Ascents in Gardens of Stone National Park

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.

Brilliant, so satisfying to get off a climb absolutely exhausted. Even managed to squeek out a few Matthew Robbins inspired power screams. Would love to get back out there for a crack at Beyond!

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.

🤞 🤞

Cruise.

What a stunning location. Amazing acoustics for grovelling up such an epic route too.

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!

Warm up dog to get to the business of the day.

Flashed the 23 bit then proceeded to embark on a futile quest up into hostile territory. I managed some scary links up to near the final roof on choss and a prayer before my braveness quota for the day was reached. Lee is a beast.

Last pitch only, this is one tasty piece of rock

Got thrown on this at the end of a solid day. Bit of a dirty grovel guarding a genuinely great finish of multiple body lengths of hands and feet in a ~60 degree overhanging crack. Second ascent.

It was all too much, too hard, too chossy, too complex, too concerning for my belayer below. At some stage the rock is too bad to even aid. Didn't make it to the crux and stopped when I asked myself "why am I doing this???" It really made me appreciate how well-rounded is Lee's skillset.

Repeat on Fanny's gear to clean the climb for his redpoint.

Aptly named, I believe the "axe" the route name refers to is a 15m long and thin feature that looks like it could detach from the cliff at any moment! Definitely felt full value for the grade as I didn't trust the rock I was stepping on or pulling on. Otherwise, I think it was a great climb. Fanny followed me and and didn't pull anything off so I guess I was just being paranoid.

Fell on the flash after been zoned in on the crack broooooo. 2nd shot

First shot of the day, first warm-up of the day. Phyced how this climbs, really fun and not what you would expect. Number 6 cam is just purely protection and not climbing size. 2nd shot all up after been shut down with cam sizes on first attempt. Yewww

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!

Getting cleaner and cleaner.

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!

1 lap for a warmup and then a comfy pink point. Trying to link Disbelief into Birth Canal turns out to be fiercely pumpy.

Some bloke said I’d never flash 5.11 on gear. My fragile ego couldn’t handle that

Repeat, this time with the rock as clean as it can get without high traffic. Unfortunately I have to take few stars off after the ecstasy of the ground up first ascent wore out. The rock is all but perfect, It's short and has a sit down rest at the middle. Also, few flakes fell down leaving alternate footwork to the feet in the crack used in the first ascent. Still think it's a great little climb.

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! 😂

First Free Ascent. Very inspiring line that begged to be climbed. Not strictly crack climbing as all footwork is there and the wide crack can be underclung in the same fashion as it's thinner version Gravel Rash at the Underworld. Used #3#2#0.75 for the start anchor then 5x#6 (some shuffled from the very beginning) and #0.75#2 after turning the lip.

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

Not every day you walk past an unclimbed classic roof crack, you've got the right gear, you've got the right partner and you onsight it ground up cleaning the loose rock on the way up, pull through perfect fists and hands with feet in the crack. Dream. I decided to continue up above the crack to top out on a scary mission on suspicious dinner plates, lose dirt, caving under boulder and emerge trough a hole. I do not recommend that bit! I will go back and clean it properly top down, this climb deserves to be one of the best cracks at the grade in the Blueys and beyond. Fanny agreed, this is an amazing find.

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.

Chill warmup dog to get to the real business of the day.

Mega!! What a crack, holds straight through the roof! Led up to the old stuck cam on the lip and clipping/resting jug. Then proceeded to slip out of the easy hand jam jugs to the top, called that the end and back cleaned. Would've been easier had my crack glove not ripped off at the start of the roof but attempted to burl through the pain.

Epic line splitting the face! Mostly cruisy except for a short crux, felt pretty easy after finding a kneebar to shake out the pump and setup some solid fist jams.

Epic onsight in one monster pitch. Loads of gear shuffle to avoid rope drag and avoid running out of #4s. Crux was burly fist jams that made me work real hard but I didn't think I'd fall at any moment. For me doing this climb in one pitch made it truly memorable.

Such a sick sick line!!! Couldn't believe this fucking cave!! To get the full send on the 28 would be sick, and the great divide looks awesome!!! First burn my left tape glove ripped off so I barebacked the last cruxy moves after ripping the glove off. Fucked the onsight due to fluffy errors but got second shot, right to the last jam. Pissed out so much blood on the route near the top. Can't believe the overhanging fist jams at the top !!! MEGA!!!!

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

One of the best crack lines I've been on! Incredible area with some striking lines, cheers to Jac for showing us! Cruisy jams, classic sandstone cheese grater jamming.

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

Stoked to put down one of my dream lines. What an absolute masterpiece of a crack!

The send is a little bittersweet as I came off right at the chains on the onsight when going to the final hand jam… I gave it my all (zero warmup) but didn’t quite nail it 🤷‍♂️

I was so flash pumped from jamming I couldn’t open or close my hands for 5 minutes.

The pink point burn was absolute flow and went down quickly. It sounds a little silly but a pink point doesn’t quite feel respectful to the climb, will need to come back for a redpoint 😅