Ascents of Aquilla

Got spanked! The tricky gear, had me pretty scared.

Aquilla and dangerman plus a cheeky tr over master blaster which is impossible to free i think. Had to ascend the tr on 2 prussiks to retrieve a cam which sucked abit but thankfully no lunches dropped off belay ledges today. Dangerman is still the sickest pitch at robins and potentially anywhere. Back to camp early for the ceremonial cooking of pedro and yulis mammoth zucchini.

Good, but the single pitch OS attempt was too much. Also who the hell makes north facing crags. Honestly that's evidence enough against God.

Stunning! Probably my favourite climb of the trip. Annoyed that I messed up a nut placement on the first pitch and sat. Way better climbing than it looks. Second pitch was just glorious. What kind of voodoo keeps that block at the top of the second sitting on that ledge! Terrifying.

bottom pitch was wet and muddy, aided a few meters up and down again

Attempted onsight but bailed 2/3 up

Ahhh. Fuck. This was hard i placed my .5s and .75s to early and then placed miserable gear through the crux. Hung around on a #1 umbrella'ing' on three lobes them pulled on and rested on next three pieces to the anchor.

What a route! Full value, good and sometimes tricky gear, made you work for the glory.

So close to the onsight! I found staying concentrated for the length of the pitch super tricky! The gear was also pretty hard to find with the crack not being just parallel. The climbing at the bottom section was super cruise though! A foot slip at the final rooflet sent me flying with a quality whip! Will have to comeback for this one! (First pitch only)

I cruised most of this on second only to have it turn into a desperate battle at the top trying to remove gear from rattly finger and ring locks. Ended up collapsing on the belay ledge quite exhausted but stoked with my effort. An awesome onsight attempt by Harry which was thwarted by a pesky foot skip. The first pitch is really only 35m long and we rapped off here due to time constraints.

Insane

The resident wedgie was cruising around while we were racking up, which seemed like a good omen. Technically not really an onsight, but I'm going to claim it anyway. Climbed the first few metres and found the crack dripping wet and freezing cold so I backed off to warm up my numb fingers and wait for the sun to come around. Second go - crack still dripping wet but a bit less freezing. All clean with the rope still through the first three or four runners. It turned into an epic battle against the pump in the last ten or fifteen metres. Grant led the second pitch, which as second pitches on this buttress go is a really good one. There were still a few patches of snow on the ground at the top from the dump two days beforehand.

P1 onsight, P2 clean 2nd. First ever climb on the Ben and had to fight the whole way. Awesome, varied climbing that keeps you focused the whole time

Would be Mega classic if it were a bit cleaner and less vegetated (though even that is quite minimal). Now THIS was a fight. Amazing, varied climbing over 45m, interrupted briefly by the ability to step right onto thr Barbe Di belay ledge for a break. Laybacking, stemming, fingerlocks, ringlocks, v-groove chimneying and weird houdini maneuvers. Made scary by very hard to place gear in the upper half due to the weird double-seam inside the crack. Strenuous and tenuous. I was completely thrashed!

With Garn Cooper and Anders