Ascents in The Colliery

I led first and last. Ben did middle. Difficult to know where best to belay at end and also where to rap. We just did our own thing. Amazing climb. Pretty hard for 19 but possibly because of how dirty and scary parts of the line are.

Fantastic TRadventure up a beautiful orange corner and roof.

Awesome route! If technical 3D climbing is not your style, this could easily feel like 21.

Great route with adventurous feel. Was handy to have double ropes. A must do crack in the area. In the shade till 12:30

A jaw dropping line. Some thratching at the start, steep rising corner crack, and a committing finish definitely classify this one as a big bag of sand . Very committing by nature, dirty with some loose sections, get your adventure pants on if you are getting on this. Definitely felt harder than 19 Climbed it as a single pitch from the ground to the lip of the roof. Exited to the right across the choss-loaded ledge to the coal-seam crack tree abseil. Truly a journey

2nd Shot total, first shot today placing the draws. Stoked to get this, and really happy with it as a climb. Strenuous, tenuous pure-arete start, to delicate top section. Climbs nicely all the way. The climb also got another lead-attempt from my climbing partner today, who verified its difficulty.

Clean repeat. Awesome to get back on this almost 10 years after I first put it up, and not be dissappointed with the route or my equipping.

Also rather psyched to just punch it out placing draws despite it being obviously untrafficked, cause it's quite hard to read and rather committing. Genuinely good arete climbing, and something quite different to other aretes in this grade range in the Blueys.

Stoked to get this today on my first shot of the day. With the cleaned crux footers, it was still desperate but no longer dangerous. The roof sequence is the crux, once established in a stemming stance above the roof its only 18 or so to the top. Bring at least 3 x BD 0.50 and 3 x BD 0.75... I didn't, it was exciting!

First Repeat! I blew a footer about 1m off the ground and landed back on the deck on my onsight. If this crack was at any other mainstream crag it would be a genuine classic test piece. Long, technical, scary, with great rock and pure trad movement. It's not over until it's over! What a fight.

Led P1, Seconded P2 on First Ascent with Rob. P1 is simply pleasant and easy climbing. P2 is the moneymaker pitch, with a wicked mini-Spartan traverse to start off, followed by a hard-ish move, and an enjoyable cruise to the top. Good trad value.

More weird than hard. A full grade easier if you use the crack on the left properly (I stayed on line, using the side of the crack like a sidepull). The roofy section and squeeze chimney is easy but committing. In hindsight, this route could have been done all on gear reasonably safely.

R.I.P good buddy.

Done as a warm-up, because I was psyched at the idea of doing a Mount-York style face-climb first-ascent on minimal gear. Well, I got my wish... Okay climbing, but unfortunately dubious rock adds to the danger on this one. Don't fall.

First Ascent done ground up. More extensive cleaning of the crack was later done on rap. Not worth a star, but not too shabby, Harder than it looks, and surprisingly technical, with some interesting footwork required. Probably a good warm up for the other routes at this end of the crag.

A pleasant trad ramble. The thin flake at the bottom widens to a hand crack, which leads to some delicate and awkward roof moves, and an easy corner crack to the top. Other than the chossy detached block and some loose rock underneath the bulge, this climb is quite enjoyable.

M1 for now, would be easy to free when not carrying 15kgs of bolting gear. Nothing special, but is an okay access pitch to the top of the Shark's Fin. Grade 10, maybe?

Done with 1 rest at the bottom (20M0) as an attempt to free the climb. I balked when I saw the volume of moss growing on the crux footer, and rested on the rope to scrub it off. Then clean to the top. Now that the crucial footer is clean, this climb will definately go free. Looks completely insignificant and easy from the ground, but this climb is DESPERATE. Committing, scary, delicate crux move off the first-ledge, then strenuous insecure corner climbing to the top. Malevolently deceptive!

Classic exposed trad climbing. Led P1 and P3, N/C-Rob led the money maker 2nd Pitch. First pitch is a funky chimney, with a few hard moves to get established in the crack proper. Pitch 2 is amazing climbing through a huge roof to a belay stance on the lip. The third pitch is an easy finger-crack to ledge. Mostly good, rock, bombproof gear, and stellar exposure on the 2nd Pitch. At any other crag this would be a must-do trad-classic!

Clean repeat. One of the most unique cracks you'll find at this grade in the Blueys. Genuinely should be on every crack enthusiast's tick list, because this $#!ts on many of the overly-repeated "classics" around the place.

P2 in particular is mind blowing terrain!

Grade 10, what was I thinking? Done free solo as a warm-up. Nothing special.

Clean Repeat Seconding Mont. Even all these years later, this is just a bloody great crack climb. Quite a fair bit more demanding than similar graded routes at Piddo or Cosmic.

Seconded Rob on the first ascent. A diagonal off-width with almost no off-width climbing. A bit thrutchy, with some nice face moves in the middle.

Seconded Rob on the first ascent. Layback the off-width! Long climb with an entertaining change in headspace once you step off the top of the pillar and head-up the headwall.

Seconded Rob on the first ascent. Fun! I don't like off-widths or squeeze chimneys, yet this was heaps of fun. Bring big gear (and sling the chockstone wedged in the off-width). Easy (for an off-width), but technical... With ACTUAL Off-Width climbing!

Seconded Rob on the first ascent. Makes a good warm-up. An short and easy ramble up a clean corner, with one interesting move.

Seconded Rob on the first ascent. A pleasant short chimney. Bring some big gear to protect it (though alternative, smaller pro can be found). One interesting move.

Harder than I expected, but as good as I was hoping. I'm thinking at least grade 22 pure-arete style, now. Strenuous for the first 3 bolts, then delicate (and scary). I fell off on the last hard move (before the final 10m of easy-ish climbing) and mangled my leg on the knife blade arete. I've since added another bolt, and devised a better sequence in order to avoid a repeat of that fall. Now to get back and send it.

Great route with quite varied but excellent climbing.

A couple of attempts. I was pretty happy with the progress I made given that I've never tried to climb this sort of roof offwidth (where I couldn't avoid using the proper technique), but I just couldn't quite finish it out. Bringing a more appropriate set of climbing shoes, socks, long pants, and spare blood would probably have helped as well Regardless, I certainly learned lots.

A pretty accessible way to learn these sorts of "pony shuffling" techniques in the Blue Mountains.

Big congratz to Zuni on the FA!