Ascents of The Governor

I had a blast on this!

Was so cool to do it as a solo, and so cool just to tick it off. I've written up a bit about it, there's a link below if you're interested!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KaaosgCXBkD4ZvB9Sgwg6cACZ0z10sqzQhgyfCXCN28/edit?usp=sharing

We linked pitches 1-2 3-4 6-7 8-9 10-11 12-13 14-15

The mantel on pitch 13 is very technical

Was abit hot today foot were on fire by the top

Good day out was 13 hours car to car and we wastes about 2 hours looking for rap and start of the route

Bigwall style.

Wasn't as hard to find as I thought, path seems pretty well defined at this point. Pitch seven was amazing, such awesome exposure. Also loved how much slab was on this climb absolutely epic!

More french than free! I blame the bag. Honestly the climbing was not as hard as the walk down. My legs are shaking even thinking about it.

found the two crux pitches hard and terrifying, seductive problem solving tho

What an absurd adventure that will stick with me for the rest of my life! We both expected this route to be demanding and boy did it exceed all expectations. The early march up the mountain was really stunning, watching the layers of mountains slowly appear around us.

The route threw in its fair share of challenges, with a few crimps exploding here and there, but overall, it was epic. I found pitch 5 and 6 incredibly fun… traversing out into the abyss and gaining the odd jug to be able to turn around and bathe in the exposure, and then punching up into some great solid moves. Unreal.

To go from a totally unseasoned gym climber a couple of years ago and hearing about this mega, seemingly unattainable route, to gaining enough experience to get up it, was a very surreal moment for me. Big ups to Bryn for being a weapon of a partner to train and execute this with!

Mega push from the boys. Never had a more stressful day in my life - glad to have had such an experience. Highlights were the gorgeous sunrise, the horrible sounds that came out of my mouth climbing past the overhang on pitch 7, Laura's BBQ scrolls at the top of pitch 9, the absolute screamer I took on pitch 14, and the downright F tier banter (as usual). Won't ever forget the crazy mix of emotions I felt after getting back on the horse and pulling up to the anchors on pitch 14. What a day!

What a lovely day out, bit of choss here and there, some interesting bolt placements and cool exposure up a nice big rock.

First multi-pitch and what an introduction! Huge thanks to Sam and Tim for taking me up this beautiful mountain! Just a fantastic experience! Even while seconding the whole route while in well over my head. There is definitely some choss to be found but overall a great time.

TheCrag doesn't seem to like long reports so if you are curious what went down check out my write-up

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18SIg9d7rgus3KcUzcFSZjeU_OgDu6f34RTONiXwW_rs/edit?usp=sharing

Amazing day out. Perfect weather, somehow wasn't too hot the entire day.

The walk in was a great time, I'm glad we had done it a few weeks prior as to not be tricked by all the false summits. Slogging up all the gear on the day was a pain, but definitely better than having to carry up enough equipment to camp the night.

The climbing was a lot different than I imagined, lots of techy slab with perfectly sharp crimps the whole way up. The boulder problems and the traverse pitches were by far the best; providing fantastic moves and great exposure.

Highlight of the trip was watching Cory perform a near perfect backflip whilst on the top rope when a crucial well chalked hold exploded during the crux of the pitch 7. Glad the hold waited for me to get through the lead.

The climb took us longer than expected, mainly due to the second last pitch being absolutely soaked and the constant agony of climbing in bouldering shoes.

Although in hindsight it was really nice topping out at sunset, easily the best and most rewarding sunset I've ever experienced it made for a very sweet end to the climbing.

A great day out with a great mate.

Far out, what a massive day out!

It took a total of 16 hours from car to car. We started hiking at 5am and got to the rappel station at about 7:15. Chilled out, had some food and went down to the base for an 8:30 start. We expected to top out by about 4pm but life had other plans and we ended up topping out at 5:45. Seeing the sunset from the top of Mount Barney was so beautiful but hiking back down in the dark was not ideal. We got back to the car at 9:15 after about 3 hours of hiking (and getting lost a couple of times).

We were exhausted and sore but filled to the brim with stoke. Simply amazing.

The climbing:

The crux pitch was definitely the walk-in. Hiking up with 10kg of gear and water each was a struggle. We linked pitches 2-3, 4-5, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13, and 14-15. We only had trouble linking 2-3 because I ran out of draws just 2 bolts below the anchor. 16 draws just wasn't quite enough. Linking pitches 10-11 was necessary due to one of the quicklinks at the top of pitch 10 having a hole rusted through it. There was no way I'd set up a belay on that.

The rock was ok for the most part, but some bad rock caused me to have a mad whipper while seconding on pitch 7. I called for some slack and climbed up into the overhang. I was sorting out my feet to get a sick drop knee and reach over the lip to get ready to mantle. All of a sudden, the hold keeping me into the wall exploded and I launched off, with all the slack leaving me hanging upside down with my head in a bush. Luckily I wasn't injured and I was able to make the mantle without that hold. I was a bit shaken and let Bros lead the next couple of pitches while I settled down. That was the most excitement I've ever had on a top rope, that's for sure!

Other than that, there was some beautiful climbing to be done all throughout. Lots of slab, lots of sharp crimps, plenty of exposure and some amazing boulder moves mixed in. The standouts for me were the pitch 5 traverse with its great views and exposure, and pitch 11 with its super cool traversing moves over the void. I think pitch 14 would have been spectacular climbing, except the entire corner leading up to the third bolt was soaking wet. It took a tough bit of French aiding to get past that but then it was a sprint to the top on the last pitch. I reached the anchor and immediately felt such relief that we'd actually done it! The stoke is unmatched but the pain will keep me away, at least for a little while.