Ascents in The Apostles

Perfect trad day of good climbing through adventurous terrain. P1 and P2 could easily be combined. Found the crux pretty easy for the grade.

The exit is confusing, don't try to follow the drawn line on the book straight up the dark face, it looks definitely harder than grade 10. We scrambled diagonally left instead towards the abseil anchors.

For the amateurs of traverses! What a spectacular line. Tons of exposure. None of the pitches is a give away. Would be five stars if the rock quality was superior. We got spanked, tricky route finding at times.

Short and sweet!

Lovely airy climbing, sandwiched between the worst scrambling and bushwhacking I've ever had the misery of experiencing (so far!)

Time to learn how to jam!

Exposure practice round. Lots of choss on that one. Direct variation at the end straight up through a good clean face, probably at grade 16.

We got spanked 🖤

Two improvements make up the Rattue—Robinson variation:

P2: traverse right along the thin finger rail around a corner and then break up to the ledge. Avoids the choss 15 higher up and makes the route a little more sustained at around grade 20.

P3: avoid the choss corner system and instead climb diagonally right up the balancy, exposed face. No hard moves, still grade 17 feels right to me.

That was pretty real. Sandbagged. Time for some rest days.

5 star choss!

Seconded P1 clean. P2 lead was a dog show, aid extravaganza for me. Matt got the clean ascent and did great working through mental demons on P1; the classic "I don't want to go up, but I don't want to back off" scenario.

Spotted an interesting route variation on P1 through roofs. Next time...

It’s still too soon to speak about this one.

Shouldn’t have backed off the roof variation Ollie spotted on pitch 1. A decision I will regret for the rest of my life.

Worth doing for pitch 2, which offers some cool moves and spectacular positions.

Pitch 2 is a gem. Grovelling up a dripping wet chimney on the last pitch was a nice intro back into trad.

Epic.

Type I fun on the way up, type II on the way down.

Had a blast on this route. Overall very good quality. I did pull off a couple of death blocks. Highly recommend. Started at 7 - finished around 11. Somewhere between 7-9 pitches for us.

Horrorshow choss. Great if you like gardening, and cornflakes. Pitons can often be found behind bushes.

Nice (all) day out on the rock ! Can link some pitches if not afraid of drag !

Climbed with Simon. 19 pitch feels run out and scary when you clear the roof and get to the corner rest. Psychologically taxing for me.

Onsighted the 19 pitch. Aided the 15 pitch. Hmm. ADK didn't know how to grade. Climbed with Simon. Bit of an adventure, psyched to OS the 19 roof pitch, would have been some serious airtime with a fall. Friggin hard for a 19. Cool buttress, I will be back.

First climb on TM with Ollie. Amazing pitches, esp. the outrageously exposed chimney! Would love to lead it one day.

First TM outing -- thanks Ollie! Amazing pitches, esp. the outrageously exposed chimney! Would love to lead it one day.

Climbed with Matt, nice little Sunday adventure. I lead all pitches.

Feels remote, nice climb for a day out. Lekker view !