Ascensiones en Easter Rising Face

5 days of effort in total to free both pitches. It takes a lot for exposure to scare me, but this route managed it. Super obscure, but stunning.

Wild, gymnastic traversing, with huge falls into space. I got in the habit of climbing this with my grigri pre-set just behind my knot, and my Jumaar ready for rapid deployment.

On one of my laps on P2 I took a really bad fall, to the point I thought I'd broken my foot. I managed the Send on my final real shot of the trip.

The Aid move on P1 probably goes free if you've a bigger standing reach than me. The one on P2 definitely goes free, but it adds at least 3 more grades to the pitch. Feel free to go for the true FFA!

Good, but not excellent. Not much flow, hard to read sequences in between full body rests and kind of thrutchy moves. Felt like if I was going to fall off, I'd hit ledges in multiple locations.

Lead attempt in damp conditions (not ideal for steep-sloper jugging). Took quite a while to work out the moves to leave the corner and turn the blunt arête, then a bunch of semi-scared falls/rests along the traverse line to Green Spandex, before running out time, back-jumping and bailing. Outrageously cool. A lot of effort to climb though. Kinda scary.

A lap on Top Rope, definately not clean. Just doing all the moves (to verify that they go as un-tensioned complete sequences), which I can verify that they DO! Pumpy as hell, intimidating position, strenous moves which require a weird intricacy to climb. No move harder than gr25, but sooo many moves at that grade. I guess its gonna have to wait until Next Season... I leave on Wednesday. =(

Wow! How has this not been climbed yet? A contender for THE best line in all of Bare Rock! The best rock on the crag, in the best position (the massively overhanging headwall above The Great Roof) and amazing moves (non-stop gr25 for 25m of climbing!) AND it starts from an awesome belay stance (not the usual hanging belay nonsense of the other Headwall pitches, with Belayer Bait routes nearby off the same belay.) The very definition of SPECTACULAR, and DAMN I am PSYCHED!

Backlogging. 2nd shot on this day. 4th total. Not sure who I climbed this with for the tick. Maybe Daniel? After my epic rant about the bolting on my ground-up attempt (and bungling the finale on my 2nd shot) previously, I figured that I'd better actually get the route done to vindicate my claims that it is quality despite 1 bolt placement.

2 shots. This is a 1-star route at the moment (going ground-up). Add an extra star if you rap-in to put the gear on. There is good climbing to be found here if you stick out the difficult bolt placements (and give it a second shot (or a third, as in my case). The climbing is fairly enjoyable, with 2 x tough (and cruxy) grade 25 cruxes through blocky roofs, and lots of gr22-23 moves for the other 35m. I struggled with the mid-height crux, where the bolt placement means you're putting on the draw from the gr25 crux holds (with the previous bolt far below). I was so frustrated at the time that I didn't work any of the hard moves, and only decided to have another shot at the last minute. Second-shot was managed with a single-fall at the mid-height (main) crux. Damn! My least favourite of the Easter Rising Trilogy, though with some TLC from the FA it could be more enjoyable. Watch the bolt position of the first crux-roof (at 1/3rd height), at the moment it will wear on your quickdraw if you fall on it.

2nd shot. First Repeat! Got rather shutdown by the very tricky and unlikely complex stemming through impossibly steep stepped-roofs, and spent about an hour figuring it out. This is definately only gr24 for the true redpoint, though the techniques and complexity of moves might take some (including me) a bit of effort to resolve. With the beta its gr24, and infinitely repeatable. Outrageous position, old-school, insecure bridging, and thoroughly enjoyable (in a moderately masochistic way).

I have only ever bailed off less than 5 routes and unfortunately this was one of them. Didnt enjoy any of the climbing above the ledge. A bad bolt placement was chopping my draw and then I couldnt commit to a swinging fall above a slab. Not my cup of tea.

End of day lash to the interim belay (3 bolts from the top anchors) on the big ledge just below the crux. I decided not to tackle the infamously nails crux today, and lowered off from here. Extremely technical, insecure face climbing on immaculate, slippery rock, with a few rooflets to negotiate. Quite enjoyable so far...

Initially I didnt enjoy this, very old school climbing through a wall of blocky rock that did not inspire me. I stuck with it and ticked it 2nd shot, much more enjoyable with some intense sequences surrounding a whole lot of technical climbing and in a very exposed location.

ALMOST a retro-flash (thought I certainly didn't remember much of it... mostly because there's so much TOO it!). Some epic feats of endurance, and up-climbing and down-climbing piecing together sequences, and I carried a near Terminal Pump into the final tricky corner sequence, but kept it together for the tick. Amazing rock. Old-school, varied, hard-to-read climbing. Outrageous position. Mind blowing.

I'm with Jed on this one: definitely solid 25, a brilliant route, and would make for a great tick, but it's an absolute mission to get to. Very cryptic hold-positions which made my Ground-up onsight attempt (with no chalk on the route) bloody hard work. Blew the link at about half height, then had falls at 3 sections (mostly due to not finding the crucial holds). Probably onsightable if there's chalk on it, but still bloody tough, and with no easy climbing in 40m. One of my favourite routes here

2 more laps this morning. This is a brutal warmup! Graded 27 originally, its probably more solid/hard 26. Might be 27 if you cant climb hard cracks. Good linkage on 1st shot (2 falls - 1 more due to lack of commitment than difficulty - I was still scared up here today!), then a rad full link 2nd shot... but this could be tough to tick on lead. The crack is a somewhat crumbly at the back, but the rock on the headwall is immaculate and perfect. Why are all the climbs that suit me so damn inaccessible? I'll be back on lead next.

2 Investigatory Laps. What a mission it is to get to this climb! I don't often get scared Rope Soloing anymore, but the exposure, steepness and traversing nature of this powerful climb had me a bit freaked. 4 bolts in 18m of climbing is a bit crazy (especially considering the hyper-exposed position - this was more scary than The Totem Pole to me) but falls are into clean air. Pumpy, Strenuous, burly varied crack climbing. Good linkage on 2nd lap, but bad commitment from me on rope solo. Scared!)