Ascents in New South Wales and ACT as Onsight by Paul Frothy Thomson

Short'n'sweet. Went direct through the small roof at the start to gain the line of the bolts (rather than heading out right, and traversing in via the corner).

When climbed this way, it's quite sustained the whole way, with lots of interesting thin moves.

Not as nice at its lefthand neighbour, but it does feature a super-rad step-across move to make it all worthwhile.

Nice rock, and fairly sustained. This was definitely a challenging introduction to bombo (and I may have almost fallen off at one point).

Backlogging. I did this one last year, not sure why I didn't log the ascent. Easy when you know the moves, nails if don't. Super exposed.

Short and sweet. Nice and clean for a Gorge crack. I only had 1 cam that fit the crack, so I walked it up the entire way.

A great warmup if you like steep jamming. More involved climbing than you'd expect from the ground. Great rock, and kinda intimidating.

It felt about gr23 for the Onsight to me, sans jammies or tape -the crux was too wide for me to jam, and too tight to fist properly- so maybe 22 for the redpoint or with jammies?

I used 0.5, 0.75, 2 x 2, 2 x 3.

Other than the sandy corner start, this is my favourite route of this little crag.

A bit broken up, but funky sequences between mega rests, and on mostly good rock. Could use more cleaning.

Felt right at the grade (22) but for a move higher up which was surely gr23.

Climbed as a single pitch from the ground -no drag whatsoever with a couple of doubled draws.

Pumpy, but bang on at the grade. Could use more cleaning.

Climbed as a giant pitch from the ground. Rope drag was fine.

Some cool moves, a bit of exposure, a few small runouts, and a mixed bag of rock... great fun, really!

The start might go free, but would probably be better starting out left and traversing in to the first bolt, or from the right (up the corner) and coming back left.

The interim anchor is stupid, and just kind of ruins the flow of the route. As others have said, I suspect it exists to avoid the crux of the route. It adds about a grade to bypass it. If an interim anchor is necessary, put it on the ledge below the roof.

Better (and less contrived) than I was expecting. Looks dull, climbs well! Has a surprising number of demanding and classy moves at the grade.

The original version, before it's "reimagining" -replete with Batman Start, and missing upper bolt. Good rock, needed some more love.

23 going on 21? Even in alpine, frozen-finger conditions and absent chalk, this seemed quite easy. Short but pleasant face-climbing with a few thin moves.

Was pretty chuffed to punch this out as a warmup, with the route unchalked.

The money pitch is short, and the rock is variable (though mostly quite good) but it's very sustained and insecure, and an excellent technical crack-climbing test-piece. In a few moments of desperation, I began using face-holds that would be called bad footers any other day of the week... I'm sure there's better beta

Linked both pitches. The start is quite dangerous and on very average rock. There is a nice section of steep scoops following this, but the upper section is dull climbing with a deathy runout. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, really.

Im giving this classic even with some shitty bolting, and dusty holds. Very Arapilean, asit wanders around between gear, holds, and brackets (only the first bolt off the ground is a carrot) on classy bum rock. This is probably the only route I genuinely enjoyed here.

I used a 0.5 and 2 cam.

With a few long runners, rope drag was not a problem on a single rope.

Very unlikely novelty traversing, but the carrots are garbage (at stupid angles to the rock, and unfiled heads makes getting plates on a nightmare) and getting to the first bolt is death.

I was on this for a loooong time on the onsight, struggling to find the holds/line on an untrafficked and weird route.

Bring a 0.5 and 0.4 cam for the first half.

A few okay moves up a thin orange face, but consistently snappy rock, and pretty sketchy equipping. Not recommended.

I used a 2 and 0.4 cam in the initial corner, and a 3 to back up a crappy bolt higher up.

Ground-up FA. An obvious series of linked corner features. P3 is the money -a longer, more exposed, but chossier version of Catch the Wind- though the FA version of P4 (through the roof) is pretty wild on gear. Unfortunately, P2 was a waterfall, so I had to climb the face next to it (which was kind of dangerous) but when dry, the corner should be easier and safer.

Pretty stoked with the onsight given the (obvious) lack of wear/traffic and dirty holds after the recent deluge.

Linked both pitches into a giant 45m pitch from the ground. I don't necessarily recommend this unless you use 2 ropes, or pull up and drop the rope (for a clean run of rope) at the end of P1, as the rope drag was horrible.

A very old school, wandery, cryptic, and intimidating line. P1 starts inauspiciously, but ends with some pretty hard slabbing a long way above a carrot. P2 features some heart-stopping climbing to gain the arete, turn it, and continue up the slab on the other side before finally getting another carrot. Both pitches were good fun if you like the style, but P2 proved gripping enough to be memorable, and I'll readily admit that I was a bit freaked.

Backlogging due to my previous logged tick being lost by TheCrag.

Pretty chuffed with this onsight at the end of the day, because this route was obviously unchalked, untrafficked, and a touch unloved.

Good, balancy arete climbing. More scary than hard (due to the bolt position). Definitely only gr24.

Climbed as a giant 50m single pitch from the ground, because I couldn't be bothered rebelaying P1 was onsight from the 3rd bolt up. Good climbing on all pitches, though snappy rock (especially due to lack of traffic) demanded some delicate climbing -though I don't think I broke anything off.

The climbing is upper echelon "Very Good", but the bolting is so unceasingly garbage that I can't give this better than "Good".

P2 was quite sustained, with consistently rad moves up the arete (and a funky gritstone finale) but seemed rather easy at the grade (though I can see it being nails if you're short). Regardless, I was pretty stoked to onsight it in good style.

The crux of the day were the moves to the 2nd bolt on P3, which was a solid V4 for me. I'm wondering if the recent storms have caused the block you start on to slide down the ledge, or whether perhaps there used to be a cairn there? I'm keen to hear others' opinions who repeat this after me.

Most pitches were good. The crazy roof on P5 was super unlikely, and the spine chiller traverse was great!

Regarding my criticism of the bolting:

• Runouts with near constant ledgefall potential.

• Terrible bolt placements -over-recessed (biner snappers) and constantly out of reach even at my height.

• Irrational belay stances -Bolts too high, or far too low, or a hanging belay instead of on a big ledge?

Prospective multipitch new routers should climb this if only to learn what not to do.

The upper corner is brilliant... the rest is an emphatic "meh".

More interesting and continuous than it looks. The upper flake sequence is convoluted in a rad way.

Pumpy! I was glad to get to the flake for a bit of a breather after all those thin moves.

Some cool moves through the middle.

My favourite warmup here. Starts inauspiciously, but the pump keeps building all the way to the anchors. An amazing finale.

Sweet! Almost a classic! The lower slab is old-school and kinda intimidating, and the steepening upper section is hard and improbable. The rock is awesome. Might be 23?

Yiew!

Gets progressively harder all the way, and I had to delve deep into the bag of tricks to stick the top with no beta.

Not as good as the other routes here.

The finale is brilliant, and way easier than it looks despite some rather outrageous steepness. Exciting on the onsight with no chalk on the top half of this.

Probably only 24?

Full disclosure: not a true onsight, as a I broke a wet jug off on the headwall before I could actually clip the anchor. But, whatever.

Some sections of cool 3D climbing, with a mingen crimp crux! The damp anchor clip wasn't too big a deal.

Cool! had to try pretty hard for a few moves, and thought I was off at the top for sure. Essentially: 3 boulder problems of increasing difficulty, separated by good stances. The middle boulder proved particularly tough and committing with a curious complete lack of chalk on it.

Surprisingly good! Would be classic but for an utterly disgusting exit pitch.

P2 has a nails start, then becomes great laybacking and bottomless chimneying. P3 has a beautiful narrow-corner crack followed by a very rad (but kinda weird) bolted slab that I was working proper hard to onsight. P4 is a blight on the landscape... but at least its short!

Therr is a certain archetype of traddy climber in the blueys that NEEDS to get on this - hugh sutherland I'm looking at you!

Surprisingly good! Climbs like a harder version of P2 of Catch the Wind, on great rock, and with funky moves to negotiate the steepness. It also isn't too hard for the grade (especially considering how sandbagged trad routes at this grade often are), and was just tonnes of improbable fun to climb. With a touch more traffic (and an exit pitch) this should be a Tradsters trade route.

Sustained thin face climbing, but not too hard at the grade. Despite looking impossible from the ground, it's all there at a reasonable difficulty.

A tad crunchy, but really pleasant moves. Seemed rather easy at the grade, but I have no idea how to grade anymore.

A few hard crimps near the top.

Better than it looks. The rock is consistently average, but the climbing is consistently fun and engaging, with plenty of rests throughout. The bouldery start wasn't too bad, and the surprisingly steep upper section is quite juggy.

Not spectacular. The moves are okay (though this is quite sandbagged at the grade!) but the rock isn't great, it was more spiderweb than sandstone, totally unchalked, and super-duper squeezy due to the surrounding routes. Kinda stop-start as well.

Sweet. Had to try rather hard for a few moves to pull this one off. Short, but powerful, and surprisingly sustained. Very, very slopey.