Ascents of Darkside as Tick or First ascent

Super duper chimney climbing! First pitch goes on for ages and you settle into a beautiful rhythm that sounds rather heinous when explained verbally.

Good gear and very grippy rock makes for a pleasant ascent. The start is spooky until you commit to sitting down into the chinmey rather than trying to bridge the moves. Commit earlier!

Tess led what was supposed to be the grade 10 pitch and went completely off-route chasing after bolts (classic sport climber ) and ended up doing what I think must have been the 18 pitch of West Face of the Mirrorball

Climbed the first two pitches fine and had a grand time, we accidentally did the last pitch of the west face of mirror ball (grade 18) rather than the other two. Oops...

In any case was actually pretty fun, pherhaps a "direct finish" route should be added. two fun and engaging mixed trad pitches followed by slightly more technical sport is a good combo imo.

This is a pretty epic climb. Spanning from 6ft down to 1.5ft over 40m you get to practice everything chimney. Once you commit and get into position it flows nicely.

Bolts are a little manky, particularly on upper pitches. The gear is bomber.

Call BS on the 14 grade felt much harder 😁 - great chimney though!

First two pitches are brilliant if you’re into that sort of thing. Found the start of the first pitch a bit heady but once it narrows you’d have to work at it to fall. Finished up mirror ball to escape gusting winds.

Awesome first pitch. Felt super super stiff for the grade maybe because I am not proficient in the Dark art of chimney climbing. This pitch has 4 carrots and good cam placements.

P2 is climbing pure choss. Be careful what you pull on and stand on. I remember 3 carrots and placing two cams (BD size 3 & 4) in horizontal cracks.

P3 is super simple. Follow the first two carrots on the right, aim for the obvious pinnacle seen to the right from the belay station. Once on top of the small pinnacle, traverse right for 5m to a belay station.

P4 we went left from the belay station following 4 bolts, can't remember if they were carrots or rings.

Trad rack: medium to large cams. I would say keep doubles of BD size 1, 2, 3 & 4.

Don't forget them bolt plates.

Backpacks can really get in the way of climbing the chimney on P1. Its a good idea to get the leader to haul them up, once he/she establishes the belay station. Its a clean drop for the rope, no chance of second getting stuck ropeless.

Awesome funky climbing! Will taking a wild ride on the first pitch

pulled off a massive block on the first pitch and went for a big swing ricocheting off the walls of the chimney - finished the route one chipped tooth and many bruises later feeling super psyched

Interesting first pitch followed by some chossy nonsense. The last pitch was particularly unimpressive.

Sometime late 2011. Great first pitch (led by No-Chalk Rob). Every pitch after that manages to be worse than the pitch preceding it.

Classic first pitch. Very very windy.

14 my arse! Good though.