Revisiting the scene of Martin’s heli-evac

COLO RIVER – APRIL 2016
Caloul Ridge > Crawfords Pass > Wollemi Creek > Colo River > Pass 6  (Slot Pass) > Caloul Ridge
Martin D and his wife Jenny were walking down Pass 6 about five years ago and a rock fell on Martin’s leg, breaking it.  When I said let’s do an overnight walk, Martin decided that he wanted to go back to the scene of the accident. Martin, Jenny and I have done this walk a couple of times now, we all love the Colo River so it was a good opportunity to introduce Trish M and Brad M (his first overnight walk) to the delights of the Colo.

We met up at the Hollow Rock Car Park and were quickly at Crawfords Pass.  It’s a well used route and the track is very slippery, almost like walking on ball bearings, you have to be very careful of where you put your feet, and it’s a good idea to always hold onto something as you negotiate your way down.  There are a few climb-downs along the way and I was really surprised to see that someone has chiselled in a hand-hold on one of the more awkward climbs, it wasn’t necessary, you just had to work your way down.  This “enhancement” of the track was more than just hand-holds as we were soon to discover.

It was about lunchtime by the time we got down to Wollemi Creek and made our way along to Crawfords Cave for lunch.  We would have been there sooner except for some reason everyone wanted to keep their boots dry.  I just had on runners so I walked along in the creek (much easier!).

After lunch we crossed the creek and negotiated our way over to the right-hand bank where there is a long section of rock ledge to walk along.  We soon came across another party who had slept at Crawfords Lookout the night before, they were a lot slower than us so after a quick chat we left them behind.  By now we were walking along the bank of the creek in amongst the river gums and it was a surprise that someone with a saw had been along and cut off inconvenient branches, so there was a “footpad” more or less along the creek bank for the whole trip down to Pass 6.  Whilst it definitely made the going easier, it was disappointing to see that the walk was getting that much action that someone felt the need to bring in a saw, we nick-named him “Saw Man”!

By mid-afternoon we were at the junction of Wollemi Creek and the Colo, not too far now until our campsite, so we forged on ahead.  It was a hot day, we took the occasional swim in the river to cool off, we were all really happy to reach the campsite for the night, a lovely large sand bank opposite Pass 6.  We quickly set up camp and built the campfire and then most of us went back in the river for a swim, there were small cascades at the campsite so we had a “spa bath”.

We spent the rest of the evening around the campfire and Martin told us about his accident, how the rock had fallen on his leg and how Jenny had to make her way up the route that they’d just come down (losing the map he’d given her along the way), to get to the cars so she could make the 000 call.  Martin was then extracted out by helicopter and was side-lined for many months until his leg healed.

Next morning we crossed the river and headed up the pass, through the rocks and up a small slot, I guess it was no surprise here to see that Saw Man had come along and put in a ring bolt for a hand-line, and had kindly left a length of window-sash cord to be used, definitely not safe, so we removed it.  The bolt stayed though, he had also left a length of old Bunnings rope for the next climb up, this was so old the core had deteriorated, so we organised to take that out too.

There are four climbs in total, all of them with a small amount of exposure, but once up, it is an easy walk up the creek to the left hand fork and then up that side creek to access the ridge.  Saw Man had been here too, the walk   up to the ridge was like a super highway!

Martin tried to look for the scene of the accident but couldn’t find it.  Never mind, he’s agreed to be my support crew on the river when I do Wounded Knee multi pitch abseil (Pass 5) in the spring, so he’ll be able to take another look for the spot then.

We were back at the cars by mid afternoon, great trip Martin, Brad had a ball!