Ascents in Chad Wall having Beta

My favourite 17 in NZ so far.

Might as well solo this one if you’re a trad baby. Tricky blind placements and not many in the bottom half. Better at the top.

Fell once. Put too much faith in a loose jam at the top - turns out the crux isn’t the crux for people with small hands.

#repeat

Repeat, soft

Repeat

Gave it a good go but my foot jam slipped near the top

Repeat, soft for the grade

Flashed with pre-placed gear. Good jam.

Repeat, fun moves around the fang. Bit soft for the grade?

Repeat. Warm up.

Had to climb it to abseil to the other section.

Repeat after 3 years. Fun as I (didn’t) remember

Had a beaut run on this. First go on gear - retro flash. Loved the full jamming with hands and feet in (tight around the shoulders as its quite deep). Felt much less sustained this time.

Most placements done first go and even, so pretty confident.

Used two racks of 1-4, plus one 5.

😁😁😁

Finally got it. Happy it was more jam than arm bar this time around. Fantastic climb.

Recycling cams was a bit of a dodgy proposition - double, even triple fist and up is ideal.

Led on James' recycled gear. Took some whippets out of the flared crack at the top.

First real crack climb, actually jamming the entire route. Absolutely awesome experience.

Had a revelation today: the name matches the jam needed to survive this climb. Glory be. Now to figure out how to unjam and place gear...

Easy warm up climb, although felt strange to be back on real rock .

Desperate. Created a new jam called the "fish out of water".

Got broiled.

Repeat

Repeat

Sustained. Did some kind of arm bar / shoulder / butt jam all the way up. Not pretty.

Well hard.

Nowhere near clean, but free climbed. Much better and jams, none of the fingery side crimps I've used in the past. Need to get start and mid section dialled, top half easy.

So hard...

if you have short legs you can fit a kneebar in the fang and if your leg fits right you can get a full no-hands rest.

Super fun, varied climbing. Double check the bolt quality as you go through, but otherwise enjoy the view at the top!

Repeat

Such a good route!

#repeat

Objectively a solid 2 grades harder than ‘Lobster’ which is of similar style. Great route to force yourself to jam both hands and feet. Will be back for a proper red point.

What an experience! I finally got on this at around high tide when the combo of waves crashn and strong wind were threatening to drench my belayer (thanks Donovan) and added some motivation for me to get off the ground quickly! Not sure on the grade.. I'm not that good at jamming (as I suspect the majority who try lead this, why doesn't NZ have more cracks!) but getting better so tricky to know, not that it really matters. The sandbag of 16 feels kinda appropriate. Could have easily lost the flash as my arms got a bit pumped around mid height but I managed to keep it together, stoked on that.

Juggy and wandering and fantastic.

Repeat.

Cool climb although rock quality not quite as good as on 'Chad' and 'Lobster'. The style police wasn't watching so I used some jugs on the right arete.

Superb route. A must climb at TP. Still easier than 'Chad'!

Repeat.

Climbed in even worse style than last time...

Crash course in fist & foot jamming... Psyched to come back for this one.

original grade of 16 is a complete sandbag. lovely hexes and nuts in the middle.