Ascents in New South Wales and ACT by Brendan Heywood

We arrived at Balor close to midnight the night before so had a slightly relaxed start. Finding the start seemed fairly ok and I started climbing at 11. I was feeling rusty so let Ben have the first two money pitches, which mean I ended up spending a lot of time chilling out literally while he went on a wild off-route-finding spree. By the time I joined Ben at the rap it was 2:30 and I'd ended up aiding some moves through the mystery pitons and was deep in type II fun: some combination of too cold / too hot / dehydrated / wind chill / cramping badly. We did discuss bailing from the rap but we forged on prepared to climb at night and I estimated it would be a midnight finish. After a couple pitches the type II fun gradually eased back into type I fun. I "led" the top pitch just so I could say I actually placed a single piece of gear somewhere. As we scrambled over the lip we met hectic arctic winds off the summit. I arrived back at Balor on the dot of midnight Best summarized as we had a 'choose your own adventure'.

After a good rest day we were much better prepped and had a proper alpine start for this. Had a tourist chopper buzz us at some point. On the start of the 3rd pitch stemming over the mini waterfall my foot blew on dodgy rock and I tumbled about 5m back to the belay. In hind sight it is probably the worst fall I've ever had but luckily I was barely hurt with just a bruised forearm which has yellowed up nicely since. 'With care' is an understatement of the start of pitch 3. Pitch 5 has a fantastic airy crux and is the jewel in this route. We topped out with plenty of light and back on the ground at dusk, then hoofed it back to the car and home

Really enjoyed this one, so nice to get on long sports routes like these

The start is fairly crumbly but better after about 10m. Gets nicer at the top

Loved this heaps. This little wall is gold

Everyone else said this was a bit loose and had broken things off, but by the time I got on it was all chalked up and everything I touched was fine. More traffic can only improve it.

I lead 2nd pitch, scary looking collapsed column to climb through

OMG the rock here is amazing. Imagine if any of these jug littered surfaces was somehow uplifted into an overhanging face this would be a mecca

Pure epic fun. Has some exposed bits and we took ropes but never used them. Amazing rock architecture and formations in places

Prawn, time for fluids

One prawn hang after the crux

Flowy

Prawn

Sick

Felt very hard compared to the two 21's further left I on-sighted just before we tried this. I couldn't even get it on top rope and lost interest

Second go

Setup kids toprope

Where has the rope solo tick type gone??

Very cruisy, full body rest at first bolt for kicks. Nice little cruxy finish

Two guys working this let me have a quick top rope to clean it as the sun had just hit it. Got to the crux and got the sequence and just peeled off the jug on half pads. After that is a few steep jugs and home free. Would be a great to come back in the morning shade.

Based on the dust and cobwebs this probably doesn't see much traffic but it's pretty neat. If we hadn't left some gear at the bottom we would have been done for the day but it was a really great little one to finish up with. Nice to have some jams for a change and switch up the muscle groups.

Very sustained, a low crux right off then great up to the wide crack at 2/3 for a good rest. Then the doom music kicks in for the finale! Was pretty done by here and prawn dogged the last few meters

A super fun first route

Super fun! I think this might be my fav route of the day, the second half of pockety goodness is bouldery and very happy to pick my way through the swiss cheese

Very cruisy fun with a nice finish

This thing is nails for a V3, need to recalibrate to nowra grades it seems. Had a bunch of goes and was getting the second last hold but just not sticking

Second problem, also nails and balancy. Was thinking I'd get it, was high stepping and launching to the second last hold and touched it a few times but same story, just didn't want to stick to it

With only the one pad didn't give it a proper go, but jumped on and did exactly what I wanted straight off: proper sit start, through the undercling and rail up to the large pocket before it heads right. Had a couple more goes to get to the dyno pocket but was pretty juiced by then and going backwards

This was a nice problem to work, great moves through the rail, landing the little pocket is ok but marginal and sticking the sloper felt nails but then slowly unlocked and then send train

Fun

Finally something achieved!

Worked this a bunch and just spent myself. In the end some subtle beta unlocked the crux and it wasn't too bad, but didn't come back after lunch. Should have just sent it then

Very stoked to onsight this, pure thuggy fun