Ascents in Newnes Plateau

A good first pitch. Protects well. Very sharp. Not exactly the spiltter finger crack I was expecting. Rather a right leaning, slightly overhanging, offset finger crack with quite a few larger pods. The second pitch is pretty average.

Access isn't too bad if you follow the fire road. GPS coordinates are spot on.

FFA.

Was pretty chuffed to punch this out as a warmup, with the route unchalked.

The money pitch is short, and the rock is variable (though mostly quite good) but it's very sustained and insecure, and an excellent technical crack-climbing test-piece. In a few moments of desperation, I began using face-holds that would be called bad footers any other day of the week... I'm sure there's better beta

FFA. Mega mega mega!

Originally attempted ground-up (after climbing Everyman and his Dog) resulting in a few big falls, and much fear, I later sent this third shot on pre-placed gear, and 4th shot placing all gear on lead. On the FFA, I linked P1 into P2.

This is the sort of modern-style trad climbing that I've really come to enjoy, where the incipient crack takes gear, but much of the climbing is done gymnastically on face holds, resulting in some exciting exposure as you move away from the gear. The upper crux is very sporty. Proper stoked with this find.

The usual TR dogfest*2 between Matches RP/PP burns. Lovely climbing between boulder problems, medium sized but mostly sane gear. Despite making progress couldnt pull the facey upper boulder.

Impressive find and an awesome first trip to Newnes, a SPIRITED line....

Just your normal Newnes smash and grab. with rock raining down on the FA

Second day out here managed to break a cam on flaring placement also got the belay tick for the FFA.

Waited 4 months for the road to be graded.

Had a ambitious red point attempt which lead to a respectable whip at the first crux then.

Second lap went for the pink point and got it done! Nearly lost it on the outro of the top crux.

This line is proper.

Rapped down line from tree at top on a 60m lead line. Rope-soloed out in dodgy approach shoes with a rest (to dry retch, due to heat and cordial), didn't seem to bad, just a bit physical but you get that on chimneys...

Single rack to #2 at most prob, plus wires should be fine, maybe double small cams if worried ... probably best as single pitch, with some long runners... 'Cleaned' a few loose bits accidentally, will be back for the tick... and a few others that I bouldered the starts of ....

First ascent ... An awesome line that seems to dare/demand that you to give it a try despite your 'better judgement' ....

Regardless of the chance of failure and obvious ensuing difficulties we gave it a shot, though the unknowns of getting a decent belay and getting through the roof held the keys to success... fortunately we were pleasantly surprised....

An awesome, engaging, full value climb ...

Onsight First ascent(?) by Zac and cleanly seconded by Jamie and myself. Almost came off in offwidthy thrutch section just before cave but kept it together. Strange how sometimes one can seemingly completely forget , or at least not remember, or perhaps ignore, sequences you've just watched others do...

Good fun old fashioned climbing, done in fine style by all...

had a go on lead and got so confused i had to give it to jim! realy fun climb once i figure it out. need to upskill on the oldschool clinmbing

Downclimbed to ground from the wide section as I couldn’t find any good gear and got spooked

Seconding Zac on FA. 1 cleaning issue at crux and lovely wetness for the easy top out... great fun ...

Was meant to be warm up for one of the other routes here ... but wasn't really warmed up for this anyway ... was more interested in time than the onsight so unfortunately no gold star ...oh welll maybe a silver next time ...

Wow, great climb. Few delightful long moves on (what I perceived as) good hand jams on quite steep territory. It really doesn't look that steep from the ground. Rock is pretty clean and gear is solid as, not advisable for sensitive skin... but I think the prickles inside the crack will eventually clean up nicely with traffic. Ben thought the grade was stiff, I thought it was honest but mmm if I compare to The Kracken, ok it might be a bit harder.

Absolutely wild. Climbed about a third of it in an epic dog session and did most of those moves. From where we got to, the rest of the crack needs a pretty good clean to de-crozzle and remove a chunk of choss but after that it will be good to go. Possibly the hardest route I've ever tried. Go get on it people!!

Fourth day on. Sorted out the last moves of the first tier just before the Spinning Blades Traverse, using a pocket jug on the right then easy move left on the first blade. Much easier than the Vidlers crimp fest. There's still a move in the first tier I cannot repeat Did most of the moves of the tier 2 which is chugging along the blades then go back to the ceiling crack in the coolest sequence of the climb so far. Now I stopped at the last blade available for footwork where I believe the crux of the climb is to turn around with last available bad finger jam in the crack and face the truth, I can't see any holds for about a body length before the Ironstone Traverse starts. To be continued...

Good progress today, found a new crimp towards the end of First Tier, linked from the last move of the lower crux to the middle of the Spinning Blades, did lots of subtle cleaning and blunting the blades to keep the rope reasonably safe. Checked out the transition move to the Iron Stone Traverse and found few spots where my fingers fit but this will be ridiculously hard, there's hope at least.

6th day on. Started trying to pink point lower crux up to end of Spinning Blades. Sequence at lower crux is getting there, need to tape first knuckle of left index finger and both pinkies. Worked a bit on the climbs crux to gain Ironstone Traverse, it's real hard. I managed to stem from last good jam reaching just the bad part of Ironstone, seems like I'll need to reset in the two next bad jams to gain control on the transition. Explored the Ironstone Traverse to the alcove which is awesome fun climbing, felt totally unmotivated to go further after pulling on bad rock in the alcove and thought the climb should stop here.

Did about 15 shots this year 2021. Last shot was on pre-placed gear and climbed through all finger lock section and took my first real fall with the second hueco latched but unable to progress to third. Only three moves away from jug! Climbing it placing gear up to aid move is now a short term objective.

2 x laps. The First was a long ordeal, trying to properly suss viable moves/sequences/gear/clipping. The second was to confirm what I learned from the previous lap. Thought I had it all figured out (though it would need a lot of effort still to send!) but on my 2nd lap there was a single move I couldn't repeat. Tired? Or just too hard? Who knows.

IT was rad tackling this knowing I'd need new beta -being the first of my physiology to undertake the challenge. My beta encompassed mono-fingerlocks, and 2-finger stacks through dead-horizontal roof. Painful as hell, but megar megar.

Thanks heaps for letting me have a play, Jacques!

First Free Ascent. Few years in the making, still have to come back to redpoint

Wow, what an incredible line. Very gnarly but possible with the right sequence.

FFA. Exceptional climb, hard to put a grade on this but it really doesn't matter, def felt harder than 25. The FFA was pink point. Zac Vertees subsequently sent it placing gear

Just the short version today... cleaning after Zac's onsight ... enjoyable climbing up to where it steps up a little ... pealed out off an off-hands section trying to milk a poor jam to get my other failing jam a bit better ... then continued ... will be back for further attempts and beyond ... Great climbing and quite novel looking route ...

Pretty stoked to check this out. Mostly went up to do the 180 move, Ben's photo of which got me keen on cracks in the first place!

That went well, so I kept going to the birth canal. Surprised to do all moves (and clip all gear) free! But I know it gets harder later... Working a ground-to-birth-canal send could be a nice short-term project (Jacques suggested 25 to there but I found it a huuge step up from the 24 version 🤷‍♂️)

2 Attempts. On my 2nd I managed to get to the last 5m body-squeeze/offwidth section with a single rest, but never really managed to work out the last few metres. To me, with my physiology, it seemed like I was going to need to invert? But lacking more big gear, I was too intimidated to commit properly to it. I'll have to come back with bigger gear, and maybe a few more skills.

The rock is a mixed bag, but it's outweighed by the wildness of the climbing, which is varied, brutish, and intimidating.

I used 7 x #4, 2 x #5 and 1 x #6 for the roof part of the crack. I could probably have done with another #6 at least, and perhaps something bigger (purely for the purpose of working the last part of the roof).

Yowza. Pump city, had to bail once I'd lost enough skin on my fists. Incredible position and moves in the roof

Day 1: Bargained, borrowed and begged for every size #4 cam between Blueies and Brisbane to tie in and scope this out.

1st tie in: Aided through about 8m of the horizontal fist crack, getting acquainted with the jams and gear. Back jumped down to anchor and lowered off to give Johnny a catch on another route.

2nd tie in: Had a decent idea of the beta for the section I played on so decided to put all my beans into it. Freed the whole section in one push at max effort, Johnny described the screams as some sort of dying dinosaur 😂

So… super happy with the day as I managed to free an entire section! Still have quite a lot left to do, and conscious the hard stuff is still to come, but it’s a good start.

A few takeaways:

• Finger isn’t a problem on this if I tape it.
• I’m definitely not at full fitness after working like a maniac for 2 months. Lots of room for improvement there.
• Miuras the shoe beta. Wide boys the jammies beta. Knee pads essential.

Day 2:

Tie in 1: A little sketched out by disbelief as the crack was full seeping and I wasn’t 100% ok with cams in potentially wet sandstone. Turned out to be ok and just needed to get the head on straight. 5 sits to get up to the roof and then work a bit more of the beta.

Tie in 2: Tried for a full link from ground to the double knee bar. Cruised up Disbelief until a hand jam popped out of a wet piece of the crack at the anchors… Ahh well!

Climbed from the fall through the roof to the double knee bar, sat, and then solved the final sequence (mini crux?) that entered the birth canal. Goal for today was to get to birth canal, so that’s a success ✅

Aiming for a clean link from ground into birth canal next session. Beta is all there, climbed all current sequences clean… the final piece might just be a dry crack! 😂

Failed to get my goal of a ground to birth canal link today. 🤷‍♂️

All sections are fine in isolation but to actually join them is mega all body pump. Dialed in more beta, climbed sections with far less effort and made it into birth canal. Keeeeeeeeeeeen!

Physically shattered but super stoked to be able to log a hang dog 🎉

A few huge wins today:

• Got a 1 sit from ground to the end of the birth canal.
• Figured out beta for entering birth canal chimney that makes it way way easier.
• Aided through the last few metres, got a beta spray from Jacques and familiarised myself with final holds and sequence.
• Touched the opposite wall of the cave!

Wasn’t sure if the route was actually doable with the last few metres being a giant question mark. Relieved to find out it’s absolutely doable with current strength/skillset and it just needs beta refined.

Psyched to come back in a few months in cooler temps and start going for the send!

All sequences now solved and final moves through the birth canal till end done free. One more sesh to link together last section and then red point attempts. Would be great to close this out before Europe!

Session 6:

Tie in 1: jumared up to work final sequences and then linked end of birth canal to end of route using beta from Saturday. Proper crux for me is the moves past the 180 cut loose + double knee bar.

Tie in 2: first proper send attempt. Disbelief was very straightforward and then punched through first crux into the roof. From there, dumped the whole tank and pushed to the birth canal. Fell out doing the sequence setup to get into the chimney but honestly, another 5 seconds on the wall and I would have vomited. Hardest I’ve tried in a very very very long time.

🤞 🤞

Heart break. Fell 1.5 metres from the end 😭

On the final tie in, the roof felt smooth and full flow. A small power scream came out when getting into the chimney but otherwise felt very tight.

Milked the rest then cleanly climbed remaining cruxes only to dry fire out of a sandy fist jam. I should have brushed all of those cracks earlier in the week and I probably would have sent.

Looking forward to session 8 (hopefully the last one) in a few months.

FFA. Tried ground up first free ascent but figured out real quick it was safer to clean up few loose chockstones and dirt. Subsequent ascent was FFA of the short version to where a dramatic increasing angle, width and associated difficulty appeared. Again, I always thought Disbelief should not be a proper climb and recorded as such but it's obvious now with increased popularity that the short version of Beyond Belief lives.