Ascents in Australia by Sam May

"Scrambling" up this exposed descent route is an easy way to add excitement to an afternoon of top roping.

Barefoot lap. Cleaning at the end of the day.

A worthwhile variant start to Wet Feet. Though Jess managed to stay out of the water seconding, well done.

Snuck away from supervising the beginner topropes for a shot. Luckily it was a good one.

Produces more pump and heartbreak than many sport routes!

"Too tired after Trackcare" is a great excuse.

2nd session, no tick, it really doesn't seem like it should be this hard to get up! It might avoid a downgrade at this rate.

Really good! Why did I keep walking past it all these visits! Sustained long and pumpy for the grade.

Bolting is silly, first bolt is above the crux so may as well boulder or TR.

Good scoopy climbing though.

Bah high gravity day, was expecting to redpoint first or second shot but couldn't even do the moves.

Also felt weird and hard? Not an inspiring climb.

Slid off about a meter from the chains on the flash attempt. Should have held on...

Great classic line of steep jugs. First 23 flash, although I've had much bigger battles on lower graded climbs recently.

Bigger and steeper than it looks, a good beginner's route (to top rope or second).

Best 13 in the mountains?

Flash with inspection and a couple of pre-placed cams on abseil. Really good climbing.

One nut was jammed in pretty hard, after trying for while I yelled "Take!", "TAAAKE!" and finally "F%$@G TAAAAAKE YOU F*#$G MORON TAKE" at the top of my lungs, only to be met with a faint "what?" barely audible over the waves, so I just had to keep hanging on while I cleaned it.

Still fell off the top though! A truly mega route!

Location location location...stunning spot. Very short climb though. Supervising a good lead by Louis.

Pleasant little spot all the way down the end here. Limited though.

Aaah blew the onsight on this as well, slipped out of a sandy chip.

This is a good route. Turns out I need to climb more than once a fortnight to maintain my 21 onsight grade.

Repeat with Em. An exiting belay with incoming tide and rising swell.

Where did my lead head go - biggest "can I just close my eyes and go home now" moment in a while.

GEAR BETA Take more small cams and big hexes. Watch that terrifying loose block at the start, there's a great thread on the right take a double length sling.

As fun and safe as the sea cliffs are going to get! So pick a hot afternoon, put on your boardshorts, and get on it.

Friday arvo adventures. All the sand and surf you could want!

Brendan took a couple of jugs home as souvenirs and had some airtime…so the bolts are good! Give the second pitch to someone who's solid at the grade. Take a brush or three.

Good climb but I was in the wrong mood to enjoy it. Had to haul down on a badly tangled pull cord with the microtraxion, while abseiling in behind a large Bunny Bucket Buttress conga line.

Took 7 bolt plates, some wires, and 3 cams #0.75 to #2 (which we did place one or two times)

Barefoot for a warmdown.

Dyno to glory! So much fun.

A bit of a shock after three weeks of Blueys vertical hauling. Funky, technical, awesome.

Even with half the holds broken off it's still a contender for juggiest route in the mountains.

Great stuff all round, position, line and climbing. Surprisingly exposed. If you're going to do it in pitches I recommend taking the bolt plates and topping out.

Shoulda been onsight...peeled off the crux then immediately lowered off and got it 2nd shot.

A bit of a mini-epic taking out three beginners. One person overcome by the call of nature just after being put on belay to follow the first pitch (no tp of course). A dropped belay device. A stupidly tight pair of shoes that took 10 min to put on at every belay. Rain on the last pitch, then full-blown storm on the access pitch, a waterfall spraying in my face as the belayer was assulted by hail.

More dogging than a poodle show and my shoes still haven't fully dried.

Great, would have two stars at Thompsons Point.

This crag isn't bad, afternoon shade, bush character, Wolgan style walk in to keep away the masses, I'll be back.

I also quite liked this. Big moves and slopin sleazin on the same route, lots of climbing.

I liked this, lots of character for a short 18 sport route. Sandbag start, spicy bolting ("It would be safer on trad!") and good climbing.

First multipitch for Dave and Lilian. Beginners accidentally unclipping themselves on the halfway ledge on this climb is becoming a tradition...

Haha still not ticked! Not a good warmup, got pumped silly.

Three years ago I would have been raving, but now it's just a good morning out.

Linked pitches 1 & 2, simulclimbed the halfway ledge, off by 1pm for lunch and latte in Blackheath, before going cragging in the afternoon.

(Unfortunately our style looks less impressive next to the 3 Queenslanders in front of us, who simulclimbed BBB and HC in a day, to train for speed climbing in Yosemite!)

This time I managed to clean all of Ro's nuts without weighting the rope or crying. Was a close-run thing though, with a little deja vu!

Led the slab traverse.

SLAB. GASM.

Surely this has been done before? It was about 30m from our tents...but we did break off the obvious footer, and scrape and brush away a lot of moss that would be hard to avoid.

Great little offwidth problem, and will now be mandatory for every stay at Catani.