Ascents of Stainless Anticlimb

Aid is fucking hard. The potential for the first confirmed A5 route was always in the back of our minds with manky carrots and weird homemade bolt plates littering the route(???)

I think I may have doomed us by saying “those aren’t rain clouds, are they?” on the drive in.

They were.

Approach was okay, but god damn the descent down the tourist track was spicy. One handed bum sliding down wet rock while the other hand was holding my phone flashlight. (Why tf would I need to pack a head torch, we’re only starting at midday).

Seemed like we both found our rhythms in the final third of our jumaring/leading - so I guess next time (?) will be a bit smoother.

Highlight was throwing for a hook move (???!!?). Hit a radical black streak of slimy sludge with zero friction and realised only way up was to pull out the old sky hook. Realising that there was no chance it’d hold on the slime, I had to stand on a slippery wet carrot and throw out max span right to get a jug to hook on. Couldn’t weight it sideways so had to basically jump right to weight it. Talk about engaging.

Definitely type 2 fun. Might do again. Maybe.

Late start, benighted, and rained on.

Unprepared gumbies learn how to aid climb on old carrots. Pros of long BRs? They're super easy to clean because you can slide the plate off while the draw is still attached! Managed with 7 bolt plates and ~25 draws without needing to lower to back clean. Couple of easy skyhook moves get the heart rate up.

Rained the whole walk off, 1/2 head torches, unavoidable victory slide at the base of the mountain, KFC.

My first attempt at aid climbing. Got the first 2 pitches done, but ran out of time for the rest. I'll be back!

Brutal Connie's. Glad I was tall for the roofs, a regular panic was fine no need for the clips tick. Good day out with Dan prepping for Ozy.

Lap of the bolt route in prep for buffalo Around 6 and a half hours Linked pitches 1 and 2 And Sam pretty much soloed the roof so I could lower out and save time cleaning Sun was brutal

Waved 2022 goodbye from the top of pitch 2

Up to top of second pitch, first ever aid lead. Forgot bolt plates, slings over the carrots and clipped the ring bolts on the sport route when they were close enough. Fantastic morning out

Did my first jugging, following Russ up the first two pitches with a plan to check out the roof pitches and return in future.

Just climbed up to 2nd pitch set the ledge up for the night standard events 1000 tourist asking how we got the rope up or if we free soloed it like the movie approach up n down is horrible with ledges n haul bags haha

Only had the arvo, rapped after two pitches. Amazing position!

Just did the first 2 pitches to keep me busy with the busted pulley. The Glue-ins raise confidence, and the stick clip was not necessary, although I did just free a few sections to speed things up

I did the first three pitches yesterday and had my ledge set up underneath the roof and spend the night there. First proper aid solo experience and soo much fun. Cleaning the roof was a bit interesting. Toped out this morning after I lowered haulbag and ledge to the ground. To the question if you need a stick clip. The 9th bolt on the first pitch is missing (I think that is the one witch popped). If you do a high step and maybe one free move it's still possible, but safer and easier is to clip the next bolt with the a stick (cheating). To do the scramble up and down with all that gear was a mission it self and felt nearlie harder the the actual climb. I had great 24 hours out. Thanks so much for putting up this climb.

Our first aid experience. The trip was ill fated the moment Ben failed to put down a bomber #2 at the base, although we remained optimistic. Fast forward 6 hours, including an enjoyable 3 hour hanging belay and we found ourselves at the top of pitch 2. The speed record was long gone, Ben had lost all feeling in both legs and we both had slight delerium from lack of blood flow in the belays. We decided to retreat, although our short memories should see us back for the send in the coming weeks. Potential regrade to A5 for dangers of suspension trauma.

Just pitch 1 and 2, of which I lead both in a single 60m pitch. Slept the night on the ledge and decided to bail the next day because of the impending weather forecast (thunderstorms). Lugging all our crap up and down tourist track sucked. A bolt popped while my seconder was jugging pitch 2.

Linked 1+2, 3+4 (70m lead, 60m rap line) First go with SP+ alfifi combo. Hosed myself- almost stuck the rope (twists) from the big lower out under the first roof, under the second roof; jammed ascendeder into biner, dropped ladder in the kerfuffle then did a sketchy mini-lower out off a carrot(again).

Goes stickless, but I wouldn't want to be a shorty for the clip under the second roof or the first move past the lip. Few non-sequential hook moves - only used big bd hook, all hook placements bomber (for this rock anyway). Didn't damage a rope this time. Approx 6 hrs Carpark to scramble above climb. 5am start, need more coffee next time.

Start delayed by rain and struggled up the wet slab with all the gear First two pitches linked, few single hook moves. Why are there so many carrots on this section?

P3 (the first roof, also my first aid roof) took ages, and wasnt keen to back clean heavily enough and needed to re aid parts to clean after lower out.

Started p4 at sunset and made it to the second roof, unfortunately the highest bolt on the face has ripped and I hadn't brought the clipstick on lead. Retreated to the belay and fixed ropes to the ground.

Finished the following day- only clipped past the missing bolt and the move above the second roof. Found significant sheath damage on my low stretch line, probably from the second roof or flipping it over one of the home made hangers, having used a rope protector on the lead line only.

Lovely little adventure, so much more to learn. Paragliders and parachutists made up for the sound of dirt bikes.

Not too sure about aid grades but probably C2 for the few hook moves, currently mandatory cheatstick (EDIT: apparently not if you're not a short arse and you sack up).

Only to the roof for portaledge overnighter

Only to the top of pitch 2. First time lead/aid soloing. Was a great experienced.

I lead pitch 1 and 3, Epic Steve lead pitches 2 and 4.

Very fun Bit scary trusting the 1/4 carrots but they were bomber broke it into 5 pitches

Epic day

Only the first pitch to retrieve my gear from the day before

Epic day out that got made epic-er by a mixture of poor planning, and psychedness! Got to the top of P2 at 4:30pm, and faced with the fact of if we continued, there'd be no turning back, we opted to go for it What we didn't know is that it'd get freezing and that freak winds would come to throw us off Swinging on etriers through the roofs, un-usable numb fingers, frozen bodies, bolt plates getting pinged off by the wind-carried rope, and nightime summit views were all part of the fun

Very happy to top this out with Scotty for our first ever aid route. Epic climbing with the final two pitches upping the level of awesome and exposure. I extended P1 up to the anchors for 'Stainless Climb p1' then Scotty lead the remainder of P2. Shared a single port-a-ledge overnight while staring at the mega roof, then started around 6am and pushed through the final two pitches to top-out around 10am. Seriously cool aidventure and not nearly as scary as I pictured!

First pitch only, really just a recon trip. Plenty of shiny steel and just enough hook/rusty piton moves to make it interesting. Looking forward to doing the whole thing when it cools down a bit!

Jugged parts only, just put it in the tick list so i wouldn't forget the "Mad Hatters Tea Party"

with shaw, ive now led pitch 1,2, and 4, took 12 hours

Not sure about date, completed the climb with Pete. I led the first overhang. 27/11/04: With Pete & Devaki. Only up to the overhang. Got off the mountain at 10pm.

With Pete & Devaki. Only up to the overhang. Got off the mountain at 10pm.

12 hours car to car. Lead the 1st and 3rd (main roof) pitches.

did the whole thing in 2 hours 9 as part of enchainment. Also 5.8.01

Epic! 12 hours, doing last pitch and walk down in the dark. Very memorable.