Ascents in Oceania as trad by Sam Lancaster

Great climb, pumpy on the legs!

Had a go at following up direct at the top to the left bolted anchor, much harder and grubbier that way!

Great long pitch, repeat.

Repeat, always nice.

Quite nice with some good bridging and good gear. Grubby but not too bad. Nice to finally get back to lead it.

Repeat.

Brilliant climbing, bit stiff for a 19 - more like a fair 20 we think. Pretty pumpy!

Climbed with "Hard knock life" which worked well (I extended several placements and skipped several of the bolts to reduce drag with a single rope).

Great line, gear can be a bit fiddly at times but mostly not too small, sometimes bit sparse - better than I was expecting from climbnz description. Offset nuts useful.

Highly recommended half ropes as the gear/route does wander somewhat at times.

Perhaps more of a solid 19 the way I climbed it, I can see going direct being harder- pretty staunch at a couple of spots though!

Some great moves down low, then eases right off till the top. Half ropes would be useful.

Fun first pitch, climbed as one long pitch to the top, linking up first pitch with 2nd pitch of Pride of the South (half ropes nice).

Nice moves in the 2nd pitch! Climbed 1st pitch of Scoopage and 2nd pitch of this climb as one long pitch. Clipped anchor and crux bolt but found good gear so didn't use 3 of the bolts, not sure they are all needed.

Poor bolting above the ledge/vegetated slope. Had a ledge fall when I was getting close to the 2nd bolt above the ledge.. Landed hard on my left heel on a rock which fractured my calcaneous (heel bone), lucky I didn't break it worse. Pretty cruxy (to me at least) moves below the 2nd bolt off ledge. Belayer had some slack out but main reason for ledge fall was high 2nd bolt off ledge imo. Nice moves to where I got to but I would not recommend this route because of the real bad ledge fall potential with current bolting.

Fantastic engaging climbing, might be a classic if the start scramble to the real climbing wasn't so blocky. Quite thin upto the ledge then much easier, great gear- brass offsets and bomber red C3. Would have been an onsight if I hadn't read prior ascents logged here doh! Solid for the grade imo.

Solid for the grade. Chossy down low, climbing gets better as you get higher.

Some nice jams. First time leading, 2nded last time.

FA with Rafael White. Tricky start eases off as the climb leads up the crack and into the fun dihedral. Eats up nuts (offsets nice), single rack of cams sufficient.

Was very dirty but I gave it a decent scrub after coming back from doing the FA of Lake Side Sewing Machine with Rafael. Seconded in approach shoes which was a mistake. Go get on it whilst its fairly clean.

Quite enjoyed this one, nice climbing and exposure for the grade. Quite licheny, deserves a clean, might be back to do this at some stage. 2nd pitch is very short, probably best to combine using alpine draws to reduce drag (may be bit too much drag though?). Top pitch had 4 bolts not 3 as in current guide.

Repeat, nicer than I remembered, very enjoyable, great jams.

Gears bit average up at the top.

Sweet climb, good gear. Took on gear at the crux and retreated as my head game just wasn't there. Will revist..

Fun moves above the staircase on good feet. Got a bomber offset in.

Sweet mixed line, will be better after more people have climbed it and the rock has become a bit less crumbly on the face. 1 whip and rest about 2/3rd way up crack.

What an experience! I finally got on this at around high tide when the combo of waves crashn and strong wind were threatening to drench my belayer (thanks Donovan) and added some motivation for me to get off the ground quickly! Not sure on the grade.. I'm not that good at jamming (as I suspect the majority who try lead this, why doesn't NZ have more cracks!) but getting better so tricky to know, not that it really matters. The sandbag of 16 feels kinda appropriate. Could have easily lost the flash as my arms got a bit pumped around mid height but I managed to keep it together, stoked on that.

Repeat. Maybe hard 18? Not sure.

Repeat. Really like this climb, offset brass nuts are very useful as most of the cracks flare a lot, bit hard to protect well otherwise imo. I would say its a 19 climbed the way I do going just to the right at the crux (but still using thin crack). I can see how going directly up the crack would be much harder.

Another repeat, great warm up.

What Shaun mistakenly read from the guide as a nice 15 warm up was this haha. Wasn't feeling particularly inspired for trad but seeing Shaun climb this convinced me too. What a way to warm up to leading again after 2 months away from rock! Lots of flaring cracks so offset nuts were very useful. Seems easy for the grade but may have gone slightly off route, hard to tell. A small offset cam would have been nice for the crux! Didn't use any of the bolts.

Lead clean, quite enjoyable. Would have been nice to have a 5 for the wide top crack as 4 is a bit tipped out..!

Lead the trad section bit smoother this time, got to the first bolt again but failed at the crux. Worked the moves to the second bolt but couldn't quite get it. Warm conditions and just didn't have the stamina.

Done ground up over some very loose blocks (which I need to clean) whilst Shannon was singing away belaying me. Sketchy crumbly rock and quite dirty atm, highly not recomended and not at all suitable for trad beginners..

One fall on bolt from trying steep overhang.

A few tricky balancy moves getting established to clip the bolt then some fun climbing up around the big flake to committing move over the flake to easier ground to top out.

Romain lead the pitch nicely. Could easily be a 2 star or even 3 star route if the splitter continued. Rock deteriorates after the crack substantially in the chimney. Crack is quite nice though, could be bit stiff for the grade- definitely need to be able to jam!

Nice climbing with fantastic views- highly recommended!

This is a beautiful line with some great variation, the handcrack section is epic! Climbed the trad section and clipped the first bolt cleanly but was too pumped so rested on the bolt. I'd say the crux for me is moving left after clipping the bolt (I'm tall which helps with clipping before moving left). I worked/dogged most of the rest of the route as I was just too pumped and the crux is tricky. This is a nice project for me, being efficient through the trad section is important to avoid pump!

Easy climbing upto a nice hand/fist crack that widens towards the top. Great fun jamming the narrower half of the crack and some nice laybacking up the wide top section. Doubles of 4 or a 4 & 5 would be useful. Looking forward to leading next time!

Nice 17, pretty easy up to the top 1/3rd which is a bit commiting and quite insecure feeling for me. Surprisingly pumpy for the top section!

Quality

Wasn't the best choice of warm up.. not particularly good at big hand jam sized jamming and my hands were already cut up enough so I decided to get lowered off.. will come back with more tape and more than one 3.

After a good rest I got back on and managed the crux fairly smoothly. The rest of the climb has a couple of interesting balancy spots, pleasant climbing. Looking forward to climbing this again, it's one of the best trad climbs I've done at Kawakawa Bay.

Spent too long arranging pro below the small roof so was pumped by the time I attempted the balancy crux, couldn't quite make the good jam, feet were badly positioned. Had a smooth fall onto a bomber .3 C4, lowered to rest. Was quite fustrated to loose the onsight attempt.

Quite a good quick warm up climb, I enjoy the dihedral top section! I climbed the fist crack much smoother this time round.

Easy climbing with some good fist jams upto bit trickier slab, nice to have a .2 or .1 cam to protect before the run out top moves.

Gear is a bit thin/small at the top 1/3rd but adequate. Tricams would be useful along with offset nuts and small cams (found a reasonable offset cam placement). Not one for a trad newbie.

I really like this one, one of the best trad lines I've done at cracks wall. I lead it cleanly, though I had previously fallen at the first finger crack (which I cruised through this time round) seconding it earlier last summer.

Top rope dog, pretty hard for me, harder than The Skink Prince and Hugs not Drugs, I'd say its a 21. Would be a very bold lead!

Overshadowed by Gecko Grove this is a much nicer climb IMO, nicer moves, a fun roof to pull, more variation in the climbing