Ascents in Sierra East Side by Paul Frothy Thomson

A toughie, as the climb keeps getting harder and harder, with crux being the last 5m until the jug above the anchors. Varied face, steep flake, and steep thin finale to keep you working. Perhaps a bit close to the two neighbouring lines. The ancient brackets are a bit disconcerting.

Linked into Genghis Khan for a giant 45m pitch. Awesome opening through the steep, awkward dihedral, and a pumpy finale through a huge bulge and up much steep blankness above. Combined as a giant pitch this earns Classic in my book.

Linked into Tiananmen Square for a long megapitch. Very sustained climbing with a burly dihedral, followed by much insecure intriguing technicality. I totally rate this!

What an amazing last climb in Owens River Gorge... On the precipice of darkness, with snow blowing around and proper arctic conditions, and I decide to get on the rarely climbed thin arete/face directly over the river (you belay off a small plank of wood bolted to the wall, after traversing on other planks above the waterline to get there) where a fall at the 1st 3 bolts will put you in the river... a desperately cold insecure techy battle up a proud unchalked line, out of sight of my belayer.

Amazing climb of two halves. Thin technical face climbing on the lower half, to a no-hands rest. Then steep pumping with just enough technical moves to add spice in the form of flash-pump desperation.

Linked both pitches as a giant 40m single pitch... quite the warmup. The bottom pitch is okay climbing, but with lots of loose rock... But the upper steep stemming corner is tonnes of technical fun. Worth putting up with P1 for that.

A bloody intense start up the steep, slippery seam crack. Super thin and technical... even clipping is desperate. Once you get into the corner proper the difficulty eases considerably... but its still tonnes of fun.

Pretty good. Not too bad (but fun) for the most part, then it turns desperate when you have to turn the rooflet and continue upwards via sidepulls. We finished up the Peking Peril extension for a 35m pitch.

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Super technical, with heaps of hold-options (all of them a bit baffling) and a prolonged join-the-dots puzzle to solve for the Onsight. Thoroughly enjoyable.

A worthy extension. Fun steep corner climbing, then burly moves to turn the roof and gain the slab.

Pretty cool, but the ridiculous runout (with quite techy climbing) to the 1st bolt seems strange. One hard sequence, surrounded by easier fun climbing.

Awesome sustained steep-ish pulling with an interesting move in the middle. Great warmup.

Okay, but a bit loose and doesnt really add any value to Darshan. Not recommended.

The opposite of venom. This extension is all about thin slab climbing and body position. Cool moves to gain the super-slabby slab at the top.

Cant quite claim the onsight because I did see a crucial high-steep footer-beta before I got on it. A few hard techy crimp moves to start, then sustained 5.10c/d face climbing. Okay for a fast tick.

Basically the same as All Nighter... but with a few metres of powerful steep sloper traversing to make the highball crux on All Nighter even more exciting.

Cool! Considering the huge gallery of climbers working this problem, it was pretty cool just to walk up and flash it... but it totally suited me. Slightly steep face climbing on thin, spaced crimps and shallow pockets. Fun.

Felt 5.11b/c (V1ish?) to me. Bomber ringlocks on a slightly steep face and through a bulge on a highball boulder above a hideous landing (and I had no spotter!)... Like I was ever gonna fall! Did 2 x laps in the rain for a laugh.

Awesome steep thugging, with the powerful crux move at a height where you dont want to fall off. A great highball.

An extremely powerful start on good flakes and edges leads to a worryingly tenuous topout. Great bouldering.

Okay... but I think the original (direct) finish is better. A few balancy moves, but not as memorable as its neighbour to the left.

With the hardest moves at the very top of this highball, I was too scared to fall. Steep and juggy start leads to very thin face climbing topout with blind holds. Fun and scary.

Similar to Classique, but slightly steep, thinner and more technical.

A steep endurance route with a moderately high finish. Fun thuggy jugging.

Short and powerful fingerlocking. Fun.

Awesome. Steep juggy climbing up a proud arete/prow feature with an intimidating topout. Just fun!

Hard for 2 moves off the ground, then easy. Okay, but not on par with other slabs on this boulder

Very high and very thin. Micro-crimping up a high highball with some technical footwork.

Short, powerful and polished. Load up into the underclings and trust the polished smears.

Pretty burly for a few moves, then easier.

A few hard crack moves to get off the ground, then a cruise to the tall finale up the arete.

Okay slabbing, but hard to avoid ending up on the routes to either side.

A "dont fall" type of highball. More fun and committing than Cross Roads, with a few real moves on it.

Funky highball face climbing on good (but weird) pockets.

Bloody oath... hard and committing for a V0+... but really cool.

An exciting, easy highball slab. Not hard enough to get you warm, but fun.

A 37 foot (12m) 5.9 slab boulder is basically just a free solo. A stunning and surprisingly easy (V0-) super-high slab climb up the exposed arete of the grandma peabody boulder (the 2nd largest major boulder in the buttermilks?). Probably 5 7 from 1/2 height, but with some rather scary crucial smear-footers. Brilliant!

An entertaining low-ball roof traverse with a tricky mantle

Probably more like V1... classic face and seam-crack climbing with an excitingly high finale.

A truly HIGH highball. Very thin friction slabbing going well into the Do Not Fall zone, with some very smeary feet in the upper third. Gripping!

Surprisingly steep (though easy) start leads to a rather scary friction slab finale on this proper high highball. Great climbing on immaculate rock on one of Bishop's tallest boulders.

Awesome and improbable. Steep/roofy jugs with a committing topout... So good I climbed it twice.

4 laps in the dark with a headlamp. Unique low-angle slabbing standing on tiny individual crystals (an nothing else)... a bit intimidating until you learn to trust each crystal.

Tricky to get off the ground, then straightforward friction slabbing. Fun!

An okay slabby crack. Not bad. Not memorable.

Climbed the contrived "right crack only" version this time. Kind of unpleasant with a bitey fingerlock. Combining the left and right crack is by far the most fun.

Done with the super-low sit start for an extra grade. Fun jugging.

Done with the sit start for an extra grade. Okay climbing. Not memorable

An awesome route, but more V2 than V0. Hard steep pocket pulling to an easier topout.

Easy steep-ish first half, then insecure slopers when you're worryingly high off the ground.

Whatever. Climbing?

Took me a bit of working to perfect the microbeta past the crux sloper-match... but then the last of my projects went DOWN. I never managed to keep my feet on after reaching the shallow two-finger pocket, so in the end I just held the cut-loose one-handed with the pocket. My height helps on this one. After the Send I then repeated it clean for a photo.

Awesome! This went 2nd shot today after practicing the lower and upper halves in isolation. Turning the slab and the moves immediately after it are hard and insecure. I was glad to have spotters today.

3rd shot (and some time working the middle section). I should really take more rest days! With the bottom 1/3rd sorted from ticking the V4 to the left, and the top 1/3rd dialled from sending the V5 to the right, I only had to perfect 3 powerful (and crimpy) steep moves in the middle to be ready for the tick. A great, sustained climb that is more consistent than its two neighbours. Stoked!

Lots and lots of shots. Invented some new unconventional beta (after having no luck with the normal sequence) and it eventually went down. Im psyched to tick this Buttermilks 3-star test piece. Crimpy, arete-slapping start, with some intense tic-tac footwork leading to a thin, balancy, insecure and tall finale. Very cool!

Repeat. Clean again first go today. Demonstrating the sequences to my friends. I kind of bungled it a bit and had to fight hard to keep it together, which made it feel more rewarding than when I first Sent it.

Repeat. This lap was just to see if I COULD keep the whole thing together for a clean repeat. I kind of bungled it a bit -accidentally cut loose twice, and had to finger-creep my way onto the mid-crux crimp- and had to fight hard to keep it together, which made it feel more rewarding than when I first Sent it.