Duncan's Pass 2013 - Current Status

[Solohike74]

Hi has anyone recently been through or looked at Duncan's Pass in the Blue Mountains? Can you provide status updates?

[tom_brennan]

Are you expecting something to be wrong with it?!

[KANANGRABOYD]

Its fine, used it about a month ago, a bit overgrown

[Grabeach]

Interesting that what is now usually referred to as Duncans Pass (ie. the walk up alternative to Tarros Ladders through the lower cliff line) wasn't discovered by Frank Duncan. Duncan, along with Ern Austen and Jack Derbet, got down in the vicinity of Tarros Ladders. The walk up route was found by Alan Rigby the next day. (Reference: Narrow Neck and the Birth of Katoomba - Jim Barrett.)

Always seemed a bit silly to me that Taro went to the trouble of installing ladders when there was a suitable alternative nearby. I guess some day somebody will fall down the spikes, the NP will pull them out and we will all go back to using the natural route.

[tom_brennan]

From the original report by Frank Duncan (http://ozultimate.com/sbw/wiki/194612):

Later, in June, 1928 we joined a popular Bush Walker trip to Clear Hill, at the end of this six-mile long plateau. On the way out we mentioned to some of the party our ambition to pioneer a route to the Coxs via the end of Clear Hill. And, as we arrived at our camping spot at Glen Raphael early, we set off for an evening exploration of the possibilities of a descent of the cliffs, feeling delightfully light and fresh without our heavy packs. A short time found us at the very end of Clear Hill, perchod up in the air with cliffs on three sides of us, and a fine clear view, one of the best I have seen in New South Wales, of bush-clad ridges in every direction. Tortuous valleys at our feet wound away in the distance but most striking of all was the feeling of airy lightneas and detachment, and freedom from the petty cares of everyday life.

A photo or two were taken, and then the search began. Soon our efforts were rewarded, and we climbed down the gully to the west of the southernmost point of the hill. The descent was in the form of steps or ledges extending in the direction of Mount Mouin. After repeated deviations and retracing of our steps; we came to a sheer cliff within fifty feet of the bush-clad foothills below.

These last fifty feet were the only serious difficulty of the descent, but even here it was not long before three of us, E. Austen, J. Debert and myself had climbed down a chimney-like crack and solved with a shout of pride the descent of Clear Hill.

We returned to camp very pleased with ourselves and made plans for the morrow, when the Austens, J. Debert, Gwen Adams and ourselves made the descent with our packs, and lit a smoke signal from a clearing on the Dog Track, to let our friends, who had stayed on Clear Hill, know of our safe descent.

We spent the next night near the junction of Breakfast Creek and the Coxs, and so home via Jerrys Ridge, tired, but with a satisfied feeling of achievement.

Subsequently a deviation on the latter part of the descent was explored by others, and this saved the climb down the chimney.

The charm and grandeur of the unspoilt bush still clings to Clear Hill, but now someone with more ingenuity than poetry in his nature has fixed a rope-ladder for the convenience of weaklings down the one bit of real climbing on our original route. The Philistines, I fear, will yet put an escalator up Mount Cook and a lift up Kanchenjunga.

Ironically for Frank Duncan, the route is most well known now by the name of the "someone with more ingenuity than poetry in his nature"!

Jim Barrett also makes the case in "The First Bushwalker", that Fred Eden descended the route in 1892, and that it was obviously well known to miners at the time as they had fixed ladders down the route. It is interesting that there seems no knowledge of this by the bushwalkers of the 1920s, and that there was apparently no sign of the ladders from the 1890s

[KANANGRABOYD]

Tom those books are great aren't they!. Like m daily biblical read. My fave is the Cox's River book, just amazing reading, every single one of Jim's books.
The bookshop at Blackheath has them, as do Megalong at the "yuppy" strip in Leura.

[KANANGRABOYD]

wasnt Fred Eden this amazing machine that did some of the big walks like syd to melbourne etc?
Way ahead of Myles et al.
Oh by the way do you know there is gonna be a great musical composure about Kanangra at the Independant Theatre (Nth Sydney) in June and Myles son will be there. Check the website of theatre for details. Met the composer at Mobbs a few weeks ago.

[Allchin09]

I am under the belief that the spikes are known as Taro's Ladders, and the ramp like path should be referred to as the Gundugurra Pass or the Wallaby Track. The system of the two passes is then called Duncans Pass.

This was Wilf Hilders view expressed in The Confed. Tracks and Access Report from 17th Apr 2007. I believe Jim Barrett also has a similar belief which he explains his books "Narrow Neck and the Birth of Katoomba" and "Place Names of the Blue Mountains and Burragorang Valley".

[tom_brennan]

I am under the belief that the spikes are known as Taro's Ladders, and the ramp like path should be referred to as the Gundugurra Pass or the Wallaby Track. The system of the two passes is then called Duncans Pass.

True, but if you ask the average walker what the pass at the end of Narrow Neck is, they'll tell you it's Tarros Ladders (and not Duncans Pass). Though it should probably be named after some enterprising oil shale miner to be honest!

[Allchin09]

Though it should probably be named after some enterprising oil shale miner to be honest!

Haha, very true Tom.

What interests me is that apparently part of the original miners ladder still lies beneath the narrow steel ladder/steps that have been put it.
Have you ever noticed it?

[Grabeach]

Went up and down there a number of times before the ladder / steps were installed. Never noticed any sign of old ladders. In the mid 80s, I don't recall any great need for ladders. They were only installed to stop the increasing erosion. What is your source for ladders being there? Wilf used to talk about having found signs of old ladders at Clear Hill, but not in this position. Also be careful with Wilf's T & A Reports concerning Narrow Neck, he tended to blur the line between his theories and proven facts. I say this with no disrespect, Wilf and I were good friends.

[puredingo]

I bet it already had a pefectly good name before any of the above mentioned dudes took a glance over the edge.

[DaveNoble]

I always understood the whole pass as being "Duncans Pass" rather than the short bypass to avoid Tarros Ladders. I think the confusion arises on the Dunphy "Gangerang and Wild Dog Mountains" sketch map where the arrow to Duncans Pass seems to point to the diversion around the ladders. Col Gibson, who knew Myles Dunphy quite well (and who introduced me to Myles), always claimed that Myles thought the whole pass should be "Duncans Pass".

The descent of the pass, where the spikes are, is more than just scrambling, and I would have thought Duncan and party would have used a rope as a handline to aid their descent.

I have also heard, from Col, about the "old ladders claim" by Wilf Hilder. Col also mentioned another name (perhaps Bryden Allen?) who may have told Wilf about these "ladders". Supposedly they are the remains of some wooden ladders and should be under the cliffs near the present spikes. I have looked and found no trace of these. I also have wandered along the tops looking for a possible place ladders could be placed - and found no where suitable. The only place you would think of placing any ladders would be down the route of the spikes (Tarros Ladders). That is the place where Taro placed his original "ladders" which I think were made of wood and wire and were burnt out in a bushfire.

As for Jim Barrett's suggestion that Fred Eden descended that way first - I am personally doubtful. There seems to be no mining activity out that far on the Neck. I think it is possible Fred Eden descended off Black Billys Head (where there is an old miners pass - with cut out footholds). In those days without a good map - any head or bluff on Narrow Neck could have been considered as the "far end of Narrow Neck".

Did aboriginals use the Duncans Pass route? They could have, perhaps, used the bypass route. But people I have talked to that have researched aboriginal routes tell me that generally they avoided scrambling. If an aboriginal fell or slipped and got a broken leg - then that could well mean death. I have not seen any sharpening grooves or art along Narrow Neck- but then have not really looked. It would be interesting to do a detailed study. Perhaps someone has? I know people have looked all over nearby Mt Solitary and not found any aboriginal sites.

Dave

[Grabeach]

Yea, now that you mention it, Bryden Allen was also the name Wilf mentioned to me in relation to old ladders.

Having read the paragraphs from Fred Eden's journal quoted in The First Bushwalker, I really can't see the Black Billy Head route fitting the description at all. While on the subject of BBH, have you actually seen the cut out footholds? Nobody I've met other than Wilf has, and he was very vague as to where they were.

I have also heard that the Aboriginals did not go out of their way to find scrambling alternatives to known easy routes. However the Clear Hill eastern foot pass is the obvious non-scrambling route coming from the bottom. I know the first time I went up (never previously having gone down), I wandered up that way without even thinking about it. It would really surprise me if in the thousand of years the Aboriginals had been in the area that they had not used that route.

[FatCanyoner]

While on the subject of BBH, have you actually seen the cut out footholds? Nobody I've met other than Wilf has, and he was very vague as to where they were.

I'd be keen to know this too. I didn't see any cut footholds when we did BBH. If they are there they certainly aren't obvious.

[Solohike74]

I've seen images of Tarros Ladders, seems a bit too exposed for me, mainly also as I mostly trek alone so if the worst happened, help may not be at hand for a long while.
In a PM from a member of these forums, I was advised the wallaby track as it is informally known, is fine if slightly overgrown in some places.

[FatCanyoner]

I've seen images of Tarros Ladders, seems a bit too exposed for me

It isn't as bad as it looks. I've gotten my wife down there (not a regular bushwalker) in the rain without too much trouble. It would have been a challenging scramble before the spikes, but with them it is as simple as climbing a ladder.