I did not climb the second pitch. Jarrah and Mikey climbed the second pitch before I went up and said it was easy rambling. Jarrah kindly came down from pitch 2 and set up at the top of the 1st to belay me on it.
The first pitch is a wild and weird ride. Going up the crack on the left is relatively easy, but the first bolt feels quite high. Then into an orange blank section in the middle, where I had to put in some very delicate footwork to be able to reach high enough for some crimps. Into some overhanging jugs to find the third bolt, which is monstrously spaced out from the second bolt to make for a truly terrifying lead (the whole group watched Jarrah lead this with quiet horror). The traverse across to the anchors is the icing on the cake. Truly fun to climb with solidhands and feet, but don't go too high before you start the traverse or you'll be in an awkward position. Again, quite spicy on lead. Jarrah had the rope wrapped around his leg when he was doing it and we were all silently praying on the ground that he wouldn't fall (he made it). Very spicy and unique for a grade 17.
After I made it up, Jarrah rapped off and I stayed to belay up Galen. First time using rope anchor building skills while doing sport climbing - we had a nifty little set-up that made a nice hybrid between belaying seconds with an easy switch-over to abseiling off.
Seems like a few holds were broken around the crux leaving nothing for the feet. Once the flake is trundled, the whole route will be perfect at the grade of 20
Had to push through some bad head game to make this one happen. Matt with the beta to the rescue again. Awesome climbing that I might otherwise have never done. (18)
