Ascents in Perry's Lookdown

6.5hrs car to car! A great, heady, adventurous multi-pitch adventure with a decidedly old-school feel. Have your headgame in check before you attempt this one! All but 2 of the pitches have real quality. P1 (23) - 2nd Clean. Great, pumpy climbing right off the ground. P2 (22M1) - Onsight. I had a huck at the 25 free version, but the crimp-dyno off the belay was kind of hideous. Funky hard start (after the aid move), then average wandery, dangerously runout rambling on easy-ish terrain and dubious rock. P3 (22) - 2nd Clean - The slab-arete start is brilliant, after which its just enjoyable orange thinness. Easyish for the original 23 grade? P4 (24M1) - Onsight. Had a bit of a go at the free version, but it's very its very illogical from below (it only made sense when I was well above it). Onsighted the 24M1 version by pulling on a single bolt to gain the next hold. A thrilling, and terrifyingly committing sequence to gain and turn the arete (feet first?????), then technical thin climbing up the left-side of the arete to the top. Brilliant. P5 (24) - 1 Fall (right at the end of the hard moves) on 2nd. D'oh! A brilliant, pumpy, power-endurance pitch on great rock, and quite sustained for the first half. Super-exposed position. P6 (10) - Onsight. A junky, loose exit pitch. Meh.

P1 - (Second) Onsite P2 - (Lead) Onsite/ aid (22 M0) P3 - (Lead) Onsite P4 - (Second) Dog/ Aid - 24 M0 P5 - (Second) Dog

Mank. I dont know how it gets 2 stars- and its not just the offwidth. Led P1 with some dodgy tactics.

Clean to start of the crack. Broke a hold or two but there's heaps of them. Climb was damp and wasn't feeling super confident.

Seconded Zac on the true first 'ground-up ledge to ledge' ascent as 'This Is Your Brain On Crack'. The 'working title' we took from a message from Mike Law (which was sent as a challenge to numerous people stating it was cleaned and ready to climb) Had to take a 'rest' whilst cleaning gear (which is often harder than placing it) but we were climbing it as a really long pitch without the artificial belay that was later added... Great climbing, not too hard, but a bit tricky...

This awesome rig totally exceeded my expectations. Two long top rope laps as part of a fairly mega scoping day to figure out if it is worth putting some real time into sending it, and it turns out it is!! Fairly moderate for the first section into an awesome, heinous, desperate and completely rad long crux sequence that could spit you off at any move. I somehow managed to climb from the start of this crux to the top (of the first pitch) clean on TR on my first lap and absolutely mangled myself in the process which made the second lap feel even harder. Super duper ultra psyched, despite the hilarious jumarring to escape and all the other admin involved. Hopefully some lead attempts will start soon!!

Tougher than expected. My beefy fingers rarely fit deeper than 1-pad in the crack, resulting in lots of back-2/3 finger locks, and 1-pad locks. Looks about Grade 23 when you rap past it... climbs much harder (mostly due to non-existent footers). 3 laps on TR, the first 2 of which were embarrassingly long. On my final lap, taking out the gear as I went, I managed to get it down to a single fall on the final hard sequence (but that's not as close to linking it as you might think, since this route becomes something of an enduro route for the red point crux). Aside from the epic to access it, the climbing is brilliant, on great rock, and with a "slow burn" (maybe 22/23 to get to the crux), followed by a long, intense crux. Probably softish 27 for me (but I'll re-evaluate when I tick it).

Done! (But in poor style - pre-placed gear). 9th lap TOTAL. Im nicknaming this climb "7 metres of madness" and for those 7m its all on. Looks 23... climbs nails. Super-complex, varied, long sequences with hideous hideous feet... I havent climbed a crack like it in the Blueys (though im sure theres a few in Indian Creek). Its been a great and epic journey to this point (not the least due to the arduous access), now for the true trad redpoint.

2nd shot today, 11th total, placing the gear. Almost managed it as my warmup but botched a sequence at the very top, and then flash pumped into oblivion. Not muuuuch harder than on pre-placed, though pumpier and a bit scarier (I had to minimise my gear for all the hard stuff to a point where it was quite "engaging but probably safe". Pretty psyched to get it done in good style, as its the last of the harder classic cracks of the Blueys for me to tick.

After ticking P1, my Dad jumaared up to join me on the belay, and I onsighted P2. P2 is actually good, varied and sustained climbing, though unfortunately vegetated and bit dirty/snappy due to lack of traffic. It's actually kind of intimidating despite the grade (due to the composition) but totally worthwhile.

First lead shots. I think I had one TR warm up lap and two lead attempts on pre-placed with my best effort being a one hang. Some beta was refined but it generally still felt nails!!

Same formula as the previous week. One TR warm up lap and then two lead shots. Came super close and high pointed before realising I was totally just messing up my beta on the send attempts and basically punting off. Awesome to belay Paul's first send of it though and with my sequence actually properly dialled it was game on for the next week!!!

Absolute radness!! So stoked to get this done, even if it isn't a true red point tick! First at the grade and on my sendage lap it was never really in any doubt. I got a huge high point on my warm up lap falling off literally the last move of consequence and then crushed it next shot which was my 10th total. My plan is to take a short break from it (partially to let the brutal crater in my hand heal (and also because I need to forget how painful the jumar is before I can face it again)) and then come back for a proper redpoint and a hopeful onsight of the second pitch, which i genuinely think i can do and feel will probably only add about half a grade. Totally my proudest tick to date and an unbelievably rad team journey to have experienced!!

I had to see what all the commotion was about... turns out it actually is a sensational piece of crack. Just gave the first pitch a whirl on top rope before climbing Slipstream with a mate and surprised myself climbing it clean first go for warmup. Thought it would have been much harder, Ive only led 24 crack, but it didnt feel that different to 5.11+ in the Creek. Should have just gone ground up after all... will be keen to return with a stack of microcams for the lead. A 60m rope hit the ground from the top anchors with about 5 metres spare, could totally be done in one pitch.

2 top rope laps before Will's epic send!! Made some good links but was just psyched to try the moves and see what all the hype is about!

Wimped out on the flash and then had a top rope lap.

I swapped my sporty shoes for some holey brown anasazis, and took an ibuprofen for the sharp fingertip locks, and somehow it felt a whole lot easier!

Cool.

Crackin' conditions, crackin' company, and my oh my a crackin' crack!

Pleasantly surprised to get all the moves (and some juicy links). The walk out in the dark and rain may be harder than the climb itself - how do people usually get out?

I love this climb. Facilitating for Haz + Swens

ooh

ahh

boom

Gave it a red hot onsight go to no avail, had a quick toprope lap to get the crux sorted, then got the redpoint straight after. Felt super secure and smooth… until I hit the victory handjam with a foot slip. Another foot slip to the next handjam, which I paid for in blood - but didn’t fall

Thanks Anton for the beta… and not giving even a hint before the onsight

Exploratory burn. Just excellent! Bomber gear and locks the whole way

Led P2. Dave 1 and then some variant death by vegetation and I ended up doing last pitch of slipstream to escape in dark.

Pitch 1 and 2. If it was at Piddo and got more traffic it would be good, but thick with sand and dirt.Led P1, 2nd P2

With JJ. Ran out of gear halfway up the first pitch and set a hanging belay. Generally good for a long trad route in the grose, although there's some weird hollow sounding rock down low.

Cool line with OK rock.Pitch 4 is pretty grim though - you have to pull through an overgrown and burnt banksia (it will snap pretty soon) to get to the bolt on the slab.

Great looking line. Doesn’t deliver. Poor rock on second pitch. Terrible, almost unusable belay at top of second pitch especially when it’s wet as you’d be getting dripped on. Dead vegetation in the crack a nightmare for your eyes, nose and lungs. We realised corner systems are not great places to climb after a fire that’s followed by a flood.

The first three pitches are actually great climbing putting aside the dirty vegetated cracks. Would be a ripper if clean. The final pitch is forgettable and a mess.

Little bit dirty and some thoughtful rock but good fun. Should see more ascents and it would clean up.

Seconded Neil up this, a bit hard at the crux- I aided