Ascents in Gara Gorge by Brendan Heywood having trad-cpr or ascent-date

The new gear beta is great walking or unclipping behind you, leaving just 2 reds at the first lip and two yellows at the second. Fell at crux again, the jams are fine I just need much more weetbix and more stamina.

The first third is horribly hollow and loose for gear but otherwise climbs well. Topped out on the ledge. Didn’t do the crack which needs a good clean. Not inspired to lead it

Lots of mental rehearsal. Once you commit and get into it it’s not too bad, holds are pretty juggy and the mantle is probably technically the crux.

'Attempt' is being polite. I flailed on this hard. I've given Michael so many catches it was overdue I had a play. The first half is nice and easy but not trivial. Maybe grade 18 and I've often wondered about it being a route in its own right as the two sections are so different in style and grade. At the roof the doom music kicks in and its just ... hard. I may have done about 4 actual moves total on the head wall between sags

Top rope burn, shoulder felt great after I tweaked it a couple weeks ago here. Got to the crux clean feeling fairly solid, had a tussle with the rope stuck in the crack where I needed to be. Worked it all and did get the crux moves, but it feels like the crux isn't actually the crux and it's the thinner hands on the headwall which are doable when fresh but brutally sustained after the lip which is the extended crux. The top boulder problem I got first go last time and made a mess of it this time cause I was super cooked.

Surprisingly possible. Minging crimpy start and then its mostly ok in crack, then crux topout. On my last go my high point was the last pinch jam. I did the top from the good crimp way out left at the top but I think its too far and I can do it just with the nipple crystal instead. Ben was super close

Two goes on top rope and made a lot of progress. This feels very doable now compared to last time. The first roof is not too bad after all, pinch abd layback instead of jam. Second roof is perfect hands for me, the lip is just a constant grunt fest and is more of a stamina thing than pure technical difficulty. Head wall is just more constant fight and thins out and I think you’d want to just punch through it quickly up to the rest before the third little roof. Final section was surprisingly easy and flows nicely. Strained my shoulder / bicep somewhere on the first go and should have taken it easy and cooked it a bit on the second go

Utterly stoked to second this clean, one of the hardest brawls I've had with a route. The first layback gets you warm quickly. Was able to rest properly this time in the first roof, busted across and then managed to find an almost comfortable full lie down rest with a knee bar holding me in. Pulled the lip expecting to pop and just held on breathing hard and trying to slow down for the rest. Just lay down for 5 mins at the top trying to breath and not dry retch

Rapped into to take some pics and got a nice vid of Michael taking a whipper when a piece popped. Done a lot of jugging today, way more than the I've climbed

Utterly frothing over this! Tried this a bunch over the years - the last time was at least a decade ago. Alan Ezzy worked it out, then Ben Vincent did it smoothly, then I went up with no (or low?) expectations, pulled on easily, forgot to unclip, unclipped mid crux statically, chilled out then moved smoothly through the awkward bit to the top rope. I've been so shut down on this before and I couldn't be happier. Probably should have done it again on lead like the others but stoked regardless.

I was originally going to do the real easy far right zig zag but got a bit sketched by the levitating arch. It seems solid but I definitely won't be putting gear near it. The move onto the slab is interesting but it's over too quick and the grassy ledge section at the top out is not ideal.

Slightly higher high point that last time, much cleaner sequence with less faffing. Sagged at the fist crack. Powered through the rest with a little scream, much easier than trying to be slow and steady. Classic!

This cleaned up fairly nicely into a pure crack problem without the features to the left which we thought would be needed. Could be a couple variants. All over in 2-3 moves but still good fun. Still not sure I'd want to solo boulder it.

Got to about 2/3 and pumped out. Finished with 3 hangs. All the moves are there but it is deceptively steep. A truly superb route and its crazy that routes were done either side decades ago and this gem was just left untouched

Footer blew on scrittle at the start, then got up the flake and traversed to the roof crack and rested. Half did the move through the lip. Pumped silly

The boulder start to this is really cool

Glad Michael made me get back on this, super stoked to get the 3rd bolt on the first go. Worked the top a bit and got the second crux, didn't do the top slab.

Not the best line at the cliff but another worthy line in its own right at the grade

Did the traverse fine and then gassed myself on the mantle. Needed to just get much deeper and palm up and fight a bit more. Don't think my commitment level was the same with time limit and heat. I think I was expecting it to feel a lot easier the second time round.

Fun and flowy, fairly consistent and a great warm up for Innocence in a similar style

Route was naturally a bit dirty again, takes slight bit of shine off. Progress was made. Route is in shade until 10am

Working and aided the moves

I'd forgotten how good this route is, perfect rock, big dyno move (couldn't make it) or alternate left sequence

Really dogged this and had to aid to the last bolt. Surely something has ripped off, the start is great but then getting to the sloper ledge is either a big dyno, or a massive ape span, or off super minging sharp crimps. Second bolt isn't in the best position.

Wow! The chossy start is a little off-putting but this thing is great quality after that. The traverse is good, the roof crack is great, pulling the lip is an utterly sick move getting almost inverted, and the sustained offwidth after that is just plain sickening I laybacked most of the offwidth cause that's how I roll, but it burnt me out, when I finally dragged my arse over top I wanted to chuck. Rope drag was bad, needs lots of long slings.

So good, a couple spicy moves still but its all there

Arvo mission mostly doing support. Bloody hot so mostly hunkered in the shade until dusk when I wasn't belaying. Yoyo lead the first section ok but a bit flash pumped. Traverse wore me down, and the roof just felt totally impossible. Jumared out and then ruined myself hauling gear and belaying Ben up on horrendous drag

Quick lap showing Todd where the line went. The first bit of gear is best with a #4

This one has been on the list for ages and I should have done it years ago, its one of the best routes in the gorge! It climbs well and it's in a top spot

Benji and Ben went earlier and I knocked off mid arvo and trundled up stylishly late. They'd had a solid session and Ben had already cracked the crux which is just sick. Benji had a go at leading up the first slab and roof crack pitch. Apparently they'd had an epic cleaning session and it showed. After Benji retreated I had a go and "flashed" it. The caveat is I had been on this on our very first session here but I had retreated from the sea of choss, loose dinner plates, and since trundled death boulders.

Benji reckons its a legit flash because it's genuinely so different. It actually climbs well with a fun left hip stretching move through the bulge. Apparently there is a cave I need to explore in there which I completely missed.

We'd eye this off while bouldering underneath it so didn't have a great sense of scale and thought it would be mostly offwidth and I was keen due to my hand still not being ready for crimping. It ended up climbing quite nicely, it felt like a small segment of a much larger multi pitch

Steeper than it looks, no jambs just laybacking. Flash pumped and hung, but once you figure out the sweet spots the crux is over way too soon. I got onto the top of the roof after some gardening and there is a big dead tree before you can get to savage amusement. SA needs some big cleanup to finish. Ended up back climbing and I think I did it in better style than the ascent

Naively was psyching myself up for an onsight, totally shut down. Had maybe half a dozen goes, high point was left cup after the constriction, high right fist after that

First time I've been on the 'real' inertia, always been confused by the bolts. This route is quality. Take care to extend gear over the sharper lips to save your rope. Was lightly raining, the cross through move at the lip shut me down and was a bit rushed to spend time working it.

This thing is great. It looks offwidthy but has surprising side pulls and holds all over the place.

A 10 year goal finally attempted! Aided, cleaned out some dirt, worked it and then got it clean on top rope with Ben. Red point will have to wait. Back when I was a bumbly I swore if I did this I'd have to leave, and now I'm leaving so I had to go do it! Was actually a much more interesting sequence than I thought.

We both rapped of in different directions seeing what else was around. Couldn't leave this nice little hand and fist crack undone. We hadn't planned on climbing anything so the only pro we had was a single blue cam - a second cam would have been great. Clipped the jumar on the rap line as a workaround

First go, jammed it all up to the little rooflet which was super pumpy, came down after second rest

Second run, had to clean it and the bottom 4 wires needed a lot of tickling to get out. Rooted.

Rapped off and scrubbed the top, not realising how overhung it was so didn't clean the bottom as much as I could have. Benny scrubbed the right line. Did the first half clean on second and then was pumped silly.

Quick dusk top rope

Toyed with a direct start, should scrub up into something

Benji getting some trad practice. This is a great route to learn trad placements on, bit of spice on the top out