Up Short Leaning, down 'The Gully' and Barney Gorge

This hike goes up Short Leaning and down Barney Gorge, linking linking the two via the steep gully to the left (if you’re facing the cliff) of where you reach the ground when you abseil off Leaning peak. I couldn't really find any info on this gully, so sharing this for anyone who is interested.

I have another wiki that explains the Short Leaning route in a bit more detail. This wiki is more about the gully.

For Short Leaning, scramble to the top of Barney Falls via the ridge to the left of the falls. Once at the top of the falls, switch over to the ridge on the right side of the falls. This is Short Leaning ridge. Stay on this ridge to the top.

There is one navigationally tricky part on this route. There is one part where you need to traverse left to reach the correct slab to continue up. It is difficult to explain clearly, so just stay on the wiki trail. If you end up on the wrong slabs you will not be able to reach the summit ridge, so take your time and be sure the path you're on will get you back on top of the ridge.

Once you've abseiled off Leaning Peak (see my other Short Leaning wiki for details), while facing the peak, look left. You will see a steep gully leading down to Barney Gorge along the edge of the Leaning Peak. This is the gully this wiki takes.

The gully is steep with lots of loose rocks and boulders, so you need to be careful. You will knock loose rocks and boulders down as you go, so if going as a group, don't travel directly below someone. There is a lot of vegetation in the gully in places, so it turns into a steep, loose, scramble, bushwhack in place where you can't see what you're stepping on. It's slow going.

There really isn't much to it navigationally. Just stay in the gully until you pop out in Barney Gorge.

The gully stays wet after rain for a long time. If it's wet, you will need to abseil once or twice. I abseiled twice using a 60m rope. You could probably get away with a 50m rope. My second abseil was more to make it easier to get through a particularly loose section of gully, not because of cliffs - you could scramble through this bit if you were careful, but for me it was just quicker and easier to get the rope out. The anchor for my first abseil was a dead tree about 20cm in diameter. The second was a small but alive tree about 7cm in diameter. Not ideal, but also nowhere near as bad as the Mt Lindesay abseils. If the gully is dry, you might just be able to scramble down the whole thing.

It took me 2 hours to get to Barney Gorge via the gully. It isn't particularly nice, but it's a cool route to do once.