Ascents in The Candlestick as Onsight

Climbed this route after doing the totem pole, was a very fun climb with lots of variations on climbing it the swell was very manageable. I don't know what people are on about it being chossy I thought it was great sure there were a few loose blocks here and there but it did not affect the climbing. took 6 hours from the Mainland

3 parties of 2. A 20 hour day. 1 absolutely hectic adventure.

Our original plan was for 1 party to climb Corner Route and 2 parties to do The Wick. Unfortunately, in the time it took Arjan to swim across with the rope, a combination of falling tides and sudden swell meant we decided it was too sketchy to attempt the swim to The Wick.

Everyone still got to strip nude to keep the gear and clothes dry from the raging waves though

The climbing itself is incredible.

P1 starting in the seaswept corner. Every hold wet from the spray but magically grippy still. I had to unleash almost every tool in my crack arsenal as the climbing offered up the opportunity to use every type of jam and squeeze.

At this point it was close to 2PM and I had not had time to assemble my sandwich, which younger, naive me thought I could eat at the top of the Candlestick as some sort of victory feast.

Each pitch was now fuelled by a small ration of museli bar. It's amazing how much energy you burn when you combine 110m of climbing with a few hours shivering in the cold, slightly scared at the bottom of a cliff in the sea.

P2 had some sweet jamming. Got some fantastic flow in the hand jams. Plus a few techy bits to keep you on your toes.

P3 was interesting because after comparing notes, it turned out we'd all climbed it differently! I manoeuveured to the start of the off-width before managing to span the two cracks, using every millimetre of my +1/2 hand ape index. Others did the squeeze chimney, which necessitated removing helmets and gear.

P4 was a glorious victory lap in the soft evening light. Easy, but fun, climbing.

And I have never exited a climb in more aesthetic fashion than a 45 degree descending Tyrolean. Made it out before it got completely dark. Party 3 in the team were not quite so lucky.

5am to 1am camp-to-camp.

And I got to eat my lunch sandwich at 8PM

Epic day out. Thanks John for doing the nudie swim. P1 really enjoyed this pitch, a few technical moves and good gear. P2 beautiful jams and stemming. P3 fun squeeze through chimney to easy climbing on other side. P4 cruisy last pitch. Definitely have to be super mindful of choss. Fantastic final climb of the trip.

What a hectic adventure. Dean did the swim, set up a lower tyrolean to get the gear across and then I zipped over without getting wet. This was not hugely beneficial as it started faintly spitting and did so untill after the first (crux) pitch. The first two pitches eat gear though, I had a double rack of cams and a set of dmm torque hexes (which were definitely helpful), only used a few medium to large wires. Was lucky enough to lead all the pitches.

At the third we followed the topo from the latest Tassie selected climbs: traversing out from the belay ledge under the arête then up the crack. The benefit of this is that you reduce chances of getting your tag line stuck. If I had my time again I would stick to the crack from the belay straight up untill you can squeeze through to the right.

Summited, waved to the tourists at the lookout and tour boat and came back down to the higher tyrolean. The hangers here are currently VERY crowded with old rusted shite. We used the two twisted rapides backed up while the first person was lowered across. Got the tension absolutely perfect. Maybe a couple of arm spans less than as tight as you can get? Dean used the third rope to lower down. Pulled and flaked the rope mid line without issue. When releasing the tyrolean the rope got momentarily stuck in the boulders just below the bolts, but it released thank god. 10/10.

May you climb with good fortune adventurer.

Can a day out climbing get any better than this. So involved. So much fun. I wish more climbs required nudity.

Awesome day out

How good is faff !!! Loved this.

This climb delivered.

Travelled from Brisbane for the weekend to get on this. Much preparation and rehearsal paid off, as the ropework and Tyroleans gave us no difficulty whatsoever.

One guide indicates that the crux pitch is the swim. I will vehemently disagree with that. P1 was nails at 18. Committing, insecure and strenuous, it was dripping wet at the bottom. Good gear the whole way up if you can place it. Heady stepping around the roof.

The swim was disappointingly uneventful. Waited for a set to finish, jumped in on the back of a wave and gunned it. Grabbed the kelp before the next wave came in, then just delicately up the wet rock to the anchor. Didn't get scared enough the first time around so jumped back in.

P2 was beautiful, gorgeous jams.

P3 had me cursing the inbred Tasmanian guidebook authors who couldn't tell the difference between a grade 16 squeeze chimney and a grade 19+ offwidth. That was darned scary, shuffling my 6 up the whole way with no other gear anywhere it would keep me off the deck. Spent the whole time gazing longingly through the offwidth at the lovely corner on the other side. When Angie followed she simply popped through the very bottom of the squeeze where it's wider and climbed the opposite side, at which point I realised my vitriol was misplaced.

P4 had a few engaging moments and was good fun.

Used the upper (P3) anchors for the return Tyrolean as we had thoroughly rehearsed this, and rapping further down just to jug back uphill seemed like entirely too much hard work. Deserves all its stars.

The best day out climbing I have ever had. The line itself is fantastic to climb (despite a small amount of loose rock), but when combined with the location, excellent company, and required rope techniques, it made an unforgettable day. Done as a party of four with 3 ropes. Abseiled in on a 70m line (anything less would be struggling to reach considering this line needs to be trailed throughout the route to rig the upper tyrolean). Swam across in low swell with some seals and rigged the lower tyrolean 3m above the sea...fantastic! The first pitch is the crux, and was long and sustained and somewhat moist. Excellent jams despite appearances. Second pitch is the most enjoyable to climb with excellent rock (except at the top). Third pitch an alpine style climb and wander over the ridge. Make sure the tyrolean line doesn't get caught here. Final summit pitch very enjoyable.

We rigged the upper tyrolean from the bolts at the end of pitch 3 before the final summit pitch. Tyrolean was at a 30 degree angle downwards to the mainland. Because of this, it is essential to get lowered or rap on a second line until you are able to pull yourself across. Two ropes are needed for the upper tyrolean (a single 70m could probably be tensioned tight enough to bridge the gap, however it would be super tight, increasing the angle and forces on the anchors). After lowering the others across with the end of the rope, they set up the tyrolean on the mainland and tensioned it, and I rappelled down a separate line until I ran out of rappel rope, before pulling and retrieving it. Coiling the rap rope whilst suspended on the tyrolean in the middle of space was incredible. If you have the rope skills to do this climb, get on it, truly is an amazing adventure!

Good fun, good gear and reasonably good rock. Took about an hour a pitch and then another 3hrs when the tyrollen rope pulled a huge block off onto itself and squashed the end, trapping it on the candlestick. Make sure you keep the tails short, 20m tails can really Fuck up your day.

We got a bit lost on P3, should've gone ~5m higher directly above the wide crack but otherwise everything went smoothly. Luckily the channel was so chockers with sharks that the swell was basically eliminated and made for a cruisy swim. Barking seals and strong winds, what a crazy place! Rock was great for the most part and was some lovely climbing. P3 was tricky to protect, maybe a #5 might fit in the wide crack or squeeze right through the crack at about 1/3 height for easier ground on the other side but would be dicky with the rope. Car to car was 11 hours + about 658 hours trying to puzzle out the tyroleans.

Rad adventurous climb. Take care pulling on things top of pitch 2

Pretty rad climb, very chossy before the ledge. Took a lot longer than we expected

Great fun, a bit chossy. Took a solid couple hours but not too hard or sandbagged

A day to be remembered. Thanks Dan for doing the swim!

Awesome!

Pitch 1 (lead)- very enjoyable. One of the flakes is loose.

Pitch 2- loose rock (some large stuff) up top.

Pitch 3- we used a different route around the corner (may have been a little trickier than 15, but seemed better protected, potentially, than the offwidth offering that is standard).

Pitch 4- Good times to the top.

The tyrolean and resultant exposure makes this an absolutely epic day out.

A very excellent adventure in a wild and amazing place. I did the crux swim and set up a tyrolean for Laura and Brendan. The climbing was mostly pretty good. First three pitches are a bit grovelly in chimneys, but gear was mostly good. Last pitch is great on good clean rock. The tyrolean back to the mainland was awesome! Had a few stuck rope shenanigans which resulted in a late finish, but the walk out in the moonlight was beautiful. You've out outdone yourself again Tasmania.

I think we did some variation on this route. We started up the corner, but went right instead of left. There were some nuts stuck in the crack so we knew it had been done before, but had no idea where the route was meant to go. We sort of blazed our own path to the summit, going wherever looked fun. Great day out! Must say I disagree with the guide book though - it's a great place to figure out what a tyrolean traverse is, and how to set one up =P

This climb was intended to be the original normal route further around the scramble and past the tote. Along the way the directions got muddied, and when Brad and I saw this wonderful corner feature, we figured it would be an easy climb. How wrong we were. Back in 1998 there were no signs of previous activity, no bolts, no nuts, no tat, and we were feeling anxious. We abseiled off into the unknown off natural anchors, wearing a life jacket of all things, wondering what rock features might help us down at sea level. We got lucky in that there was a sloping stance about 4m off the water with a crack suitable for a BD hex. I set anchors and Brad followed. We left the hex in the crack so that Brad could tyrolean across and stay dry. I often wonder about my hex. Did it last days or months in the salt spray before disintegrating? The swim across was a bit freaky while on belay, and getting onto the slope was a struggle due to the 3 m swell. The key was to grab the seaweed stalks which were as big as your arm while at the top of the wave, and then climb on the stalks above as the water receded and get clear of the swell. The climb itself was thought provoking and awesome, apart from halfway through the second pitch, when I pulled a loose block which was teetering and moved. I used anchored quickdraws to ensure the rope was clear, even in the event of a fall further up. When Brad seconded and was clear, of the block, he helped it fall. It hit the belay ledge smack bang and shattered into what seemed like hundreds of bombs which set the sea alight. I figure it was about 30 kg, which would have taken out the belayer if it had fallen accidently. This took us all day as we were very slow. A kind hiker that we had spoken to at about 2pm across the chasm in the afternoon had unknowingly alerted the SES about our location and when we were not back by dark they started the callout to get a rescue party activated. Yes, we got back close to midnight, but at least we made it before they set off to save us. Yes, this was a mega.