Ascensions dans Australie comme Red point par Paul Frothy Thomson

An enjoyable couple of days to get this sorted. Climbed as 2 pitches (linking the top two). Good crack and face climbing, with all the hard moves being bolt protected roofs. Marred solely by some sections of average rock.

Clean repeat. Sweet! It's been a decade since I was last on this (when I ticked it) and it was rad to get on it today and just do it straight up, placing draws, without too much difficulty.

One of the best technical, sustained, and consistently clean face climbs in NSW.

FA. A "Lowers Mountains Classic" (with all the caveats that statement encompasses).

A climb of many components, but the technical finale is definitely a show stopper. No boring bits, that's for sure.

First Ascent. Climbed ground-up before it was cleaned/brushed, and it felt like gr21... But after a good session to clean it, it's settled at 18.

An interesting short slab, on mostly good rock, marred only by its escapability.

2nd shot. Brutally hard through the short crux, but otherwise unremarkable. A good challenge to solve, but on balance I wouldn't say I enjoyed it.

Day 6 for the Redpoint!

I really wanted to come back and improve the style on this. Firstly, because I think mine is the first repeat of the route, and secondly, because this route is both harder and scarier to do it placing the gear (the former for P1, the latter for P2)... It's also proud enough that it warrants the extra effort.

So, as you might imagine, I'm pretty chuffed to have gotten this done, and in pretty good style.

Full disclosure: I did have the first few pieces of gear clipped off the belay at the start of each pitch.

Quote of the day:

"Don't get upset if I start freaking out; I'm weak, wimpy Frothy, not bold, strong Zackie"

Great! Not too hard at the grade, but bloody awesome. The low crux is just fun, but everything above it is mega at about gr23. Great rock, and pretty sustained. Might be my favourite route here.

2nd shot. I only carried 2 draws through the crux, so climbed the top 20m clipping only 2 bolts.

A funky (but incongruous) start crux leads to a magnificient gr21ish headwall up cool grooves and scoops.

Repeat to do placing gear. Definitely scarier placing, as the best gear to protect the finale is grades harder to place on lead... so I just didn't place it. Wild cranking a roof boulder, way above gear, miles out in space.

Coukd be hard at the grade. Hilarious roof jugging, to gnarly lip-turn traversing. Loooong.

Awesome climbing on beautiful rock. The oozy, funkiness of this puppy totally makes it a 3-star classic route for the area.

I totally misread the crux on the onsight. Quickly figured out a more conducive way to approach it, then lowered off and immediately climbed again -this time all the way to the bracket above the anchors, placing draws. Maybe hard 23?

I have to admit, that this is a strange route to be bolted -especially given the ethic in the area- as it has stonker gear all the way up, and falls into that "pure trad lines should be protected, as they're a finite resource" sort of category. Even as a mixed line, this might be better. I'm not really sure why the anchors stop in no man's land, when the rock and climbing above is still good for another few metres.

3rd shot over 2 visits, placing draws. Other than the nails direct start, this is about gr22ish to the roof boulder. The roof boulder itself is gnarly sequence, with a pumpy, committing finish.

Repeat -P3 only. Returning to clean up the style of the ascent of P3, now that it's not pouring with water.

Gr22 for P3 seems fair when it's in condition. Awesome roofing protected by a crappy hanger, a #3. a #0.4, and nothing else. Has a bold-ish vibe.

Another lap to do it properly -placing all gear on lead.

I had a lot of (scared) fun with this one. Radical gr23ish start through a roof to a ledge. Then 4 hard boulder problems (with big runouts) between gear nests. Two are vertical runouts, 2 are horizontal runouts. Very gritstone-esque as it links features to forge a line.

I almost fell off the final move to the anchor, and had to power-scream to get through it.

Bloody great day out.

Would be classic (in the style) if it were more accessible, but unfortunately the approach is nightmare-fuel, and the rock is only 3.5/5 on a Blueys rock-quality rating scale.

Sent in fading light, at the end of a massive weekend. Super steep, traversey, traddy, a bit bold, and rather gymnastic. Classic for me but objectively only 2 stars, really.

A 3-hour approach (much easier now!), and originally attempted ground-up as a free climb (with points of aid through blank sections until the sporty moves to link features could be solved). Day 2 was properly cleaning the route, sorting the moves, adding the 5 bolts to gain the crack feature, and... sending.

One of the last known great lines in the Blueys, and one of my proudest FA's to date. Exposed, scary, great rock, long, and with radical climbing (especially on the crux arete pitch). The crux in particular has some of the wildest arete-slapping/trickery that I've done in my entire climbing career.

Done over about 8 days of effort in total. I originally led the crux pitch as two shorter pitches (27 and 26 respectively) via a hanging belay, before coming back to eliminate the belay and do it properly.

First shot today, after having fallen off 44m up the 45m pitch a few weeks ago. Maybe 3 full days of effort in total?

Quite a lot harder than Gaze a Gazely Stare (the boulder is more full-on, the rests are less restful). It's also more committing, IMHO.

Still super-wild steep climbing above gear, though

5 days of effort -though 4 of those were wasted with an utterly stupid way of climbing the crux.

Crazy crazy steep mixed climbing over the void. Sustained, and absent "ledges" or major breaks... but marred by "Duck-Wall-esque" rock quality (read: average Blueys Rock), so I'm only giving it 2 stars.

Fell off the last move of the opening boulder on the onsight (with no chalk on the sneaky sneaky holds, and in the full summer sun, I ended up in no man's land trying to rock over an invisible footer on no holds). Came down, and sent 2nd shot, onsighting from the 3rd bolt up.

Basically a gr24 thin and bouldery start into gr20 climbing with enjoyable, cruisy moves.

Could use more cleaning.

6 days of effort. The rock is Cosmic-esque quality, and the climbing is amazing, but as an "experience" its more "brutal" than fun IMO.

2 very different pitches.

P1 climbs like a steeper, harder and more sustained version of Kizashi (and is mostly on bolts).

P2 is all about the gritstone-esque insecurity, and is mostly on gear.

P3 is just an exit pitch

Probably hard at the grade.

Great rock, and continuous and sustained technical face climbing in an exposed location.

Proper chuffed that this goes almost entirely on gear (only 4 bolts on the FA!) as all of the hard moves are above gear. It feels pretty "out there" to execute gnarly technical trickery over cams.

First ascent of the "reinstated" version. Tonnes of fun, and great rock the whole way. technical, airy, and unlikely. The faff of the traverse-y start is worth it when the climbing is this good.

FFA. Mega mega mega!

Originally attempted ground-up (after climbing Everyman and his Dog) resulting in a few big falls, and much fear, I later sent this third shot on pre-placed gear, and 4th shot placing all gear on lead. On the FFA, I linked P1 into P2.

This is the sort of modern-style trad climbing that I've really come to enjoy, where the incipient crack takes gear, but much of the climbing is done gymnastically on face holds, resulting in some exciting exposure as you move away from the gear. The upper crux is very sporty. Proper stoked with this find.

FFA. Sweet to get this one done despite the crux running with water. Awesome to finally have a small piece of real-estate on a wall that I've been admiring for some 15 years.

Tackles the faces and roofs of Venom Wall (mostly) on gear (though with the odd bolt to keep it sane), with some gripping, old-school climbing and runouts.

A worthy companion route to The Venom, in my opinion.

Fell off the gnarly start a few times before I sussed it (if you told me it was gr25, I wouldn't argue) then punched out the route. Proper classic old school climbing on amazing rock. Super improbable techo moves.

Unfortunately, the rebolt done on this is worse than just climbing on the original carrots (not joking). Bring bolt plates!

FFA. More funky steep stuff. Though the crux is clipping the anchor, it's less "Fist Full of Steel" and more Coolum-esque. Probably the easiest route on the upper ledge.

Clean Repeat. Why doesn't this get done more? It's been an age since I last ticked it, and was a joy to climb straight-up today with no real problems, despite it being completely untrafficked. Rock the entire way was bomber, and even the grey-section was so clean you could eat off it.

Clean Repeat. One of my favourite 23's in the mountains. An excellent 2nd warmup.

FFA. Sweet! Finally got it done despite the proper arctic conditions! Having fallen off the move to match the lip of the roof 5 times, it was an awesome feeling to keep it all together for the send.

A bit sharp, sure, but its a lot of time climbing completely horizontal at a relatively tame grade. And the boulder to gain the lip is all time rad.

FFA. More hilarious steep jugging. After you leave the no-hands rest 5 bolts up, its all campus-y action to the end. Enjoy the mushroom jug!

I'd have given this 24, but the last move to the lip seems proper roof bouldering to me? Let me know if it should be downgraded.

FFA. This ended up taking the better part of two full days of effort to tick, but the moment that we had good conditions, it went down smoooooooooothe.

Short and punchy. This is the sort of steep, juggy, campus-y roof climb where you just giggle like a mad chook the whole way.

Repeat. Great way to access the top of the boulder. Has cleaned up nicely since last time I did it, and is now good insecure fun.

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!

Clean repeat. Awesome to get back on this almost 10 years after I first put it up, and not be dissappointed with the route or my equipping.

Also rather psyched to just punch it out placing draws despite it being obviously untrafficked, cause it's quite hard to read and rather committing. Genuinely good arete climbing, and something quite different to other aretes in this grade range in the Blueys.

First shot placing draws (with no chalk on the route, and some rather wet holds) but since where this branches from River Styx is probably only gr23, it's certainly not a retro-flash

A rad juggy, traverse-y odyssey. If you're going to finish via any other route than River Styx, you might as well keep on trucking left. Much better than Tomb Raider.

The only route on the upper tier. After the haaaaard start, this is great steep red-river slimper pulling with a bit of air below you.

2nd shot, sent the same day I bolted it. For the Send, I skipped the last bolt -something I still do on repeat laps. Really sustained, and you always seem to arrive at the crux way more pumped than you want to be.