Ascents in Britten Crag

Crux at start, muscle way to the second bolt.

Amazing crack climb, use lots of laybacks

For Alex G’s first outdoor climb.

Warm up. First climb in Christchurch.

Getting familiar with the rock.

Warm up

Cooling down.

Climbed as sport! Warm down.

First attempt. Couldn’t do the moves through to second bolt. Climbed bolt to bolt after that. Calling this working since I didn’t climb section between 1st and second bolt.

Second attempt. High point. Climbed to one move from 4th bolt clipping stance. Hand above 4th bolt when I fell. Really happy to get through the crux between 1st and second bolt on my second attempt!! But then pumped so grabbed a draw to get to anchors to clean

Climbed cleanly through the 4th bolt. Then took a nice long fall going for fifth bolt clipping hold. Then was too pumped once I got there the second time so grabbed the draw. Bad habit! Got to top after that.

Warm up. Very run-out but easy at the top. Gets its grade from the first section.

Warm up #2.

First attempt of the day. Third attempt overall. Went for the intermediate crimp rail without the toe hook. Whoops.

High point clean. Climbed to below fourth draw clean. Took a rest then clipped 4th. Took a rest. Then up to 5th and anchors. Did all the moves on lead. Happy with that for my fourth attempt.

Warm down. Soft.

First attempt, fell after clipping second bolt. But continued to the top to put the gear up for Alex

Third attempt. Massively pumped on final climb of the day. Had worked out the beta but just too tired to attain the clipping stance for third draw. Fell. Then pulled back on at second bolt and climbed clean from there.

Half-hearted attempt. Shouldn’t have bothered.

Second attempt I fell moving up to the clipping hold to the third bolt. My fingers are really hurting from 3 days of climbing.

Warm up

Went for the wrong (lower) sloper on the way to third clipping hold and got bunch up

Red point! Second go of second day. Annoying it took five goes. Crux is short and it felt possible first time. Glad I got this crimpy little number down though. My fingers are shredded.

Putting gear up for Alex. Clean up to clipping 4th bolt then rested there and after 5th bolt.

Second attempt. Fell going for 5th bolt clipping hold. Ticked bottom crimps to climb first section more efficiently.

Red point! 3rd attempt. Climbed bottom section much more efficiently. Felt easy. Yes!

Warm up. Couldn't find the fifth bolt so it felt a bit run out, but was a nice warm up. (There was a fifth bolt but it look too far right to be in line with the anchors.)

Putting the gear up. Climbed beyond the third bolt cleanly but still hadn't worked out the beta to clip the fourth bolt. After a take I found a nice sidepull for the right hand and worked out the left hand and feet to go to the far right edge for 4th bolt clipping position. I was trying to conserve energy so I grabbed the fifth draw after I put it in, hence this is not logged as a hangdog.

Red point! Second go of the second trip. Sixth go overall. I had a long rest after putting in the draws during the check out, had some food and water and thought about the new beta I had learnt. This time I was only trying to get a high point (i.e. clip the fourth bolt cleanly) so I hadn't set up the camera. But everything came together beautifully and it went down really smooth and clean! So stoked!

Repeat. I was trying to climb a different route for a cool down, but the bolting is a bit confusing on this part of the wall and I ended up climbing this one again...

Repeat. Full red point. Put up the gear for Alex and managed to do this one clean again Feels so good to have the top moves really dialled in. I still managed to slightly botch the boulder sequence and I got a little pumped at the end, but nice to repeat it. Makes it feel real.

Putting up the gear for Alex. Took a rest after clipping 4th bolt.