Ascensioni in Blue Mountains che possiede Informazioni sui passaggi

3rd

Bothersome

Stellar

That high left foot at the end of the crux popped but juuust after I hit the landing hold and so could somehow hold on. That LH crimp in the middle of the crux is maybe one of the smallest things I’ve ever held

Quite harmful.

Eventually got all the moves by the third working lap.

Warm up, and a nice winger of a warm up fall at the top too!

Moves went down quick, though not in shape for the send just yet. Great sustained hauling between rests, awesome route!

Nice climb leading into the crux, thin and technical crux, it does remind a bit of supercal, but in my opinion less moves on tiny crimps, climbs super nicely after the crux as well. Done all the moves, need to link up the crux and send it, maybe next time.

Another dog on the old dog.

A climb.

Super cool, why isn't this more popular?

Missed the jug on the first move jump. Second shot, turbo jugs.

Slung the carrot for funsies. Nice moves!

Great top half marred by some chossy slabbing in the middle

Fell at the top, went too far left and couldn’t reach the pocket.

Probably a skill issue

Nice warm up

Crux between 2nd and 3rd bolt. The rest of climb reads as an 18. Listed as a 21 in the guide book.

Very cool sequence and a bit of sting in the tail..

Fingerry as ever!

3 weeks ago, a proposition was laid down to climb the biggest route the mountains could offer us. Yesterday, that proposition inevitably led to a certain will-never-forget outing. Due to our lack of two cars allowing for the traditional Mt Banks approach from Perry’s lookdown, we opted to camp at the Pierces Pass Carpark. It was here that we left the car at 4.35am and walked down through the pass into the Grose Valley. We made good time, arriving at the presumed river crossing for the uphill bush slog by about 6am. Despite not being able to find any form of a track, the faint morning glow allowed us to admire Mt Banks and determine a direction to head for. This uphill battle for the ridge was anything but enjoyable, although morale was boosted when we surprisingly stumbled perfectly onto the base of the climb, albeit feeling critically juiced.

A quick break saw us setting off on the climb by 7.40am, with smooth sailing up into the eighth pitch. As I made the traverse to the start of the ninth pitch, it was looking like we’d breeze into the 11’o’clock pitch by the time target. But disaster struck when Ross dropped his only belay device. Although ‘skillfully’ he’d directed it straight onto a ledge somewhere on pitch 7. After lowering him down to retrieve it, we were back on track, departing the eighth belay at 11am on the dot. Less than an hour later, I’d say I experienced the finest moment of the day. This was watching Ross step off the edge of the world from the ninth belay and power up the choss scoop, with class, to our designated lunch spot.

The climbing proceeded and the sun joined us momentarily for some sandy slab and grovel. Pitch 14 saw me softly deck onto the ledge from ‘the move’. Upon pulling past this, it became apparent that I hadn’t brought any more carrot plates or even the set of wires up on this pitch. So, I wrapped a sling around a carrot and gingerly continued. Every pitch so far had seen both of us breaking ironstone footers left, right and centre… a fact that I reflected on as I saw the sling subsequently fall off the carrot below me. Willing myself to avoid yet another intimate encounter with the ledge below (only this time from more than twice as high up), I gained the final fixed hanger and gave a belay.

At this stage, we were well and truly marvelling at our height in the valley, soaring way above the rather small Pierces Pass in comparison. However, the wonder soon turned to gassing-out after choosing to link the offwidth pitch 16 and the seeping jungle bash of pitch 17. After, Ross set off on pitch 18, for which the face section had turned a little waterfallish. Pitching it out, he brought me up to the most horrid frozen, windy belay I think I have ever been on. Trying to get us off as fast as possible, I found I couldn’t climb the slab directly above. Confused and slightly concerned, I opted to step out over the void for the hanging crack of which is most definitely the route. It just looked too outrageous to comprehend at first. Freeing the initial moves up the crack on a blindly placed cam was an interesting experience. We topped out just before total darkness at 5:30pm… frozen, bloodied and sore.

At the top we discovered no track whatsoever and set off into extremely thick bush. This. Was. Horrendous. Eveeentually, we came upon the Mt Banks summit walking track and took a breather. From here, we pumped the Valley Uprising soundtrack and Led Zepplin, hitting somewhat of a walking flow state. Made it back to the car at 7:45pm. What a hell of a day!

Really nice technical start.

An old dog from 2018 =)

Sand 💼

With G miller - Suggested grade 20/21. Pretty fun very sandbagged

Sustained and pumpy

cold hands 🥶

With the Millers

An absolutely epic route! Climbed with Danny who has already posted a detailed account of our accent, so won't repeat what he has already said. Would thoroughly recommend to anyone who wants an epic and unforgettable day out, however, due to the length and nature of this route this probbaly isn't the best route to do you if don't have much multipitch trad experience! In terms of gear we took double set of cams (.3 to 4), set of nuts (although defiantly didn't need them as only placed about 3 including one over a carrot) and 18 draws + extenders and anchor gear. We went with a twin ropes as wasn't to sure how much choss there would be, and also helped to reduce drag when linking pitches. Apart from dropping my ATC and a bit of wind and water at top of climb we didn't encounter too many difficulties. Most of the gear we placed was bomber, however had many foot and hand holds pop throughout the route! Overall the climb was fairly easy to navigate and anchors were obvious. My favourite pitch was pitch 10 which had some insane exposer! Pitch 6 and 7 (which we linked) were also great. The whole climb took us about 10 hours and the whole day from car to car was just over 15 hours, however, our approach was definitely prolonged by getting lost. Cheers to everyone that helped bolt and open this epic route! Definitely not a climb that I am going to forget!

warm up - it was cold, very cold

Some good climbing moves on this. Good test for 18 and some. Highly recommend

Tried to do the whole cave without the massive ledge for feet, got 2/3 of the way

Clean

Reminiscent of the totem pole, if the tote was a towering pile of choss. Way thinner than I imagined and a great day out on a crazy feature, fell off the first move on the 3rd pitch