Carlon Head / Tarros Ladder loop from Dunphy's Camp

[WildElly]

Hi, I'm planning on doing the Tarros/Carlon Chains loop from Dunphy's camping area and would prefer to be descending Carlon Chains, this would involve doing Tom Brennans track notes in reverse
http://bushwalkingnsw.com/walk.php?nid=732
Has anyone attempted this and can you share thoughts on difficulty

[jonnosan]

I have done Carlon head in both directions, although at least one more rung had snapped off on the main cliff on Carlon head between my first trip (descending) and 2nd trip (ascending). Even with that extra rung being present on the trip down, it was a fair bit easier going up then down.

So unless you are bringing abseil gear as a 'plan B' for Carlon head then I would strongly recommend going up Carlon Chains not down, especially if you are starting at Dunphy's since you will be at the critical decision point early in the day, when you have plenty of time and energy to back track, so can judge the crux on it's merits, not be forced to push on.

[johnw]

So unless you are bringing abseil gear as a 'plan B' for Carlon head then I would strongly recommend going up Carlon Chains not down, especially if you are starting at Dunphy's since you will be at the critical decision point early in the day, when you have plenty of time and energy to back track, so can judge the crux on it's merits, not be forced to push on.

Personally I haven't done Carlon as the exposure is beyond my tolerance level. But I just asked my son, who has climbed it. He's out canyoning and abseiling most weekends and said the only way he'd consider descending would be to abseil it.

[jonnosan]

BTW I should also add, the above trips were in 2011 (descent) and 2014 (ascent), it will only have gotten worse since then. And while I said going up was safer relative to going down, I definitely wouldn't call it safe. Personally I think there are much better trips to do starting from Dunphys (e.g. down Carlon Creek and up Bellbird Ridge), and if you just want some blue mountains rough track scrambling action, doing say gladstone pass/lindemans pass/ copeland pass would be more fun and safer.

[johnw]

BTW I should also add, the above trips were in 2011 (descent) and 2014 (ascent), it will only have gotten worse since then.

Son did it about 12 months ago I think. He said the chains themselves were rusted although solid. However some play/looseness was evident at the anchor points - his view is that they are not especially safe.

Personally I think there are much better trips to do starting from Dunphys (e.g. down Carlon Creek and up Bellbird Ridge)

I must plan to get back there. Another nice (quick) one is down Carlon Creek then up Pots and Pans spur, or via Ironmonger for a longer walk.

[DaveNoble]

Note that it is Mansons Chains at Carlons Head (not Carlons Chains). I recently went up the chains and thought it much the same as it was in the 1970's when I first did it. There are certainly no major changes - perhaps a spike or two has fallen out? Its often easier when climbing to go up rather than down, but I really don't think there is much difference here - both up and down are fairly easy - but you do need to be careful.

[WildElly]

Thank you all for the advise,it's very much appreciated. The plan is to bring abseil gear if choose the decent.

[tom_brennan]

I was last at Mansons Ladders ( ) in 2014. I wrote a fairly detailed report on the trip, including the state of the spikes and chains. At least 2 rungs are gone from when I first visited in 2006.
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=17139
There's also some history on the various names in that thread.

[WildElly]

Just an update on this trip, on the 9th Sept 2018 we ascended Tarros Ladder and descended Mansons Ladder. The chains on Carlon Head were in good form, however the rungs were a little sketchy and in my opinion the spikes were unreliable with some visibly missing and lose. We opted to use a safety line and harness on the second pitch.