Ascents in Mt Boyce by Will Vidler

Brilliant route from James and Hugh! Deserves a whole lot more attention than it gets. With this, Harbinger, and La Niña, Boyce Town has some of the best under appreciated cracks in the mountains. Second go on the first pitch and then onsighted the upper two pitches linked together with Paul belaying on the ground. The first pitch is an amazing roof crack at about 24 that is unfortunately guarded by a pretty hard boulder off the ground (I do not know what grade it is). This should however not put you off! With one aid move or climbing in via a bolt to the left you can access the amazing upper crack which really is rad, or just do the move. The upper pitches are a bit shit and on shit bolts; either very old carrots or stainless bash ins. I wouldn’t really recommend bothering to do them. I didn’t enjoy the climbing and thought it was kinda dangerous; probably takes away from the quality of the first pitch. A much better thing to do would be to step right and finish up La Niña for sustained trad radness (or lower off). Because of rope drag and gear and general shitness and so I could rap clean the route, after pulling the steep section on the top pitch I climbed direct up the grey jugs instead of traversing left to the snappy orange rock for the last few metres. I think this makes the climbing less offensive and allows you to get to the tree belay on top in a way that means you can easily belay or rap. You can rap from this tree to the anchor at the top of the first pitch on a 70m.

Mega mega mega! Definitely one to add to the trad canon. Started up Boisterous then stepped right at the ledge as per FA and pulled the rope up and dropped it back down at the stance for drag purposes. All the bolts had draws on them but I placed all the trad on red point except for the two fixed wires that I hung the draws on during the send. I could wax lyrical but you should just go do it instead. Second go.

A small play on rope solo but mostly just sussing the gear and line (all of which is scary and confusing). I shall return to put some more work into it. Very gritstone, apparently the last person who went ground up had to be rescued from a ledge after they said enough is enough.

Onsight but for the draws being hung. Pretty fun.

Soft second go.

An eternal gem, better with every repeat. Liz led the first pitch and did some brilliant trad grovelling, I was very proud.

After Liz came down. Eternally brilliant.

Still one of the best routes at the grade around. Approach shoes.

A brilliant and very worthy mini tradventure. I fell off straight away at the start of pitch one, came down from the first piece of gear, ditched most of the rack because it weighed so much, and fired it off. Such a classic and quite feisty pitch, felt quite 23 honestly. Second pitch was a fun ramble, I broke off an enormous footer though and went for an unexpected and exciting one arm dangle. Pitch three is also great; a novel roof crack to start and pleasant layback to finish. Doubles (or triples!!) to 0.5 and singles above that seemed like a good rack. Wires were helpful too. Barely need any quickdraws, maybe four regular ones and two extenders for the roof on pitch three. You can also take one bolt bracket for the belay at the end of pitch two, but it probably isn't necessary. The bush bash off the top also wasn't too bad, definitely faster than trying to rap and walk out normally.

These slabs are so so grand. Simul rope soloing side by side with Benny.

Fun. In approach shoes.

These two routes are actually quite worthwhile. I think I liked this one more. Definitely worthwhile for those searching for some fun moderates that aren't at Bardens or Shipley. Approach shoes.

Has to be one of the best outings at the grade in the Bluies. An absolute must do. I just followed the bolts with the pink epoxy on them, not sure exactly what it means by going into The End of the Affair at the top but I was very pleased with what I climbed either way. An uber classic sport route!

One move wonder.

Lowered over it and hung the draws. Slightly harder one move wonder.

Two punchy boulders separated by a rest. I found sick mono beta which is what grants this route its star.

The exam for Ben's trad lesson today. So, so classic.

A true, very chalkless onsight today with much flash pump and concern about where the holds were. Good to do this as it's sort've been on the list for quite a while. Really fun climbing with some wild features and amazing rock but alas the best of it is very very easy. I thought it was fairly tricky but there are a number of ledgey rests to break it up. Pitch two looks like a bit of an abomination and not inspiring at all.

Continuing Ben's trad education.

So good

I was very hung over from drinking too much whiskey with Harry Kadi's Dad the previous night for Harry's 21st. I also only had two left shoes. It was a memorable experience.

The eternal jug lives on. A favourite.

This was great but I was very very tired. Definitely one of the best in the style and at the grade in the mountains. Take many more extenders than I did!

Decent climbing but on generally pretty average rock. Felt very solid with fairly substantial packs on, especially the second pitch. A bit of an odd mix of mostly bolts and occasional gear. Highlight was the exposure!

Classic crack climb and sadly one of my last at the grade on the Bluies trad circuit. Great jamming on mostly hand sized gear that felt like it would still be soft at a grade less. The only down side was some sandy rock. I love trad climbing.

My favourite of the day. The most traddy and engaging with a lot of the 'moves' above gear. Super rad!! One pitch.

Pretty funky through the steepness at the top, especially at 14!!! Wild. One pitch.

Absolutely nails for the grade and pretty engaging. I didnt really place any gear and all of a sudden I was at the chossy steepness feeling hilariously gripped, especially considering some of the other things I've been climbing lately. Thus i whacked in five questionable pieces in a semi-chossy break and ran it out to the top. One pitch.

Super nice, lazy, active rest day out in the glorious sun. Really fun route but kinda hard to know what line to climb. One pitch.

Possibly my proudest belay tick! Awesome to see Jason overcome the most profound trad jitters i have ever seen and power to the top of this classic. A highlight was a section of the crack (that he up and down climbed a million times) that ended up with like 9 cams in 5 metres in it or something like that. Gotta love triple #2s, #0.75s and #0.5s!!

Awesomely fun clean corner crack climbing that felt super cruisy at the grade. Bomber gear to be found everywhere!!

Seconding Jason. Awesome effort by him and rad to see the trad psyche squeezed out of even the sportiest climbers! Great route.

Another easy trad classic ticked off the list and one that I thought was very solid at the grade. Harry led a giant first pitch, climbing we are not sure how many actual pitches and finishing on top of a big block. This left the awesome overhanging cruxy section to the top out for me which was just fantastic. Highly recommend!!

Finally got around to doing the second pitch of this which I was stoked to onsight in good style. First, though, I did pitch 1 clean on second in approach shoes which was desperate and tenuous and desperate. Wear climbing shoes people!! Pitch 2 definitely lived up to the hype though and was awesome and intimidatingly steep. Sooo much good gear!

I really rate this. A bit obscure but a lot of fun

Repeat as the warm up for the day. Later convinced Ella to go up this as her first trad lead which was super cool. She crushed it!!.

One silly fall and then it got dark. If you can get a tall person to put long draws on every bolt for you definitely ask them to!!! Clipping the bolts as a shorty was the crux for sure. If its at your limit a red camalot could also be useful to decrease the runout at one point, or a sling. Really good fun though, albeit a bit ledgy.

first pitch only - watched Brad the trad meister get properly rattled on the second pitch and decided due to time to just rap off - awesome moves, accidentally jumped through the hand jam crux

super fun introduction to Mt Boyce - led in one pitch on double ropes

what a route - led in one pitch to the very top - interesting when you have to manage having limited gear

funky with good holds in all the right places

a great day being dragged here there and everywhere by Chance himself