Ascents in Sydney Metropolitan by Paul Frothy Thomson

2nd shot. Fell off AFTER the upper crux on my onsight due to an amateurish foot-slip on an easy move 2nd shot was a cruise, but DAMN its fun. Really nice rock, cool moves, and not too hard at the grade. This would be a classic anywhere, in my opinion.

Almost a classic, but that its essentially about gr24 with a v6+ crux. Night time attempt, 2 shots, awesome second lap but still couldn't link that crux, unfortunately. The rest of the route is great, though.

Repeat attempt -not clean today. Just brushing cleaning, and trying to re-remember the moves on this one.

All thriller, no filler, that's for sure.

Clean repeat. I forgot how much fun the opening dyno was! Once you start the crux on this puppy, it's on for young and old (though over far too quickly).

Clean repeat. Once I'd tidied this one up (it was remarkably unloved) it was tonnes of fun (and great training).

Fell off at the last bolt on my 3rd shot. The final few bolts were wet, and -frankly- I was pumped I kept out of the cave for the raddest (though contrived) send effort.

A proper classique roof, with bloody great rock. The infamous opening boulder isn't harder than V3, so don't be put off by it.

2 more shots, both to the top boulder problem. It wasn't until the end of my 2nd lap, that I really put together the top sequence in a way that suits me. Hopefully next time.

Another really funky, fun route! But, damn that final boulder is gnarly.

2nd shot. On my onsight, I fell off on the last move to the anchors!

Other than the grotty no-hands rest in the middle, this is actually a really fun route. The top roof boulder is greata fun, and super funky.

Clean repeat. Been a long time since I've been on this one, and I was pretty happy just to punch it straight out, given the rather bouldery start (post hold-breakage). Quite good!

Repeat. Basically, 3 mantles, to a no-hands rest, followed by an utterly brutal boulder problem that I'm calling 24. Not a good warmup!

2 shots. A very strange, but really radical route, with a surprising amount of climbing in the first half.

I had a lot of trouble putting together a viable sequence for the traverse crux. When I finally sorted out a repeatable sequence, it felt boss !

Clean repeat. Fun fun fun!

EOD Cool-down (??) repeat attempt. Not clean, but when I remembered my beta, the moves felt fine... and awesome.

Shorter than a bee's dick, but without a single wasted meter.

3 shots (via left hand finale). Felt about 60% sure I'd stick it on the 3rd lap, but it was at that point where the wheels fell off. Awesome, powerful, dynamic roof climbing. Took me a bit to figure out the sequences. Will be back.

Clean repeat. What a brilliant, thuggy warmup. I'd forgotten how good this place is.

4th shot. Struggled with a wet crux after the rain, and it took a couple of laps to sort my beta, but I felt like a boss when it went down. A pumpy juggy start leads to a radical and nutty roof boulder finale, followed by a mantle that is juuuuust hard enough to give you some grief.

2nd shot. A very hard bouldery boulder-problem through the first big roof leads to easier pumpy climbing. I may have struggled to keep my pejoratives under control after sticking the crazy crux move by the skin of my teeth (and the tips of my fingers).

2nd shot. Quite sustained, and the two roofs aren't actually the hardest parts! The first lap took me ages to work out how to get established above the top roof, until I gave up trying to use my feet and just campused 5 moves on slopers... Went down solidly on the 2nd shot with that beta.

2nd shot. Once I tidied this up, this proved to be a cracker of a route. Short and powerful, and with no boring bits.

Exploratory lap on my old bolted line out here (one of the first routes I bolted back in the day!). Still very hard, and a few holds have broken off since I was trying it. Gnarly gnarly bouldering. Crazy to think its 28ish for about 6m of climbing.

Once I stopped trying to be tricky and resigned myself to just muscling my way through the crux this went surprisingly easy. Good value for such a short route.

Its all in the sneaky draw beta. Two totally different ways of climbing the boulder-problem finish, and both are quite challenging. Warm up those fingers.

Kinda demanding. All of the holds are quite good, but this is strangely difficult to link. The all-points dyno start is just the warmup for everything to come. 2 completely opposite ways of doing the crux, and I cant decide which is easier.

2nd shot. A very bouldey (but rad) start, and an extremely challenging finish on some thin grainy crimps, with a rather cruisy middle. Probably harder than "Road to Nowhere".

2nd shot. Good value for money. I can only do the start with an all-points dyno, but the money is the bouldery pocketed finish.

Repeat attempt, not clean today. Sure, it was pouring and conditions were rubbish, but I REALLY struggled with that mantle/pocket crux today.

Repeat attempt, not clean today. Slipped off the moves to the anchor as they were running with water -yes, it was bucketing down.

An interesting and punchy finish, though the dynamic start is not without entertainment value.

2nd shot. Once we'd cleaned the gunk off the route and given it some love, it turned out to be oodles of fun. Huge moves between good holds. Short and powerful.

Tiiiiired. Had a pretty good onsight effort, but had nothing in the tank on my second lap. More super-steepness, with a very demanding power-endurance sloper crux in the middle that is freaking awesome. This place is like The Junkyard meets Spurt Wall!

Psyched! Flash placing draws (but with Lucas' constant beta-stream), an upper-echelon classic that is surprisingly sustained but somehow invites you to keep pushing a move higher through all the steepness. Bullet-hard rock, and a rad variety of moves, to a proper horizontal jugging finish.

Not a good warmup for a face-climber like me An awesome "line of least resistance" wandery adventure covering some nutty terrain. Similar to Fifty Shades of Mount Druitt at the Junkyard, but on better rock. Totally rated it.

3 Investigatory Laps. Finally stuck the first sequence where this branches off Junkyard Dog on the 2nd lap, and thought I was in with a real Send chance on the 3rd lap, but the wheels fell off from weariness, and it all went to hell. Regardless, some great linkage and all the moves sussed. Climbs really well and is quite intense, despite appearances, I enjoyed this. Powerful, slopey and intimidating. Alas, the Junkyard season is over.

Repeat - Clean. Lead-Downclimbed this clean in its entirety after climbing up Negative Funk cleanly, so I'm counting it.

Repeat - Clean. The original and still the best. The bolts are the start are all in the wrong places though... Enjoy the gnarly finale.

Repeat Attempt - Not Clean today. Not sure what was going on here. This became a debacle at the crux as I just couldn't seem to stick the crux boulder, despite having ticked this before. Frustrating. Guess I should've just tried the jump.

Clean Repeat. Headlamp lap at the end of the day for some training. I also managed to "lead-downclimb" 99% of this clean (I slipped on the LAST move back to the ledge!). A fun adventure, that feels less like a sport climb, and more a journey to Bogota.

Inspection Lap. Nails for 3 bolts, then enjoyable punchy jugging. A LOT of wet holds/pockets on this (which was weird, considering we've had no real rain). The opening dyno seems "doable" with some refinement (and less wet pockets), but despite a fair bit of effort I couldn't really sort the move to gain the big jug where the "Feral Kitten" part of this climb starts. Might need some beta.

3 Shots. The 2nd ended 1 move from the jugs when my left hand slipped off the polished micro-slimper, the 1st ended 1 move lower, and the 3rd I didn't even make the big move to the lip. Conditions were not as good as the last time I was on this (the slopers were really slippery today). A great little route with big moves to punish the short, and an awkward finale to wail on the tall.

3rd Red Point Attempt today (10th Redpoint attempt this season, + 3 Equipping laps, + a bunch of laps over the previous 3.5 years). Finally! This epitome of my anti-style goes down after an embarrassingly long siege. The Send with still challenging but solid (and I took a few moments to compose myself on some of the moves, rather than blasting through them like normal), but only happened after I'd decided I'd strip the route after this lap to try something else here. Awesome. Tonnes O' Fun.

EOD Flash attempt. Clean to the "mantle" past the last bolt. Played at the mantle to sort my sequence, then to the top. Should go down next shot or two. Pumpy, juggy, roofy start wears you out just in time for the crux mantle. Short and fun.

5 RP Laps + 1 Equip. I can now do the crux 2.5 times back-to-back-to-back cleanly with minimal rest, but for some reason can't add the easiest moves of the route (the start) into it on a link attempt? This has got to be a mental game now, cause the moves are not feeling hard at all.

EOD attempt. Blew a big move to a sandy sloper (I just grabbed a handful of sand and fell off) on the sequence to gain the upper corner feature on my onsight attempt. Pulled back on and went straight to the top (now that the sand was gone). Probably not 24. Even with the sand, water and mud on the starting moves, and the top feature (this route is seeping somewhat at the moment), it didn't feel 24. Fairly good, aside from the frustrating sand-sloper ruining my onsight.

2nd shot. Blew the onsight on the infamous final move (all the chalk stopped there... Now I understand why!). The send still didn't go easily, even knowing the moves! Despite being short (and chipped), it packs a punch for the grade, features great rock, and the finale is amazing. Classic Gritstone-style slapping.

Surprisingly good. Climbs much better than it looks, and not as blank as you think. Other than the first move, the rock is great, and not overly sandy at all. The start and finish must surely be nails if you're short? Even for me, the final punchy moves are exciting.

Very average climbing the whole way. There's nothing WRONG with the climbing, it's just very ho-hum on coarse rock, and quite ledgy. There are a few redeeming sequences amongst the "meh". I'm ambivalent to this climb.

The initial stemming corner is great, and the upper moves are okay. The entire middle section is sandy, oozy, eroding pox, and I wouldn't recommend this route to anyone.

Punchy and sustained for the grade (despite its short length), but continuously interesting. Great rock and moves. The hard section past the rooflet was a waterfall, but I got through it with some "alternative" holds.

2nding Neil. Super-duper easy (not 18!) but really fun climbing up a solid, choss-free feature that goes all the way to the top of the cliff. The challenge is to see how FAST you can climb it!