Ascents in Tasmania as Attempt by Paul Frothy Thomson

Working lap in torrential rain. I lead as high as the water running down the face, then worked the various cruxes of the route from the top down (as the rapid progression of the water necessitated). Great progress, but out of time (and decent weather) to stick with this route this trip.

Lead attempt in damp conditions (not ideal for steep-sloper jugging). Took quite a while to work out the moves to leave the corner and turn the blunt arête, then a bunch of semi-scared falls/rests along the traverse line to Green Spandex, before running out time, back-jumping and bailing. Outrageously cool. A lot of effort to climb though. Kinda scary.

The start is easy and pleasant, and the boulder-problem crux is quite improbable and not too hard (though very sharp: I circumcised a finger on a key hold), but everything above it is a disintegrating sandpit. Bailed after the crux, when I got sick of eating sand (literally).

A quick afternoon lap on lead to re-familiarise, re-quip, chalk and clean the route after 2 months off it (and the recent floods). Climbed the opening gr26 to the main crux, then bailed.

Project Shopping. My busted knee fell apart on this one. Bailed from 1 bolt before this route joins Chainsaws, Guns and Dogs (on easier ground) after running out of time (and getting mentally tired of taking huge falls). Great, sustained climbing with 4 very distinct (and varied) cruxes, which totally suits my style... But DAMN this route is hard to equip and work ground-up. Quite runout. Very involved moves that you can't pull through. And hard to put the draws on at the grade. Would be a challenging tick...

End of Day draw retrieval mission for Gazza. Clean to the 2nd bolt after this climb leaves Amber Allure... then it gets HARD. Powerful pulls on small holds with bad feet. 27/28 for sure. Lowered off and stripped the route from where this route rejoins Amber Allure.

Gentleman's sit to avoid stealing the project. Lowered off the 4th bolt (After sticking the crux 1st go), with only grade 16 climbing to the top.

Yep. A year later and I still cant even DO the top crux through the rooflet. Still took a bit of effort to figure out the bottom (gr25) crux, but felt easier and very repeatable now. Didnt go to the top this time because ive been there before and cant be bothered. This would be a 2-star route for the first 12m, a 1-star route to the top crux (at 20m) and a 0-star route turning the top on bad rock and continuing up the friable slab above. Cleaning is hard and dangerous because of of the traversing and the huge amounts of loose rock around this line.

Crag Sampler Day, Climb #2 - Bailed off this at half-height, after taking numerous big falls trying to work out a hard sequence, I stripped the route before I could get frustrated. Seems like it could be a rad route, bit really needs 2 more bolts (it has 7 bolts in 25m at the moment).

Climbed to 2nd bolt after the crack before my belayer had to leave. Left my gear on it so I can have another look tomorrow. Probably solid trad 25 to the 1st bolt after the crack, then it gets thin, fingery and powerful. The rack listed in the ClimbTas guide might be great if youre dogging the gear in, but is fucking stupid if youre trying to push yourself on the onsight burn (bring cams 0.3-3 if you want to try onsight, and swap for wires on loweroff... the wires recommended are hard to place!

Working the moves. Can do all the moves in 2-sections (except the topout, which needs an epic scrub) but linking them could be challenging. Powerful compression moves on a steep-ish face. Quite enjoyable.

Made it to to the 3rd bolt (incl. the cock-around trad start) on Onsight, then dogfest to the 2nd last bolt on the route. Couldn't stick the moves to the last bolt and couldn't pull/cheat past them to investigate the upper crux sequence. Eventually got tired of whipping trying to figure it out, and bailed. Probably better to climb Long Knife and rap-inspect this climb, as despite being utterly spectacular to behold (and feat. some rad climbing) it's rather dirty (yellow moss) and not dog-able.

Carlos and I climbed the first 5 bolts (gr 25) to the crux after reaching the belay via Black Fire just to be on the Proj again. Couldnt stick the crux move after a few goes so we backjumped it and rapped off. Farking MEGA!

Spent most of the day piecing this together (in between hours of hiding from the sun). Very hard to work ground up as the very spaced bolts mean all crux sequences have to be climbed to progress. Lots of biiig falls on this one. Dialled all the cruxes but for the last bolt before it joins GDaC (which ive done before) as I was finally tired of whipping. Hard at the grade. Extremely technical and sustained with stacked fiddly cruxes in the first half (18m or so), and 2 more in the upper bit.

A 3 hour session working this unclimbed project (with permission) to see if I could put it together. Eventually sorted the powerful, compression-orientated sloper middle-crux, but couldn't work out the main crux at the top turning the final rooflet. I might be able to do it with more time, but not today. Great, aesthetically pleasing rock and moves for the first half. Tricky thin traverse and committing moves through the bulge to the rooflet, then nails above on deteriorating rock.

COULD be a classic (for the top crack in particular) but ruined on the direct start by retarded bolting. I fell on Onsight at the end of the crux, moving to gain the 3rd bolt. Stopped scarcely 1m from the ground. To fall at the clipping hold or while clipping will put you on the ground. The best way to climb this is the way it was originally done: climb the main crack on the left, traverse in past the last bolt to gain the finger crack and then froth over its awesomeness to the anchors (at gr21)

Ingvar warned me that this was ALMOST 8a grade, yet he still managed to talk me into giving it a go. Hmmm... gr29 arete climbing is involved, technical and tenuous even getting off the ground. Climbed to the end of the crux (with 1 million falls and rests) then bailed from the (slightly) easier upper section to give my skin and poor belayer a rest. Put together most of the moves bar one that I cant quite do, but I'm not fit enough to link. Perfect rock, hypertechnical, core-sapping arete moves.

Hmm... decided to try and climb this as an alternative to the unprotectable offwidth start to Rigaudon, despite rock and gear looking marginal (and perhaps imagined in existance) at best. Onsight to halfway, refused to commit to the last 2m of hard climbing and fell onto a half-placed wire. Played around and got higher but still wouldnt commit to the last hard arete move and fell some more. Reverse-aid-climbed back to the ground. Lots of marginal gear, but fiddly in dubious rock. 2 ropes a must

Onsight to the crux at 2/3rds height. Then put together the sequence to the next bolt (main crux), and had worked out a tricky span sequence to get through the main crux when time and weather decided it was time to bail. The bottomless chimney start is unpleasant and the rock is bad, but from the steep moves under the roof to the crux slab (the angle eases over the entirety of the climb) the rock and moves get better.

Onsight through crux to 5th bolt. Ended up off route and fell of trying to get back on. Then clean to the 2nd last bolt. Had a look at the upper arete moves but couldnt be bothered wasting more skin, and with the crazy wind blowing me all over the place I bailed off the bail biner that someone else had left behind. Pretty good arete climbing but sharp and crimpy, and the rock is grainy and sandy.

Ugh! The worst climb Ive done in Tassie by far. The guide says this is a 20. The FA when I spoke to him said it's supposed to be deliberately sandbagged at 22, I thought at least 24... But regardless its merely dirty, frible and contrived. Down-climbed from the 3rd bolt to clean.