Ascensioni in Oceania da Dave Scarlett

Very thin on gear. Micro cams useful for both the slab and the arete.

Tricky slab moves around the second bolt.

Not quite as good as I recalled, but still very good by Werribee standards. 10m of good jamming, then gets ledgy and easier.

An excellent, shady outing, but quite tough for the grade, with difficult sections at the start of P2 (past the old piton), the offwidth in the middle of P2, and the traverse on P3. P2 doesn't need cams any bigger than BD #2, but a #4 is useful on P3. If rope-drag permits, extending P2 all the way to the cave makes for a better belay than the ledge below the chimney.

Nice corner climbing, though protection at the start didn't look great.

Easy start, but then a surprisingly tricky mantle finish.

A slightly polished, slippery start, then nice, well protected corner climbing above.

Surprisingly sparse and tricky protection, especially above the ledge when attempting to reach the horizontal break beneath the overhang. This felt more serious than Overkill.

There seemed to be better gear out to the right, but then the much more reasonable (but otherwise unprotected) climbing was to the left, meaning a big swing and possibly hitting a ledge if you fell.

Just awesome. Delicate, exposed, and mostly well-protected. P2 only has one hard section - a slabby and committing move after the traverse, whereas P3 is easier but much more sustained, with moves at the grade until after the first corner of the flake is passed. Led P2.

Gear: You could probably get away with no cams larger than BD #1, but there were a few places where a #2 or #3 could be placed. Microcams very useful for the crux. Save a hand-size cam for the end of the traverse.

Hard! Rested on gear during the flake layback crux, above just before reaching the corner, and then at the final roof. Take LOTS of cams in the finger to knuckle sizes. Nothing bigger needed, except a BD #0.75 and #2 for the final roof.

BETA: Crux gaining and moving up the flake, which has decent hands but very poor feet, and placing gear (small nuts or knuckle size cams) from the layback is very difficult. Traversing over the flake wasn't bad, but then it becomes about 2m runout after the left trending crack ends, eventually broken by a horizontal finger slot to the right just before the corner, which will take a micro cam. The corner is relatively easy, then the final roof is just burly jug hauling. A 0.75 cam can be placed in the chalked up jug slots under the roof, then a #2 immediately after pulling through the roof.

Committing crux moves out of the cave and up to the roof, but lots of gear available just before there. Lovely traverse moves out under the roof, then easier climbing up the corner. Only placed cams up to BD #1, I think.

Excellent, aside from a little plant growth in the first half of P1. P2 is harder than P1, and maybe a little sandbagged, with tricky moves through the square, hanging chimney at the start, and then thrutchy moves and jamming up the V-chimney over the ledge after that. Adequately protected with doubles of cams up to DB #2, but a #4 might make the final moves more comfortable. Led P2.

Nice hand crack with an awkward roof move, then completely different above the ledge, with a difficult to protect mantle leading to an off-width, with enough face holds to keep it sane. Cams up to BD #3 useful, with doubles in #1-2. A #4 may have been able to protect the mantle move. Possibly a little sandbagged.

Surprisingly tricky moves up the ramp under the roof, the a definite crux getting up the (fused shut) flake above. Cams to BD #2. Done as one pitch.

Lovely hand jamming with frequent rest stances, and a thrutchy finish.

Led P3. Incredibly unique and 3D climbing around the flake, then delicate crack and face climbing to get back into the corner. Crux getting into the cave at the end of the traverse on P3 - be sure to place gear above the roof of this cave to protect second from swinging into the corner. Better to extend P3 and continue up to the big ledge, maybe 25m in total.

Led P1, second P2. Awesome, steep, 3-dimensional face climbing with several good knee bar or body jam rest opportunities. Micro cams very useful, and nothing bigger than BD #2 needed. P2 harder than P1, probably around grade 18, though just a week protected one move wonder. If doing P2, belay up on ledge, not at rap anchor.

High first bolt (trad gear in Vortex with long slings helps), them steep, Punit moves through to 3rd bolt. Seems easier closer to arete. Good rest after 3rd bolt then easier above. Long way but very easy from final bolt to anchors, with an optional 120cm sling around a horn along the way.

Led all pitches. Definitely sandbagged at 15 - more like grade 17 P2 and grade 16 P3. Starts 20-30m off the ground, and best approached from left if roping up, or from the right (up the start of Ultion to horizontal break) if soloing. P2 crux is a thrutchy roof crack with hand hands in the back. P3 crux is committing jug hauling. Cams up to BD #3 necessary, with multiple #2 good for P2 crux. A BD #5 would ease the commitment factor of the P3 crux.

Trying to convince some gym climbers to practice jamming. Unfortunately it's easy to avoid jamming on this route, even though the loose-hands sized crack is excellent.

Slightly committing moves up to the horizontal break, which offers a good rest, then a sequency, crimpy crux between bolts 3 and 4, before an easier finish.

Several cams in the hands to loose hands range are useful. Committing layback finish.

Nice and consistent climbing. Evidently still a little bit of loose rock.

A fantastic outing with committing sections on each of the three middle pitches - P2 when the thin cracks appear on the right wall and you need to move out of the corner, P3 from the ledge up through the crack with the void behind it, and the last 10m of P4 when route-finding becomes difficult. (I ignored the blank, ~1.5m tall corner with the roof and crack above it, and instead traversed right to climb the adjacent face before moving back left into the crack.)

Led pitches 2, 4. Got a bit confused on P2 and started way out left on the slab and traversed back in to the corner. Realised afterwards that it's P3, with the obvious flake, that you're supposed to start left on.

Astonishingly, was almost completely dry despite many other routes on the cliff seeping heavily from previous days' rain.

Juggy and well protected the whole way.

Nice little warmup for Kachoong. Reachy start then eases.

Lovely corner climbing on the first pitch, with some tricky laybacking in sections. Lots of loose rock in the bottom of the chimney, so decided stringing pitches 1 and 2 together wasn't a good idea. P3 is the chimneying, which felt a little run out, and thrutchy in parts. Overall probably much more serious at the grade than something like Bard.

Led P1, soloed P2, seconded P3-4 strung together.

Excellent, consistent slab climbing on P1 that keeps you on your toes the whole way, and would be thoroughly worthwhile even only as a single pitch to the lower-off. Fiddly gear, with a full range of nuts (mainly small to micro, with multiple sites being very handy) and some cams, mainly small to micro. Moving right to breach the final overlap at the bolt, only to move back left seemed a bit contrived, but is probably justified given that the more natural line would go through a huge jammed block which looks like it might one day come unjammed.

P2 starts easily, but the traverse right at the first bolt seemed harder than anything on pitch 1, and a sandbag at grade 19.

Led pitch 1 onsight, seconded up into Kestrel instead of P2 after leader escaped into it.

Had never noticed before, but there's a bomber micro-nut placement during the crux start, slotted in the top of a crack that runs down from the top of the feature with the short, right-facing corner finger crack.

Led P1-2 as a mega, rope-stretching 60m pitch. Climbed left of the big crack on P2 to bypass another party, which felt grade 14-ish, but quite interesting climbing. From that belay to the top was only 30m, so 90m in total, well short of the 110m claimed height.

Thought-provoking footwork. Hard for 17 (could be considered 18) but very generously bolted.

Soft for the grade, with the committing start probably being a factor in the grading. Initial gear is available before starting, but after that there's none until the obvious horizontal break (good small nuts), so you just have to go for it. Interesting climbing that's a little atypical for Arapiles, and quite nice, though would be better if it was longer.

I was surprised at how in-your-face this was. (Sorry, was that a little too on the nose?)

ahem

Quite serious and sustained, and the first pitch definitely felt much harder than 14, involving technical and awkward flake climbing with fiddly gear. P2 needs big gear with one each of BD #3 to #4 or equivalent sized hexes being pretty much essential for the crescent crux section, which features a short but committing layback over slick, polished rock. After that, the chimney is awkward but relatively straightforward.

Done as one 55m mega-pitch.

Sandbagged, runout, and sustained. Looked like there was gear most of the way up the initial crack, but it'd be difficult to get it in, and then there's a significant runout before the bolt, which included what I felt was the crux, traversing left to the slab under the bolt. Definitely harder than 18 (maybe 20, maybe 19?) and I definitely had no desire to lead this!

Amazing. The initial step across was easy (so much so that I did it four or five times), but the following moves to get your second foot over as well and move up into the chimney are trickier. (Shorter legs might make the initial step across harder, but the chimney less awkward.) You cannot take too many big cams on this climb, and would want at least one each of BD #3 and #4 for the crux fist crack in the middle, and another #4 (or maybe even #5) for the easier wide crack after the second pod.

Difficult but reasonably well protected, with a horrible off-width crux in the middle