Ascents of Iron Mandible having Beta

I clearly need practice with fist jams 🫠

Forgot how unrelenting this is

Bit of a fiddly start with gear at the start, but with straightforward climbing. Super enjoyable crack climbing.

Flash pump was brutal on the first climb of the day

Cracking line!

I managed to do all the fist jams at the end! I’m sad I fell at the beginning though 😕

This was so good, managed to enjoy most of this before the fatigue really set in hard.

newly garde 18 climbers be warned

Lots of fun, good warm up.

Great jams

Pity about the scarce pro down low; otherwise mega-classic.

Felt like the hardest 18 in the solar system. I was falling the whole way but magically stayed in, part willpower and part pumped as heck forearm. The last of a long long day of slips trips and falls… A fantastic 18 testpiece nonetheless

Getting established properly in the crack seemed to be the hardest part. Jams just got better the higher I went.

Best 18 at the hill! Can't believe I've overlooked it for this long!

Bailed, took a whip retrieving the gear

Similar to gladiator or chocolate watchband, but easily the best of the 3.

Felt easier and was more fun than Gladiator

Nice to come back and red point this after pink pointing 2 years ago... absolute slog trying to not slip out of the jams and keep the sweat out of my eyes in full midday QLD sun.

Definitely felt harder than Gladiator, so thrilled to have scored the onsight.

I was a bit in my head initially, having heard the start is tough to protect. I couldn't quite shake the feeling most of the way up, so didn't do this as gracefully as I could. Would like to come back to tidy up my ascent.

Thanks for the patience on belay Yim!

Gallant effort from Mick to push himself💪🏻💪🏻

Kept me engaged most of the way up. Tests a variety of jams. Loved it!

Like an excitable lamb to the slaughter... Damn hot in the sun too!

Sweet jamBs and just enough face holds for me

Got my foot stuck (now I know why it’s called iron mandible). I had to hang on the gear and rip out my foot with the pull tabs, otherwise it felt okay.

gotta toughen up the skin on the back of my hands! (or use gloves lol)

Awesome fun finding the varied sweet spots for the jams!

ash cruised this thing and i was like wow i gotta step it up. this kid is crushing! thanks for being my inspo Ashley Thor 'Spirit of Hot Henry' Brennnan

What a great route! Keen to try lead this one

Popped off once in the first crack. Feet were getting mangled trying to jam.

Face climbed ~90% of this. Found the deep fist jams tricky.

Claim the lead solo. Because while I didn't touch the rope, having it beside me definitely helped the commitment

1x slung boulder 2x hexes 6x wires 5x cams 2x hours on the wall 1x patient belayer 0x sits 0x falls

Managed to protect the start with a bad .4 and some equalised blue BD micro stoppers, then grabbed the left ledge and got a good .3 and .4 in. The small pro, my sweaty hands and the barn-doory position was too big a test of my shattered psychological state and I took a rest before making the move of faith. Don't remember how it finally went but using the left side of the ledge rather than the thick crimp on the right set things up better.

Some more rests then did the hands and fists sections clean (albeit with much grunting).

Gear: had plenty extra from a double rack .3-4 with a 3 piece top anchor, more micro stuff down low might help psychologically.

Had a peek around the corner at someone trying to add their grunts to the philharmonic and nearly flew off. Apart from that was fun to watch Tim runout onsighting this due to only taking our meagre passive rack.

Still a classic. This time I face climbed most of it; quite a different experience.

Kind of a retro flash. The top was a little exciting. I highly recommend bringing some #3s and #s rather than leaving them on the ground like I did.

First go! Finally getting the hang of hand jams and fist jams

Wow what a line. Took a standard double with micros. Start was a tad runout with a solitary RP in the mix somewhere, but the climbing is another impeccable blend of crack and face that so often shows its face at Frog. Top can be climbed on deep #3s and fists, but a #4 would have been nice for the very top to form a slight redirect off sharp rock.

Tried for the onsight and came off where it goes to a 4, devastated. Will have to come back for a redpoint next year

This climb is maga good climbing the whole way up

Thin moves up face with limited foot placements. Gets harder the higher you go. Got it with multiple rests.

Awesome climb, will try to lead on the next trip.