Ascents in Mount Banks by Paul Frothy Thomson

With Neil. Led P1, P3, and P5-P6 (linked). O/S all my pitches, and Clean 2nd on Neils. One of the best "harder" multis I've done in the Blueys. Generally great rock, no choss bands, minimal ironstone edge pulling, and 200+m of uninterrupted exposure. Great climbing on all pitches except the vegetated 10m exit pitch. Clean and mostly vegetation free. Quite runout on bash-in carrots (11 bolts in 45m gr24!) and each pitch is dangerously runout off the belay. With a face-lift, this would be CLASSIC!

A great line with stunning exposure, plenty of carrots (compared to Grossness, this route didn't feel too gripping or runout), and okay rock for the most part. The climbing is, perhaps, a bit predictable in the style (left crimp, right crimp, etc), but still enjoyable. I seem to recall Grossness being somewhat better though .

P1 - Clean 2nd (a poxy start leads to intriguing and 3-dimensional low-angle thin-corner climbing, marred by snappy-esque grey rock); P2 - Onsight (21ish, perhaps? Short and punchy steepness, but with a hideous choss start, and a terrifying moving death block you have to circumnavigate hanging over the belay); P3 - Clean 2nd (a great, looooong pitch with a hard, thin start, and a desperately thin and technical final section, separated by easier, pleasant climbing. "okay" quality rock); P4 - Onsight (a mega technical pitch, with sustained, complex thin climbing that wanders rationally up the face to a pleasant middle section, and a spicy finale to the belay); P5 - Onsight (a pleasant lower half on great rock and with good moves, followed by rapidly deteriorating rock as you get closer the ledge. Not too bad for an exit pitch).

All in all, a pretty fun, adventurous day out. With a somewhat epic approach.

A great outing up a major feature (visible from Perry's!) but not necessarily a great route. Steep and atmospheric, but generally average rock. All of the various cruxes are above gear, which makes this feel like a real trad route, despite a few bolts.

The quite bold start to P2 had me get scared and jump off twice before I could change my headspace and push through the runout crux for the send, after which I flashed to the top. A great pitch which is crazy overhanging through multiple roofs.

Pitch 3 is short and steep up an overhanging offset arete, but the rock is hideous.

Pitch 4 is basically unprotected until you regain Superdyke (after which the rock and climbing greatly increase).

Was cruising this on 2nd until I slipped off in the spooge AFTER the crux . The rock is average, but the position and climbing are both great, and despite the hassle this is thoroughly worthwhile. Pretty bloody steep for the grade.

2 laps on TRS. Arctic weather, with the wind blasting me with waterfalls from either side. Made some progress.

3 laps. Got some good linkage, but the full link is going to be an endurance test. Bloody steep! 27ish? Perfect conditions today, I hate to think how hard this would be if it was humid.

3rd shot today (8th lap total over 3 days) placing gear on the send.

Almost botched it through the steep prow at the top when -pumped to blazes- I got the key cam stuck with only half the lobes in, and was unable to fix. In the end I just went for it anyway and committed to the runout, but I would not have wanted to fall!

I used 9 bolts and 8 bits of trad over the 40m, but there are other trad options available as well. Super steep climbing in an outrageous position, with an awesome mix of powerful and technical moves. Marred by some coarse rock, and wandery sequences (though I see the latter as a positive ).

Might be 26, but it usually doesn't take me 8 shots to climb a 26 these days, so who knows.

Repeat attempt -not clean today. I couldn't do the boulder-crux move at all today, despite many attempts at it -it was just too humid! Managed to test the gear with some big falls, though Lots of fun to chuck a "carefree" lap on it, though.

Awesome steepness of beautiful rock, but wandery and seriously rope-draggy (hence splitting the first 2 pitches). A real resistance route in an "out there" (high admin) environment. I'm looking forward to the challenge of linking the first 2 pitches, though it will necessitate climbing the route on 2 ropes. Thanks to my belay posse for the days out here on this thing.

3 x Repeat laps as a part of the mega two-rope link project. Managed P1 clean on the 2nd lap even with the extra weight/screw-around of managing two ropes, but bungled the 1st crux of P2 on the link. Very draining. On an aborted 4th lap I could barely bolt-to-bolt the route, and then struggled to jumaar out afterwards.

EOD cool-down lap over a year since I was last on it. Bloody great climbing, and was psyched to get quite a bit of linkage despite the lack of chalk, and half-remembered beta.

P1 Clean repeat. Great to retick this in only a day, and some less-than-ideal conditions. x3 laps to score the retick. Really fun technical power-endurance climbing.

Repeat attempt lap for EOD training - Not clean today. Still spooge on this as well, but at least this is more fun and less sketchy when its bad connies.

I don't normally log attempts on my own routes anymore, but this one is shaping up to be a milestone for me, so I'll log it for posterity

3 Red-point laps. The two-rope system works great (thought it IS rather scary, and lugging the 2nd rope through all of the gr27 first half makes it quite a bit harder), and I actually managed to retick the first pitch (only to fall off on the opening boulder linking into P2).

Achievable, but lots of work to do.

Day 2: 4 Laps on the top half on rope solo, slowly adding larger sections of the lower half into each lap. Managed the top half clean twice, once with the final traverse of the first half linked into it. Got the top dialled. The final boulder problem 42m up is rather nails.

3 Redpoint laps. Missing the inner "mongrel" to retick the opening 8m of bouldery climbing, and fell off the last move of it on every lap.

On my final shot, I went from the bolt below the boulder problem (5m up) to the final move at the tippy top of the route before falling off. Shouting, scrapping, whimpering. I caught the sideways dyno with the tips of my fingers on one hand... wild!

Refined some beta on the top crux so it might be more achievable on link now.

4 Redpoint laps. Put all my eggs in the one basket hoping for a send. Bungled the 2nd crux on the second lap (took a weird upside-down swing), and screwed up my footwork on the 3rd. The others all ended at the low-crux. sigh .

1 more redpoint lap. Trying back-to-back days on this was stupid, I had nothing. It took me a full week to recover from this foolish idea.

4 more redpoint burns. Only 1 link through the low crux, crushing onto the headwall, and just totally bungled a move up there while on my best link yet. Its hard to stay fully focused for 35min of climbing without any "chillout" stances, and I keep making dumb mistakes. The slippery low-crux is a bloody frustrating gatekeeper.

4 more shots. After throwing it away at the low crux from the damn foot slip another billion times, I spent the rest of the day wrecking myself to come up with new beta for that move... and eventually succeeded! Game on.

About bloody time. 2nd redpoint burn of the day, scrapping the whole way up. Was basically "mid fall" on the entire top crux, but just kept lunging and somehow got there.

Objectively this route is gr28 (hence its actual grade I've put on it on TheCrag) but my subjective experience (encompassing all the ropecraft factors) was gr29. Similar composition to Hairline, but 2.5x longer, but the 2-rope faff and all the other admin factors make it a proper mission to climb.

2 shots. Refamiliarising with the top half of One Somebody, and sussing how this will go with rope drag and associated shenanigans.

Maybe the best pure resistance route of this grade in the Blueys? Unrelenting.

3 more shots. On my last shot of the day, in spoogy conditions, I managed to link all the way to the last bolt before falling off... Took a 12m fall as a result, but damn it was awesome fun!

3 more shots. No new highpoint, but made it through the crux of Life Without Meaning all 3 times (best ratio yet), and refined the moves on the Two Nobodies traverse.

Last week I thought I fell off from the top bolt on link cause I was tired at the end of a long day... Today I learned that I fell off because its hard to have much oomph for those final moves at the end of such intense climbing, regardless of how fit you're feeling. Linking that top move will be haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard.

Day 4: 3 more shots, but apparently 30 degree weather isn't ideal for climbing the hardest you've climbed. Probably had my 2nd best effort so far, despite this.

Still haven't managed to link the entire upper section in one, though

2 Redpoint burns. Worst conditions I've had here yet, and probably my worst laps on this in months. Quite frustrating. Slimed off at the worst point and took the scariest fall possible on this route. After that, I didn't have much psyche for another lap.

2 shots. HARD! Some of the most complex and technical steep climbing I've ever done. The dyno at half-height through the roof is outrageous, and the top 15m headwall is nearly Hairline-levels of mega, up a series of improbable linked features. Still one move I've never worked out near the start.

3 more shots. Twice fell off the final crux right at the tippy top. The low crux is still giving me a lot of grief, though. So much fun, falling off doesn't matter all that much (though running out of climbing partners does ).

Day 4, 3 more laps. Falling off the final moves at the top of this is fast becoming a theme, here. The sequence is hard in isolation, but after 35m climbing it's hard to have the internal discipline to boulder it out. I put in a lot of effort to refining the sequence, and I think I have finally sorted it out (albeit with the loss of a LOT of skin). The biggest concerns now are exhausting all my (wonderful) belayers, or it getting too hot this season.

Day 5. 3 more laps, and twice more the final move gets me. Groundhog day, much?

Day 7 - The closest I've come yet. Now including the bottom boulder problem into the rest of the pitch, I fell off on the final moves of the lower half before the no-hands rest. Then on the "one-sit" attempt, I actually stuck the move I normally fall off at the tippy top, but bungled a footer and didn't make the easier moves... But at the end of a big day, I was wrecked.

Day 8. No new highpoint, though I came up with more reliable (though burlier) beta for the first boulder crux, and totally new beta for the move I fell off on my highpoint (which means I should never do THAT again... assuming I ever get there again).

Day 9. Equalled my 2nd best highpoint 3 times (out of 4 redpoint burns) but still didn't push any higher. This still makes it my best ratio going through the low crux. More epic beta refinement until I was so tired I could barely jumar out. Forgetting my brush did NOT help things today.

Day 10 - 4 more redpoint burns, new highpoint on the jug one move from the no hands rest, on my last shot of the day, pumped to oblivion and unable to finish it off. Got unlucky on the first 2 burns (one fall I ended up BELOW Will after falling off), and had a dry slip while crushing on my 3rd.

2 more days of good connies and I reckon I can get this done.

Day 11: Just the one redpoint burn before bailing from the worst conditions I'e ever had. After all the rain the waterfall was pumping, but the 80kmph gusting winds were blowing said waterfall all over the route, and the belay.

On my one burn I powered through the crux like a boss, only to have an epic clipping at the end of the sideways runout due to clipping hold being proper wet. After this I went from below this sequence to the anchor. I just seriously need a bit of luck out here.

Day 12, sent 2nd redpoint shot today. Finally, after struggling with conditions, weather, injuries, belayer mutinies ( ), and some hideously unlucky throw-away laps, I managed to keep it together despite a really inopportune foot slip, and score the FA. At the top I started shaking, and and had to RAWR the rock into submission for the final moves. This is one of only a handful of times I've ever celebrated on a Send. One of my top 3 lines I've ever put up for sure.

FFA. Flash FFA, and utterly stoked to do it on this mega piece of rock! Spectacular, steep, water-washed fused corner-crack, in an intimidating position (hell, the whole climb is very intimidating). Technical, sustained, heady... a proper corker for Blueys trad, and genuinely one of the best I've done in NSW.

The 2nd pitch isn't as good, though still worthy for Trad enthusiasts. Its steep, wandery, and committing as you quest off into the unknown in search of gear and a line.

Clean repeat. Returning to improve the style (there was some gear in-situ on the route from reverse-aiding it to get to the ledge... something no one else will have to do now that the access pitch has been established) by placing every single piece of gear on lead.

Still stunning, still gripping.

Definitely harder for those with big hands, as you spend a lot of time in insecure positions, cranking off your tips.

Clean repeat. Still freaking awesome. Great to get back on this seconding Dave and just have a pleasant, stress-free lap. Samarkand, Echo Crack, Grasshopper, Top of the Pops and Thin Line of Reprieve... The mega classic must-do list for mid-20's trad climbing.

Clean Repeat. Seconding Dave on his successful Red Point of this route. Sweeeeet. Felt pretty gnarly today after all my time on the proj, but fun fun fun.

Seconding Vicky to exit the crag. Clocking up frequent climber miles on this mega classic.

Clean repeat. Seconding Luke at the end of a double-send (of this route) day. Awesome!

Another clean repeat, this time seconding Gavin on his successful pink-point. Dreeeeeeeamy

Clean repeat - EOD Pinkpoint lap to facilitate retrieving Marty Doolan 's in situ gear.

Man, sport trad is fun.

Repeat. Only to half height to retrieve a stuck cam from last weekend, but I then downclimbed on lead all the way through the bottom crux clean as well, so I'm logging an ascent

Clean repeat. Climbed on Michael's gear to exit the crag (and strip the route) at the end of the day.

Clean repeat. So much fun! A great warmup, and just what the doc ordered after a rather trying week.

Freeing the access traverse. Not a "great" pitch, nor everyone's cup of tea, but I found it entertaining (and surprisingly hard). Unfortunately the move immediately off the belay is something of an "arbitrary start" (you can reach further left to a better starting hold using the belay), and the last move stepping down the ledge is a bit "meh". But the actual traversing is very technical and complex.

Stay off the vegetation! (until the last bolt).

Decided to try linking this traverse into P1 of Charlie Don't Surf (26) for a 50m enduro-monster (belayed from the cozy ledge). Turns out it's okay with some rope management, but quite the undertaking!

This traverse is super techo and balancy, and quite hard when unchalked and absent beta.

A great short multi. Very sustained on great rock, with some dishearteningly small crimps on the first pitch. Not my finest performance due to too many simultaneous days of climbing. P1 - Fell off on the last move of the upper crux on lead, then the wheels fell off and I couldn't even get through the first crux seconding Emil P2 - 2nd clean (just barely).