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​Andrew Penny - A Blue Mountaineer

By Dave Barnes
When climbing in The Blue Mountains of Australia (or The Mountains as known to the locals) it’s easy to recognise its climbing past. Carrot bolts (a special Aussie form of protection) are still clipped and legendary routes have white worn edges smoothed down from generations of “wanna, gonna’s” who soon move on to wildly steep lines.

Whilst tips and tendons recover, it’s nice to take time to draw on where we have come from and the climbers who preceded us.

I first met Andrew Penny as a teenager.  A climbing mate, Ben Pearce, scored me and himself a job with Andrew’s 
Blue Mountains Climbing Company. In the mid 1980’s there were only two climbing guide businesses in The Mountains, Andrew’s and Glen Nash’s, Australian School of Mountaineering. To be paid to guide by either of them was like a teenager being given an X-Box for liking TV.

After guiding a set of European Ladies up the 
West Wall of the Three Sisters, Andrew met Ben and me at the Echo Point car park and paid us in cash - my first professional climbing job. I felt like Don Juan. I liked this climbing game.

Andrew had identified climbing as his purpose early in his journey and used it to guide his life.  His beginnings are similar to many climbers of that era. 
I ventured into climbing by accident knowing nothing about it. A teacher at my boarding school in Sydney took a small group of us up to The [Narrow] Neck and The Three Sisters. It was out there.”
Andrew became hooked on climbing during the feeding frenzy of the early 80’s and was a member of a young crew of climbers including Kim Carrigan, Mikl Law, Greg Child, and John Smoothly. These climbers (among others) cut their teeth on machined and mild-tempered carrot bolts complimented by choss and vegetated cracks put up by John Ewbank and company in the 60’s and 70’s. Andrew speaks highly of those times and of its climbers:
I have the utmost respect for John Smoothy who pioneered hundreds of quality routes in the Bluey’s. Crunch (as John was known) was as dry as they come and a fountain of knowledge in Mountains climbing. Mikl Law, Giles Bradbury, and Warwick Baird were a real inspiration with their vision and climbing style. They typified the individualistic nature of our game.”
Picture
Andrew bolting Waterfall Cave at Narrow Neck, 1977.
 
​Andrew often speaks of climbing as a game. When there weren’t enough climbers to write a new chapter of history, and whilst still too young to know how to write one, they crossed over to the sunny side of the Blue Mountains -  a new age of explorers who wore flares, swapping leads, and drawing straws for new routes every time they met.

While some climbers and the occasional Queenslander found their straps jamming up and pulling down Blue Mountain’s test pieces, other’s left for challenges down south with the Victorians, or climbing high on big white stuff in postcard countries. Andrew set anchor in The Bluey’s and started drilling down on its potential. The draw of The Mountains is clear when he reflects on what climbing was to him:
Climbing was my life and my only interest for twenty years or so. Climbing took precedence over work or any career. I loved the freedom, the challenge, and the mateship.”
Picture
Andrew and an example of a late 1970’s rack.

​That sounds familiar, I am sure, to climbers today.

Andrew’s affair with climbing is no more obvious than checking out any Blue Mountains guidebook. He had his hand in exposing new crags and climbs up and down the escarpment.  As a young climber he and his accomplices developed their craft for new routing at Narrow Neck following old lines and forging new ones on the faces and arêtes in between them. As this new-wave generation of climbers gathered momentum, so did their flare for finding new crags. A crowning achievement for Andrew was the development of Cosmic County, more commonly known today as, The County.  Andrew speaks fondly of this time:
Terry Bernutt and John Smoothy kicked it off with Interstate 31 (17/5.9).  Legend has it that Terry saw this stellar line while working on the railroad.”
The County became Andrews’s new obsession and was the first crag he helped develop from scratch. The vertical walls and arêtes were, at times, desperate, often sustained, and above all fun.  This was where climbing was headed and it suited Andrew’s style.
I loved the whole scene out there in the early 80’s. Cutting a road in, clearing a campsite, building tracks, and the odd steel ladder or two.”
Picture
Andrew on an early ascent of Mindblower (20/5.10c) at Cosmic Country 1980.

​Some thought that this type of development just wasn’t cricket, and bolting walls was commonly seen as excessive. 
The County in the 80’s was like Nowra in the 90’s, a place to push boundaries, to bolt for purpose not for emergency, and to take climbing into new territory. Andrew completed some notable climbs of the time:
I always liked the balance-y routes especially the aretes. My two favourites of that time are The Eighty Minute Hour (18/5.10a) and I’d Rather be Sailing (19/5.10b). Oh yeah, and add the Allied Chemical News (17/5.9).”
Picture
Andrew Penny on Dress Rehearsal Rag (17/5.9) at the Zig Zag wall of Cosmic Country in the Blue Mountains of Australia.

​If you have been climbing long enough, these climbs were on THE tick list of a new generation of Blue Mountains climbers. What’s more the style of the climb, direct, one or two pitches and well bolted was heralding the future. This was a new set of standards that was soon to be confronted by climbing ethicists and old school believers, the rest of us knew these times as, 
The Bolt Wars.

Andrew was a prominent protagonist of this revolution and there was heated debate for a decade in and around this topic. Friends fell out and bolts were chopped as puritanical clean climbers tried to defend choss and run outs as the law.

The Mountains became the Wild West and young cowboys harnessing drills and flashing cold steel carrot bolts and homemade hangers were heralding a new direction. Andrew’s singular focus might have deafened him from the noise, but he recognises it was a jarring moment in the development of climbing in Australia. In subsequent years he has had time to think this through.  
The Bolt Wars were a big deal for us all back then. Lot’s of folks gave you grief for equipping routes and setting anchors. In hindsight, bolting has proven just. If anything bolts and safely arranged anchors are the standard now.”
Turning pages of the climbing mags of the era, Rock and Australian Rockclimber, the conflict was well reported, sides chosen, climbing styles argued over (I reckon there was a bit of shit-stirring as well). Andrew acknowledges that he may have exercised some overreach in these changing times.
I think some people misunderstood my motives. It wasn’t about ego. I just enjoyed bolting and climbing new routes. Creating popular, well-protected climbs in the easy/medium grades was very satisfying. My obsession with bolting started at age 15 when my teacher warned me about the evils of bolts. I placed my first one soon after.”

​If anything, Andrew was an early spark in what was to become the flame in Blue Mountains climbing. Today, prepared routes, good access, and a high standard of bolting are the norm. In the contemporary Blue Mountain scene, climbers are able to concentrate on the ascetics of movement and the edge of human endeavour, not a pants-filling expectation of death, negotiating the loose and run out horror shows that defined the past.
 
Andrew has also informed and developed the way climbing is communicated. He was the “Town Herald” of Blue Mountaineering.

As Andrew continued to build a solid base in The Mountains, so did his knowledge of what had been and what was being developed. Back-in-the-day there was no internet and not a lot of mediums to get information to the climbing community. Andrew Penny saw a need and addressed a shortage of climbing information.

Self-published guides were time consuming and expensive (still true, I’m sure Simon Carter will agree.). But, Andrew pressed on, researching, collating, and publishing new route data and area guide books.

These books had photo’s of climbing heroes schmoozing on sunlit sandstone and stories within the route descriptions. I remember my photo-copied 
Narrow Neck Guide, and falling asleep reading Andrew’s Wolgan Guide, which was as thick as a Bible.
Picture
Angus Farquhar on "I'd Rather Be Sailing" (19/5.10b) the striking arête at Cosmic Country put up by Andrew Penny. Photo Credit: Jared Anderson
I gathered what info I could from any available source. John Ewbank’s 1967 Blue Mountains Guide and Pete Taylor’s 1974 Wolgan Guide were the bedrock for my own guidebooks. Way before Google and social media, the Sydney Rock Climbing Club had a Climbs Recorder. That was your way to get the current news.”
Every subsequent guidebook expands on those that precede it. Writing guidebooks is like standing on the shoulders of giants. Andrew Penny is a Blue Mountains giant.  A sign of his thoughtfulness came out when I asked him about the latest Blue Mountains Guide. Andrew says:
Simon Carter’s guide is really amazing. Brilliant photos, maps and insight covering so much climbing in such a readable and enticing way.” 
Picture
Maxwell Cullen on Interstate 31 (18/5.10a). Photo Credit: Warwick Payten

​Having been a working part of The Mountains climbing community for fifty years, I asked him what he thought of the scene today?
It’s great to see such an incredible range of climbs and crags available. The combined efforts and different visions of so many. Sure it can be super competitive to some, and what they are achieving is awesome. However, I really like the social aspect of it all. People just going out with their friends and having fun. Gym, sports and trad climbers, it doesn’t matter, they are out there doing it.”
Andrew is still doing it and gets out on the rock when he can. He has plenty to recollect on a rainy day if stuck at home. He smiles when thinking of evenings long past, climbing the roof in Waterfall Cave at Narrow Neck whilst mates choked by the smoke of a campfire or of introducing people to climbing as a climbing guide and of seeking out new routes in odd corners of The Wolgan Valley.

​Catching up with Andrew Penny was a trip and a trip worth taking – Cosmic even. The future of Blue Mountains climbing is further enhanced by having knowledge from the climbers who pulled down and faced the future in a previous era. Andrew Penny is one of those guys - a Blue Mountaineer.
Picture
A group of Aussies celebrating after climbing a bunch of Andrew Penny's lines - with Andrew Penny himself (right). Author and Common Climber editor Dave Barnes is in the blue hat wearing sunglasses in the back row.
Andrew Penny Guidebooks

1. The Rock Climbs of Narrow Neck  (1978)
2. The Narrow Neck Supplement  (1979)
3. A Climber’s Guide to the Northern Hartley Valley (1981 - Covering Cosmic County and Dargan's Creek)
5. A Climber’s Guide to Mt Piddington by Andrew Penney and Mike Law (1982)
6. A Climber’s Guide to the Rest Around Mount Victoria (1982)
7. The Wolgan Guide (1984)
8. The Cosmic County Guide (1988)

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          • Is Diversity in America Diverse?
          • MOVIE: People of Climbing:
          • Profile - Favia Dubyk
          • The Lineage
        • Joshua Tree >
          • Bouldering: JTree Made Me Do It
          • Improv at JTree: Bad Bolts
          • JTree: Bolting Pressure Cooker
          • Joshua Tree: Heinous Approaches
        • Overcoming Boundaries >
          • Photographer - Brook Anderson
          • Profile - Louise Shepherd
          • Profile - Megan Banker
          • Profile - Shawn Axelrod
          • Rock Type 1
          • The Tape Job
        • Women's Edition >
          • Editorial - Women's Edition
          • Climbing is My Art
          • Mt. Logan Solo
          • Photographer - Michelle Ranee Johnson
          • Profile - Caitlin Schokker
      • Non-Themed Editions >
        • April 2020
        • May 2020
        • June 2020
        • August 2020 >
          • Online Auction
          • Editorial August 2020
        • September 2020
        • October 2020
        • November 2020
        • December 2020 >
          • Anthology 2020 Sponsors
        • January 2021
        • March 2021
    • Topics >
      • Adaptive Climbing >
        • Adaptive Climbing Edition
        • El Capitan: Enock Glidden
        • Quinn Brett Interview
        • My Journey to Adaptive Rock Climbing
        • Planning for Mt. Rainier: Adaptive Climbing
        • Resources - Adaptive Climbing
      • Alpine & Ice >
        • California Still Has Untouched Climbing Wilderness
        • Ice Solo
        • Mt. Ogden Spanking
        • Mt. Whitney Whipping
        • My Common Alpine Epic
      • CC Profile >
        • Profile - Shawn Axelrod
        • Profile - Megan Banker
        • Profile: Wendy Bruere - More Than It Hurts
        • Profile - Favia Dubyk
        • Profile - Debbie Fowler
        • Profile - Lindsey Hamm
        • Profile - Sabine Pratt Hunziker
        • PROFILE - Marisa Michael - Nutrition for Climbers
        • Profile - Caitlin Schokker
        • Profile - Louise Shepherd
      • CoVID and Climbing >
        • COVID Climbing Memes
        • CoVID-19 Remakes Our Lives
        • Dear Memory
        • From Couch to Lifting Couches
        • How to Climb and Avoid the Corona Virus
        • Train the Mind: Mental Toughness Tips for Quaratraining
        • The 5.10 Commandments
        • Trying to Send this Route
      • Equipment (writings) >
        • Aliens!
        • A Rack Retrospective
        • Cam Ranges (+ Big Bros)
        • Carabiner Strength Ratings
        • Climbing Shoes Fit
        • Guide Book Follies
        • Rope Buying 101
        • Shit Happens – Or, Why You Need a Walkie Talkie
        • The One Item to Stockpile
        • Which Way Should I Carry My Trad Rack?
        • Why GriGris Suck
        • 8 Reasons I Carry a Full Rack on Every Trad Climb
      • Facebook Feature >
        • FF: Big Walls
        • FF: Butt Shots
        • FF: Exploring Our World
        • FF: Overcoming Boundaries
        • FF: Trees & Climbing
        • FF: Welcome New Climbers
      • Grades, Styles, & Types >
        • Bouldering-Falling
        • Bouldering Grade Advancements
        • Grading Climbs at the Gym
        • It's a F-ing Chimney
        • Onsight vs Flash vs Etc...
        • Top 10: Increase the Climbing Grade When...
        • Trad Climbing is for Chicken Sh*#s
        • WTF 5.7?
        • 18 Climber Types: Which Are You?
      • Kids >
        • Family Stages
        • The Guidebook
      • Legends >
        • B - Joe Brown
        • G - Brad Gobright
        • G - Todd Gordon
        • H - Hugh Herr
        • H - Thomas Huber - In Another World - A Personal Climbing Journey
        • J - Saxon Johns
        • M - Tim Macartney-Snape: ​A Legend from Sea to Summit
        • M - John Middendorf
      • Mental-Physical >
        • Climbing Training Series >
          • Improving Hip Mobility
          • Rock Climber Mobility
          • Train the Mind: Mental Toughness Tips for Quaratraining
        • A Climb Worth Fighting For
        • Achilles
        • Everyone Around Me Is Better Than I Am
        • Fear, Pride, and Exploration
        • How Auto-Immune Disease Affected My Climbing
        • Mastering Joy on Easy Street
        • Mind, Body, and Soul
        • My Demon Has a Name
        • New Year's Resolutions
        • Of Cartoons and Quickdraws
        • Push and Pull
        • Sorcerer and the Kidney Stone
        • Take Risks - You'll Remember Them Later
        • The Art of Climbing Without Rock
        • The Devil's Game
        • The Taste of Climbing
        • 12-Weeks to Onsighting a 5.8
      • Other/Misc >
        • Assault on Schurman Rock
        • Book Club
        • Climbing, Community, and the U.S. Presidential Election
        • Climbing Drinking Games
        • Climbing Gyms: The Gateway Drug
        • Climbing Hands
        • Climbing in the Bare Essentials
        • Climbing Resolutions
        • Demented Dirtbag
        • Don't Take Granite for Granite
        • Dorothy, We Aren't on Havana Anymore
        • Guatemalan Worry Dolls Go Climbing
        • No Health Insurance Changed How I Climb
        • Snakes and Ladders
        • Starting Over
        • The Adventure of A Lifetime - So Far
        • The Bane of Northwest Climbing
        • The Pink Tricam
        • Things of Stone and Wood
        • Zac the Interloper
      • Places & Climbs >
        • Climbs >
          • Consolation Prize
          • Flakes and Shakes: Flake Crack Revisited
          • From Yorkshire to Eternity
          • Tiptoeing Through Some Bungles
          • Tombstone Territory
          • Yosemite - What We Came For
        • Location Reviews
        • My Home Crag >
          • Climbing in the Upper Cumberland Valley, Kentucky
          • Drytooling in the Rain - Wayne's World, WA
          • My Home Crag: Nowra, NSW, Australia
        • Travel Stories >
          • Blue Mountains - Bliss: Climbing in the Blueys
          • Buenos Aires, Argentina Crag
          • Colorado - Calling Pat Ament
          • Coolum Cave - Sendfest 8
          • Ecuador - A Nation of Four Worlds
          • El Potrero Chico - Riding the Dirty Dog
          • Yosemite: Growing Up
          • Lover's Leap - Zone of Craptitude
          • Rio de Janeiro - Classic Climbs Sampler
          • Taghia, Morocco - Hardly Failing
          • Tasmania - Legend of the ‘Unclimbable Cliff’
          • Thailand - Lost and Found: A Mini-Epic in Paradise
          • Vedauwoo, WY
          • Yosemite - What We Came For
          • 20 World Destinations for Adventurous Climbing
        • 2020 U.S. Rock Climbing Festivals
      • Poetry/Prose >
        • Anti-Social Climbers
        • Sojourn at Dyuritte
        • Finding Poetry
        • Ice is Nice
        • The Space Between
      • Safety and Skills >
        • Bolting and Ground-Fall Potential
        • Euro-Death Knot is NOT
        • Multi-Pitch Tips: Two ATCs
        • Sketchy Anchor Bolts
        • Sliding-X Anchor
        • Three Ways to Use a Stick Clip
        • Top 10: Climbing Best Practices
      • Science Fiction >
        • Red Curtain: Prologue
      • Social, Social Media, & Social Issues >
        • Chossy Trio Renegades
        • Climbing into the Fold
        • Diversity in Climbing is Not a Bandwagon
        • Fuck "Gumbies" and "Noobs"
        • Montana, My Home: Claire Larson
        • My Husband Climbs Stronger than Me
        • Navajo Rising
        • Social Network Rescue
  • Marketplace
    • Butora
    • Climbing Addicts Colored Chalk
    • Climb-On Maps
    • Dynamite Starfish
    • FIXEhardware
    • Furnace Industries
    • Grimpi
    • Heroclip
    • MoveWell with McGee
    • Mystery Ranch
    • Neilico
    • NW Alpine
    • Rockytalkies
    • Tension Climbing
  • Reviews
    • Books >
      • Advanced Rock Climbing Book Review
      • Adventures at the Edge of the World
      • Climbing Rock: Vertical Explorations Across North America
      • Hangdog Days Book Review
      • HOOKING UP: The Ultimate Big Wall and Aid Climbing Manual
      • Paul Preuss: Lord of the Abyss
      • The Sharp End of Life: A Mother's Story - Book Review
    • Equipment/Gear Reviews >
      • Belay Device Review >
        • Edelrid Mega Jul
      • Harnesses >
        • ArcTeryx-FL-365
        • Misty Mountain Cadillac
      • Packs and Bags >
        • Sukoa Chalk Bag Review
        • Trango Crag Pack
      • Personal Anchor Systems >
        • Camp-Daisy-Twist
        • Petzl-Dual-Adjust
      • Other >
        • Dr. Piton's Review of the D4 Delta2P Portaledge
    • Location Reviews >
      • Australia >
        • Queensland, Australia >
          • Kangaroo Point Photos and Beta
          • Kangaroo Point Review
        • New South Wales Australia >
          • Blue Mountains >
            • Blue Mountains Photos and Beta
            • Blue Mountains Review
          • Nowra >
            • Nowra Review >
              • Nowra Photos and Beta
      • Mexico >
        • Potrero Chico Photos and Beta
        • Potrero Chico Review
      • United States >
        • Climbing Area Check List - U.S. >
          • Climbing Area Check List Part 1: Alabama to California
          • Climbing Area Checklist Part 2: Colorado to Michigan
          • Climbing Area Checklist Part 3: Minnesota to New Mexico
          • Climbing Area Checklist Part 4: New York to Wyoming
        • Arizona >
          • Queen Creek Canyon
        • California >
          • Joshua Tree >
            • Joshua Tree Tips
          • Mount Whitney >
            • Mount Whitney Photos and Beta
        • Idaho >
          • City of Rocks >
            • City of Rocks Photos and Beta
            • City of Rocks Review
        • Oregon >
          • Smith Rock >
            • Smith Rock - Photos and Beta
            • Smith Rock Review
          • Spring Mountain >
            • Spring Mountain Review
            • Spring Mountain - Photos and Beta
          • Trout Creek >
            • Trout Creek Photos and Beta
            • Trout Creek Review
        • Nevada >
          • Gun Club
          • Keyhole Canyon
          • Mt. Charleston, Nevada
          • Red Rock Canyon >
            • Red Rock Canyon Review - Yeahs and Neahs
            • Red Rocks Photos and Beta
        • New Hampshire >
          • North Conway, NH
          • Rumney, NH
        • New York >
          • Gunks Review
        • Utah >
          • Echo Canyon
          • Ferguson Canyon >
            • Ferguson Canyon Photos and Beta
            • Ferguson Canyon Review
          • Ibex >
            • Ibex Photos and Beta
            • Ibex Review
          • Maple Canyon >
            • Maple Canyon, Utah Photos and Beta
            • Maple Canyon Review
          • Moab >
            • Moab - Main - Photos and Beta
            • Moab -Main - Review
          • St. George >
            • St. George - Prophesy Wall- Photos and Beta
            • St. George - Prophesy Wall - Review
        • West Virginia >
          • Seneca Rocks
        • Wyoming >
          • Ten Sleep
  • Photographers & Artists
    • A- Brook Anderson
    • B - Florian Beyer
    • C - Karen Chan
    • D - Daga Dygas
    • F - Eric Fallecker
    • G - Max Gordon
    • J - Michelle Ranee Johnson
    • K - Christine Kuebler
    • L - Shawn Lee Illustrator
    • M - Alex Messenger
    • N - Tiffany Nardico
    • O - Charlie OlGrady-Kessner
    • O - Karmelo Onate
    • O - Camila Ospina
    • P - Diego Perez
    • S - Bryan Sillorequez
    • S - Stephen Smithburger
    • S - Matt Spohn
    • V - Laura Vallo
    • W - Joel Wilson
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  • Authors
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      • Dave Barnes Extended Bio
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    • Z - Peter Zabrok