Ascents as trad by John Pitcairn having Distinct route

Back for another attempt. P1 quite nervy with sparse gear, then we headed straight up into the hand crack linkup as one 55m pitch. Very nice hand crack at about grade 16, considerable rope drag by the end. At the terrace we contemplated continuing up the El Nino arete, but it was becoming very blowy and route finding a little uncertain, decided not to have an epic with the rope pull from the top. Got one rope stuck on the rap from the terrace anyway, luckily our combined bodyweight freed it before having to reascend on the other. Don't thread your rope though the old maillons.

The move is good and reasonably obvious. The amusing squeeze with gear and backpacked rope to walk off is probably more memorable (or you could be sensible and walk around right).

Had been eyeing this up from Tiger Wall a few days before. Harder than it looks, jamming essential, loves big nuts and hexes. Take care to prevent the rope slipping into the crack too far. A good way to end the trip.

Good finger, hand, fist jams and some thoughtful moves for the grade, bloody good, would do it again. Supposed to be a warmup but we were late there, I pissed around at the top chains and ran out of time. Stunning view of the harbour.

Crux is the start to the bolt, but there is decent gear. Got mildly pumped which made the top more exciting. Got off just before the rain hit, bailed for Akaroa.

A bit nervy getting from bolt 1 to bolt 2, possibly stayed too far right. There is a good cam out right after the start before the bolt. Took the hand traverse crack right and up over the blocks/ledges directly to the anchor. Fun but not classic, the bolts detract somewhat (though I was thankful for them).

Ran both pitches together on a 60 and lots of extenders. Straight up at top bulge. Bloody good.

Really polished up to the crux. Misread the move left and went too early with hand jam in horizontal slot on face. Felt harder than Golden Fleece as a result. Pretty tired, brain not the best.

Crux is getting into the chimney, jammy and tough but gear is OK, then once in there is just enough room to make some moves without too much thrutching. Provided much entertainment for Alisa who unsportingly declined to second it ;-)

Fun, with some route finding required. If you have an arm and a leg stuffed into the crack under the roof, back off, you are missing a terrific jug elsewhere that will make you very very happy. Marcus followed all pitches. We ran pitches 2 and 3 together with massive rope drag on the left rope. Ignore the very attractive ringbolts and run 1 and 2 together instead, duh.

No harder than Hand Job, but 16 feels about right. Packs down for the committing start, but crux is about halfway. Fun.

Everyone else scarpered as the skies darkened, thought we might sneak one more. Bloody good, not hard if you keep your head together but goes through intimidating terrain. Just rapped off when it hailed heavily on us.

Pretty good, quite a committed crux and slightly runout at that point. Potential for a swinging groundfall? Gazed at Huey after this but a bit over it all by that point and sloped off back to camp.

A necky undertaking, harder than Brolga. Don't think I had the small wires in at the crux, felt pretty run out and the move reachy and goey for 16. Gear when you hit the corner system is more heartening but watch out, the arete is fragile in places, broke a hold off. Found a sneaky #3 rock placement further up the corner, but then gets quite run out again until the ledge and a welcome cam. Ran this into P3 of Salamander, not much gear, lots of drag, ropes coming down from above, little rope left, sketchy. Another party graciously let us rap off on their ropes, cheers. Left a low stuck pink tricam, removed by another party next day who put it back in and got it stuck again, then a local bootied it later and overheard me failing to buy a replacement in Natimuk. Serendipity, many thanks. Phew.

Rock paper scissors got me the lead, and it's a great one. Terrific moves and jamming through the flake line lead to a easy and exposed juggy arete to finish.

Stupidly hot and demoralised after a 1.5 hour belay-only session in the sun on Fata Morgana. Good crack that doesn't need anything bigger than a #2. Managed to get the rope semi-trapped in 2 notches behind me, to finish up the excellent headwall crack with stonking rope drag. Would give it an extra star if I wasn't so hot.

Didn't have any big gear for the top and had to improvise with funky cammed small hexes and tricams in fissures in the crack. "Tree" belay is optimistic, it's a small wobbly bush - back it up with gear in the top of the crack or traverse to better anchors.

Quite good. Decent protection is tricky to manage at the crux due to the shattered uneven rock, but pulling through the crux is very juggy.

Didn't do any back and footing ... there are some fun moves but the very rough ignimbrite can make protection a tad rattly. A stoat was observing at the top. Walk off to the right.

Really good slab moves reminiscent of Arapiles, quite small gear and a bit run out in places. Mossy at the top. 15 might be a slight sandbag. Would do again.

Enjoyable 3D climbing. Got about 8-10m runout through the centre section - doubles or triples in medium cams would be useful. Take long slings to manage rope drag at top.

More sustained than Skylark, fun on the baby bums

Terrific pitch, steepish with great exposure and good gear, worth 2 stars. Get on it.

Good fun, just be a bit careful where you put cams, prefer passive gear, and you'll want plenty of extension.

It looks a bit shit but there is some decent climbing here, and it's a decent length. The bottom crack is a bit seepy after rain which makes for an underwhelming start, but things improve from there. Not the cleanest thing around but workable. Loose flake out right around halfway.

Fun. Some tricksy gear and a good #3 RP at the top.

No, it is not "better than Gecko Groove". The gear isn't either.

Terrifying, stay the hell off. Filthy and difficult down low, objectively dangerous up top due to the huge detached death-flake. Much gardening and excavation for gear up the crack, veering left quite often just to climb on lichen rather than vegetation, then tried to stay off the horrifying huge flake as much as possible by bridging and climbing/protecting the right wall, with just one big hex in the flake gap. Topped out around the tree then anchored on the same tree as the hand line (not the shackles), which is quite old but needed for the sketchy walk-off. I will never climb this again, and recommend nobody else does either.

Fun wee overlap. A bit mossy and dusty in the cracks, did a bit of scraping but mostly found alternate gear.

Lost on the approach, we were looking for Shelob! Turns out we did the first pitch of Flytrap but more direct, didn't move right to the rib, run-out and crumbly, then used about a mile of rope to build an anchor in the white streak just right and below Bishop's Rib roof. Then up something resembling P2 of Centaur, devolving into a bush-bash at the top with massive rope drag. Abseiled down Bishop's Rib with bolt-envy. Figured out where we'd been later from this photo. Epic. Terrifying.

There are 3 loose blocks at the start (chalked X) which makes it a very hard start indeed, more like 16-17. Ran the pitches together on long slings, taking the higher option on P2 and continuing to gear belay right on top. Anyone finishing at rap anchors has failed to traverse left and wound up at the top of Togrul Khan…

Decibel P1 quite delicate then a surprise hand jam near the top. Not sure I'd give it a star. Up the easy Stentor chimney with one piece for sanity, then a commiting step into Stentor P3 which is short but nicely sustained, a bit of a pump hanging around for gear. Wouldn't give that 17 or an R rating though.

An old school 16 with all that entails ... first pitch a good tough fight through overlaps, then ran 2&3 together, pitch 3 traverse quite exciting until reaching the welcome crack. Pitch 4 is crap with 2 poorly protected mantles, finishing up Dunes might be better.

Our first crack at a 16. Pretty good, the "finger layback" is straightforward. Not much pro for quite a way off the belay on pitches 3 and 4, consider doing the lefthand crack of pitch 3 (18) next time. First pitch nothing to write home about.

Climbed as per the select guide, up the Lute, probably lots of moss out right. Went a bit too high and traversed into P2 from above the rap anchors, beware of potential death blocks up there. Crux is a neato combo of slab then overhang, worthwhile. P3 enjoyable enough after an average start.

Mostly face climbing and bridging, a little bit of layback. A #5 camalot is just barely big enough to reduce the runout from the 3rd belay to the bolt, though it may make more sense for whoever leads pitch 3 to keep climbing, clip the bolt, then downclimb to the 3-piton belay, so the 4th pitch lead is pre-clipped. 2nd pitch quite fun. Belay cave cold and smelled like wee, get a bloody move on Grant.

Panzer was occupied so decided to get this done early in the trip. Nice moves. Not as run out feeling as mantle. Tricams handy.

Nicely run out. Demoralised and running out of daylight after a horrendously and hilariously off-route FAIL on DB Eh?, had to bail without doing the top pitch. Rats.

Just a few degrees above zero, vicious wind chill, misty and threatening to rain. Four top layers, two bottom layers, brrr. So of course we went up. Fortunately the wind dropped a bit after the first pitch. Crux on pitch 2 is fairly committed for the grade, old school 16. Maybe try the extra alternate chimney pitch finish if you have time, but allow for a fair bit of walk-off route-finding time. Walk off is steep and my knee has not liked it. A fun adventure in a great setting.

Aesthetic thin crack that screams "climb me". Small but bomber gear, and the top is not runout if you have the right gear.

A nice fun crack climb, good gear, not as straightforward as it looks from the ground.

Enjoyable enough. Grant led it first.

An onsight of sorts, though not the full original route. Quite a bumptious little unprotected start, then managed to drop a whole lot of nuts off the biner. Avoided a belly-flop onto the ledge.

Warmup and a bit of fist jam practice.

First pitch gets duller as you go up, second more enjoyable slabbing but there are better slabs. Exited via P3 Oedipus Rex roof which certainly upped the enjoyment. Just abseil in and do that.

Trickyish start. Didn't float my boat.

Not the best choice of warmup JH. Awkward to clean and stay on too. We stupidly rapped from above Christian Crack, better to walk through to the other rap anchor.

Strayed out onto Grand Designs from about halfway, more sustained, rather good.

Harder than it looks.

Sandbag? Crucial cracks at the overhang all slimy and unusable. Pumped, thought I was gonna die but the green totem basic held me on 2 undercammed lobes in a mossy flare, very surprised. None of us could find a way through the overhang, ShiChang eventually snuck around left to Trenchtown then runout and off route straight up and built anchor. I finished up past a thank god hand jam and cam then very runout to top. Type 2.5 fun, not keen to repeat.