Ascents by Will Vidler having Trad CPR

One two three with Adrian, Brittany, and me.

My best belay tick. Also the best rock climb in the universe. Time to deaden those nerve endings and practice my mono bicep curls.

Pre-placed.

Supporting Adrian on the FFA of this 20 year old Fitz Cahall project. We climbed the first five pitches to the crux on October 5 with Adrian leading everything and both of us freeing every pitch. The climbing turned out to be way harder and more scary/dangerous/loose than either of us had expected so this took more time and energy than expected. Adrian tried the crux pitch unsuccessfully and I had a go on TR (also unsuccessful lol) and we summited then rapped. The next day (October 6) we hiked up and soloed the West Ridge to access the top crux pitch. Adrian sent second go after we jammed to Gold Lion by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs which was a pretty unreal moment in my life and climbing. Supporting your friends on things that mean a lot to them has got to be one of the coolest things you can do.

I might write something longer and more pretentious about this at some point. Gwen onsighted the route except for the jump off the rocker block which took her a go or two.

Ground up over seven days and then we camped on top and hiked down on the eighth day. We pre-hauled to Hollow Flake Ledge, took two rest days, and then went up the route. Some nice Germans fixed the lines off Heart to above the Hollow Flake for us so we didn’t climb those pitches on our pre-hauling day and preserved our ground up as much as we could. We also didn’t do the Free Blast before our ground up attempt which was cool and definitely added to the experience. I top roped the Monster because I got tired of whipping from the move into it all the way back into the Ear in the dark at 5am and then gave the reigns to Jesse who fired it and then I followed. I top roped the Enduros because we didn’t do them first go and I also took the stance at the no hands ledge on the move off heart. These are my asterisks, do with them what you will.

I will probably write something more when my brain and body decide to work again.

Best thing i’ve ever done!

It has holds, is just standing, and yet it’s still so hard. Spent two days up there belaying Victoria who came agonisingly close multiple times. Had a great day where I belayed her very almost send in the morning then ran to Cobra Crack to belay Adrian on his actual send of that. Unreal times in the Canadian Forest. My friends are so fucking cool. Walking is hard.

First proper day in the Valley and we get sandbagged on to this by Adrian. First pitch was a rough warm up and I got pretty scared. I took an exciting fall on to an abysmal flared cam that some how held and that set the tone for the pitch. Pretty amazing though. The rest of the climbing was also hard and rad and scary. We bailed from the base of the crux as Adrian and Vic were back on the ground and we were ready to come down. Worthy.

Brilliant route from James and Hugh! Deserves a whole lot more attention than it gets. With this, Harbinger, and La Niña, Boyce Town has some of the best under appreciated cracks in the mountains. Second go on the first pitch and then onsighted the upper two pitches linked together with Paul belaying on the ground. The first pitch is an amazing roof crack at about 24 that is unfortunately guarded by a pretty hard boulder off the ground (I do not know what grade it is). This should however not put you off! With one aid move or climbing in via a bolt to the left you can access the amazing upper crack which really is rad, or just do the move. The upper pitches are a bit shit and on shit bolts; either very old carrots or stainless bash ins. I wouldn’t really recommend bothering to do them. I didn’t enjoy the climbing and thought it was kinda dangerous; probably takes away from the quality of the first pitch. A much better thing to do would be to step right and finish up La Niña for sustained trad radness (or lower off). Because of rope drag and gear and general shitness and so I could rap clean the route, after pulling the steep section on the top pitch I climbed direct up the grey jugs instead of traversing left to the snappy orange rock for the last few metres. I think this makes the climbing less offensive and allows you to get to the tree belay on top in a way that means you can easily belay or rap. You can rap from this tree to the anchor at the top of the first pitch on a 70m.

One of the very best cracks in the mountains but I did not find it to be jugs. Seven days of effort, one some years ago and then recently three on TRS and three with partners. Thanks Paul for the send belay and Harry and Will for coming down on the other days to support. For the third pitch I did a long traverse right to meet up with Telstar placing no gear. It's a bit of a choose your own adventure up there but at least this way was easy...ish. Someone go do it and tell me what grade it is.

Mega mega mega! Definitely one to add to the trad canon. Started up Boisterous then stepped right at the ledge as per FA and pulled the rope up and dropped it back down at the stance for drag purposes. All the bolts had draws on them but I placed all the trad on red point except for the two fixed wires that I hung the draws on during the send. I could wax lyrical but you should just go do it instead. Second go.

Adrian did it!

You can’t not climb Punks on its birthday!!

TR pre inspection.

Unbelievable route. I fell off the Alien Roof pitch which is one of the coolest cracks I’ve climbed after a decent onsight effort that got me on to the face after the roof. I also had to take and lower on the offwidth pitch because I left my #5 behind like an idiot and then got too scared to run out the whole top half of the pitch. Otherwise did everything else. What an awesome collection of steep splitters.

Winner winner! Top roped it twice for maximum chance of success then managed it without too much drama. Almost fluffed the top. One of the finer trad outings i’ve experienced.

Hard and utterly brilliant the whole way. Do this rock climb.

One of the better routes i’ve done. Classic from go to woah.

Well it turns out this is the most difficult. I don’t really understand. That being said I did a lot more moves than i expected to, but the ones I couldn’t do I couldn’t even conceive. Wild.

Exceptional! Pitch two really is one of the best. And that final 5.10 pitch, oh boy.

After taking an absolute monster whipper into a tree off the very final move (and the ensuing jumar to get back on and then down climbing the whole route to get the gear back) I managed to haul my very tired self through the belly of the beast, around the corner, and to the top of the scary flake where the route ends. I placed all the gear on lead except for one semi-stuck and easy to place wire at the start, which was the compromise to allow for safely and efficiently cleaning the route each time. A very very good process. I think it could be 25 but also 27 depending on how tall/short you are and a whole bunch of other factors, so we’ll leave it at 26 until someone tells us otherwise. Radness! (x2)

Brilliant route. Had the full value experience of major flash pump from no warm up above exciting pins and gear. Loved it!

Awesome and soft.

Pretty rad to be down playing on this wall. Not sure how many opportunities i’ll have to try the route whilst working on this film about Duncan with Tristan and Tom for TNF but was cool to have a play as Duncan rested. Seconded pitch one first go which was pretty chill and then did three back to back laps on the 25 pitch. I went up it first to figure it out and fell off a few times, came down to the stance just above the balancy start and climbed from there to the top but figured I should do it properly so lowered back down to the belay and did it pulling the rope through the grigri the whole time which was a bit brutal. Hopefully it feels easier on lead.

Actually unbelievable.

Dreamy. TR to warm up and get the gear back out of it after Swena’s heroic onsight attempt and then had a lovely time on the sharp end. One of the best routes at Araps, well protected, and not too hard for the grade by the standards around these parts. Single pitch (obviously).

I top roped the easy first half on Ash’s gear after her valiant attempt and then quested onwards through the crux and beyond and got scared. Not jugs.

Well it turns out this is very hard! Completely amazing steep finger crack climbing. I did all the moves bar two of the three main crux pulls (albeit probably with some rope assist. It’s probably solid 12+ with some very tricky moves to start you off. So stoked to have tried it and seen what all the fuss is about.

Awesome day out on a route I have wanted to do forever. First pitch is pretty good and mostly trad, probably kinda easy at the grade but with one gripping section. Pitch two saw me get mighty flash pumped and bog down on the arete for a while before somehow squeaking through on friction alone. Pitch three was super duper rad but probably also not too hard for the grade (especially with small fingers). I sent it with a tonne of Paul's beta and I doubt I would have been able to onsight it as it is pretty cryptic and hanging the draws kinda sucks as some of them are in fairly inconvenient spots. I only placed about half of the gear on this pitch but where there is trad it's about grade 16 so I don't really think it matters that much. Pitch four is not amazing but also totally inoffensive. Pitch five is kind of crap as you have to do real moves on some very scary rock. I was terrified I was going to punt the last pith snapping something off.

Ultimately though definitely worthwhile and should see more ascents.

If you aren't super fussed with perfect onsight ethics it could be worth hanging the draws on the bolts as you rap down the third pitch, and especially leave behind a sling to extend the life out of the first bolt in the corner so you can clip it low (we are talking 1.5m+ runner) and thus alleviate the potential for a pretty heinous swinging fall.

Suggested rack is small to medium wires and cams from BD 0.3 to 1 with doubles of 0.5 to 1.

Total dream send. A very high quality rock climb! Huge thanks to Liz for the gear and excellent beta. Super duper psyched!

Was on the 2018 trip list. Good to do!

Botched the onsight slipping off. Second go in the rain. Full value.

Third go after Chris did it, taking out his gear. A bit of a spicy meatball this one, not sure if I’m brave enough this trip.

Classic in the genre! Burly, reachy, steep crack climbing on generally good rock. Definitely needs to be added to the Bluies quality cracks circuit. I found it very intimidating at times but rarely actually hard. Would round out an absolutely mega trad day at Engineers doing this, Static, and CTW. Took the advice of rapping in on a fixed line and rope soloing to get out. Harry and I both thought the pitch lengths were fairly generous.

Another three on the last day. An unfortunate foot slip and fatigue from twelve days on meant no dice for me. No sends in doggers gully were had this day.