Ascents in New Zealand by Troy Kendall

Repeating the classic with Lulu. Super chill, slightly overhung with wild exposure.

Great old school line. Another repeat.

Hadn't being on this in a while. Good fun, gets the stars easily.

Working the route. Made ground up through the crux. Gotta work the top gear section. Definitely harder than 24

Being wanting to try this for a while, but always a bit intimidated by the last pieces of gear to the bolt. Committed to the Onsight, got through the first crux traversing onto the hanging face, fell pulling through the crux. Those pockets are shallow and non existent 😂

Balancy slaby goodness

Did half the climb, turned out I had no small gear and didn’t want to deck on the ledge going into the crux. Fun times down climbing 15m.

Splitter cracks start. Pretty difficult jams in terms of getting friction. Pretty stoked to get the onsight on this one as I had being saving it for an onsight attempt

Great climbing on incredible granite. Only a light rack needed.

Mega classic route! Has everything! Lots of jamming, steep techy face climbing, runout slabs, sharp aretes, finalising in a steep hand crack which leads to a overhanging jug haul. So epic! Split up the crux pitches. Both were such classic pitches and so different!

Crux move is actually knarly. The name refers to modern bouldeering I'd expect. Fun line!

Showing ol John the splitter crack. He reckons one of the best cracks he has climbed since Yosemite days.

Cool layback crack. Great gear

Mint bold climb. Sick crack up first pitch leads to a bold runout. Second pitch is amazing, awesome techy face climbing. Third pitch is an alpine adventure (no joke).

Super sweet route! Few lil cruxs. Keen to hop on the 2nd pitch at some point.

Awesome fun runout route. Third pitch was soaking wet.

Warmup. Sandbagged fun.

FFA. Superb rock quality! One of the only climbs in NZ where I've actually had to jam to do moves. Good stuff!

Tried first pitch. Fair bit sandbagged, plugged gear up to the crux. Couldn’t figure out the overhanging off width.

I can’t offwidth climb to save someone

Great line. First pitch, bit of spacing between gear but easy climbing. Second pitch easy climbing on gear up to roof. Clip bolt on roof and pull over (crux). Third pitch, place gear up to first bolt, then run it out on the jugs 5 bolts (35m) with optional pro in between - though it is very pleasantly run out that it’s not needed. Great climb!

Such a wicked route! Goes from a hugely exposed scramble for about 45min along the ridge to the base of the climb, starts up a grade 12. Finishes on a 20. One of New Zealand’s classics!

Good lead, solid jams at points. Sharp rock.

Another classic route. Goes up overhang across a flake into a sorta chimney. Would say this one is around 16. Great fun !

An overhang on a 13 with jugs on trad and good gear?! What more could you ask for! Though it is old school and very airy, would say it’s more round 15.

Old school sandbag. Is great fun. Expect a beached whale mantle

Crack is awesome for New Zealand standards. The rest, not so good

Double foot jam to small hold up onto the flake

Just one hard move really

Good climb

Tricky boulderery start to a beautiful face climb into a ‘beached whale’ mantle

Another climb up the tombstone. Never gets olds! Good jamming!

Fun climb! More pumpy on calves than anything

Good climb! Took a few whips on the crux but managed to get it in the end! Solid hand jams and ring locks

Good trad route, steep at the crux, requires a bit of bridging and chimneying

Pretty awesome climb! However, one of the most vital hand/footholds is coming lose and could potentially create an injury, so my proposed grade for this climb without this hold would actually be about an 18. Without the hold, protection is pretty dam hard to get in as there is 0 rests for about 2 1/2-3 metres. Though awesome climb! bridging, stemming, smearing, layback!

Fun climb, probably some of New Zealands best cracks are here at mount sommers!

Fun trad route

Easy trad warm-up

More fun on gear, don't top rope. Takes away the fun.