Ascents in Te Ika-a-Māui / The North Island by John Pitcairn

TRS. Getting hot, tired, flubbed it. Couple of sits.

Pumpy warmup.

Mostly great 16 ish fist/hand jamming until you hit the beefy crux, then back to easier stuff above. Well protected. Jenga blocks above are solid, stuff 1m left of the anchor probably isn't.

The left is indeed less awkward starting the slab. But most of the fun is below that.

Totally forgotten everything. Started in stiff shoes, sat and switched, hauled up chalk. Bit of a shitshow.

Been a while. Prob too far left at 1st bolt.

Wasn't going to but did. Just another afternoon at the gym.

Harder than it looks.

Ow tweaky shoulder.

Lap #40 apparently.

A bit bloody sharp.

Not led it for a while now.

Now with more pull.

The pull cord fairy pays a visit. Almost all done.

Replacing pull cord on route to left. Sketchy anchor traverse happened.

Replacing pull cord on route to right.

Aidan's idea, quite pleased I wasn't leading it, dirty as and very very chossy to the left. Some was sent down to terrify the belayer, much remains up there. Got harness gear well stuck in a small manuka and came off, removed it. Crux is cleanish, very balancy and possibly harder than 18. P2 anchor is a pair of surprise carrots. One strand of access hand line is getting a bit core shot. Memorable in the wrong way. Distracted ourselves with more track fairy work down below.

Stuffed myself in too far at the start. The kowhai is an arse and really needs a prune. Found even more gear through the "run out" cave section. Went and looked at the terrifying upper bluff rockfall.

A bit squeezed at the top.

Had led before as a DHMK linkup. Bloody great jamming and bridging. Only let down by a sandy unprotected traverse in and loose topout. Started up GOTG to avoid the grot, long sling on the DHMK anchor and the bolt before it. We sent a few missiles down. Fixed up the core shot GOTG hand line then rapped down that.

Rope soloed on a shunt and backup knots after an epic hot cleaning session. Still a bit gritty yet, needs some rain. Gonna be good to lead, might be 19.

Up for a 3-fairy all day cleaning session on this, Natural Selection and Safety In Numbers. Much cleaner now.

Bloody high 1st bolt preclipped, but the climbing to it is easy enough. Fluffed the crux trying to use Aidan's beta, eventually found something better for me. Must come back for this.

Draws on. Dodging showers. Probably went a little far left at the crux, but that's what squeeze routes get you.

Warmup? Across to the Critters anchor for a 1.5 hour effort getting the big midway flake off that and raining big chunks down. Aidan got the draws off just before rain arrived.

ACAT working bee. Dogged/aided while dirty, then scrubbed clean. Didn't have the energy or will to re climb it, must return. Crux will be tricky.

Thumb press popped off, rats. Pretty green down low, could use a scrub later in summer.

Back in the evening, rock still a bit warm. All going well then cocked up the 2nd crux and paid the tree a visit. Couldn't crunch up enough to get toe on the rock over, had to go on a heel. Warming up first might have helped.

Thin crack only at start. Great jamming up top. Borrowed Justin's black totem, perfect size for shattered bit.

Thanks to Aidan for the clean! The closest thing to quarry climbing you'll get here. The big midway flake is now starting to hinge outward at its midpoint, it needs to be removed soon.

Back to get it, a hell of a fight. Suckers you by starting easy then getting slowly harder until you're packed into a strenuous jam/undercling with very high feet out at the crux. The step around/down (maybe there is another option here) to the vertical crack needed a lot of willpower, then took an age to protect it while wrecked. The "trad belay" seems dodgy due to a hollow sounding block and limited options, kept going to anchors with solid rope drag, belayed with poor comms. Harder than Hecklers I reckon, need more opinions.

Straightforward enough once you burn it into non-volatile memory.

Took a long time and a couple of takes to find the right sequence after 3rd bolt.

Towed a #5 up here but it's only really useful to protect the wide start until you get a good high hex. A few jamming/offwidth skills will go a long way. Stays fairly clean, and there's a bolted anchor.

Continuing the dirty 'ol trad research project. Harder than it looks. Didn't hate it.

Rather good. Headed right after first bolt, some sketch getting back on line. Nose bolts a bit tempting. Surprisingly clean for a mixed route.

Nice line, could use a brush.

Out here for urgent track safety work. Great long route, let down by a dirty top third (take a brush). Lowered Jonno then brought G up, time flew by.

After some evening Jugzilla hand-line fixing. Haha, nope, fell or sat on each of the first 4 bolts. Maybe should have warmed up. Lengthy top rope session followed.

Snuck in before the sun started cooking the wall.