Ascents in Upper Gara Gorge by Ben Vincent

Holy smokes. Cooked. 'Aided' the shit out of this. Will have to either get younger or do some proper training for this. Very inspiring!

What a beauty. Skippy has outdone himself here. A fine line with plenty of interest. Plenty of prawning action and forgot to unclip my first draw. But the psych was high. Another Fortress classic!

a little less clean than it's little sibling below, but high quality and very unique! Great to get up the pair on a tight timeframe!

After a few failed starts I tried something new and got going. A really surprising route that has a bit of everything. Classic find Skippy!

Wow, what a route. Three distinct sections of different styles. I was trying pretty hard for the onsight and went home with a dog. Spent an age chalking up a spoogey key hold and gave it my best. Great job Skippy, an instant Gara Classic

Fun climbing with a punchy start. The challenge set is to establish a direct start and eliminate the current 2m rest from the ground.

What a bottler of a boulder. Amazing how often you walk past a potential classic. A great battle for the end of the day, providing plenty of laughs and a little bit of spew.

A little more prepped than it’s neighbour. Classic Gara crimps with a fun finish!

A punchy, short and sharp number. Was please when enough stayed on to get the send. Really needs some key holds glued if it is to last.

Phwoar. Maybe. Skippy got super close. Great Castle Hill training!

Love the start sequence

A funky number!

A real gem. Gets going from the get-go.

Sick. Can’t believe it took me so long to get on this!

Got this clean on TR but was initially reluctant to unclip my only directional draw to top out. Did so anyway after a wee pause. Gonna be another quality route at the Runway

A short but really good unsuspecting independent climb with three distinct sections in the coolest of places.

As hard and as sharp as nails. I thought I’d get back into it pretty quickly but turns out I had to relearn the beta…it was coming back to me by the end. Good to get gear placements sorted.

got a couple of laps in on this number under headlamp in the dark. Some frogs and a massive tape worm snapping at small insects on the water surface kept us entertained inbetween shots.

All the overhanging, off-witdth crack training you need. Such a burly struggle from the sit start. Reached my high point again above the lip but couldn't get my feet on anything useful to finish....another heartbreak

Surprised to grovel my way up this again. Love a good grovel.

Seemed to go much easier this session than I remember.

a fun tricksy number

Fun times. A total Skippy thing to do.

Believe the hype. A stellar line in an unsuspecting but stunning location. A gara classic. Nice job fellas.

This thing is gold! I remeber looking up at it 5 or 6 years ago thinking I should get on it one day....that day finally arrived. Sorted the crux on my first shot and had enough juice to get through it on my second. Great route Michael!

A very nice, high quality line! After a long hiatus I was fortunate enough to milk the rest and find some endurance.

...had to relive it.

Nope. A little too optimistic for this time of the night. Needed Nathan at hand to recall how this went.

Nice head jam

Phwoar. Tough. Volo and I may've gotten a little too excited. Meanwhile while Michael and Skippy were discovering a classic.

Starts a little chossy but improves a little higher. Shoulda topped it out.... :-/

Great climb, awesome crew, spectacular setting. I sat down again pretty quickly after trying to pull on to this for the first time. very stepe and not much to hold onto. Funny how these things evolve though. Got up it with some technical toe scumming. Gotta love a good toe scum ;-)

Spiders just keeps on giving

short but fun

...if your're here anyway

a few options down here and a bit too dark/pumped to complete any of them.