Ascents in Elsie's Peak

Lead P1 (17) and P3 (16). P3 was chossy and a very mental lead over crumbling run out rock. P1 took some commitment from me to fire the crux after placing gear and down climbing to a rest.

I need clean shorts

Had followed Josh on this a few years ago when I was starting out with trad. P1 is exciting (bring micro cams) and P2 I swerved around the crack overhang because it was totally wet. Theme of the day.

Emma's first trad climb. She really enjoyed it, fun way for us to climb together but for me still to learn. Lead all pitches.

Climbed with Emma. Hot day.

I bailed out of pitch 3 and Sarel had to lead it. Ended up being a nice pitch. Pitch 1 was the best

Climbed with Emma, lead all pitches. Learnt lesson to stance after a long traverse for better communication.

Tried this some years ago and found it super hard. Went surprisingly easy this time around. Super cool crux seq.

Graded 19 but felt more like 21. Was also wet and schaulky but found the climbing hard. Long way off leading this. Seconded Josh. Lead P2 easy exit pitch.

Went off route and earned myself a nice whip, then calmed down and figured out a sequence that stays true to the line. Hard and heady for 19, but brilliant climbing.

Hung at the first piece of gear, moving out of the initial rail is the hardest move on the route. Pulled through on a cam. From there it's fairly steady at 20, very nice climbing. I freed from that point, although built an anchor 25m up to haul more big gear. Improved the rap anchors with new Mallions and a nut backing up a wobbly bolt.

We did the wimp start, which is still nails but not as much of a joke as the rail under the roof. The rest of the route offers outstanding climbing but I was totally maxed out by the end. Stiff for 20 but Elsie’s Peak is a just stiff place.

What a jam fest. Took quite a while to figure out the beta. At first I was convinced exiting the roof would require a feet first approach. Spent too much time on that idea and finally worked out beta that involves some good old straight forward pulling hard on hand jams.

Humbling.

Stoked to send this epic route

Double send with Aidan. Dry conditions today made for an awesome climb.

Outstanding.

First pitch is thin as fuck!

Climbed with Emma. Really fun route, a great position for this grade to get into in the amphitheatre. I followed my nose to the top at P4 and did a cool little new line, grade 15 or 16.

Cool route, the second pitch was wet at the traverse and in the crack so aided through. Would like to go back, gets you into a pretty cool position for an 18.