Ascents in Cairns

Backlogging to put my and Cam's beta here instead of in the route description. Started off of ground on semi decent ledge. Follow from ledge with far left hand back and right hand in sidepulling undercling, lower to left hand and move out to right jug. Feet become necessary, fill ground with pads as you can swing from this move. Follow line on corner with some gaston and crossing moves to far left corner, working to top where tree rests on rock. Can set a rope up on fig tree on top to test holds and clean plus climb without commitment.

One of the special ones. Very grateful for all the forces that made this one come together.

FFA

Instant FNQ mega classic. World class views and interesting and varied climbing in paradise.

What an incredible outing (4/5/23). Kudos to the team that went to the monstrous effort to bolt and access this!

Set out after midday to ideally climb in the shade. Started walking in at 2.30pm. Was a bit of a machete job but was easy enough of a track to follow (via a well written guide). Got to the wall and started the climb at 4.30pm, an absolutely perfect time as the sun was just passing. Had an amazing golden hour sunset atop pitch 1. Very glad Nick got to lead a pitch on his first ever multi, being pitch 2. I then got to jump on the crux in the dark with a headlamp under a full moon, and with a bit of looking while holding on and playing back and forth with sequences, I got a juicy onsite of this plus a tiny bit of pump from the sus. Beauty of a sequence I thought, fair for the grade. Awesome to top belay Nick on his 2nding flash of this too with the sequence beta. Yieew! Walkie talkies are rad. Then ran to the top by linking the final 2 pitches and sticking to the shoeless and chalkless ethic of the finale. Topped out at 8.30pm. A 2 hour simul rap with Nick made for a short and fun descent. Stunned.

R.e. the rating, the effort is a million stars, the view a solid 10, the rock unfortunately not so much. Had me stressed every 2nd hold was going to break (which quite a few of did). The anchor at the top of pitch 4 also really needs rings on the hangers . Thought it was an odd anchor choice atop pitch 3 when there is a beautiful cave 3m to the left, or a clear ledge 2m to the right (belaying amidst the tendrals of a lantana was kind of underwhelming). But my oh my the crux was uber fun. 3 star. Would say 3 star classic if not for the choss factor. Everything else was class.

Next time I'd extend more draws on pitch 1 to link pitches 1 and 2. Then do pitch 3. Then link 4 and 5 again for a 3 pitch total climb. Also would take the 80m rope to link some raps instead of the 60. Fantabulous. A fine addition to the region.

Nick linked P1&2 with a gazillion extenders, I lead P3, then 2nded P4&5 after Nick linked them too. Cleared the lantana atop P3, and installed new rap anchors atop P4. Linked raps for P5&4 and P3&2 with the 80m. All worked really well, no drag. Cleaned up nicely. 2pm ish walk in start, 4pm climb start, 8pm topout, 10pm walkout, 11.30pm car. Home midnight ish. Swell day.

First multi, excellent experience. Comfy lead on the short 16 pitch and seconded up the rest. Big thanks to the guys who put it up, a huge amount of work for a climb that won't see much traffic. Highly recommend to anyone up here, works really well with an arvo start and some night climbing, excellent day out!

Back for a second crack at it. Much smoother walk in thanks to Jared's machete track clean up last time.

Extended almost everything to link pitch 1 and 2, still plenty of drag but manageable, pitch 2 is pretty much all straight up and easy climbing. Take lots of draws if you link them, I came up short by 2 or 3 at the top of P2. Linking worked well with an 80m and Jared's beta.

Another great day out, really happy to get the experience in on lead, even if it was slow and steady... Cheers Jared for the patience!

Mega sharp. Ran out of skin. March flies were absurb.. again. Excuses excuses. Sick line. Def goes.

Started slightly to the left of where the FA did. Butt was lower, but still felt sick. Sharp.

2nd multi ever, stoked to get up it

Headed up the first 2 pitches of MegaLuv then set up a fixed line to prussic up. Rapped over the roof and kicked a wasp nest - damn they got angry - so got to the ground (50m) after checking the crack and headed up on another rope on lead. Kept the fixed line on me so could make safe the blank section - needs a bolt or 2. Then into the ultra thin crack, barely enough for fingers, takes 0.2 cam max - about 6m+ of this. Blank for feet for 4m+. Then into the wider section (didn't climb to this, prussiced up). Could go, but is a bit chossy - needs work. Into the overhang / roof past the wasps - this nest needs to be moved. Will link in with the 2nd pitch of the multi, 1 more bolt would be good to prevent a minor unnecessary run out after the roof / traverse / overhang. Grade will go at around 27 (the less than finger thin section will determine this - barely did 2 moves).

Funky climb, fun moves, sweet under cling, a little ferny, could be a 17?

Wish that face above it had some things on it. Amazing face up there.

Ripped off the fat flake after the first bolt and took a sweet whip to the deck. Which kind of makes it slightly more difficult to get up to the second bolt. I dogged through to finish the climb.

I am no expert, but I suspect that the flake I ripped off might have been necessary to get to the next bolt. Who knows?

FFA. Onsighted all pitches. Hells yea, topped out Glacier Rock. Whoo!

A fun sequence compressing between holds near arete and mid column feature. Very hard to start low, and catching the lip for the mantle is insecure. But has a much safer fall zone. Ran out of time, but could also be back.

Very easy with a bit of shuffling layback, until the lip which is a bit lacking of holds to mantle and very heady due to fall zone.

Also tried the face to the right from the long diagonal rail to the arete and up. Also very easy (although the lip rock quality deteriorates quickly), but again has a sketchy fall zone. Could be fun with more pads.

Bailed on both, but may be back.

Thrutchy groping of sharp crumbly stuff

Would be more worth it if you just sat down dragging your bum up the ramp until you're beneath the top out then standing up and walking home. Way too convoluted working out what's in or out and cramped,as well as holds disintegrating everywhere

OK moves, tops out into slopey slab