Begehungen in Ikara Head

fell down low, did rest clean. good flowy trad climb

Good to get the monkey off the back. Nick with the all-star belay.

I'll tell ya what, doing a singular hand jamming lead up Faki (15) at Frog doesn't quite prepare you for what's referred to as one of the best 20 hand cracks in the country. Watching Jack absolutely cruise up this climb for the onsight was nothing short of inspiring for my barely birthed crack career. Yim shouting out "Jack you have no gear" as Jack soloed up the first 7m of the climb before his first placement definitely instilled some confidence in the security of the jams, and it absolutely did not disappoint. I summoned the wideboys and I didn't have to take my first sit until over halfway up the splitter handcrack. Couldn't be happier, felt incredibly secure and it just flowed. Definitely had to fight as it thinned out a bit, then had to do a V8 hand jam gear removal+ mantle at the top to get to the awkwardly placed belay. Phenomenal climbing to warm us up for Telstar.

Couldn't have possibly asked for a better day out with a better crew. A previous crag review mentions the approach to Telstar feeling like a trail from the fellowship of the ring, and it couldn't be more accurate. Descending gulleys and swamp trails to a creek, a log traverse, then following trickling clifflines until you're suddenly in this sunburnt slab of impeccable sandstone away from civilization, and in th blazing sun - which while not adding to the enjoyment of sweaty climbing - definitely adds to the mystique of the crag. Jack powered up the relatively cruisy first pitch with no issues and perched himself on the shady belay while I went up on second. Communication below the boulder on pitch one is quite hard, which was particularly unfortunate for me as I went to chimney up the section, realise all the gear in my bag made it impossible to chimney, then went down to put all the gear I was carrying on my harness. I then went to resume climbing, got half way up the chimney and started yelling TAKE!! As I had a mile of slack between me and the ledge only to hear my phone buzzing with Jack on the other end wonder what on earth was going on as he couldn't hear me, then I was back on belay and up the pitch without a hitch. Throughout pitch one I could hear Yim intermittently grunt as he traversed through the chimney, giving me plenty of time to think about what I was about to do to myself. Jack and I patiently waiting Yim and Johnny to finish pitch 3 so that we could begin our assault. The tranquil silence of birdsong and rushing rivers frequently broke only by us breaking our one rule of the day - not to fart in the Chimney. Once Johnny was away, it was time to shape up. I thought about the first move for a long time before even thinking about commiting, cursing my lack of yoga practice the entire time. I extended Yim's aiding system in preparation for failure then thought I should give it one last go. Committed then freed the entire pitch onsight, incredibly stoked. The final piece was a #6 where the chimney widens, with no other real gear options aside from more #6 placements, pretty critical for the pitch. Definitely had some moments of realisation with my massive runout as the chimney turned into a face climb that a fall would be quite fucked, especially without a helmet on as I had taken it off for the squeeze. So I refused to leave the chimney and chicken winged and kneebarred my way up to the jug at the belay, an absolute grunting battle the whole way. Pitch three was nails and had me aiding on cams like there was no tomorrow - note: brand new tc pros should be broken in before you take them on 4 pitches of above your limit Trad in the sun, my toes were absolutely suffering by this point. From here we bashed our way to the top to catch the incredible moonlit sunset and raced to find a pub that was open at 9;30 on a Monday night, most deserved beers I've ever had.

Super classic varied route!! Climbed in absolute arctic conditions. Every time I would look up to place gear or progress onwards, the horizontally falling snow would attack my face and attempt to thwart my every move. This definitely added a rather griping element to the climb, one that would have been present even if it was just windy and not actually a localised snow storm. Patagonia here I come!!!

Really rad thin crack but definitely quite easy for the grade. It only really has one move on it and in typical trad fashion i tried to rest in the middle of this singular move and thus got a bit bogged down and stressed. I then remembered that I know how to rock climb however and all was right with the world as I cruised to the top. A fair bit of thin gear on this one but there are opportunities to place bigger stuff too. Enjoy it for sure!!

Genuinely one of the best cracks at the grade in the Bluies (though probably a fairly substantial sand bag) with its classicness being only slightly marred by some less than excellent rock. Great thoughtful climbing up a proud line to the rad and improbable 5m leftwards traverse to get to the Jezebel belay. Whilst I agree that it would be much more straightforward and easy for there to be a lower off just below the shale choss, the traverse is pretty wild and certainly rounds off the route's full value feel! The horizontal break you climb across takes #4 camalots to start and then #3s and #2s.

Seriously sick rock climb and a beast that should be on everyone's tick list! Pretty tempted to give this mega classic just for how ridiculously wild that second pitch is but the rest of the climbing is a bit average. Pitch one is a pretty straightforward chossy ramble that has a couple of heady moments, pitch two is one of the craziest and most intimidating bits of rock ive climbed! Just so so out there. Pitch three starts off as a pretty rad ring lock corner thing but turns into a rambley hand crack (it's still nice, just not classic) and then you finish up an average grey slab. I'm fairly sure we rapped off Splattergram but it was getting dark so it was hard to tell where exactly we were. We walked a fair way right (facing towards the cliff edge) until we first spied two carrots and then a bit further on two nice ring bolts with a length of black rope connecting them to an anchor over the cliff. From here it was approx. 30m free hanging down to a ledge with a collection of bolts from various vintages (but with two nice rings) and from here it was probably about 50m to the ground. Walking along the cliff edge it probably took us less than 10 minutes to find the rap anchor. An absolutely full value adventure!!

Had a bit of a medium time in the wind and the cold. I fell off after getting really scared trying to climb the offwidth without using the hideously loose blocks wedged in the crack. I don't know how other recent ascensionists navigated them because, after getting the rope a bit higher, I lowered down and pulled them out with very very little effort. There is still one wedged in there that is quite loose but seems to pose less of a threat to the life of one's rope or belayer. After these shenanigans Harry got quite cold so I just went to the top and he came up and we walked off. Great climb that I'll finish this winter.

All this talk about how this is really only 19 and we are all just fucking soft inspired me to come back and finish it off. Rapped in, top roped the business to warm up, then rapped to the ground and did both pitches. The weather was truly superb and it turns out it's all actually pretty easy when you know where the foot holds are (especially now that the offwidth is clean). I also did a sick layback transition to hand jam flowz move above gear which pleased me greatly. I like rock climbing.

One of the very best cracks in the mountains but I did not find it to be jugs. Seven days of effort, one some years ago and then recently three on TRS and three with partners. Thanks Paul for the send belay and Harry and Will for coming down on the other days to support. For the third pitch I did a long traverse right to meet up with Telstar placing no gear. It's a bit of a choose your own adventure up there but at least this way was easy...ish. Someone go do it and tell me what grade it is.

I'm going to break with all tradition here and say this route is massively overrated. The first pitch is beyond mank. The roof is in a good position, but the rock is still mank. I was very happy to have a 6 camalot with me, it's in dirty but at least solid rock. There are are a few nice moves on good rock in the 3rd pitch, then it becomes a ramble ending in a manky slab. Go do Basilisk DF if you want the bombay chimney through roof experience on good rock and do Kaladan if you want to climb a quality route at Ikara.

Led all 3 pitched, first one is pleasant 18, used few BD C3 micro cams in upper half. There is a bit of choss getting to the bottom of the chimney, tricky to enter the chimney itself protected with 3No. cams, #4 cam is useless to protect upper half, I believe, maybe #6 cam would help better - didn't have #6. 4No #0.75 cams for building belay station and climbing beginning of pitch 3 if you wanna feel comfortable. Climbed pitch 3 as a one long 45-50m pitch to the top didn't feel much of a drag but I extended every placement in upper section long long slings. Abseiled from the nearest gully (as described in the newest guide book) new sling around the tree + maillon all good. Enjoy!

2nd. I wish I could jam.

Adam P1, me P2, Marty P3.

Led all pitches today with Cylvie. Dave was climbing with Mr Ikara himself, Keith Bell. I can't believe I led pitch 2 14 years ago. Had forgotten the choss elements, but still a spectacular route. I am sure I jammed a lot better this time. Rapped down splatter gram , nice new u bolts, thanks to whoever put them in.

Bold lead by dave on upper part.Large gear ie big bro needed. The seconder has a nicer time climbing the arête.

Great fun. I led the roof.

One of the best hand cracks in the world! Better than Supercrack!

Like an old school classic. Runout last bit after last bolt on P1 arete. Great through roof on P2. Hard high 2nd bolt to get bracket on on P3. Try not to break those big jugs off on the P4. Nice positions, OK climb.

led 2nd pitch-squeling animal noise story was going round pub before I got there! Terrified!

Would be V.Good if it had another bolt just 2-3m down from last bolt. If someone falls clipping that last bolt they will probably rip all that crappy gear in that crappy rock below and fall a long way! I climbed to cave, clipped bolt and down climbed to do route.

Updated my tick to a dog! Still having problems getting my fat fingers in the top of the crack. Very sustained. Must have the worst rap anchors in the Blueys!

So good, been a few years since I first did this, was definitely different being on the pointy end through the chimney/roof amazing!

Good to clean this one up, great climb and nice way to finish off the day.

Got up the nice 19 pitch, made our way onto the literal pile of choss under the chimney at which point me and my climbing partner both shat our pants in quick succession. We made our sacrifice to the climb and bailed. You can find a sling, small nut and my worst biner in that cave, treat them well. Absolutely terrifying. Can't see how that chimney can be a 17...

The finger crack at the start is the crux, beautiful chill climbing afterwards. There is now a cord sling between the carrots... It held for us.

No longer a bail on my tick sheet. We finally held our nerve on that chimney pitch. Once you get your feet up in it, it's no so bad. Shoutout to dyno Jake for leading it, FaceTime for providing belay station comms, and #6 'greenzo' for being the most contentious placement ever.

I last came here in the late 80s with Greg Child, Lincoln Hall and one other person - sorry forget who, and vaguely recall walking off. Tried to follow the description in the guide interpreting 'walk down gully at left end of cliff' as meaning the western side. Eventually found no gully so rapped off and hobbled back along the base of the cliff. I strongly suggest you locate the top of one of the other routes that has bolted anchors and rap off!!

With Hugh. After the morning on chilly Sail Away Ledge, we nicked off and arrived at the Ikara car park at 2.45pm. Worth the long hot walk in and I'd go back to do the other stuff there. A stunning crack in glowing gold rock. Them guide book hand jams are man size hands - it was fist and arm bar for me, until, oh bliss, the top half gave up some fierce prickly hand jams. Next time I lose a tooth I am going to wish an anchor re-furb on Kaladan. A great afternoon's outing. Trad climbing rocks!

Sick One!!!!

Great 2nd pitch!! With Dude

with Moss, Greg Moore