Ascents as Pink point as trad by Paul Frothy Thomson

2nd shot. Exciting send in the summery temps. Glad I didn't attempt the onsight, as that start is diabolical! I think this is borderline X without tricams, but maybe only R with them? Alas, I had no tricams. I loved the oozy, slinky style.

2nd shot. So much fun!!! After seeing all the broken gear on this one, I decided to do an equipping lap, then smashed it second shot. Steep, juggy, intimidating pumpiness through outrageous steep terrain. Im pretty chuffed to say that I reached the anchor completely unpumped

I then downclimbed it to clean it

2nd redpoint attempt, after a TRS rehearsal. Took a huuuuge fall on my first RP attempt. Short and hardly a "line" but cool rock and moves, and crazy sustained for a face climb.

Not a good warmup I flashed pumped on the last move of the traverse on my onsight, took the whip, and broke my cam

2nd shot was a cruiiiiiiiise and just super fun. More intimidating than Kachoong, and more technical for a steep climb, but not much harde grade-wise.

2nd shot. My onsight attempt was an absokute debacle -I just couldn't seem to get my head around it, for some reason.

Then, when I figured my beta, the 2nd lap was kinda cruisy, I didn't get stressed or pumped. Weird?

Objectively, its classic, slippery, burly, steep crack climbing, with a ruthless start.

Totally botched the start sequence and pumped out, then went back to the ground and sent. Probably about gr20 from the first bolt to the top, but the start is gnarly and slippery.

2nd shot. First lap was a bit of a debacle, but my first redpoint burn was a controlled cruise -wasn't even pumped at the top. Super funky grampians-esque start, then a burly and technical crack and arete finale. Steep fun in an exposed position.

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.

After work in-a-day send by headlamp!

Great rock for the lower mountains, and wiiiiild moves climbing inverted feet in the offwidth. I found the moves to turn the lip and mantle out pretty bouldery at the grade, but maybe I had a silly sequence? Would love to hear beta on it.

I can only think of 3 other offwidths in the greater Blueys that compares in the grade range/style, and this is probably the best.

For some reason I didn't read the description, and only brought 2 x 5's, which was not ideal. I'll be back with the right gear for the red point, cause this puppy is totally worth it!

What a journey! Surprise send, after spending the morning on Simmo's route, and only tackling this at the end of the day with a view to sorting out the "send logistics" (with a route this long, steep, and wandery... It's fair to say that it's involved).

There's just so much here to remember, and with it being so steep, you're always on a timer to get it done. Steep, gymnastic, and sometimes quite technical. Would be megaclassic, but the rock is only about as good as Sunny Side Bell, so far from the best the Blueys has to offer. It's almost too hard to sum it up at an experience, even with the copious amounts of hyperbole I can command

2 Full days working the bottom 26/27 arete, and the effort I originally put in to climb Gaze a Gazely Stare (as well as a few repeated laps for fitness and training). On the send, I committed to constant 5m+ runouts to avoid dealing with rope drag.

Originally attempted ground up. Took some falls, but was ultimately stymied by dirt and moss at the lip. Rapped in, cleaned 'er up, and went agsin. Took a huge lead whip right at the end on my 2nd shot, and sent 3rd shot on pre placed gear.

2nd shot. A bit of a rush to beat the arrival of night, especially at the end of a rather intense weekend (and a long first day at Bombo!), hence the cheeky pinkpoint. Super keen to come back for the True send, though.

Amazing, frictionless, technical trad climbing, with fingerslocks, fridge-hugging, face climbing, stemming, and many foot movements for every hand movement. The gear is good, but small, fiddly, and rather spaced towards the end. The finale seemed very bouldery to me.

First lap was figuring out gear, cleaning the vegetation, and sussing the top crux -which definitely required some work, especially after I broke off a key footer.

Maybe 23 to the rest before the crux, with a solid 25 tick when you add the crux into the equation?

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

Cruisy, classic Gorge wandery face climbing, to an absurd finish campusing a frictionless sloper rail below a roof, and a gymastic finale into a major cave system.

Still needs some more cleaning, and some anchors. I had to do some very scary backjumping/downclimbing to clean it.

An absurd line through the roof crack above the start of P4. Roof jams, Heel-toe above head, and some steep cranking on gear. Took me an annoying number of attempts to send.

Still needs to be done placing the gear on lead (its a mission to clean it, and we were racing a storm).

2nd shot -I found it hard to figure out the line/bolting on the onsight attempt. Could be "very good" with a bit of TLC. The actual moves are pretty cool (and kinda novelty) though it's rather unloved, and the aid move is quite weird. The lower-crux is a pretty wild bit of technical climbing, and the final traverse left to gain the P1 anchor is gripping!

Second shot on in-situ gear.

If you ignore the faff (read: choss and doddle) to get to the roof, and the fact that the roof itself is comically short, the climbing itself is bloody outrageous -especially given the era of its first ascent.

Rather bouldery roof moves to gain the offwidth, after which the climbing is weird (read: fully-inverted feet-first climbing), but not too hard. The rock itself was surprisingly good for Glenbrook Gorge.

2nd shot total. Scrapped by way up this with the help of some funky crux beta from Michael -necessitating some gnarly foot-above-head insanity to work with my physiology- which was key to my success without working the route. It's far from over even after sticking the roof, and I felt like I was questing desperately all the way to the anchor. Highlight of the Bruny trip for sure.

P1 only. 2nd shot today. I placed a few bits of gear, but the gear up to the crux was in situ from the first lap -its not hard to place them, and you climb back to a no-hands rest, so I'm not too stressed about upping the style.

A cool boulder problem that seemed proper hard in today's disgusting wetness -made the dubious rock, and fiddly gear even more gripping. I got rather scared on my first lap and didn't commit to the crux.

I brought a full rack 0.3 to 4, as well as red C3, yellow C3, and Black Totem. A few small-medium wires are useful too (and RP's if aiding through the crux to work it). The crux is well protected once you actually get the gear in, but the rest of the route (until established on the headwall) is not good gear.

2nd shot. Put in a proper good effort on the "onsight" and just didn't find a single hold mid-crux. Committed, tried hard, read the route right. Gotto be happy with that.

A 5m section of hard arete climbing on P2, but the rest of the pitch is only about gr23.

Still cool, but looks better than it is, and its quality is tempered by the hideous 1st pitch, and the terrible equipping. Bareback is better.

Bring 4 x Bolt Plates, a 0.4, 0.75 and #3 cam -to supplement some crazy runouts and the bad bash-in carrots.

2nd shot. A very hard crux, but also quite a few other hard moves. Surprisingly sustained, and very committing, with 2 proper exhilarating runouts. Wild moves and cool holds the whole way. Super steep!

I almost took the biggest fall possible after botching the upper crux at the height of the runout, and deciding the press on with smeared feet and fading fingers. My heart definitely skipped a few beats there.

First shot today as a warmup, but I Top Rope Solo'd this clean 4 months ago, so can't claim the flash

Awesome face climbing start on great rock, followed by a steep, exposed arete that is fairly easy but for a single sequence. With numb hands this felt tough!

Proper alpine conditions today. Quite torturous.

2nd shot with gear in-situ. A super-high quality roof crack climb, but incredibly sharp -the name is apt! I'm currently rocking some of the worst jam scars I've ever scored.

Had a good onsight attempt that I'm fairly happy with, falling off right as I gained the stance in the roof proper, after having hung around for ages getting pumped trying to figure out the awkward transition.

The bolts may have made sense at the time of the FA, but they need to go now, methinks. I'll be back (once the scars have healed) for the greenpoint

Backlogging. 2nd shot today, 4th total. This time the crack was proper sopping wet, and rather terrifying to lead. I placed a few bits of gear on the Send, but most was insitu. Really wanted to do this properly (placing all gear) but just didn't feel comfortable given that this thing was actually running with water. Maybe at a later date . Aside from the wetness, the thugginess of this thing suits me.

2nd shot. Classic climbing, but the dubious rock renders it "very good". A surprisingly bouldery and sustained outing, with only one real rest on the entire route. My first lap took me 1.5 hours to put together the beta (though route was clearly untrafficked), and to send it I had to go all guns blazing with lots of noise, clipping bolts at my ankles, and a bit of whimpering. For a face climb, this one runs a surprising gamut of moves and styles.

4th shot Pink-Point send. Awesome. One off the bucket list of obscure ticks (that has been there since I first came to Kaputah a decade ago!).

Both pitches have awesome moves, with (mostly) good rock, and are improbably steep. P2 has a funky opening roof to negotiate, before going gnarly old-school palm-on-wall feet-smeared-on-nothing steep stemming, which reminded me of the crux of Pythagoras Theorem. Figuring out the crux sequence probably took me 1.5 hours of effort over 2 laps!

I found the gear on both pitches (especially pitch 2) fiddly and a bit dubious, and never got to the point on P2 where I wanted to do the ascent placing gear (though having to finish before the midday summer sun arrived each day, and being on a mere road trip were also factors). I think maybe with another day on the route I might've gotten to that point.

Gnarly to be climbing 50m thin techo face at this grade (with oodles of exposure) on trad and the odd bash-in carrot from the dark ages. I took a monster whip onto a sad-looking bashie on my first lap today (after skipping a bolt through the crux), which was rather heart-stopping. Complex climbing with a very hard crux, surrounded by awesome 24ish feature-climbing on gear.

2nd shot. Went for the true onsight, had a bit of a battle putting on the crux draw, then fell off the only hard move on the route. Very flashable with a bit of beta for the crux. Would be 24 elsewhere, or probably gr23 for "the point" (based on the routes put up in the same era). Short, but punchy and awesomely exposed. Bring a few cams (0.3, 0.5) for the finale. Replaced the poxy belay sling.

Mega! The bottom section is less choss (and better protected) than many of its neighbours, and the super-sustained upper half is all-time classic. My first go today placing all gear ended in the final few moves (those sneaky, sneaky face holds ). No time/energy to strip it all and go again, so I did it on pre-placed. Proper psyched to do this placing all gear, though.

3rd shot. Onsight ended between 2nd and 3rd bolt at the top. Stripped the route, then bungled the final moves like a punter. Stripped out all but the bottom 5 pieces of gear and sent 3rd shot. So, as the first few bits were still in situ, guess I can't claim a true red point Absolutely stellar upper half on crazy-shallow dimple-pockets. I found this really hard at the grade, but talking to others I may have been following the bolts at the top too directly. Regardless: brilliant.

Good to finally get this one cleared up. It's a lot of effort, but damn it's rewarding. Beautiful featured face climbing with a hard crux.

P1 only. Flashed on top-rope solo, but didn't have the time or the energy left to properly suss the gear for the true redpoint, so opted to climb it on pre-placed trad. The gear is all there, though R-rated levels of "spaced", but it could quickly work it's way towards "X" if you didn't find the placements en route (they're often kinda cryptic, fiddly, and unlikely... though generally satisfactory). I'll have to come back to tick this placing the gear, as it is a whole other world of exciting to do it in that style.

Surprisingly steep, slippery and technical in the first half, then balancy and insecure in the second half. Amazing rock and climbing, extremely sustained, and quite the sandbag at the grade. Bring extra endurance.

Thanks to the crew for working to resurrect this classic!

3 days of effort. Fell off after the hardest move at the top at the end of my 1st day, then spent ages never making the same highpoint. Awesome, wandery, run-out climbing, with a decidedly traddy-vibe despite being a sport route. 7 Bolts in 35m is exciting, though. Probably not hard at the grade even without tape gloves or jammies, though this route does suit me fairly perfectly.

Had to come back to get this one squared-away. Still had to try hard, but felt in control the whole way. If the rock were better, and the access not so irritating (though to be expected for this part of the world) this would be a proper classic. Still very worthy, though.