that on the Blue Mountains train and call that my dinner. Adam driving meant we could probably grab dinner on the way (and pick up Vincent). Vincent thought of cooking his steak in his fridge at first, but then realised the steak had rotten and chucked it in the bin. We had a few options for dinner- somewhere in Parramatta, or Pancakes on the Rocks in Northmead, or Monte pizza in the mountains (which Adam had a few friends getting food poisoning). We ended up going to North Katoomba for Vincent’s FB Marketplace pickup, then got something from Woollies, while I had my banh mi takeaway from Redfern earlier on.
Vincent and I stayed a night in Grand View Hotel in Wentworth Falls to help with the early start. The pub is quite well known… for its horrendous food. At least the live music isn’t very obnoxious like some pubs in Newtown. It has a grand view of a balcony facing Great Western Highway. The room is quite nice with basic amenities (bathrooms are shared tho).
Midway through our sleep, both of us woke up at 4 am to some loud, disturbing noise from the room next to us. They probably slept with the TV on, and it was still blasting at full volume all night. We knocked on their door, only to hear the snoring intensifying with every knock. Guess I might put on Airpods and listen to some music. A bit of Brahms and I still couldn’t fall asleep, until it was 5am and they somehow decided to turn off the TV.
With about 1 hour of sleep, we headed to Schwartz for breakfast before jumping in the car with Murray, who has been catching the train since 4am. Driving down the main street to Great Western Hwy we got a call from Aidan, who asked if we could supply him with a SUBW club helmet as he had forgotten his own. We turned back to Adam’s place to get the helmet, just so we don’t get Aidan’s face on some Facebook groups with angry comments along the lines of “this is so unsafe… think about the children…”
We got to the carpark around 8 am, being the first group of canyoners for the day. Good weather in a long while meant it’s going to be a crowded day, and another outdoors club was running a trip down the same canyon as well, with potentially a few beginners. We have a group of 7, all knowing how to set up abseils except one strong beginner (Murray), and 3 ropes- it all feels like it’s going to be the most efficient canyoning trip we’ve had.
Most of us haven’t done Butterbox before except Aidan and me, who were on a trip with Sabs a few years ago. Butterbox was my 4th canyon and for beginners, it can be quite a big leap (yet a really good experience). In the planning phase, almost everyone has a rope and we could have 5 or 6 ropes in our group- it’s quite an interesting subject to explore, as I’m sure more ropes means more efficient groups, but I guess at some point the efficiency plateaus as well and more ropes become less efficient.
It’s always quite pleasant bushwalking on the Mt Hay plateau, being more exposed and feeling a lot more different compared to the rest of the Blue Mountains. The track then heads down towards a logbook, a few scrambles, creek walking, and then the first abseil, where we changed into our wetsuits. I set up the first abseil, rigging all abseils in releasable setups as Murray doesn’t have self-rescue prusik loops. I rigged in the usual releasable-8 setup, and as I was clipping my quickdraw in to secure my setup, I realised one of the carabiners had a jammed screwgate and could not be opened. I got a few people to give it a go, and none could open it- I suppose the carabiner is deceased. The improvised solution was to clip an extra working carabiner to the jammed carabiner- it looks funny, but is totally safe.
I descended the abseil last and the 2nd abseil was ready. From there, it was a few swims in chilly water before we got to the ~10m abseil that can be jumped. It was a tall jump, but most people managed it well, with Aidan spending a few minutes second-guessing whether he should jump (which eventually he did). As usual, Vincent and I form the Team no jumping, abseiling or bypassing all jumps.
From there, it was the most iconic part of Butterbox- the chockstone abseil. It’s a 3-stage, back-to-back abseil with the first abseil getting to a beautiful chockstone wedged in a slot, the second one landing in the base of a waterfall, and the third one being just a short pitch to go all the way down. Adam had the first pitch ready, and I abseiled next to set up the next pitch from the chockstone.
The first abseil down was quite challenging, in that the rope was constantly being wedged into the tight cracks between rocks. It took me a while as the first person going down to fix up the rope and unjam them. It was also a tricky abseil in that the surfaces were slippery and there’s quite a big gap between the slope and the chockstone landing.
The chockstone was larger than I expected from the trip a few years ago- there’s space to comfortably fit 2-3 people. From there, there’s a River Left anchor, which I’ve heard was newly rebolted to help with rope retrieval issues. These abseils are quite notorious for rope retrieval issues, and last time there was also a bit of a rope jam issue with retrieving ropes from this abseil.
With both abseils ready, we’ve started sending people down the abseil from the top. Everyone had a bit of a fumble with landing on the chockstone while I took pictures of people abseiling, and reassuring them that the 2nd part, while looking scary, is a lot easier than the first part. Murray, our strong beginner and having only done Empress and Grand canyons beforehand, was managing all the tricky abseils well without belay.
Adam came down last from the first pitch and as expected, the rope got jammed in a crack during pulldown. It took us a few minutes and a few strong pulls to unjam that, but luckily from there it was all smooth sailing. He then went down the 2nd pitch and I came down last. Fortunately, everyone has been pretty efficient, as I would’ve gotten cold on the chockstone if it had taken 20-30 minutes longer. Last time we were waiting behind another group for the chockstone abseil and I was getting quite cold, but luckily with the coldest person going last, everything went smoothly and there wasn’t too much waiting in between.
The pull-down of the 2nd pitch with the new bolts is super smooth- zero issues at all. Unfortunately, the usual sunlight that shines through the slot and gives that magical shot wasn’t there- perhaps we were doing the canyon a bit too early. From there, the 3rd pitch has long been awaiting.
After that, I saw Vincent setting up an abseil for a 2m jump. Getting down, I was met with Adam, who looked dissatisfied with how slow everything went and how much faffing we had in between. Funny enough, the “faffing” that made the 2m abseil so slow was because Vincent forgot how to tie a clove hitch, and we were doing a knots and hitches class at the abseil.
Everyone was waiting at the next abseil, having a bit of a snack and some were getting a bit cold. Quite a pretty abseil into a deep pool, and I guess that’s where the scary moment was last time I did Butterbox. There was a giant log (now gone) sloping from the top edge towards the pool, and normally, one would assume something like that would be there forever. That was proven not to be the case, as the entire log dislodged the moment I stood on it. It collapsed straight into the water and one of the branches whipped towards me, narrowly missing me by a few centimetres. Aidan and Dean saw my life flashing before their eyes, but luckily, nothing bad happened apart from a small bruise on my kneecap. At least now everyone can abseil safely knowing that this giant tree log is no longer in the way.
We had a short lunch at the final abseil, finishing the canyon in a bit more than 3 hours. Here comes the fun part- walking out of the canyon. The walkout is probably the most scenic part of the canyon, with unobstructed views down Grose Valley.
Shortly, we came to the tight ledge right before the mandatory climb out. Jayden led the climb while the rest of us had a bit of a relaxing time in the cave. It’s a comfy spot to be able to get out of the sun. There are always mixed reviews online regarding the climb- some say it’s super difficult, some say it’s really easy. When I did it last time, about 2 years ago, I’d say it’s a difficult scramble, not necessarily a serious climb. At that time, it was still my very first climb (both indoors and outdoors), and I did struggle a lot getting up the final slot. I guess most of the fear comes from the uncertainty, and it’s usually easier than people have imagined.
We passed packs around before it was my turn. It was a lot easier than I thought, being barely the difficulty of a warmup climb in The Ledge- I’d say it’s roughly the difficulty of grade 1-2 in The Ledge. When you ask climbers for advice, most of them will say the same stuff regardless: hips to the wall, arms straight, just go up, and one day you’ll get there.
From there, it was just a bit of steep uphill walking before reaching the plateau. We stopped by a few lookouts and enjoyed some views of the entire Grose Valley.
A few people went to Butterbox Point for a look, and the spot where the entire canyon can be seen in sight, the obligatory picture for trip reports. We reached the carpark, about 6 hours and 30 mins since leaving the car, calling an end to another great day of canyoning.
