Ascents as various tick types as trad by Alastair McDowell

30m deep cave chimney... Pulling the ropes down there was fun... my headlmap ran out of battery after 5 metres

Quite tricky at the start...

Cool bridging on smooth orange rock, then fun moves around the roof with a sneaky knee bar in there

Eliminating the face holds makes the finger crack more exciting

Heel toe ... knee bar... great fun grunting up this rattly finger crack!

A really good session of hand-fist sticks with great knee locking

Refined some moves at the top and skipped a cam to free up a hold and by the third go it almost felt easy! Really good route!

Seconding Che & Charlie

Best of the trio, the start was tenuous on slippery finger locks with plenty of great edges

Tricky thin crack to get established in the thin hands corner with lot of finger crack too

Very interesting start on face holds and thin fingerlocks into a long thin hands splitter

Bit of a thrutch through the roof! Phew!

Techy corner climbing, very good

I liked how this climb goes from thin fingers to offwidth but manages to skip past hand size very quickly, cool wide section with face holds when butterfly’s don’t quite work

Great bridging with a crack switch in there

Another top lead by Che

Radical offwidth! All sizes of wideness!

Exciting moves at the top, great climb! Slipped out of a greasy layback near the bottom first go

Seconding Che’s impressive clean lead!

Beautiful first climb at Frog

I had to see what all the commotion was about... turns out it actually is a sensational piece of crack. Just gave the first pitch a whirl on top rope before climbing Slipstream with a mate and surprised myself climbing it clean first go for warmup. Thought it would have been much harder, Ive only led 24 crack, but it didnt feel that different to 5.11+ in the Creek. Should have just gone ground up after all... will be keen to return with a stack of microcams for the lead. A 60m rope hit the ground from the top anchors with about 5 metres spare, could totally be done in one pitch.

Quite an adventurous climb, worth a crack., starts up vegetated corner (cams) before first carrot, and a dusty rail traverse over to the arete. Some great arete moves on this long pitch! One of which I could not do , off the midway ledge. Some interesting route finding, off the ledges two times I traversed in from the far left. Mostly carrots but bring a single rack of cams to 3 and nuts.

Really nice finger crack.

Repeat for warmup, just a stellar hand crack and also good fists low down, don’t miss it

WOW - what an incredible route. Probably the best adventure trad climb I have been on in the Blue Mtns. You really have no idea what to expect on this one, can’t see much of that evil diagonal gash from the ground. Highly recommended to all trad frothers and gym climbers

Perfect winter conditions in full sun. Love this climb.

Couldnt find the Fortress Crack so ended up on this one instead. Pretty much all carrots. Face climbing on dubious rock all the way, easy climbing but you’re constantly worried that your crimp will snap or ironstone foothold will break off as many did. Great views though over the Grose Valley. Take 10 bolt plates, single rack of cams 0.4-2 and some wires.

Fantastic trad fun! We bootied a 3 piece anchor with cordalette at the mid-belay including .4 cam - thanks y’all. When abseiling off the u-bolts at the top to the left, careful how you rig the rope. Our rope got stuck on the ironstone edge, had to prussic out. Blast off rap line was easier going.

2:55 on top rope

A big 19hr day out with Rose , lower half had some hard slab and face climbing and the top half some tricky route finding and steep cracks. It started raining in the afternoon so I had to aid the last 10d pitch. Rose grovelled to the top up slimy corners and chimneys to finish in the dark, and a slippery walk down East Ledges

Incredible route, desperate slabs, hard offwidths and steep cracks. The freerider variation at the top is amazing. 5 days plus a day of hauling to Hollow Flake

As good as ever. Climbed it in full finger belay gloves, even better than crack gloves. Extra incentive to stay away from any face holds, leather is slippery

Sent it on the pre-placed gear, questionable ethics I admit, have rarely ever climbed this way on trad before, and it has left me with a strange half-satisfied feeling. Will have to come back another time for the proper tick. Such a sensational line, well worth returning to for another lap. This route felt like a thinner version of the Janicepts, in the same realm of classicdom.

Abi Prakash inspired me to do more mixed, and this really is a mixed-climbing masterpiece. its more trad than bolts, with carrots on the top half of the epic 45m crux pitch, and only one or two carrots elsewhere. Bring a double rack .3-#2 with single #3 and about 12 bolt plates. Did not use any nuts. Other pitches not as chossy as expected, mostly good solid rock. The grassy mantle at the very top is exciting!

A pile of choss with a few exciting moments, a lot of tip-toeing on wobbling blocks ... but its a pure trad 4-pitch multi in the shade on a wild free-standing pillar - that more than makes up for the rest!! Good way to bulk out your Wafer Thin Fin day. P1 has some great splitter hands which thins to a seam, and a few gr23 slab moves. You could easily pull past this on cams for 18M1 so don't let the grade put you off. Belay off the big blocks on the right. P2 has some good laybacking up a corner then lots of loose stacked blocks. P3 follows a finger crack for gear but mostly easy stemming to the right wall, then a desperate squeeze through roof to belay. P4 is a long easy chimney, not much gear off the belay but easy moves, then finishes up the arête on 3 carrots, a cool finale

Demonstrating how to trad

Running shoe ascent to put up a top rope back up on this after it was previously cleaned. Clipping couple bolts on the 18

Running shoe ascent to clean draws left behind by others who should have cleaned them but did not

Awesome climb, we linked first two pitches, then sent the final flary finger/hand crack on second try, 1.5 yrs after the first try with Nicola. Rapped to the ground with one 60m rope from the double rings just below the top, quite a weird placement for them, out of reach from the nice ledge (Paul?)

Pleasant first pitch of the day, feels like jamming pin scars in yosemite, thin crack up slab with jamming pods

Long and moderate with an interesting surprise awaiting at the top...

Simul climbing morning wake up!

A great line with exposed climbing!

First climb at the Moon is a ripsnorter!