Ascents by Paul Frothy Thomson

Proper spoogy today. 4 laps. Far more achievable than I remember it being, but I really need to get that final few moves of the opening traverse dialled for this to be a worthwhile project. Absolutely brilliant pumpy, power-endurance rock and climbing, and probably the most aesthetically pleasing route at Nowra.

1.5 hour round trip from rap-in to top-out at EOD. P1 is borderline mega-classic, and would be the best pitch of climbing at shipley... if it weren't at Mount Banks

Both pitches thoroughly worthwhile and very different in composition. Features some of the sexiest slopers in the Blueys, and a surprising amount of technicality. I was proper chuffed with this.

Seconding Monty. Pitches 2 and 3 in particular are awesome, though 1 and 4 are relatively inoffensive

The grade of P2 (my favourite pitch) is somewhat disputed. I broke most of a key hold off at the crux, and had to power-scream my way through the new sequence to get it clean on Second. But whatever .

Repeat. Seconding Josh's Send. Very "out there" and featuring some dubious rock... but freaking mega regardless. Better and more fun (and easier) than I remember. A pleasure

Awesome position, and definitely "out there". Old school face adventure where the difficulty is as much in the route finding (especially on the chalkless ground-up onsight) as it is in the moves. With only 8 carrots on P2, its rather "gripping". The traverse on P1 is kinda slippery, and has a proper hard crux for a warmup. Totally worthwhile... but Wild Wild West is probably better

Awesome steepness of beautiful rock, but wandery and seriously rope-draggy (hence splitting the first 2 pitches). A real resistance route in an "out there" (high admin) environment. I'm looking forward to the challenge of linking the first 2 pitches, though it will necessitate climbing the route on 2 ropes. Thanks to my belay posse for the days out here on this thing.

3 attempts today. Onsighted to the 2nd last bolt. Next lap I fell off on the final moves to the anchor after heel-hooking my own-rope, and the 3rd lap I was just tired and fell in the same spot. A LOT of climbing on this (and rather hard work as a complete package) but bloody great climbing on good rock. Could do with permadraws on the final traverse.

2 attempts. Never managed the opening boulder problem despite pulling out every trick in the book. Essentially, a very hard start to a pumpy, juggy, thuggy awesome 24 upper section. The rock is terrible, but the climbing is rad.

Repeat. Probably my 10th lap on this, and it just keeps getting more fun. Rather challenging in the wet today.

Repeat - Just to the crux (2nd last bolt) as a warmup. Makes a good warmup at gr23/24, even with total finger freeze.

Yay, I ticked something! Very steep and with a few rad sections. Mostly about grade 23, but with a very gnarly 3-move crux. Could be flash-able with the right beta, but for the onsight I didn't really have a chance.

Hilariously masochistic. I seem to spend a lot of time giggling at the absurdity of a grade 30 traverse, and an equal amount of time being scared and glad I'm wearing my helmet.

Committing and intimidating, but radical heel-happy desperation. Jason McCarthy and I spent the day swapping beta to solve each other's cruxes and both made -I think- progress... though 'tis still a long way away.

Also found out I can't fit my knee in any of the sneaky kneebars... bloody short people have all the luck

Classic, but for the one hard move that adds 2 grades in itself. Awesome punchy steep power-endurance 26ish outside of this one move. Nice rock, awesome moves (except that one demoralising move ).

Exploratory lap. Really cool technical steepish face climbing. Seems very doable, though admittedly (in my 1 lap, as a warmup) there was 1-and-a-bit moves I didn't really sort out. If this weren't always in the sun, this would be a rad project.

My 2nd favourite route at this crag! Awesome power-endurance style climbing from the cruxy undercling to the top. I was getting proper motivated on this one, but alas a key crux crimp took some damage which will necessitate a bit of TLC before this is climbable again. I bailed from the 2nd last bolt to avoid to any further damage to the hold, but I'll definitely be back!!!

Concluding the Whitman's Sampler day of this crag... I did a bunch of the moves free... but also a reasonable amount of aiding on this. Punchy boulders between okay stances. Nothing seemed V-impossible, but we were out of time and daylight at EOD.

Seems really cool, but it is not a good warmup Roofy bouldery start, then a scary middle, and a very interesting but committing upper face section that I ended up bailing from. Totally worth another lap when its not so cold, and I'm not doing it as a warmup.

Gnarly to be climbing 50m thin techo face at this grade (with oodles of exposure) on trad and the odd bash-in carrot from the dark ages. I took a monster whip onto a sad-looking bashie on my first lap today (after skipping a bolt through the crux), which was rather heart-stopping. Complex climbing with a very hard crux, surrounded by awesome 24ish feature-climbing on gear.

Despite the last 1m to the anchors being proper hideous, this is actually a classic route! A gnarly, power-endurance start leads to some of the most funky climbing in the middle (arete-corner-arete weirdness on awesome rock!), and a final gnarly boulder problem that -frankly- spat me off repeatedly on the final move.

3rd shot. On my 2nd shot I ticked the 25, then downclimbed on link to this line and attempted to send both routes in a single push. Came really close. This is a hard one to rate quality-wise. Position and moves are cool, but rock is kinda crunchy, and its quite contrived.

2nd shot. Very very flash-able, and probably not too hard at the grade. Other than the "access slab" there really are no boring bits to this short, steep little number, and the rock is great.

EOD Exploratory "adventure". Probably the best thing I climbed today, though quite the mission in all aspects. An absurd, hilarious, demanding "monster traverse" with a tiny bit of upward travel at the very end. Funky.

3rd shot. Also really enjoyable. Sharper than its neighbour at the start, the moves are surprisingly sustained and really funky. The lower 2/3rd was kinda damp, but fortunately all the hard upper headwall was dry, cause friction was a must. A super gnarly crux that required a different approach due to my lankiness, but with a hellish anchor clip.

Clean repeat. Even WET today from the dank morning, this thing was still just tonnes of fun to climb. It never gets old!

2 laps. What an outrageous and intimidating experience. We had a top-rope set up to the cave at half-height (encompassing the cruxes) to work the hardest bit, then I lead from above the cave to the anchors with much fear and a few big whips. Very runout, and in an intimidating position with steep, powerful, dynamic moves 100m off the deck. Pieced together all the sequences, but couldn't quite workout the true crux (distinguishable from all the other cruxes surrounding it). Seems quite hard to me, but we all know I'm a softie.

Wow, monstrously huge and steep! Bailed 2/3rds of the way up when we realised we were running out of daylight, and were approaching "rope shenanigans" due the route length. Despite it being quite a mission to ground-up (especially as its so runout -there are 4 bolts in the first 20m!- and very traverse-y), I had a lot of fun on this, and am intrigued to return. I suspect its actually gr27.

Tried to climb this as a 70m pitch from the ground. Despite hideous rope drag, I finally fell off on the last hard move of the route. A rather ambitious effort considering its "untrafficked" nature. Dragged Monty up to the belay, and we both sent the top pitch in a more rational style. Quite good rock and climbing (especially on the second pitch), and brilliant exposure at the grade. Take a 0.4 cam for the top!

Increases in difficulty, following some cool features until they run out, then gets very thin (and also runout). Rock is a mixed bag, but it climbs well.

Clean repeat. A great warmup, and a bloody great route. Never gets old

Repeat attempt (not clean). This is almost starting to feel like a ritual: repeat lap(s) on Grasshopper followed by one hail mary attempt at le grande link. This is just so hard absent beta and chalk. Still... probably my best "ground up" attempt yet, mostly turning pear-shaped on the upper crux and battling through the rest.

Repeat. Helping out a mate

Even more fun when you don't have any pressure whatsoever hanging over your head.

Second Clean. Seconding Neilio at EOD to exit the crag. Really quality climbing at the grade, probably the 2nd best route on the wall, all things considered? Hard start, then just sustained and interesting climbing on good holds to the tippy top.

About time! Had a mega 1st shot and then broke off my key crux footer on link! Got confused with my new (post-breakage) beta on the 2nd shot and punted. Then found my inner mongrel and vitriol'd my way up the route for the Send. Psyched to get it done

I suck. Sure, conditions were rubbish (the pocket was proper wet today), but I just couldn't seem to put this together despite not finding the moves that hard.

Only time for 2 laps. The first lap was a debacle trying to piece together/clean/chalk the route, and I didn't really practice the hard bits. The 2nd lap I had a pretty mega effort, falling off the last part of the final "hard" crux, then going from below this sequence to the top. I made so many mistakes on this lap that I'm just happy I managed to come this close while scrapping badly. I think I have reasonable odds to send on a 3rd lap, hopefully I'll get back for it.

All in all, the climbing is great, technical, interestingly wandery, but the rock is a mixed bag (snappy and dirty at times, other times great). This also featured the worst of all the headwalls on this wall (and they're all pretty bad). A very worthy long pitch, though.

2nd clean at EOD to exit the crag. A very hard start leads to easier (but still sustained) climbing with a few sneaky thin moves thrown in up top. Hard at the grade, as with everything else at this crag. Not as good as the other 24 as the rock quality isn't as high, and the climbing is more in the "painfully thin" rather than "technically hard" vein.

2nd Clean. Much better than Advanced Air Studio in climbing and rock quality (though quite a fair bit harder and with less exposure). A long pitch that just keeps getting harder, with lots of technical thin moves up top. Probably rather sandbagged. Still 22 even for this part of the world, maybe even 23 by modern standards.

2nd Clean at EOD to exit the crag. The route of the day for sure! Very sustained, unerringly thin, and probably the best rock I've seen on this wall. Probably entry-level 25 due to its relentlessness. Very complex moves. Really, the only negative is that the last 6m or so is not great rock.

2nd shot. Very thin, with some proper spicy runouts. Had a really good First shot (draws on, no beta) until I broke a footer off in the final crux, while doing the sequence correct . Went down next lap, but not without some fiery remarks. Stacked hard sequences with no rest. Maybe 25/26? Hard at the grade at least. Rock is a mixed bag.

A rather stacked middle section of thin moves! Maybe hard at the grade (24ish?). A long pitch with continuous climbing and no camp-out stances. Obviously untrafficked (with all the usual caveats in such circumstances) but totally worthwhile. Technical!

Second clean. At the grade, this is a pretty outrageous position and climbing up cool features. Rock isn't perfect, and access is a bit tricky now that the rap-tree has burned down, but for an easy route its worthy. Scoopy.

4th shot. Struggled with a wet crux after the rain, and it took a couple of laps to sort my beta, but I felt like a boss when it went down. A pumpy juggy start leads to a radical and nutty roof boulder finale, followed by a mantle that is juuuuust hard enough to give you some grief.

Second clean. Seconding Neil to exit the crag after a day on this. Awesome, technical, sustained face/slab climbing, with a heart-breaker slab finish right when you're trashed.

An end of day play on this old nemesis of mine. On the 2nd lap I linked to the last move of the crux, then went from below the crux to the top. Maybe one day I'll link it

2 shots. A really rad route with a brief but intense crimp-crux. The continuation up the seam (from Cobra-Kai Connection) and the top headwall above the crux are wicked. On my 2nd shot I climbed everything clean in a push (27ish?) but for the crux, which I can do, but its so thin and sharp that I don't really enjoy it. Haven't decided whether or not I'll try this again.