Ascents of Serpentine

All the moves have gone. Still need to get my head in the game to commit the the second crux. Excited to spend some more time on this.

Account has been opened!

Today was indeed the day, iykyk

P2 (P1 described separately). First attempt - just trying to demystify the legend. Getting old, so about time I started working on it.

Roof crux seems okay, delicate traverse afterwards was indeed delicate, turret was relatively straightforward, crimp crux was hard. Then was so rooted by the big break that I bailed. Shot number 2 will be a lot better I assume (well, I hope anyway)

got spanked, but geeze the rock is amazing, inspired to try again one day!

Best rock in the galaxy. It has been my dream line ever since I first saw it a handful of years ago. Thought the first pitch was great too. Took me around 10 attempts. Asking for a bunch of slack and stepping off of the top for the victory whip got the heart racing, ending up down by the turret and having to climb it again from the belay to clean, bonus lap Scrubbed shit loads of chalk and ticks off, way too many ticks up there. Left a couple of pee bottles at the belay for other to use.

Opening the account first day on Taipan? Maybe just dreaming

Wow wow wow, need to quit my job and come back.

Wow so beautiful!! Need to come back with more balls

Tried the top 1/3 on Tr. Clean with 2 rests

Wowsers! 2nd shot, after falling off the LAST move going to the victory jug on the flash. Heart broken but healed after whipping off the top!

The cream. Did the first pitch too. Let's call that the vegetables

Life goal complete

Holy crap, finally got it last day last try. This is definitely one of the best climbs I've ever done. Relentless and incredible climbing all the way to the top.

Incredible!! In the zone from bottom to top. The victory whip was epic. Gear was on

Puts the classic in mega classic!! Best route on earth 5th attempt over 3 days.

Has to be one of the worlds best routes!

Wow. Such an amazing route. Fell off the crimp crux 3 times, realised i was doing it wrong, changed my beta, ticked next shot. Milked all the bomber hand jam rests and pulled the final moves feeling fresh. Great way to end the trip. Victory whip is mega! 5th shot.

One last lap, taking my gear off as I went up, as a warmup. Proper bloody arctic today, even by my standards. Fell off the turret for the first time in a while from the Screaming Barfies, then 1-rest on each of the two crimp-cruxes, linking all the rest of the climb taking out the gear. Maybe a 10% chance to tick this on a lead shot now, but damn it'd be unfair on any belayers. VictArctica is in full effect at the moment!

1 more lap on Top Rope Solo. Linked everything EXCEPT the two main crimp cruxes, which I dispatched as isolated sequences after a brief rest... FINALLY managed to stick the last move of the fat-fingered crux (still feels nails to me). I also find the opening roof-boulder awkward with my height (but doable).

2 more laps on Top Rope Solo. Pretty psyched with my linkage today which encompassed most of the route. Managed to sort out the lower crimp crux (still feels hard and unpleasant to me, though), but havent QUITE put together the last move of the Fat-fingered crux. I'll come back after a few rest days and see where im REALLY at with this.

2nd pitch only. 2 laps Top Rope Solo piecing it together. Quite a marathon session on the wall sussing it all out. Struggling with the 2 crimp cruxes (cant do the last move of the fat-fingered crux yet). Seems quite sustained though no sequence seems harder than 26. Much better linkage on the 2nd lap. A rather scary rope solo. The start, groove, turret and some of steep sequences are pretty rad. I found the crimp cruxes unpleasant and painful, and sections of the juggy rock is quite sharp... but the position and engagement are rad. Maybe not quite as good as its reputation.

Ticked 3rd try, mega route!

Shot 11 - I finally got it! I can't friggin believe it! Also this was my first time actually pulling over the lip and standing on top - I was always saving that for when I got it clean... because I knew what had to come next. This time I stood on top and screamed my elation across the valley, asked for 2m of extra slack and... "I'm gonna jump!". There was a funny moment with one foot stepping on mid-air and my weight just PAST the turning back point my brain went "nup I don't want to do this"...

Top roped on it. a bit beyond me at the moment.

Shot number 10, main purpose was to put the gear on. Surprisingly I got all the way past the 2nd crux - I thought I might have it this shot! But then I fell about 8m before the top on some medium-grade moves, oh well. Got the gear on anyway.

Attempt 8. New beta for the first crux! - get foot up to smear then throw with left hand, not right. Worked wonderfully twice in a row. I got really excited holding the break as I thought maybe I had it in the bag. Unfortunately made a mistake at the fat-fingered-crux and fell, then fell again on the easy moves just after that. Won't make the same mistakes again.

Attempt #9. Second shot today I was a lot more tired/dehydrated so didn't recover as well on the jugs as I did on the first shot. Again breezed through the first crux (new beta is awesome) and fell at the second. Also plenty of times after that, haha! Really feel like I have this route very soon - maybe next time I'm there! Came down cleaning the route this time.

Attempt 6 and 7. Fared much better than earlier in the trip, just the first crux to figure out - can do the rest no problem (fat-fingered-crux is a bit of a percentage-move but not so much as the first crux).

Attempt 5 and 6 - much better than yesterday, just 3 falls in places. remembering the moves

Attempt 4 after a 3-year break. Amazing route as always. No gear on the route, so went up this time to put the gear on. Didn't get past the first crux but lucky Hood did. Left gear there for 2 weeks total.

Got it second go. What a fantastic route.

2nd pitch only.

Fell from the very, final move on Saturday (6th time on it), then got it Sunday (7th go on it)...surprisingly, very seedy from the night before... The jump off the top was almost as good as doing the route itself...don't short-change yourself!

An outrageous route. 2nd try after dogging. Bit of a marathon. One of my forearms blew up solid and I camped out for 15 mins at the last rest before it went down. Very satisfying.