Ascensions comme croix de types variés par Thomas Gissing

Thought this was Fish. The mantle move is tricky, but I don't think it's 20 - at least not the way I did it. Maybe the arete is. I went right and finished up chimney. Bomber gear first half, no protection in second half and ground fall is possible/probable if you came off the slabby arete.

FFA. Ground up, onsight.

Thought the rock was reasonably good until I got on this. Madness!

FFA. Rap inspection and clean, then ground up. A nice route but very heady to lead for me.

FFA. Ground up, onsight.

Fun, pretty hard moves right off the ground, but the protection was great. One of the most scenic top belays you'll find! Fantastic end to a day of adventure.

Hard to grade - there's moves from 8 to 18 depending on where you go.

Awesome day of scrambling and steep hiking!

Grade 3? Relative to other stuff here, it's probably 10.

Cool moves, good holds.

Copied Lu's sequence. Made it much easier.

Pretty sure it was this - felt as hard as Cookie Monster. I think a whole bunch of holds have broken off between the 1st and 2nd bolt.

The hard move is cool.

2-3 really nice moves through bulge.

Nice ramble. Dirty at the top with loose rocks.

Great moves through the bulge. First cut loose on trad. Would be brilliant if a touch more sustained and the ledge wasn't there.

Lu's first trad lead! 3/4 of the placements were bomber. Some of the nuts were horrible because she "got bored" placing them, hahaha.

Great little climb! Last one of the day.

Great little route. Looks steep and a bit tricky from below, but there's jugs galore inside the corner.

Nice! The move to gain the slopey ledge held me up for a moment, and then some cool moves with bad feet. Solid 13.

I didn't mind some of the climbing, but there's loads of loose rock - some of it in very dangerous places. There's a massive boulder chock stone which forms the crux, and potential death if you crank it onto your head.

Won't be repeating this one. Deserves an 'R' rating.

About as bad as a route gets, really. Very dirty. Ledgy. The gear was good, but it probably wouldn't stop you braking an ankle.

Went the full 35 metres to top out.

First 5 pitches. 5 hours car to car. Not too bad.

Brilliant route. Thoroughly enjoyed the cruisey 4th pitch after some of the fiddly gear and route finding. Shame we couldn't get the whole thing done but needed to be at work by 4. Good day.

I actually liked the moves, but it's very contrived considering you can reach the arete on both of the routes to the left and right, and to place gear you need to use the BB corner.

Urrrrggghh! Brutal, painful, and awesome. So many bizarre noises made.

Became especially epic when the rope got stuck rapping, and I had to climb back up the rope, through the chimney again. Everything hurts.

Love it, as usual.

Tricky stemming, then game over. Guide was right on this one, not really worth racking up for.

Rambled up through some vegetation to the tree high up at 20m.

Cleaning.

Cleaning.

Cleaning. Rocksports members day.

Meant to put a top rope on surrender. Oops. Few interesting moves through the thin crack, but fairly average line.

Probably the easiest 15 but I think it's one of the nicest. Consistent moves, but maybe harder if you're short.

Again, crux pocket move is harder than the rest. Pretty fun.

Tricky, thin sequence. Probably an easier way to do it but it's harder than 15.

Bouldery start is a good move but like a lot of these, makes the route very cruxy.

Nice. Bit more sustained and consistent.

Lovely!

Did this a while ago.

Packs some real difficulty into the bottom few metres. Then it's cruisey. Nice moves!

Easy beginner lead, decent gear. Cool beans.

First day of project to tick all climbs 15 and below at Frog!

Good start. Easy, bomber gear.

Super grunty fun! It's run out at the start, but it's a chimney so not so bad. Doesn't deserve the R I don't think. Actually some good gear.

Great beginner lead. Long, good gear, few nice jams.

Only thing left to climb in the rain. What a gem of a climb at this grade. Beautiful rock.

First climb of our mini trip. Putting a top rope up for some beginners.

FFA. Nice little climb with decent gear. Fantastic way to finish the day.

Onsight ground up.

The face to the right of the large crack. Maybe 20-21? Was damp and very dirty. Would be a bold lead.

Led direct with a harder move to gain the overhang. Nice climb.

Good gear, big holds, off vertical. Great beginner lead/warm up.

Great, crimpy, technical climbing. Adequate gear up high. Lu couldn't touch the moves on this so it might be 19 I think.

Setting up top rope for Bufo.

Thought we were on Lemur's Femur. Oops.

Crux moves through bulge are not trivial. Tricky to read.

Nice juggy, steep line. Apparently I've tried it before but remembered nothing.

Fantastic route! Eyeballed it from the ground without the guide.

Funky moves through caves, stemming, jams - has it all. Good gear too. I didn't see the bolt but it felt adequately protected either way.

Ended up finishing the climb by climbing the back of the detached pillar as an offwidth/squeeze chimney to step across to a tree belay 5m to the left. No gear for last 8m but you won't fall out of that chimney anytime soon. Thanks for belay Chris!

So I think this is how I lead Witches Cauldron. Thought this was just the way it worked.

What a fun route!

Did second/longer pitch variant.