Ascents in Arapiles as various tick types by Mac Labine-Romain

P2 might have been my favourite pitch of the trip! decent gear throughout despite initial trepidation. except the one run out bit

fun and juggy and definitely the stiffest 8s ive had the pleasure of going up

escaping from the cell was the highlight, but subsequent jumps over the encircling fences were also satisfying. im a free woman! but also was the last climb before returning to normal life so in some sense i am the opposite

the second multipitch on our froth creep rest day

slab city, had a good feeling about double #.5 and #.75 and it was nice having them

the first taste of the delicious winter face climbing condis - enjoyed the crux which was just far enough from my last piece to be pleasantly engaging

just good clean fun. good times walking off in darkness with one headtorch and no directions and hayden freshly arrived from brissy

surprsingly burly start to a lovely ramp and congrajulatory jugs

first crack of frog replacement day

nice, like blueys sport face climbing but with v good gear

last morning of the trip as the sun rose

we wanted to check out the pillars of hercules so considered this an access pitch, but it was pretty cool in its own right

contender for fave route of the trip. funky positions, steepness with nice gear and rests

linked 1+2, which was pretty sane. the #5 was fairly essential to make P3 sane, and the #6 was nice to have for P4, although you could make do without and just have a slightly spicier time. absolutely glorious upper pitches

took a few goes to work out the bottom moves but afterwards was just pure crack flow with some of the best exposure ive experienced at araps! pure joy

followed all pitches for a mental rest day. lovely and cool on a hot day. that finish...

defs the most chill 17 i jumped on this trip. love the pipes airiness

in interesting megapitch..

fun and better gear than appears from ground

strange rock on P1, like a bomber version of flight of the phoenix in the bungles. loved the exciting nature of both pitches!!

lead as one pitch. very nice, big steep jugs. thought the start was pretty chill and that the exciting bits were higher up!

lead P2. good fun for our first sunset climb back at araps

frothed on this too. lovely corners, a steep fingery crux, then a weird crack corner. a highly enjoyable outing w lots of lols, and some good bonding time with three people on the tiny ledge at the top of P1

less scary than she looked from the ground. loved it on second, will hopefully have a go at leading it next time

luckily my rolled ankle healed up just in time to jump on this!! louis lead the money pitches, but i still experienced a heady dose of fear - this was my first hanging belay on gear, in quite an exposed setting. however, louis eased a bit of the tension by farting quite audibly

had another lap on this classic for our rest day. all went to plan except for the swarm of angry bees that came up the void at the start of pitch 3 and buzzed around me the whole time I was belaying louis. not sure what that was about

quite spicy for the grade. small gear, committing moves and a slight unrelenting steepness. lead this as the approach pitch for louis' go at tannin which ended up being postponed. however, leading it as an approach pitch rather than as the goal pitch for me resulted in being 0% scared when retrospectively i probably should have been

another corner i very much enjoyed

i climbed and downclimbed the first crack three times before finally doing the move on the fourth. I didn't have the beta that that crack is infamously slippery for cams, but I guess i got vibes. this climb was an adventure for me, with a bit of everything. one glorious moment came when I reached up over the rooflet, slightly pumped, picked the right size nut and it slotted in so perfectly. for a blueys climber this is a big deal. but my favourite part was the group of kids at the base of the crag with no language in common who worked out that they all spoke the language of screams. apparently people in the rest of araps thought a serious accident had happened. definitely upped the intensity

absolute froth

so cool! a bit of everything for our first day at araps. i found the gear on the run out pitch to be ok tbh

fantastic multi at the grade. the step over the void (P2) is way scarier than you'd expect

gets 13 in the guidebook. cmon thecrag, don't rob me of my successes!! lead pitch 1 and 4, both really fun

better than i was expecting! tough lil jamming crux, and some fun friction slab at the end

stoked to lead this after being in awe on second during my last trip

sweet link up of some cool features. thin slab (P1), juggy run outs (P3), a nice little corner crack (P2)

fun! crux is a jammy bit. comforting to find myself in a crack after all the face climbing