Ascensões em South-Western Ontario por David Gibbs

Warm up in my approach sandals.

Protects very well. Good beginner trad climb.

In my running shoes.

Decent climbing, crack is broken enough that pro is not confidence inspiring. Lots of placements, just never quite sure they would hold. Also, a bunch of loose, mostly small, rock.

A couple intimidating bits, and reaching the anchors from the final ledge under the roof was kind of scary. Well worth climbing.

Surprisingly steep and pumpy for a 5.7 -- but generally good, positive hand-holds everywhere, even if smearing with feet at times. Gear seemed reasonably good, at least for escarpment limestone.

Felt burly for a 5.5. Generally good gear, though a couple times not the best stance when placing a piece.

Did the finish up the shared section with "Camel" to have lower-offs, rather than the traverse and up finish.

Surprisingly good climbing given the blocky-looking start. The exit left from under the roof is a wonderfully exposed, comitting move for a 5.4 (or 5.4+) climb.

I chose to finish right (apparently harder) to use the anchor's for Reg's route. The step across at the top is a bit tricky.

The start is a bit hidden, but worth finding. Definitely a good route, and takes good gear.

Belayed on gear at the top. then walked rightwards to a rap anchor from something and rapped off it.

Short, but nice enough climbing.

Fun climbing up the crack, with decent gear, including a couple chockstones to sling.

Off-width upper section is easier (though a bit scarier) climbed outside the crack than in it.

Great climbing, but surprising steep for the grade.

Nice and surprisingly varied climbing for a short climb -- starts with face, then stemming in a corner, then a short hand-jam crack.

First gear is a bit high, though.

One fall. Tricky beta, and the climb was dirty.

Would be much nicer climbing if clean.

Nice climbing except for the big, loose, block.

Got to the crux, failed to pull it several times, escaped right to the good holds on Positron, then back to the route. Not my best climb, and not a good send.

Lots of big moves on good holds up steep terrain, with a couple little technical bits. Felt just like an over-hanging 5.10 climb.

Didn't have a name or grade -- just looked at it, and thought it looked like it would go without problem. Also, the bolts were so close together, it wouldn't get scary. I was right on both counts.

It was wet, making all the friction moves a lot more committing feeling -- not the easy 5.5 warm-up I was expecting. If dry, I think it would be a lovely easy sport climb.

I found the traverse to the 2nd bolt a bit pumpy and hard, while making the technical crux after the 2nd bolt easily.

Missed the blind move right, otherwise no problem.

Book as 5.9+, and really felt that plus. Lots of tricky technical moves that don't let up. Lots of committing moves. Climb straight up to the first bolt for full value.

Casual, casual, casual, casual, OMG the bulge...where's the jug to make this 5.5... there isn't one... ok, pull the move, finish.

Felt like a bunch of 5.3, then one 5.7 move. I guess that averages out to 5.5, right? And the one move is well protected by a (high-clipped) bolt.

One tough move, the rest is easy.

A remarkably steep 5.9.

Decent.

Pretty good.

After about the 4th bolt, climb stop drifting right, but veers back up and left. Don't be fooled by the bolt to your right that looks like you could traverse right to it. It's not on this climb. (It looks like there might be a climb up the upper face, and this bolt might lead to the base of that climb.)

Used the good holds on the thin crack, so probably only got the 5.9 experience. Pumpy and thuggish for a short climb.

There's a beta-intensive move; a push for a completely invisible from where you make the move sidepull. After falling, I spotted the hold, and did the move -- but couldn't see it to figure it out on the wall. Even knowing the hold was there, the move was completely blind.

Easy lower down, a couple harder moves on the upper head wall. Not particularly exciting.

With old guide book, thought this was a 5.9 -- not 5.10c. It didn't go very well.

Some fun moves on the upper half.

Best moves are above the anchor. Not sustained.

Being a trad climber, I avoided most of the lay-back bits by doing a couple of hand-jams; and only switching to a layback for the last move or so up the crack.

I jammed rather than laybacked.

Tried to lay-back. Fell. Switched to jamming.

Consistently good climbing with not always obvious moves.

I didn't like the fractured-feeling white rock near the top of the climb -- didn't want to trust it, but everything held.

Took one fall at the opening crux, then solved it, and got the rest clean. (The crux had really stumped both my climbing mates, was nice to get it much faster.)

Easy climbing to a short crux section, then an easy finish. Took about 3 tries in the crux section.

One hang, because I couldn't figure a move. After a look, got it.

Some hard, but good, climbing. Lots of fun.