Ascensions dans New South Wales and ACT par Paul Frothy Thomson

2 Laps - just to the last bolt (24 to here) clean, as the last moves were dripping wet. Managed to punch this one out, sans chalk, placing draws, no worries whatsoever. Pretty chuffed with this, given that I haven't steep climbed in the 7 months since my accident. My core and calves felt it the next morning, though!

This is my favourite of all the routes on the upper ledge.

2 x Repeat attempts, not clean. Though I cruiiiiiiised the link from above the lower layback crux to the top, for whatever reason, the low-crux kicked my arse today, and felt grades harder than 24.

The finale of this puppy is wild!

Another repeat. A great way to access the upper tier of climbing here.

2 laps on TRS for training. Trying to build some steep fitness again! Despite being bell-quality-rock, I just find this super steep pupper so much fun!

Repeat. Rather stop-start, but the upper moves are my favourite of the crag.

Repeat. Absolutely cruised this. No way it was ever 23 (not sure what I was thinking?) Awesome technical climbing on weirdly good rock the whole way.

2 Laps. After a long morning working one of my upper mountains projects, this one felt hard today. Fun enough for what it is.

2 laps to verify the route/quality. Really interesting, sustained, technical slabbing/face climbing. Now the easiest route to exit the crag with.

Clean repeat. Much better than I remembered it (and much easier)! Essentially 2 boulders surrounded by easy climbing, but both boulders are rad. With some rope management, this is very achievable as a giant single pitch.

Repeat attempt, not clean today. Just the one lap for fitness and to re-remember the beta for Match . I was pretty happy to put together the entirety of the upper crux section with minimal hassle, years after I was last on this. Amazing climbing from about the 5th bolt up!

I really enjoyed this, but its probably not for everyone. Went really easily today, so its probably not as hard as I thought it was. A really funky, fun, steep finale with some very weird moves

Repeat. As I said before, if you stay out of the cave, this is actually quite fun, and the crux is enjoyable.

Finally decided to suss this route to the top. The moves to gain and turn the lip are mega, and the grey-rock face climbing above involves some complex and gripping sequences for a first ground-up lap.

Probably the most annoying part for me, is having to lap the lower 24 section of this route to get to the hard bit

Clean repeat placing draws to the roof (easy 25 to here) then I explored the upper section. The move to turn the lip is very much the 27 bit, but the section above it is probably another 25 in its own right (albeit with good stances before the hard climbing). The upper section is excitingly runout when placing draws, in classic Emil style

Clean Repeat TRS.

After chopping the original (crappy) start, re-jigging the bolts in the upper section, repairing a super key broken hold (that was forcing a weird "round the world" sequence, and meant the crux bolts were all in the wrong place), and developing a whole new (gr21) start, I needed to see if my efforts had borne fruit.

In short, this is now one of my favourite routes on the wall. I'd call it 2nd best after Life of Riley. Its rad that with a bit more route development experience, and a bit of time and effort, this route -that has always frustrated me for having a crappy lower half, and a good but poorly arranged upper half- is now one of my favourite sporty sport routes I've put up.

I really hope this gets more traffic now, because it deserves it.

Incidentally, the gr21 Bottom section (25m to the first anchor) is proper good climbing, and would happily stand next to such contemporaries at Cosmic County.

Clean Repeat. Revenge! Had to work at the top, but still managed to punch this straight out today. So much fun.

Clean repeat. Revenge! How did I fall off this last weekend? Still awesome.

Repeat attempt, not clean today. No real problems to the top boulder, but -absent chalk- it took me a bit to piece it together. Essentially, three boulders (each getting harder than the other) with easier climbing and good rests inbetween. The top headwall is super rad.

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.

Repeat attempt, not clean today. Whoops... The unsend! Totally botched the crux. Otherwise, had a great old time. This route is always so much better than I remember it being

Repeat. 2 Laps. Truth be told, I fell off the bulge-boulder below the arete on my first lap, but corrected it on the second. A mixed bag of quality, and the arete itself is really easy, but it was still fun enough. Pretty much every hard move is escapable if you stray from the bolts a bit.

Repeat. Been a long time since I onsighted this. Though I found it easy today, I didn't really enjoy it. Very contrived, and on average (grainy) rock. A few cool moves, though.

Repeat. 2 Laps for training. Damn I love this thing

Not clean. Great to have something new to do (all on gear) when you've done everything else here, but it is really contrived (and kinda hard to decide what exactly is "off route").

Regardless, it has some rad, powerful moves. With my busted wrist, there was a single move I couldn't do today, but otherwise it seemed "achievable"... maybe.

Repeat. My favourite route at Windjammer. Felt super relaxed and in control on it today, and got to the top without a pump.

Repeat. I remember this feeling nails, but I absolutely cruised it today. Super obvious, and super pleasant crack climbing.

Repeat. I forgot how sustained this was. With my current form, I just barely squeaked it, to be honest.

Repeat. This is just a really fun climb, and not too hard at the grade. Feeling good on the slow return-to-form after 5 months on the couch.

TRS Lap -seconding Mitch after the FA. Not clean today (2 falls) but given that I'd been on the couch for 5 months to this point, I was happy just to try really hard.

Most of my post-accident re-introduction to climbing has been tame, approachable, conventional crags. Being back on this monstrous monster is the sort of experience that reminds me why I've been trying to claw my way back to climbing so desperately. What a way to come back.

FA. Some great climbing at the start and once you start turning the cave roof, but the escapability into the choss cave, and the rock surrounding it knocks a start off. Might be hard at the grade? Though the grade is contingent on following the line of the bolts on the good rock, and not straying off into the choss.

Ugh. Sand.

FA. A super cool hard start up steep jugs, and a tricky face on great rock... then easier, but less inspiring climbing to the top.

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.

Short'n'sweet. Went direct through the small roof at the start to gain the line of the bolts (rather than heading out right, and traversing in via the corner).

When climbed this way, it's quite sustained the whole way, with lots of interesting thin moves.

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.

Stacked! So many dropable moves the whole way up. A face-climbing connoisseur's delight! Seconding the First Ascent clean -I almost came unstuck when the FA decided to use a locked locking bina bolt-side at the hardest crux, resulting in some mid-crux desperation. A classic for sure.

Super exposed arete climbing. Would be 3 stars but the rock is slightly less than perfect. Very technical, yet steep and pumpy.

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"

2nd shot. Fell off AFTER the upper crux on my onsight due to an amateurish foot-slip on an easy move 2nd shot was a cruise, but DAMN its fun. Really nice rock, cool moves, and not too hard at the grade. This would be a classic anywhere, in my opinion.

Almost a classic, but that its essentially about gr24 with a v6+ crux. Night time attempt, 2 shots, awesome second lap but still couldn't link that crux, unfortunately. The rest of the route is great, though.

5 days of effort to this point.

Pretty chuffed to get both this and Titan done free within the span of a month.

As with Titan, I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do this. I wasn't planning on doing it until next season, but had an unscheduled day, and decided to check it out... and I was immediately hooked on the challenge.

As to the route:

If the rock wasn't choss -even if it was just your run-of-the-mill Blueys Sandstone, I'd call this the single best crack climbing I've been on in the entire world (and I don't think my resume is lacking when it comes to crack climbing) for position, sustainedness, and purity. It would also be a super-duper obvious contender to climb as a giant pitch.

Alas, it is choss, so while I still regard it as classic, that is very much a subjective opinion, and I think prospective repeat ascensionists should really consider whether this will be their cup-of-tea or not.

P1 - is amazingly varied and technical climbing. Personally, I probably found this physically harder than P2 (in that, its more cruxy) and in some ways scarier (due to insecure cruxes). The opening finger-locking is aesthetic and great, and the insecure laybacking through the middle lends itself to complex footwork.

P2 - Looser than P1 for sure (the start of the pitch is horrible!), but quite stacked. This has a lot of hard moves with no super chill rest. I found the last moves to the anchor to be the crux, there there was about 5 sections I could genuinely have fallen off on.

P3 - To be honest, I didn't like this pitch at all. Loose, hard to protect short crack section, followed by a sandy traverse on eroding edges to gain the topout ledge.

Less sandy/chossy than you might expect in some ways... More sandy/chossy than you might expect in others. There's an "unpredictability" to the rock here that most other chossy routes I've climbed don't quite have.

The gear is also pretty good, provided you're smart about where you place, and remember that spreading fall-load over a larger surface area is better than the alternative (read: passive pro, dammit!).

Don't trust the fixed gear, though

One day I'll tick this

Super fun start and finish, but I find the crux rather nails. An easy way of making this less cruxy (at the same grade) is to traverse left around the little crux boulder, since you end up back on-line by the next bolt anyway.