Ascents in The Point as trad by John Pitcairn

Rope soloed on a shunt and backup knots after an epic hot cleaning session. Still a bit gritty yet, needs some rain. Gonna be good to lead, might be 19.

Back to get it, a hell of a fight. Suckers you by starting easy then getting slowly harder until you're packed into a strenuous jam/undercling with very high feet out at the crux. The step around/down (maybe there is another option here) to the vertical crack needed a lot of willpower, then took an age to protect it while wrecked. The "trad belay" seems dodgy due to a hollow sounding block and limited options, kept going to anchors with solid rope drag, belayed with poor comms. Harder than Hecklers I reckon, need more opinions.

Nice line, could use a brush.

Out here for urgent track safety work. Great long route, let down by a dirty top third (take a brush). Lowered Jonno then brought G up, time flew by.

I still bloody love this even after a visit to Arapiles. Still clean enough. Scrape the thin crack out a little for gear at the crux.

This is so good. Took quite an effort after no climbing for 2 months. A clean of the right face would help find more rests.

Always good. Still pretty clean, present me thanks past me.

Bloody great. Right face could really use a scrub. Gareth seconded clean, good effort. We could see and hear Katie and Joe up at the crux on the Odyssey.

Sun broke out halfway which prompted quite a speedup. Staying clean enough, though you'll always have to dig out the thin crack a little around the crux.

Lugged the trad gear out, warmup. Crack pretty clean.

Gareth pruned on lead and it's now looking a lot less vegetated. Really quite cool 3D climbing, reminiscent of Kestrel at Arapiles, but less plentiful protection and some fragile rock in places. A really good exercise in gear/rope-drag management, and perhaps an acquired taste, but I still rate it as a good long thinking trad lead.

Superb climbing, bomber jams, plenty of no-hands rests if you look for them. Started to rain just after Gareth began seconding. Lowered him, waited it out with raincoat, pulled a second rope up and rap-cleaned it by down-jammimg with one hand (RH face a bit wet and mossy). Sloped off back to camp through wet bush.

Needs a bit of a garden again, probably once a year.

Absorbing traverse with good gear. Took a sit before the crux to sort my head out, then committed to the high compressed undercling moves. Getting gear in around the corner had me going a bit after that. Top pitch is maybe a bit stiff for 16, in the same way High Hopes is. Ran both pitches together with acceptable drag, but resulted in poor communication.

Wow. I forgot how good this is. Lichen on the RH face doesn't detract much (but could use a clean), bomber and plentiful gear, really fun crux jam sequence above the roof. We were both absolutely fizzing at the top, got down and wanted to jump straight back on lead. Four stars in a 3 star system.

After 27 hours of cleaning, it's a whole different climb. Plenty of holds and good gear (take cams 0.3 to #2, a double set of nuts, plus RPs or small offsets to avoid runouts). I had 20 pieces in. Long, absorbing, and probably not for beginner trad leaders. Get on it.

Cleaned furiously for 7 hours. It's done, will need to settle and have a dust in autumn. Too hot and shagged to lead it today.

Up to anchor on rescuesender and roll'n'lock, for full top-down brush then cleaning the lower half on grigri. Cleaned for 5 hours.

Fixing a rope for cleaning. Bottom 15m still very dirty and sketchy after previous cleaning sessions rained crap down on it. Excellent belay by Rosie.

Cleaning session #3, 15 hours so far, still work to do. Lowered to the bottom and rope soloed on a grigri in walk off shoes to check the state of it. Still way too much lichen at the bottom, and need to clean further left at the crux. It's clean from well below the crux now and the log of death is gone (admire it at the bottom). Managed to just barely abseil off on the 40m cleaning rope. Shagged out, long walk back with heavy pack, enough.

Access for cleaning.

The crack tends to collect dirt and leaf litter but currently still OK. The crux straight off the deck is fun, decent gear most of the way, top dihedral a little tricky, top out a bit dirty. Got off just as the sun started to hit around 1pm, well planned solar management.

A nervy flash lead from Grant, given the amount of lichen and crack dirt. We should have cleaned it on the way down off Human Intervention. I think this will be really good if clean, another one for the list.

Short but good, good pro, and clean enough. Balancy mid section makes gear placement a bit delicate, got a tad run out. A fun fight.

Might as well...

The bottom retrobolt is not too bad apart from the first bolt. Took the cave access chains off, a fall from the first crux would be through those and they are excessive anyway. The crack and corner above is great with a couple of cruxes, but VERY dirty right now, was more or less a ground-up again, will be back to clean it after winter. A must-do when clean.

It's getting a bit overgrown now but is a good long adventure requiring gear and rope management, nice lead Grant.

A very tight squeeze indeed, after an epic FA by Gareth. Had to park my helmet, didn't quite need to unbuckle my harness, thrutched out the top in light rain. Won't forget this for a while.

A little more cleaning on lead. The crux crack is starting to stay more open, but the face is going to take a while, and the lichenous bottom will be last.

Checking out Gareth's gear. He'll do.

A nice ramble. Cleaned on abseil, left 4 bomber pieces in for Gareth's freshman trad lead.

Climbs a bit easier after last month's clean, did a bit more on the way down, still a lot of lichen in bottom section. Will revisit, it's a great route.

Very dirty and now annoyingly retro bolted for the lower slab section. Did a little scraping of footholds on lead, tackled the crux above the world's dodgiest looking tricam, scraped out the crux crack on descent (it takes a very sane #5 brass offset). Needs a good scrub. Still really good, classic if cleaner.

Quite dirty, gave it a scrape out and garden on descent, looks much better now.

Probably the hardest thing I have seconded, probably just as hard to second as to lead. Tape gloves would have helped. Terrific onsight fight from Grant.

Absolutely outstanding, a must-do. Had been saving the onsight attempt for a couple of visits now, stoked to get it. Not as hard as I expected, there are a number of no-hands rests and face holds apart from the crack. Taping up is a good idea to take full advantage of the many great fist and hand jams. Eats hexes!

Ran into Gerard Tarr on the way down, who had been up completing new pitches above, Hecklers multipitch, woo!

Sandbagged Allan into leading this as his first trad in ages, bloody good job mate. 3 climbers and double-rope abseil to avoid the ridiculous traffic jam at the halfway anchors next door. Back to camp just after sunset.

Used to bypass damp first pitch of Mellow Yellow. Had no trad gear but dismantled draws to sling tree and spikes, adequate

Really good slab moves reminiscent of Arapiles, quite small gear and a bit run out in places. Mossy at the top. 15 might be a slight sandbag. Would do again.

Place gear in layback? Sure ;-)

Enjoyable 3D climbing. Got about 8-10m runout through the centre section - doubles or triples in medium cams would be useful. Take long slings to manage rope drag at top.

Don't bother with pitch 2. And maybe pitch 1...

Nice easy trad, decent gear, a good beginners' lead

Crux is the overhangs down low. Really good gear. Don't miss the halfway anchors on the way down!