Ascents in Te Tai Tokerau / Northland

Grubby messy crack. Awkward on the top rope.

Crux seemed extra wet and mossy today. Pulled a draw there but everything else was clean.

Clipped two worst pieces so far - rusted bolt and homemade hanger just after crux, and rusty piton just below anchor. Would be a bad fall if either failed.

Attempted 'Green Eggs and Ham' but failed to find the start. We only climbed 10 meters that were much harder than the promised 15.

Took first trad fall: 3m onto a medium offset nut when I pulled a hand hold off the wall. Was backed up by a C4 #2 just below.

Retreated and attempted 'Dihedral Wall'.

Bailed at the run out on the top headwall. Definitely felt harder than 17...

Interesting at the bolts for a 17

I'll be totally honest. Not really sure where we ended up. Retreated after taking a spicy whip on a flaring crack on what I thought was third pitch.

We had a similar character of wayward adventure as featured in the thread. Our second trip to this epic wall and second epic 😑. First trip we tried to find GEAH but was way off left near the carpark, on sighted a sketchy 21ish runout trad (only because I was committed and couldn’t downclimb 🫣). Second trip, determined to find the route, what we found was mossy lichen, vegeted - but otherwise great rock and decent climbing. At the third pitch small tree belay was a sad dead tree belay 🫥 after wrangling an anchor we bailed. Not recommended in current state.

First pitch clean.

Bailed on second pitch - leader wasn't confident going up the steep section after the traverse.

Followed finishing on the right. Probably off route as didn't see the one bolt. Trad anchor and walk off.

Led up what seemed more likely to be the intended route. Left past some loose rock and a single bolt.

Placed green C4, green hexcentric (bad), yellow C4, red C4, yellow hexcentric (good). Tree belay and walk off.

First trad lead that I hadn't inspected from the ground.

Silly climb with carpet of moss for "smearing"

Start a bit scary. Awkward to place gear sometimes.

Very easy, but no safe bolts, so am going to put some in

Only completed the first pitch. Spent 2 and a half hours searching for the second pitch, While friends waited in the cave. Rock quality is questionable, sounds hollow when you knock on it, and appears to be in layers like an onion. The cracks are flaring, but there is a pretty sweet wooden peg and a ghetto piton (~1980's) you can use.

Bloody fantastic climb. Bit grubby at the bottom but opens up to clean juggy climbing.

Grubby, webby, slippery.

Grubby, juggy, webby, slimy.

Soft rock. Pulled some holds off in the crack. Made a few more holds too by accident. Slimey. Nice start.

Not worth it, and glad Claude led most if it! 2 pitches of pulling on plants and choss trending generally left and up to get to the start of "P1" directly below the cave. After P1 there is another pitch trending left and up through trees and along manuka covered ledges to a short offwidth section to get to the start of "P2". P2 likely goes up 10m left of the offwidth, then skirts right around the steep section and back left to the top. It would be wise to split P2 into two pitches and belay on the tree covered ledge to avoid rope drag.

Probably on route for 5 hours? (Discovered later that the topo drawn on www.thecrag.com was by someone who hadn't climbed the route, which didn't help with route finding...) Claude probably got half way up the last pitch but we decided to down climb and bail out from the cave above P1 as it was just more shit choss pulling ahead. Abseil from cave is over 30+m so be careful/take two ropes.

Seemed pretty tough getting off the ledge, maybe because the gear isn't great. Extend everything as rope drag can be an issue.

Interesting start to get off the ground. Some nice fist jams and tidy footwork to get in the groove, easy once you are.

Different footwork, not as clean but jams still working nicely.