Ascents of Skink

wore the wrong pair of shoes to do slabs and smears. Pat told me to save a #4 to build the anchor but i couldn't figure out where it would go. built my 2nd anchor close to the edge of the block, not knowing i'd have to rebuild it at the dihedral later. Marcus also checked all my placements and sat on all the gear. after all this faff, it started pouring and Marcus wanted to bail so bad from the impending difficulty.

the sun came back and we were on our way. there was back and forth communication on route finding and 'watch me's' even though i lost sight of him ages ago. after the initial exposed section, climbing the stacked blocks tucked away in the dihedral reminded me of the choss at mt wellington. i overgripped until the chimney, which was unpleasant to shimmy up with a bag on. the carrot bolt marked the start of the traverse (thanks Marcus for protecting that well). forearms were pumping out as i was trying to figure out the beta between the traverse and the anchor. a tight belay saved me and i got to the awkward hanging belay.

sweaty from the crux, i soaked in the beautiful view of the flat plains and mitre rock at sunset, safe at a 5-piece hanging belay. rotated between 3 different belay positions for the next 2.5 hours. it was really nice to see Marcus in his flow state and being pedantic about protecting the first flake (before realising he wouldn't have enough gear). after last light, the rock turned icy cold and wind chill set in. route-finding was an issue as was running low on gear (thankfully the last bit was cruisy). i found solace in listening to the sheep baa'ing and the cows moo'ing in the distance. i was also wondering why on earth i was hanging in the middle of a cliff late at night. i was also able to calculate Marcus' climbing speed. he averages 20m per hour. plus an extra 30-45 minutes to build a bomber anchor. all the millipedes came out when it was time to climb. i was shaking so much from the cold and trying to focus on not squishing the millipedes. doing the slabby crux in the dark was a struggle but was well rewarded with the staircase after. sat in silence and soaked in the beauty of the supermoon once at the anchor. i proposed we exit by walking down the gully but Marcus insisted on doing the two-pitch abseil. joined Pat/Amelia's rope with ours with 2 EDKs and an eight-block then single strand rap'd off to where we left our shoes 10.5 hours prior. and that concluded a 5 hour belay day.