Ascents in Memory Lane

Worth the journey. Has a few interesting moves

Sooo gooood!!

Great climb! Cruxy and sustained

First shot today, placing the gear. Retro-onsight? (Had a shot at this a few years ago, and struggled with it). Felt good today, though no giveaway. Varied tough sequences between good stances. Strange holds used in strange ways. Ridiculous roof jugs, and a bouldery finish to cap it off. Funky.

Struggled with turning the lip at the end of the roof, but really funky climbing to this point. Desperately needs a bolt down low (even with a #3 cam, its a good 7m of climbing to the placement). Some thin moves, some powerful moves, some weird moves, a roof, and a desperate turn of the lip. If I had more time I'd give this another shot or two, cause it's worth it! Steep!

With some TLC, this could be a classic in the same vein as Walking Wounded. Very thin and technical climbing up an appealing red face, broken up by two roofs, worth a lap.

Climbed once before. Not quite as classic as I remember it, but still fun. Easy for a trad 18. I can confirm that another hold has broken off at the start since I climbed it a year ago, making the beginning boulder problem harder than V0(V3/4?)

Repeat. I can't count high enough to list the number of times I've repeated this. Still a classic at the grade.

Clean Repeat. Seconding Stephen. Barefoot and chalkless today, because I couldn't be bothered walking back to my gear to collect both. A great old-school line. Traverse in from the right for the best climbing at the start.

10 millionth repeat. Warmup, this time by traversing in (I've ticked the direct start before). Still great value at the great, still worth every minute of it. Classic.

First time leading this, though I've seconded it a few times so I can't claim the flash. Did the direct start (definitely getting harder and harder as holds keep on breaking). This climb feels easier on lead than on second. Some cool climbing with interesting moves, and not too hard.

Really easy at the grade, with 2 hard-ish moves that only just barely deserve the grade. Might be great without the ledges, instead only "alright".

Seconding Neil. Some okay airy moves on the arete (that seemed kinda challenging for the grade), but stupidly short (10m?) and kinda crunchy rock,

Repeat. In light rain to make things more interesting. Felt easy, but climbed great. A pleasure every time.

Another repeat. Speed ascent in the "almost dark" without a headlamp. Stunning face climbing, why isn't this 20m longer? Did it with 2 bombproof wires.

Clean repeat. Always a technical pleasure, though a bit more engaging when damp. The gear top-half feels appropriate.

Clean repeat. A bloody great warmup, even after all these laps.

Done as a warm-up. Perfect weather, and nothing was going to stop me getting this tick. Climbs very uniquely for a Blueys face climb, with quite a few intriguing moves. Awesome all the way. Yellow wild-country wire is the key gear placement.

Raining when I started. Torrential downpour through the crux. Spooged off the last hard move at the top before the anchors. A shame, because I was cruising it until then. Great climbing, technical and exciting. Soft for the grade, though.

2nd shot today. By far the hardest of the "Grade 25 Trilogy of Face Classics at Cosmic", and quite a fair bit harder/more sustained than Aesthetic Images. Very sustained, with four demanding cruxes, but all of the bolts are in really bad condition, and the runouts on this at two points are downright dangerous.

2 laps. A brilliant route. Like Images, it is proper hard at the grade (like 1.5 grades harder than Toyland), and very runout, but stunningly powerful face climbing, with 4 distinct cruxes. Felt like I would put in a good showing on the 2nd lap, and had rad linkage... but the dyno in the middle (which I could sort-of-do on the first lap) totally shut me down on the 2nd lap, and is a bit of a deal breaker for me. The traverse in particular is engaging and demanding. I did a weird number of "foot hops" on this route.

Another repeat. A pleasant warm-up and great first-climb back after a month in Kyrgyzstan. A true classic.

Probably the most sustained hand-jam crack in the blueys. Absolutely brilliant. I did my first ever hand-jam on this (on second) 1.5 years ago, and was great to come back and lead it again.

After sending Aesthetic Images, I figured I'd treat myself. Spectacular. Probably the most solid I've ever felt free soloing.

Climbs a lot like the upper section of Junction City (after the crux first 4 bolts), but is limited by the contrivitae of avoiding Interstate 31 and Junction City on either side (and not clipping the bolts on JC, for a proper trad ascent of this line), and being quite dirty due to lack of traffic. I wandered around to find the odd bit of gear and climb the line of least resistance (I hope that doesn't make me off-route?). Runout enough to be ALMOST dangerous. I placed 7 bits of gear in 30m

Second shot, had to figure out a sequence for the start moves. On the Send shot it was onsight from the 3rd bolt to the top. Really hard, sequency, start until you get to the third bolt, then it gets progressively easier all the way (with a few 22 and 21 moves thrown in for good measure). Really long, and bloody brilliant. Had tonnes of fun on this.

Repeat. Great to get back on this again as a warm-up, and this time loved every minute of it. Start is probably 21, and the first move in the crack proper is also bloody nails at the grade, but the rest is trad poetry with a variety of moves, styles and great gear (so many wires). Today this felt like bliss.

Seconded 1.5 years ago. I found two particular sequences on this quite hard for the grade (and the boulder start is a good challenge). Great, varied climbing, a bit scary, a bit technical, a bit strenuous, and bloody long!

End of day awesomeness. After the semi-sketchy traverse (thread and 0.4 cam to protect), this climb is a piece of old-school brilliance. MUCH better than Building a Better Mouse Trap. The first half is thin, high-stepping crimpy goodness, and the second half is interesting, obscure moves between jugs and through roofs. In it's entirety its unerringly interesting. Rope drag is a real problem (even with long slings on the appropriate draws). A 70m rope JUST reaches the ground on rap.

Via the Direct Start. Good climbing for the grade, with a spicy finish to keep it interesting. Shame about the choss and vegetation.

A good start to TZ. Probably harder than 13 though. Some choss and a bit of vegetation.

Sketchy start.

Felt on edge this whole climb, and I panicked and grabbed a draw to rest. Got the move immediately after, wish I just went for it. Good climb

Brought a few 2s but I wish I had many many more. Had to do some bumping and downclimbing to back-clean.

The climb itself was nice if you commit to the crack moves. So many of the holds were extremely polished and greasy, was pretty unpleasant which is a shame due to the awesomeness of the crack itself.

Very hard couple moves in there and very easy to go the wrong way and stitch yourself up

What a mega route for Alonn's first outdoor climb in Australia