Ascents in Blackheath Area by Justine Jenkins having trad-cpr or ascent-date

This line was awesome! It was amazing to do as the sun was setting. There was a def a bit of faffing with gear choices, but I still got the onsight in the end!

I don't know if it was just the way I was feeling or the extremely spoogey conditions, but this thing felt absolutely desperate today. The entire crack and wall was damp, muddy, and coated in dirt, despite that I thought it barely rained the last few days. I rapped down this thinking, this is gonna be amazing and was astounded at how slippery and insecure the entire climb felt. I know it's grade 20, but it literally felt every bit of grade 23 at least in today's conditions. It would be interesting to revisit this when it is totally dry, but it felt like a joke at grade 20 today. I got the onsight in the end, but not really sure how. As far as gear goes, I didn't have a 5, but that would have been nice. Instead, I had 2 4's,a 3, doubles of 2-.75, 3 .5s, 4 .4s, 3 .3s, and a red and green C3. I also had a random offset alien that may have been close to a .2. I probably could have left the nuts at home but did manage to place 2 overall. I had 19 draws which seemed crazy, but I used them all in the end. This thing was epic and would be worth a revisit when dry to see if I was smoking crack today or not. All in all, a great arvo!

The second pitch was awesome, but I don't know that this climb lives up to the hype, considering pitch 2 is guarded by pitches 1 and 3. The first pitch is ok if you take lots of small wires and some C3s, the second pitch is stellar, but the last pitch is a chossy gully with basically no pro. I can't help but think that Solomon and Fer de Lance are similar, if not better climbs, if I'm being honest. They can't match the aspect of Shipley lower, but they are def at least the same quality and more accessible. It was worth doing once. We did it in two pitches, linking 2 and 3, and had a fair amount of small wires and C3s.

I finally sacked up and led the second pitch of this route after seconding it a few years ago and having led the first pitch a few times. I found getting from the belay to my first piece utterly terrifying, which probably had a lot to do with being a short-ass. If you are 5'2," soloing up to the first piece of gear is nails in the sun. Staying in the vegetated crack out left and placing a 5, not that I had that, in the top of it with a 120 sling would have been the go. I guess I will know for next time...