Ascents in Old Baldy

An absolutely epic line! Mental crux was definitely the cavey bit at the top of P1, which ange crushed through on lead. Had my own little spicy moment on one of the overhangs later on. So good watching the sunset from the top, managed to make our way down the overgrown gully without having the cops called 😛

An epic climb, super fun going around the rooflet when starting P2

Amazing first pitch. Lower off rings, top pitch is choss anyways

Such an awesome route and position. Charging to the top of old baldy blind had a feeling of old school adventure with the benefits of modern protection. The overhung crack and dihedral sections were great.

Access via Secret Swinger. The scramble up the left side of pedestal is a touch sketchy. Linked climb into 2 pitches. Tree anchors at the top are no longer usable, save some gear to build an anchor. The rap off stiletto gets you down to the base of the pedestal avoiding the dodgy down climb.

First pitch only

And again as a single pitch to access Scimitar

Epic views over the wolgan with a spicy chimney

Favourite line of the long weekend, big move through cave and sweet face crack

Did the crack start not on top of the pedestal. Went into the climb blind. Did it in 4 pitches. Megafun with some terrifying moments in between. Accessed upper cliff via Ghoul

Couple of holds came off close to the crux so had to have a sit and re-evaluate my life choices

Such an amazing line! Ran out of gogo juice at the top of pitch 4. Covid sucks!

Late start so just did first pitch. Awesome climbing! Don't expect a modern 14

Absolutely superb. Links 4 or so really interesting features, all-out crack warfare. So good.

Unreal, really stellar jam line.

Overhung fist crack chimney... Grade 14... Pick one 😂 Explosive choss wrestling at its finest down low followed by a bomber groove, take a 4 or 5 and some 1970's style chimney grunting skills.

Probably a classic of the genre, giving it three stars idgaf

Excellent! Stunning and airy with a couple of stiff moves for the grade. Trees at the top are all burnt out – had to anchor off the only solid tree 15m from the edge, so watch your rope length on the last pitch!

A fitting and enjoyable first climb in the Wolgan for a student following his teacher's footsteps Marty Doolan and a great way to access the upper cliff of Old Baldy. Great climbing through the second pitch.

Ripper of a climb, second pitch is siiick and the positioning is amazing. Good rock and gear but still a couple committing sections.

climbed in one pitch, quite sandy and below average rock. Didn't enjoy it that much, worth it for the upper cliff though! Rappel was approximately 52m

Great to get back to the Wolgan and finally do this. A mega classic in every sense. Amazing position, engaging climbing the whole way, with just a few tricky sections. Great gear the whole way. Linked pitches 1&2. Climbed it with a single 60m & a pull cord to rap off, but had some issues getting the rope knot over the edge at the top.

What a spectacular climb and position. I don't regret going up, even if it meant topping out at 7pm Earlier start next time though!

Was pretty tired and just aiming to make it up by pulling on things at various points, could definitely do it cleaner, except the little offwidth/face climbing bit near the top of pitch 4, which I found very difficult even after bailing back to the anchor and letting Dick lead it. May have just been exhaustion, not sure.

Think I remember resting in a #3 section in the interests of saving energy. The first part of P2 is pretty sketchy rock & gear but fortunately it's easy jugs to get out of the cave. Used the right hand small crack for "pitch 3" which I guess everyone does now. Somehow it's good despite being dirty and crumbly in many places.

Adventure climbing at its finest.

The hike in to the base of Old Baldy is hard, there's so much overgrowth. Download the GPX file to your phone (see Approach)!

We climbed Secret Swinger to get to the ledge, and went around and up the pedestal on the right side (easier scramble). Started the climb by 2.45pm. In hindsight we should've bailed, but the 'fuck it we're here now, we got this' mentality prevailed.

Linked P1+P2 in a sublime long pitch, I loved every bit of it! So. Good! Beautiful jams, and getting over the roof was such a joy.

We slowed down a fair bit on P3 and P4, we were both pretty worn out from an intense weekend of adventure climbing. There's an unprotected offwidth on P4, only for a few moves, but it still got to me. Took a take to mentally prepare for it. Felt really good pushing through eventually. Topped out at 7pm.

Did the two raps back to the ledge, and thanks to GPS and Josephine Roper 's wicked night vision managed to find the Secret Swinger rap point in pitch black. Bush bashed our way back to camp in the shortest shortcut ever, 35min (over a 45min approach in the morning). Back at the car at 9pm (edit: 10pm). Wrecked. What a day. Mostly type 1 fun, the bits in the dark were type 2. A great day out.