Ascents in New South Wales and ACT by Roger Austin

Led the 3rd pitch, which felt quite pumpy and was fun enough bar the grovelling dirt mantleshelf finish. The first pitch had a hard, reachy crux - harder than any move on Subliminal - although perhaps we were just beefed at the end of a 37-degree day. Hamish took it into his head to combine pitches one and two - don't go there. Worthwhile, but with more than its fair share of crap bits for a route on such a good wall.

Led the main pitch. Excellent, fun climbing but can't quite rate it as Mega-Classic because of the rather arbitrary first pitch and because it has just a bit too much of that boulder-problems-between-ledges style which can get rather tiresome. The belays and pitch combinations around here could do with a bit of rationalisation. Doing a 70m pitch from the Central (Castaway) belay, as recommended by others, makes good sense - those with shorter ropes can take the Sojourn belay option and still need do only one more pitch to the top. The Subliminal first pitch is a bit of a giggle but the only hard bit would make a good alternate start to Castaway.

Very enjoyable outing, particularly via the Cynics United first pitch. Nicely sustained with a couple of intimidating-but-actually-ok sections at the start of the 2nd and 3rd pitches. Led the 1st and 3/4th pitches.

I'm going to bump my rating to Classic, simply because it has consistent quality climbing that flows really nicely. Makes a great warm-up as it has nothing tweaky and raises a good flash pump.

Well, wasn't that just something! An impressive and compelling natural line to be sure. I found the climbing grueling rather than enjoyable, but that is probably just sour grapes, having taken several flyers off the greasy thin-hands crux, slipped out of a wide, wet section further up and finally run out of big gear well below the belay (despite leap-frogging for all I was worth) necessitating various shenanigans including lowering off a small spike to retrieve a suitably-sized cam. After taping my wounds from the lower pitch I struggled mightily to second the top pitch clean, only to topple ignominiously backwards off the final mantleshelf :-( For wimps like myself you could easily add another #1, #2 and 2*#3 cams to Paul's ideal rack. To follow up Paul's comparison with the 'other' multi-pitch gr25 trad classic, Samarkand, I would happily climb the latter again, but I think only a pair of crack gloves would lure me back for another round with the mighty Echo Crack

Seven shades of awesome! Bob McMahon's account of the first (aid) ascent had us fully psyched for an epic adventure but, as other commentators have said, the free version is now a well-protected and mostly solid exercise in steep, intimidating and superbly-positioned trad climbing. Led the even pitches with a rest at the P2 crux and seconded the odd pitches clean. Didn't bother with the top pitch. Thoroughly recommended.

Punchy, brutal little test of your jamming chops. Climbed EOD and had to step it up a gear to avoid embarassment.

Sport version of TotT which itself is a retroed version of the original. The funky top is still the best and hardest bit.

Fantastic but not really on-sightable for me at my current level of fitness. The tone was set when I greased off the first hard move and then I ran out of steam part way through the second hard section. Solid E4 6a in old money.

This is a great natural line at a sustained grade that goes the full height of the biggest and best cliff on the upper tier. What's not to like? I even enjoyed the chicken-wing moves - and I don't say that very often.

Very pleasant. Took a careless fall when I misjudged the distance to a crucial pocket.

This thing had the hardest move of the day, moving around the arête into a wet corner. Maybe I missed something (like the pocket with the lurking spider). The rest was ok, I suppose.

Desperate, spoogy, scary, pumpy, exciting, worthwhile. Thanks for the permadraws.

Had a bit of a pumper brain fart pulling over the roof and headed off to the bolt on Jungle Love, just failed to clip it, and took a wild swing into space. The correct route was easier but still pretty tough overall.

Better, safer and not notably harder than Cafe Cruiser. A bit spoogy at mid height.

Lots of good moves

Very good if you like this sort of thing. Which I do. Having Donald's clips in place made it flow nicely.

Sharp. Reachy. Blew the onsight by attempting to campus the chicken-head crimp. Much easier when I used my feet.

Fun V4 sequence past a large manufactured hold to a grade 21 warm-down. Good but certainly not great.

This is really two excellent and independent routes that share a name and finish one above the other. Led the odd pitches (combining 5 & 6). The desperate little traverse on P2 just squeaks it to grade 24 overall and was quite unnerving to second with 30m of rope above and the ledge just below. There is an optional belay at 10m on this pitch which would suit a nervous second. Annoyed to fall on P3 when I misread a move and pumped off some crimps. Overall a stunning route with the first 3 pitches being the meat of it.

Blew the onsight by trying to follow the guidebook crimp-dyno beta. A big rockover-reach did the trick on the second attempt, but only just. Lots of fun climbing before and after the hard bit.

Nicely sustained. Harder than Nice Vice Baby. Good second warm-up.

Lots and lots of thought-provoking quality climbing. I found the initial traverse a bit turf and it was pretty intense for the rest of the first 'pitch', easing to a gentle stroll before an exciting and entertaining finale.

More like leg'o'lamb today - a bit hot and greasy but full of tasty goodness.

The second stage boosters failed to fire and I dropped into parking orbit below the crux. After a brief pause to recalibrate the on-board attitude control system, I achieved geosynchronous orbit above La-La Land. With the solar radiation rising rapidly I decided to abort the mission for fear of burning up on re-entry. Will be back for another go if a suitable launch window presents itself.

Got to the crux with some juice still in the tank but then shut down completely. Even yarding past using the draw felt hard. In hindsight, I didn't apply Jamie's finger-lock beta correctly, but I doubt it would have made a difference. After that, I lost motivation and nerve and rested my way to the top. Will take a while to summon up enthusiasm for another shot.

An ideal warm-up

Got my EOD pump on and fell off on the last move before the anchors. Very good climbing, tricky and pumpy by turns. Should have worked the rests better.

Rushed the pumpy bit and fell off. Dogged the big undercut move. Grabbed the second bolt above the ledge to avoid a potential ankle-breaker. Did a few more moves with increasing rope drag caused by incompetent ropework. Threw in the towel. Would be much more enjoyable with a DBB at the ledge for re-threading or just doing the bottom half (preferably placed high enough to yard up and clip the next bolt to avoid the ankle-breaker). There are in-situ screwgates on the 2nd and 3rd bolts above the ledge that might have been left for this purpose (but then why not put them on the 1st and 2nd bolts?). Might try it again if I can work up enough enthusiasm.

Simply awesome. Milked the kneebar and handjam rests until they squeaked and managed to keep it together for the final few lunges to the anchors. Now I feel inspired to try The Way of All Flesh again

Mantle? What mantle? Lots of other good climbing - the easy bit; the intense bit; the pumpy bit; the mantle-that-wasn't.

Varied and fun. Only the large ledge below the headwall prevents it being a Classic.

A bit brutal for a warm-up.

I thought this was very worthwhile. Thin to start and sustained all the way up. Would have been "bold old skool 80's climbing" on carrots but speaking as a timid old skool 80's climber I felt pretty happy with 7 shiny ring bolts.

Fun. Bolts and wire to lower off.

Good, fingery climbing up a slightly eliminate line. Skipped the higher carrots in favour of a few of Matt's shiny new hexes to keep it real

Matt demonstrated that you can protect this pretty well if you take the time to look around for placements.

As fine a piece of engineering as any in Sydney . Quite tough (a full grade harder than S&T) and would be harder still for those of less than regulation height.

At last! 3rd day on (over 3 years). 5th shot overall. A great, sustained sequence requiring finger strength, accurate movement and a not a little commitment. Thanks to Libby and Sean.

OK, I suppose.

Repeat to retrieve a tangled rope on War and Peace. Both better and harder than I remember.