Ascents in Ikara, Victorialand, Odin Head, Thor Head having Beta

Second clean. Seconding Neil to exit the crag after a day on this. Awesome, technical, sustained face/slab climbing, with a heart-breaker slab finish right when you're trashed.

With Cam. P1 - Dog. Went for the true onsight, but fell at 4 of the 6 hard sequences. Once unlocked each went well, but I struggled to read the deceptive rock without chalk or inspection. Super-sustained gr24 techy face climbing with no real rests, beautiful red rippled rock and in a great position. I went right from the last bolt to the anchors up some scary, mossy, runout slabbing. Not sure if that is right? P2 - 2nd Clean. Not too hard for the grade, but interesting and varied climbing.

Nearly a classic. Super cool climbing with some outrageous jumps for the vertically challenged. One lead attempt, then FA belay, then i almost did it clean on second but just had one sit halfway through the crux. Very endurancy and thus quite hard to grade. Totally worthwhile.

Day highlight for me was that first pitch crux and its unique lower half.This route is fairy consistent in climbing difficulty, being spoilt by only a small band of rock.

As good as I remember, but quite tough at the grade and very sustained. The first lap was a bit humbling (in the 2nd half), but I managed to squeak through on the second lap. Unrelenting technical thinness wandering up the only line of least resistance on this part of the wall. Be sure to brush (and practice) the top slab at the end of P1... in my arrogance I didn't, and only just managed to keep it together.

Another great wall route in an exposed location.

Flashed P1 (placing draws, and with no inspection, but Lucas described the holds to me as I climbed, hence: can't claim the onsight), which is short but punchy and super-fun (not to mention unique for this part of the world). Not too hard at the grade.

Dogged P2, falling off a very thin move at about half height. A very sustained, varied, and engaging pitch. The dyno followed by the contortionist moves make quite the mid-route contrast as I went full-pretzel to do them. I'll definitely come back this season for the tick on this pitch.

Clean 2nd (TRS). Still had some energy left at the end of the day, so -absent a belayer- I decided to do 2 x laps on this (the 2nd one clean) for some training. A bloody brilliant route. Challenging at 25, but still easier than Raving Bull (despite this being my 4th day on!)

Came back to properly tick the last route of this trilogy of classics. Almost managed it as a warmup, but stalled out on some slab moves up high. No problems second shot. Long, sustained thin-ness, on generally great rock. Probably tough at the grade.

I don't know if what I climbed has just seen its first ascent, but for the self-preservation of prospective ascentionists and their belayers, I hope it's seen its last.

A grand adventure of strangely masochistic attraction, that follows whichever stack of hollow blocks appears to pose less chance of death.

Keen for pitch 2, but Zac's leading this next time 🙃.

One of the very best cracks in the mountains but I did not find it to be jugs. Seven days of effort, one some years ago and then recently three on TRS and three with partners. Thanks Paul for the send belay and Harry and Will for coming down on the other days to support. For the third pitch I did a long traverse right to meet up with Telstar placing no gear. It's a bit of a choose your own adventure up there but at least this way was easy...ish. Someone go do it and tell me what grade it is.

I spent 4 days on this route over the last 4 years -including my first attempt "group up" with Emil in the snow (back when no one really knew anything about this route, except that it looked rad).

P1 and P3 are inconsequential, but P2 is absolutely stunning. Its basically a mega mega left-leaning seam-crack at 24/25, guarded by a V8+ crack boulder that I could "sort of" do the moves on, but never really had any chance to link.

Over my visits, I replaced the anchors on this, so there's really no reason for you not (prospective ascent reader) to get on it.

with Moss, Greg Moore

a fine line with a few hard moves

Greg started up the second pitch got to the cairn and thought, what the hell is this rock for and threw it away and then discovered he couldn't do the final pitch!

This is something I would say is definitely worth the walk out for. The start is quite hard and requires a bit of delicate crimping, pulling and balance. It almost made us think the entire route was going to be like this mainly because there was no chalk whatsoever and it required Ro to do a bit of route finding. Luckily I got to second after all the hard work had been done (thanks Ro) and I think it climbed really well. Lots of interesting moves, quite sustained and the position is great (maximum views). Definitely recommended.

A great afternoon climb, long, varied, reasonably sustained. The only downside is the first ~15m are super sharp. I think it took us a bit over 3hours car to car. We fixed a 60m rope to rap down on, which I think is a reasonable idea for convenience and potential bail options.

So the route is 24, but it's quite tricky to do a chalkless onsight. I pumped out getting lost on the wandery start. Also, I'd say it's got a couple mandatory 24ish sequences. That said, its largely well bolted, though a little runout through the easier (a chossy) sections.

Overall - very cool. It's exposed, has excellent face climbing and with some really memorable sequences. Complete with ironstone "micro tufa" pinches and a serious undercling crank. Should get more traffic.

Quite an adventurous climb, worth a crack., starts up vegetated corner (cams) before first carrot, and a dusty rail traverse over to the arete. Some great arete moves on this long pitch! One of which I could not do , off the midway ledge. Some interesting route finding, off the ledges two times I traversed in from the far left. Mostly carrots but bring a single rack of cams to 3 and nuts.

I think we did the direct start, which may be a tad harder than 24 and a bit reachy... Pulledbthrough s few hard bits down low but climbed the rest fairly well albeit a bit pumped ...

Super good shorter multi, and with all the pitches being a little squishy at the grade, one that should really see a lot more action than it does. The first pitch is the money with sustained and continuously interesting climbing on excellent rock with no real hard moves. The second pitch is also excellent, with really funky stemming to great pumping up a steep feature. The chain hanging off the anchors on this pitch is nonsense though. I pulled on it following the information from the guide book and then felt a bit robbed upon clipping the anchors and seeing an abundance of good little edges that the chain was sitting on top of and obscuring. The moves seem to go free at a fairly straightforward 22 or 23 (Neil didn't use the chain) and make for a nice finale to the pitch, but in its current state it can be quite difficult to work around the chain. Following this, pitch three is great with a few exposed and powerful moves and pitch four is a totally inoffensive wander up a corner.

All up a great afternoon!

=FAIL.

What a route and what a sandbag, i was really busting a sweat at the top of this. I kept thinking it was over, however it just doesn't end. Pretty rad route, with again all the elements that make up a classic, if you ignore a small middle band(every classic route ove done thats 50 metres has some choss).I loved the upper side pull section and i think this was the hardest route i did today!! 24 BLAHHHHHHH

Absolutely nails, but bloody brilliant. Usually quite spectacular rock, though some sections of choss. There were so many moves on this where I was almost off, but stayed on by the skin of my teeth. On the onsight I did the crux move as one of the most ridiculous V5 boulder moves I've ever done on rock, but later found out a smarter way of doing it via a hidden hold. Totally worthy, but very demanding.

So pumped at the top, caught the last hold as I was coming off. An nice aesthetic wall in a lovely location.

pure shit rock, don't do it!

Pinged off at the end of the crux. Sent next shot. Some sick moves through the crux.

Really enjoy this style of climbing, had to go for it at the start!

Middle a bit thin for me, and misremembered Zac’s sequence… but soldiered on to the top in the end … probably could have done them in approach shoes like Zac did, back in the day… maybe again someday…

Worked moves, now to find placing gear beta

stuffed it again!

with Micky B - A big day out!

with Micky B - A big day out!

Superb. Technical/sustained thin crack.

fun!

Sweet, nice big powerful moves (if you like to climb from decent hold to decent hold . Very Reccommended!

my first was in 89,many yrs later my girl & i truly blasted off on the 3rd blay ldge(one of my best climbing memories thanx chell !!)

LED with Ant,Mark 1980

with Dude

Neil's first route at this new Logan Brae-esque cliff. See ACA for details. Flashed after a minor groundfall incident.

fell at crux...next shot for sure....

Alt leads with Ant 1982

with Micky B - A big day out!