Ascents as trad by Paul Frothy Thomson having Distinct route

Scary in the wet. Not too pleasant, and weird anchors.

Linked into the top pitch of Cardiac Arete for a single 50m pitch. Finally got around to climbing this crack! Good value for money at the grade, and very exciting if you don't bring any big cams. Quite sustained and technical for the grade.

Warm-up. Quite a nice little climb at the grade, and a good jamming test piece if this is your limit.

08 May 2011.

Climbed as one big pitch, no rope drag at all. Hard starting moves (relative to the grade) and really cool moves up a thin crack to get out left near the top, but not very sustained and a touch wandery. Still worthwhile as an easy trad route.

20th January 2011.

09 Apr 2011. Onsight all 3 pitches. Some dubious pro and rock, but amazing position. The most dangerous thing about this climb is getting to the start of it... and the tourists. The closest you can legally climb to the 3 Sisters!.

P1 only. Bloody brilliant climbing. Some laybacking, some jamming, some technical stemming, some airy roof moves, all on great rock with excellent pro. Hard for the grade, in my opinion. Gates of Janus and P1 (16) of Gold Star face off on either side of Walkdown Gully as the "classic" 16's of the area, and Gold Star P1 is left sorely wanting. Get on this now!!!

8th Jan 2011. How has that paper-thin flake not broken?

26th June 2011. Good value. Climbed it while the crack was seeping huge volumes of slime and water.

08 Jan 2011. Probably one of the better Glenbrook Gorge routes, if it weren't for the horrible Shalebank topout. Makes a great direct start to Annelid Crack.

Climbed on No-Chalk Rob's pre-placed gear to retrieve a stuck rope. Surprisingly good, and somewhat challenging at the grade. Good climbing from start to finish. The Off-width moves arent too bad.

Would be a 14 at piddo! Much nicer now that Jenga removed all the loose blocks from the crack. Not too hard, but climbs in a thought-provoking manner.

28 Dec 2010. Led all 3 pitches. The 2nd pitch is the money pitch... Absolutely amazingly terrifying. A #5 and/or #6 cam is crucial for the first part of the 2nd pitch. The route EATS hexes.

Flashed on Jengas gear. Pretty good for a warm up. A few tricky moves, and interesting all the way.

A pleasant trad ramble. The thin flake at the bottom widens to a hand crack, which leads to some delicate and awkward roof moves, and an easy corner crack to the top. Other than the chossy detached block and some loose rock underneath the bulge, this climb is quite enjoyable.

Quite runout and somewhat inferior rock for Meteora... but you can't say its not a memorable line! The final down-climb and bridge across the void is entertaining (I had a go at freeing the downclimb, but the rock is disintegrating junk). Climbed as 3 pitches (OS P1 & P2 linked; Clean 2nd P3 & P4 linked; OS P5), and rapped off with a single 70m rope down the back (30m, 30m, 35m) but I suggest bringing 2 x 60m ropes and doing the easier rap down the face.

Done with a Gentleman's Sit. Surprisingly awkward, despite appearances. With a bit more cleaning, this will be good fun.

With No-chalk Rob. 8 hours car to car. Led P2 and P4. Second clean P1, P3 and P5. Good climbing in the adventurous style (read: some gardening pitches) but probably not as good as its reputation.P1 and P2 are rubbish, but P3 and P5 are genuinely good climbing. P4 is a choose your own adventure (I chose a hard looking thin crack system which was fun but a bit dangerous).

Solo'd all the section until past the swim, but the recent megastorm meant an easy slab (after all the graded climbing) was too wet and muddy to solo, so we did some very bolt roped-traversing. Couldn't get past a section following at all, tried to traverse above, and got stuck bush-bashing for about 3 hours trying to get back down to sea level. A great adventure with great friends. A few bits of actual climbing, lots of dodgy scrambling, ocean swimming, and getting lost... Fun in hindsight?

With Rob. Onsight P1 & P2 (linked), Clean 2nd P3, Onsight P4. Classic at the grade, but not AS classic as its reputation had led me to expect. A nice variety of styles and gear. The 2 bolts are a bit depressing to see, and there are some loose blocks.

With Rob. Onsight P1, clean 2nd P2 (bloody scary glassy slabbing IN THE RAIN), Onsight P3. Great slabbing, with much better gear than I expected on all pitches (and no, we didnt use tricams) though there were a few safe but exciting runouts. Just genuinely good climbing.

Onsight P1 and most of P2 (linked). Second clean the last 15m of pitch 2. Pretty good, but quite tricky for the grade if you follow the crack system the whole way, and the gear is rather widely spaced. Good climbing, but despite the grade I wouldn't recommend this as a beginner lead.

Repeat. P1 only to get to the ledge at the start of P2. P2 was then climbed via the Trojan (23) variant start for the FA of that pitch. The first pitch has cleaned up nicely, and was genuinely pleasant to lead.

Climbed at EOD to escape the crag with heavy packs (alpine style!). Multiple guide descriptions don't seem to match the climb. A bit adventurous and vegetated. The super-exposed traverse is great, but the worryingly runout, tricky, manky corner system after it is scary. Good, not great. P1 & P2 of SD (linked) - Neil; P3 (shortened to belay at tree at half length) - Me; P4 (to huge ledge above chimney) - Neil; P5 & P6 (linked - traverse, then up corner system) - Me.

With Gene to escape the Moai. Onsight P1, clean 2nd P2. Not as bad climbing as you might expect for an exit climb. P1 is an easy runout (slightly loose) ramble, and P2 is a pleasant series of cracks, and quote easy for the grade.

Repeat. With Scotty Wearin. Lead as a giant 60m pitch... Though the rope drag isnt too bad, a fall on the gr16 pitch will put you back on the ledge for sure with rope stretch and slack, so I don't recommend it. Not too terrible as far as Exit Climbs go.

Deserves its rep as a CLASSIC. A quick Red Rocks sampler of this classic before heading into the desert. Onsight P1 and P3, 2nd clean P2 and P4. I chose not to clip bolts on P1 (I wanted to do this climb all on gear), so essentially solo'd the thin 5.5 slab. P2 is short but with some cool moves up the initial corner, and a funky traverse left. P3 is the money, featuring 40m of awesome varied.corner and face climbing on gear. P4 is pumpy at the grade, but fairly straightforward crack climbing.

With Stephen. Onsight P1, P3 and P5; 2nd clean P2 and P4. Quite sustained and so polished as to be utterly frictionless. Great climbing, surprisingly demanded, and without any boring bits. The "crux" mantle felt grades easier than sections of P1 and P3. Stoked to finally get on this classic.

Another repeat, this time via the Narcolepsy (gr16) finish. With Neil Monteith and Simon Carter, the 8th and final route of Neil's 11hr 30min 1112m climbed #40pitches40years . In the full sun, and as a group of 3 at the end of the long day, we climbed it in 1.5hrs of time on route. Fun and easy, and a laugh with mates (even if it was 1,000,000 degrees celsius). And a great end to the day.

With Gene. Access shenanigans but it's all part of the overall experience, and the position (and the seals) are outrageous!

Another lap on Second to get back Thanjon's gear. Still not too bad at the grade. Slippery!

Looked good (watching another climber on it), and the conditions were great. The longest route I've ever solo'd in terms of distance, though quite easy. Sustained at the (easy) grade, and would be an awesome beginners lead.

Secinding No-Chalk Rob. Very good value, but tough at the grade. 17 as per the new guide is probably correct. Sustained, with a great variety of movement. A MUST if you can climb the grade.

Fun getting back on this 2 years after it spanked me and spat me back out. Didnt feel too hard this time, though i wouldnt say i enjoyed it. Definitely unique, its just a shame the start is so dicey.

August 2011.

13 December 2010. First 2 pitches only.

Seconding Neil. A bloody classic route up an inspiring, soaring line... Sure, the exit pitch is grotty, barely protectable and snappy, but even it cannot detract from the spectacular first 40m of crack-climbing bliss. Rather challenging at the grade.

01 Dec 2010.

Seconded Rob on the first ascent. Layback the off-width! Long climb with an entertaining change in headspace once you step off the top of the pillar and head-up the headwall.

Seconded Rob on the first ascent. A diagonal off-width with almost no off-width climbing. A bit thrutchy, with some nice face moves in the middle.

Climbed the middle off-width from the halfway point to the top. Scarily wet and concerning without any big gear to protect it, but Gene kept it together for the send. Okay climbing... rad position.

Seconding Stephen. The moves might be yosemite 5.8, but the crack and footers are slippery as glass. Felt harder. Good, well protected friction slab laybacking.