Ascents in Newnes Plateau as various tick types

Lovely face climbing on ironstone features, made me feel like a good climber

Heart break. Fell 1.5 metres from the end 😭

On the final tie in, the roof felt smooth and full flow. A small power scream came out when getting into the chimney but otherwise felt very tight.

Milked the rest then cleanly climbed remaining cruxes only to dry fire out of a sandy fist jam. I should have brushed all of those cracks earlier in the week and I probably would have sent.

Looking forward to session 8 (hopefully the last one) in a few months.

Session 6:

Tie in 1: jumared up to work final sequences and then linked end of birth canal to end of route using beta from Saturday. Proper crux for me is the moves past the 180 cut loose + double knee bar.

Tie in 2: first proper send attempt. Disbelief was very straightforward and then punched through first crux into the roof. From there, dumped the whole tank and pushed to the birth canal. Fell out doing the sequence setup to get into the chimney but honestly, another 5 seconds on the wall and I would have vomited. Hardest I’ve tried in a very very very long time.

🤞 🤞

All sequences now solved and final moves through the birth canal till end done free. One more sesh to link together last section and then red point attempts. Would be great to close this out before Europe!

Warm up dog to get to the business of the day.

Flashed the 23 bit then proceeded to embark on a futile quest up into hostile territory. I managed some scary links up to near the final roof on choss and a prayer before my braveness quota for the day was reached. Lee is a beast.

It was all too much, too hard, too chossy, too complex, too concerning for my belayer below. At some stage the rock is too bad to even aid. Didn't make it to the crux and stopped when I asked myself "why am I doing this???" It really made me appreciate how well-rounded is Lee's skillset.

Physically shattered but super stoked to be able to log a hang dog 🎉

A few huge wins today:

• Got a 1 sit from ground to the end of the birth canal.
• Figured out beta for entering birth canal chimney that makes it way way easier.
• Aided through the last few metres, got a beta spray from Jacques and familiarised myself with final holds and sequence.
• Touched the opposite wall of the cave!

Wasn’t sure if the route was actually doable with the last few metres being a giant question mark. Relieved to find out it’s absolutely doable with current strength/skillset and it just needs beta refined.

Psyched to come back in a few months in cooler temps and start going for the send!

Failed to get my goal of a ground to birth canal link today. 🤷‍♂️

All sections are fine in isolation but to actually join them is mega all body pump. Dialed in more beta, climbed sections with far less effort and made it into birth canal. Keeeeeeeeeeeen!

Day 2:

Tie in 1: A little sketched out by disbelief as the crack was full seeping and I wasn’t 100% ok with cams in potentially wet sandstone. Turned out to be ok and just needed to get the head on straight. 5 sits to get up to the roof and then work a bit more of the beta.

Tie in 2: Tried for a full link from ground to the double knee bar. Cruised up Disbelief until a hand jam popped out of a wet piece of the crack at the anchors… Ahh well!

Climbed from the fall through the roof to the double knee bar, sat, and then solved the final sequence (mini crux?) that entered the birth canal. Goal for today was to get to birth canal, so that’s a success ✅

Aiming for a clean link from ground into birth canal next session. Beta is all there, climbed all current sequences clean… the final piece might just be a dry crack! 😂

Downclimbed to ground from the wide section as I couldn’t find any good gear and got spooked

Day 1: Bargained, borrowed and begged for every size #4 cam between Blueies and Brisbane to tie in and scope this out.

1st tie in: Aided through about 8m of the horizontal fist crack, getting acquainted with the jams and gear. Back jumped down to anchor and lowered off to give Johnny a catch on another route.

2nd tie in: Had a decent idea of the beta for the section I played on so decided to put all my beans into it. Freed the whole section in one push at max effort, Johnny described the screams as some sort of dying dinosaur 😂

So… super happy with the day as I managed to free an entire section! Still have quite a lot left to do, and conscious the hard stuff is still to come, but it’s a good start.

A few takeaways:

• Finger isn’t a problem on this if I tape it.
• I’m definitely not at full fitness after working like a maniac for 2 months. Lots of room for improvement there.
• Miuras the shoe beta. Wide boys the jammies beta. Knee pads essential.

Chill warmup dog to get to the real business of the day.

Yowza. Pump city, had to bail once I'd lost enough skin on my fists. Incredible position and moves in the roof

Wow, what an incredible line. Very gnarly but possible with the right sequence.

Such a fun climb, will have to come back and not punt it at the top

What a ripper of a line! That sidepull into gaston crux is tough. Thanks Jacques for the tour!

Sooo techy and megaaaaa

Got spooked like a lot of the other ascentionists going around the arete to the thin crux holds. Degenerated into a bit of a dog show.

Sheeeeeet, it’s huge

I had a spare day over the Easter weekend after the crew disbanded so decided to do some recon on dream projects. Having seen pictures of Disbelief Cave pop up over the years, I knew I had to see Disbelief and Beyond Belief in person.

Hooooly... But pictures simply do not do this place justice! As a self-identified crack climber, this is, for me personally, probably the single most inspiring line I've seen. Mind absolutely blown, Disbelief/Beyond Belief are the perfect names. Can't wait for the day to get the chance to tie in for this.

Holds were breaking left, right and centre… otherwise, great climbing.

I think this was the line we tried...the only on on rings, climbs nicely with some touch moves, a hard crux and the best quality rock i've pulled onto here. Got all the moves but the crux move took a couple gos to figure. out

A frustrating fall after going to the wrong holds twice otherwise a really enjoyable route

2 Attempts. On my 2nd I managed to get to the last 5m body-squeeze/offwidth section with a single rest, but never really managed to work out the last few metres. To me, with my physiology, it seemed like I was going to need to invert? But lacking more big gear, I was too intimidated to commit properly to it. I'll have to come back with bigger gear, and maybe a few more skills.

The rock is a mixed bag, but it's outweighed by the wildness of the climbing, which is varied, brutish, and intimidating.

I used 7 x #4, 2 x #5 and 1 x #6 for the roof part of the crack. I could probably have done with another #6 at least, and perhaps something bigger (purely for the purpose of working the last part of the roof).

So much sand I had to stop and wipe the walls down! Next time I’ll just walk up the ledge.

Dunno about “Arapiles style”.

Low mental power day, I basically just sat my way through it. With a bit of cleaning it’s definitely worth another lap though. Super fun move just after the crux

Fun climbing - all the moves go fairly easy, but I’m sure putting them together might be hard.

Second day out here managed to break a cam on flaring placement also got the belay tick for the FFA.

The usual TR dogfest*2 between Matches RP/PP burns. Lovely climbing between boulder problems, medium sized but mostly sane gear. Despite making progress couldnt pull the facey upper boulder.

Impressive find and an awesome first trip to Newnes, a SPIRITED line....

Progress! Sent the first crux clean from the beginning to where the next hard bit starts. Everything after that was seeping so just had a casual aid look.

We only had mother earth rack (which isn't much!) so I only got to sample the first crux. Every move I did was some combination of jam and kneebar, which in other words means "awesome"!