Begehungen in Frenchmans Cap Area

Amazing scenery and quite unique to be on a wall this size in Australia. The devils staircase pitch is nice. The rest of the route is hands down the worst summer multi-pitch climbing I´ve ever done.

A route that has lead me to reflect on my climbing deeply.

The seriousness of this route had my full attention as we were climbing, so much so that I wasn't able to experience much else. Not excitement, joy, fear or otherwise. I was focused on being as safe as possible and succeeding. Both those goals were achieved, but a certain emptiness remains. Much more self reflection to come; on climbing and - as usual - how that relates to life.

The morning walk to the start of the route was serendipitous, as sunrise silently rose over a sea of mountain peak islands bathed in the rising alpine fog.

3 day mish. 27km first day. Route the second. 27km out third. Would recommend taking more time to enjoy your time here. It's a lovely place.

So so nice, good crack moves, walked back to vera hut after this day

Goddamn what a route, most exposed position I've ever been in and biggest and most beautiful wall I've seen, so fucking sick. Have so much appreciation for everything now. Was wigging at that exposure, was tired, cooked finger etc. it's just about getting to the top of the cliff. Lowered off crux and lee went up, ledge traverse was nuts exposed!! Sick route, 15.5 hours on the wall with party of 3 and a bit of fucking around. Full write up in tahune hut logbook

A serious undertaking! Spent 15 hrs on the wall total as a party of three, only the last pitch in the dark thankfully. Roped up first pitch 'scramble' was wet and sketchy, the crux pitch felt a bit harder than 20 and the traverse was my favourite part- the only actual 3 star part of the climb. Gets three for the location and length though. Was in my head about the last two sparsely protected pitches, but after getting to them the gear was better than anticipated with modern RP's and microcams. Still have to pull a few hard moves above minimal gear, but the challenge is route finding. An epic day out with two good friends, lots of traumatic bonding and appreciating life through the taste of death.

Squeezing this in the day after Sydney probably added another year onto when I’d return, Three stars.

Such a rich experience to climb at Frenchman’s, not all positive, not all negative but all memorable. Managed to catch a beautiful 5 day weather window and all our routes were bone dry. I got the pointy end of the rope on the Devils staircase which Is more than a bit stiff at 16. Also finding the start was a whole ordeal and I assume I was somewhere near the original. I went up the main gully, sus traverse on vegetation to a grassy ledge then up a “botanically influenced” crack for a full rope length until I spied the chimney on P3. Second tick off the lifelist in a week.

Hard to find and hard to stay on. Followed up some mates. Big big day with a wet pitch 8. Sandbagged route (especially pitch 8 and 9). Swimming in the lake at midnight after getting back to the hut is the real beta. Would recommend if you like choss and can solidly lead grade 20 trad 😜

Such a memorable day out climbing. Wowee! Got lucky with great weather and a bluebird day. 17 hours hut to hut. Found the crux pretty darn hard for a 16! Some pitches were still wet despite days of no rain. Lots of moss and choss on some pitches, but otherwise amazing day out.

Wow what a day. Was off route pretty considerably for the first 4 pitches, but then pretty sweet once on route. The pitches leading up to the crux were awesome and full value. Lots of moss, dirt, plants, loose rock/boulders and the like. Crux pitch is for sure harder than 16. An inverted staircase, 300m off the deck, that has some decent protection and rest stances, but is definitely harder than 16... All in all, an awesome, full value day!

Planned bail-out after the 2nd pitch as we were spooked off by the walls intimidation factor. Felt pretty solid up to there and probably would have pushed through if we had started the route earlier in the day or brought head torches along. Definitely putting this one on my list to get back and send.

What a day, completely off course at the start but just kept questing up and right until we rejoined.

Another serious climb, but an amazing one. Harley did an amazing job leading the crux (no way its 16). The whole experience was amazing

Probably no rain on the mount for 12 days before we went up (and temps hovering in the high 20s), but the top of the route was still pretty wet. Would really want to pick your windows for this. Pitch 8 was super run out and wet holds really added to the spice

Oh boy. Glad we did this route before attempting lorax. Really put the seriousness of the wall into perspective.

Massive runouts, some questionable rock and gear. Glad Harley was leading the crux pitch. Super route, the traverson on P2 was crazy

Good climbing, very questionable rock at times particularly on pitch 1. The crux is unprotectable and run out, and is some of the scariest trad I've done... proceed with caution. Pitches 3 and 4 were cruisy and nice despite pulling some holds off! The tat for the rap off the top is old and questionable, probably worth replacing.

First try of alpine climbing! What an epic/challenging day! Brittle rock, lots of soloing, but so grateful to have done it. 7hours to get 3/4 of the way along, 3 to get back to Barron pass via a 70m rapp of the needle

What a day! What a route!

Lead free: 4, 5 and 7

Lead free:2, 4, 7 Spectacular but heaps of wet rock (first and second pitch, finish of pitch 5, the corner crack of p 6) Was raining the previous day

Incredible, this route has been on the life list for a very long time. A striking corner crack followed by an unprotected and butt puckering exposed traverse across the void to another corner system. Definitely the most serious but rewarding pieces of climbing I've had the pleasure of doing!. Wild

An epic alpine adventure complete with huge exposure, plenty of loose rock and less than desirable belays. Fantastic!

We couldn’t suss out the start the day before due to the amount of rocks being dropped by a party on the route, so just headed up early morning to see if the super direct approach worked. Any placements we had needed major excavation, so whilst it’s possible the line has been done it didn’t feel like it. Felt a bit R even for Frenchman’s standards, but was enjoyable in a type 2 fun way.

After doing an interesting 2 pitch start, we got onto the route proper and made up time. Alt with Dave. After the horrible 3rd and 4 th pitches the rest was fun, and choss mostly avoidable. Climbed right wall of exit chimneys as much as possible. Visionary routing by Pettigrew and Allen that could be tidied up and do with a better description. Led 3/4, 6,8,10,12/13. Back eating dinner before dark.

Rpt, in much better weather than 9 years ago. Led P2 and 4 this time. Booty sling and wire. I seem to recall exiting to the left before, ( now called a grade 22?). Really good for the grade.

Better than the gully.

A fun day with quality climbing until the last "roof" pitch which is unfourtunately quite loose and showered us with 3 painful blocks.

Luckily no serious trauma or core shots, but we took the time to patch up and climbed slower for the remaining 1.5 pitches.

Upon descent we agreed that aspining ascentionists would appreciate some sympathetic beta for the rooves. If you, my friend, believe that the meaning of life is found under a driving range of death blocks piled higher than the Great Pyramid, read no more...

But for the mortals, go 5-6m up juggy crack from grassy corner belay. Then easily traverse right across the gearless wall to good rest under two black gullies. Do not take the left gully. Instead head up the right gully/chimney to good ledge. From there a short (10m?) escape pitch remains.

(Total length thus feels 160m or 220m with the solo approach gully)

Despite the delay, climbing at night in the heavy mist that descends upon the Cap at dusk was a truly surreal experience and reminded me of why we do this to ourselves. Enjoy!

Epic & exposed what a climb 🤩

What an unreal experience! We got spectacular weather, however, quite a bit of seepage in sections. Good gear for most of the way (recommended rack as mentioned by others), yet, enough no fall zones you certainly want to be confident at the grade, especially for that goddam traverse! For sure the most exciting Trad adventure I've had so far!

Climbed directly from the Mike law variant. Annoyed I blew the onsight, kept slipping with wet feet and hands, took a couple of big whips onto the belay. The exposure at the crux is full value adventure trad!

First 3 ish pitches? We linked a few so was hard to tell. Enjoyable climbing with spicey protection.

Did a huge run out going direct up the arete, rock was dirty but the movement was great with lots of exposure!

One of the reasons I started climbing , two years ago i bivouacked at the summit and met crazy John & clair who topped out on the great flake on dark. That Definitely had a deep impact on my climbing journey. So happy to have done this route, can't wait to come back out and tackle some of the bigger harder lines!