Ascents as various tick types by Paul Frothy Thomson

Clean Repeat. Revenge! Had to work at the top, but still managed to punch this straight out today. So much fun.

Repeat attempt, not clean today. No real problems to the top boulder, but -absent chalk- it took me a bit to piece it together. Essentially, three boulders (each getting harder than the other) with easier climbing and good rests inbetween. The top headwall is super rad.

Day 6 for the Redpoint!

I really wanted to come back and improve the style on this. Firstly, because I think mine is the first repeat of the route, and secondly, because this route is both harder and scarier to do it placing the gear (the former for P1, the latter for P2)... It's also proud enough that it warrants the extra effort.

So, as you might imagine, I'm pretty chuffed to have gotten this done, and in pretty good style.

Full disclosure: I did have the first few pieces of gear clipped off the belay at the start of each pitch.

Quote of the day:

"Don't get upset if I start freaking out; I'm weak, wimpy Frothy, not bold, strong Zackie"

5 days of effort to this point.

Pretty chuffed to get both this and Titan done free within the span of a month.

As with Titan, I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do this. I wasn't planning on doing it until next season, but had an unscheduled day, and decided to check it out... and I was immediately hooked on the challenge.

As to the route:

If the rock wasn't choss -even if it was just your run-of-the-mill Blueys Sandstone, I'd call this the single best crack climbing I've been on in the entire world (and I don't think my resume is lacking when it comes to crack climbing) for position, sustainedness, and purity. It would also be a super-duper obvious contender to climb as a giant pitch.

Alas, it is choss, so while I still regard it as classic, that is very much a subjective opinion, and I think prospective repeat ascensionists should really consider whether this will be their cup-of-tea or not.

P1 - is amazingly varied and technical climbing. Personally, I probably found this physically harder than P2 (in that, its more cruxy) and in some ways scarier (due to insecure cruxes). The opening finger-locking is aesthetic and great, and the insecure laybacking through the middle lends itself to complex footwork.

P2 - Looser than P1 for sure (the start of the pitch is horrible!), but quite stacked. This has a lot of hard moves with no super chill rest. I found the last moves to the anchor to be the crux, there there was about 5 sections I could genuinely have fallen off on.

P3 - To be honest, I didn't like this pitch at all. Loose, hard to protect short crack section, followed by a sandy traverse on eroding edges to gain the topout ledge.

Less sandy/chossy than you might expect in some ways... More sandy/chossy than you might expect in others. There's an "unpredictability" to the rock here that most other chossy routes I've climbed don't quite have.

The gear is also pretty good, provided you're smart about where you place, and remember that spreading fall-load over a larger surface area is better than the alternative (read: passive pro, dammit!).

Don't trust the fixed gear, though

5 days of effort in total to put this all together. I pink-pointed the top 2 pitches, and had the first 2m of gear pre-clipped on P3. I broke 4 fixed pegs, and 1 hourglass carrot during this process. I also took 5 falls -one of which was a sideways whip onto an hourglass carrot, that somehow held my fall!

I wanted to climb something hard on Dogface to prove to myself that I could -I've always believed that I could, but the time had come to prove it.

I found this a conflicting experience. I liked the climbing on the crux pitches, and -surprisingly- didn't end up finding the bad rock/gear as terrifying as I expected. However, because every single lap the route gets harder (breakages, holds become sandier, others become more rounded, fixed gear breaks, etc) my whole experience was stressful due to the knowledge that sooner or later it would be too hard for me to climb. I've never really climbed with this type of time-constraint before (wherein, every failed lap is punished by adding .1 of a grade to the pitch).

Interestingly, the bottom 2 pitches are quite moderate, and actually surprisingly good (the rock isn't too bad, the gear is pretty good, and the climbing is fun!). These pitches are probably worth doing in their own right. After that, it gets rather sandy, and kinda hard

P3 had a wildly technical thin stepped corner (on good gear) to start it off (it took me quite a while to figure out the beta), followed by easy, loose, runout rambling.

P4 had a very cool seam-crack crux, followed by interesting, technical, runout slab climbing on deteriorating rock.

6th shot. Took me 4 laps to ever come up with a consistent sequence for the crux. 5th lap I went through the crux, and fell off the first stemming move... 6th lap for the win.

6th shot total, and 4 core-shotting falls at the lower crux.

Awesome climbing on beautiful rock. The oozy, funkiness of this puppy totally makes it a 3-star classic route for the area.

I totally misread the crux on the onsight. Quickly figured out a more conducive way to approach it, then lowered off and immediately climbed again -this time all the way to the bracket above the anchors, placing draws. Maybe hard 23?

I have to admit, that this is a strange route to be bolted -especially given the ethic in the area- as it has stonker gear all the way up, and falls into that "pure trad lines should be protected, as they're a finite resource" sort of category. Even as a mixed line, this might be better. I'm not really sure why the anchors stop in no man's land, when the rock and climbing above is still good for another few metres.

3rd shot over 2 visits, placing draws. Other than the nails direct start, this is about gr22ish to the roof boulder. The roof boulder itself is gnarly sequence, with a pumpy, committing finish.

Another lap to do it properly -placing all gear on lead.

I had a lot of (scared) fun with this one. Radical gr23ish start through a roof to a ledge. Then 4 hard boulder problems (with big runouts) between gear nests. Two are vertical runouts, 2 are horizontal runouts. Very gritstone-esque as it links features to forge a line.

I almost fell off the final move to the anchor, and had to power-scream to get through it.

Bloody great day out.

Would be classic (in the style) if it were more accessible, but unfortunately the approach is nightmare-fuel, and the rock is only 3.5/5 on a Blueys rock-quality rating scale.

TRS Sussing lap on the bottom pitch, and the cheeky pink-point psuedo-FFA on the top pitch.

TRS lap to retrieve my trad gear from this route. Good casual pumping. I'm back up to having 3 racks of gear now! (its been a few months of sparsity with only 1 rack of gear in my posession).

Repeat TRS attempt for fitness -not clean today. Wandery, but super rad.

Cool feature, though not as proud as it looks from the ground. Given how much climbing it shares with its righthand neighbour, it wasn't substantially harder (maybe a grade, or so?) Last climb of the trip, and down to the wire, so no time for the proper red point, though its not any harder than the cheeky toppy.

3rd shot. 2nd shot I fell off above the crux when I forgot about a key hold. A gnarly boulder off the ledge, with a pumpy finish. I skipped the complex sequence most seem to use, by doing bigger moves off worse holds (half-pad mono cranking FTW!) through the steepness.

Third shot. Almost managed it second shot, but bungled a key footer right at the very end. Onsight to the last bolt, but the final runout, cryptic finale took some effort (and finding some balls) before I could wholly commit to it.

A super logical linkup, but the end is quite incongruous in difficulty and boldness.

3rd shot. Like everything here, a brutal (rad) boulder start, and a more sustained (but punchy) steep finale. The opening boulder on this was very blueys-esque.

First shot today, after having fallen off 44m up the 45m pitch a few weeks ago. Maybe 3 full days of effort in total?

Quite a lot harder than Gaze a Gazely Stare (the boulder is more full-on, the rests are less restful). It's also more committing, IMHO.

Still super-wild steep climbing above gear, though

Really cool climbing on some of the best rock on this wall, with better gear and easier moves than I expected (not much harder than Dirty Dancing's finale placing, IMHO). A shame its not an independent line, or it would surely earn "classic" from me. Should see more ascents, though

Repeat attempt -not clean today. Just brushing cleaning, and trying to re-remember the moves on this one.

All thriller, no filler, that's for sure.

5 days of effort -though 4 of those were wasted with an utterly stupid way of climbing the crux.

Crazy crazy steep mixed climbing over the void. Sustained, and absent "ledges" or major breaks... but marred by "Duck-Wall-esque" rock quality (read: average Blueys Rock), so I'm only giving it 2 stars.

Clean repeat for training

Great roof climbing! More sustained than Black Leg Miner, and with a proper demanding finale.

Sent 3rd shot.

Well... sort of: I actually had a silly foot slip while in the anchor clipping position, and pulling up rope for the anchor clip. Um... I mean: victory whip? Right?

Seriously though, if I get a chance some day, I'll improve the style on this one. But for now, I'm content that I met the challenge.

2nd shot. Pretty chuffed with this, as I hadn't actually been able to do any of the 3 hard sequences on my first go, and had to improvise on the fly as I accidentally kept getting higher. Man, I was hanging out below that top crux for like 20 minutes trying to figure it out on the Send!

The rock is a mixed bag, but the moves are great! Steep and varied, and sustained all the way to the anchor clip.

I started from the first bolt. There was a cairn that was knocked over (I think it's to make the start go?) that I couldn't be bothered rebuilding. Has anyone done the start at 26ish without the cairn?

Sweet! Another boulder-problem overcome with trickery. One day I'll grow a muscle or two, but for now... trickery.

One the best here, for sure. Just bloody great pocket-oozing up the crux finale, followed by a burly, engaging crux. Rock is just unerringly cool! I did this with a "gentleman's sit" at a no-hands rest while it was still a project.

EOD Cool-down (??) repeat attempt. Not clean, but when I remembered my beta, the moves felt fine... and awesome.

Shorter than a bee's dick, but without a single wasted meter.

Warm up - Just up to the upper crux (2nd last bolt) where I jumped off. Makes for an awesome warmup that way. Damn this one's a good'un.

FFA. Sweet! Finally got it done despite the proper arctic conditions! Having fallen off the move to match the lip of the roof 5 times, it was an awesome feeling to keep it all together for the send.

A bit sharp, sure, but its a lot of time climbing completely horizontal at a relatively tame grade. And the boulder to gain the lip is all time rad.

TRS Clean 2nd shot. I wanted to give this a lap now that it's no longer a closed project, but absent belayer, TRS will have to do. I've given this little gem classic, because I just can't imagine 12m of climbing getting much better (Great rock, super sustained, complex, technical moves, a very obvious line... even the initial gr21 crack section was engaging with bombproof rock).

2nd shot. First clean repeat, I think. Mega exposed climbing through huge blocky roofs on immaculate rock. I giggled my way up this on the send (singing Lovecats, for some reason).

The good bits were really good, the bad bits were really bad... so: standard blueys sport multi, then?

Proper humid conditions today meant gallons of sweat.

P1 was kinda junk, with lots of loose rock and about 5m of good climbing, but I'm happy to take it as the price of admission.

P2 was a fairly pleasant slab with an interesting start, thin finish, and inoffensive easy middle.

P3 (2nd shot pink point) was rad varied steep face climbing. Fairly sustained at 24 with a hard crux down low to earn 25. Would be classic as a single pitch anywhere else. On my onsight, I couldnt get on the mid-crux draw, and ended up whipping back to the belay!

P4 (10 milionth shot red point) has a hideously nails start boulder to gain the stance below roof (the hardest move on the entire route for me... took me about 15 shots to stick it, made harder when I broke off one of the key holds). Then a wild boulder througbh a body length roof 100m off the deck (took me 3 shots to stick it), with a few punchy moves after turning the lip. Unfortunately, everythimg above this point is hideous sand, and I did not enjoy it. Full disclosure: after sticking the initial boulder, i didnt lower back to the belay to send the pitch properly after figuring out the roof sequence, I just went from thr no-hands rest below the roof (3m up from the belay).

I think the grades are bang-on. I reckon P4 would feel 25 in anything less than a billion percent humidity, though in today's conditions it felt every bit a 26

All in all, though, a worthy day out, just one I'm not in a hurry to repeat. We did it in about 7 hours car to car (including the redpointing of the pitcheS).

EOD Repeat attempt for training -not clean today. Fairly happy with the retro-flash attempt, I tried hard, and made a few mistakes.

This is a proper great route, especially now that it's had more traffic to clean it up!

4th shot FA in a day. On my 3rd shot I bungled the moves above the crux! Mostly fairly moderate, but the crux is hard, morpho, knee-destroying heel-hooking.

EOD Repeat attempt, not clean today.

At first I couldn't fathom how weak Frothy got up this 6 years ago, but then I unlocked the minutiae of the crux beta, and suddenly it all made sense.

Still easier than Rubber Lover

2nd shot. Once again, the finale where it kicks back in the steepness is mega. For me to cut-loose after gaining the jug on the lip, I had to do the full "cliffhanger" one-handed wild body swing, which made me feel every bit Sly Stallone in his prime The lower half is a tad stop-start, but inoffensive overall.

I had a pretty cool onsight effort despite the lack of chalk, making the big move to the lip of the roof, but not where any jugs were Was great fun just committing and cranking.

Probably only 26, in reality.

3rd shot. In todays wet and spoogy conditions, the arete-slapping and slimper cranking felt rather desperate. Essentially a 3 bolt arete boulder off a ledge, with some awesome (but easier) steepness at the top. Very Good, but with the caveat that the access "pitch" introduces an annoying degree of faff.