Climbing & abseiling in Tasmania

This island truly rocks.

Picture slender sea stacks rising beside Australia’s tallest coastal cliffs. Imagine cracks that run deep into the rock of some of the state’s highest mountains. And towers of dolerite that peer down onto city rooftops.

Welcome to the world of Tasmanian climbing.

Want the down without the up? Tasmania has abseiling experiences to match.

Best climbing & abseiling trips

Coastal climbs

Wrapped in cliffs and speckled with sea stacks, Tasmania’s coastal climbs are as spectacular as any on Earth. The pin-up route is the Totem Pole, a narrow dolerite sea stack rising 65m directly out of the ocean beside Cape Hauy, a challenge revered by climbers across the globe. And it’s just one of several sea-stack climbs on Turrakana / Tasman Peninsula – the adjoining Candlestick is even taller. On Freycinet Peninsula, Whitewater Wall has more than 50 granite routes overhanging the wild Tasman Sea swell.

City climbs

Look up in Hobart and Launceston where cliffs loom overhead. In the capital, it’s the Organ Pipes at kunanyi / Mount Wellington, an imposing dolerite escarpment with more than 400 recorded routes and a heady sense of exposure. Launceston’s Cataract Gorge has more than 800 routes on dolerite buttresses. And there’s family-friendly climbing on the quarry walls at Penny Royal Adventures by the mouth of Cataract Gorge.

Ben Lomond

Climb among some of Tasmania’s highest peaks on Ben Lomond, where there are more than 230 routes, predominantly along the northern escarpment. The massif contains the state’s second-highest mountain – Legges Tor – and is considered by many to offer the best crack climbing in Australia.

Guided climbing

Want someone to show you the ropes? Rock Climbing Adventures Tasmania and Rock Climbing Tasmania offer safety-conscious instruction and tailored guided climbs, from abseiling and gentle single-pitch clambers for beginners to multi-pitch walls for experienced spider-people. 

Look forward to guided adventures on kunanyi / Mount Wellington behind Hobart and Cataract Gorge in the middle of Launceston, to epic granite ascents in places like Whitewater Wall within Freycinet National Park on the east coast. Slip on some nifty rubber shoes, chalk-up your fingers and up you go. 

Abseil through a canyon

Canyoning is the outdoors art of swimming, leaping, squirming and abseiling through a canyon. Cradle Mountain Canyons runs a canyoning trip along Machinery Creek that involves a series of high abseils beside (and in) waterfalls.