Ascensões em Oceania por Paul Frothy Thomson

Repeat. Stunning steep pumper on immaculate rust-coloured holds that seem to appear right when you need them. I was climbing so fast I almost pumped-out and fell off.

Exploratory lap. Thin as, bro... And bloody sharp at that. The "crystal crimp" crux hold is malevolent. The main crux involves a lot of moves on tiny edges, for a mere 5m of upward climbing. Totally doable in cooler temps and with skin on my fingers. Worthwhile, and a touch different for a Blueys slab and one to come back to for sure.

Awesome rock at the crux. Seems doable. Someone should go send it.

Amazing exposure, position and moments of brilliant climbing. Marred by the worst rock I've climbed in Tassie (choss, dirt and flakiness), and some contrived bolting to force inferior climbing. Led P2, P3 & P4 (Link), P6, and P7 & P8 (link). 2nd Clean all others. Fell of on the last hard moves of P2 grabbing rubble instead of rock on the final throw (needs another bolt, took a bad whip on the slab)... I went Direct (felt 25), but chalk shows most people going way out right to avoid the crux??

With JengA. About 9 hours car to car. Every pitch on this is worthwhile, and every pitch is a sustained challenge at the grade. Led the even # pitches. Unfortunately broke footers on P1 and P4 and fell while cruising. Took an upside-down whipper off the last move of the 24 pitch (just missing the onsight). Did all the moves on 2nd (with quite a few rests) but got spanked by the 26 pitch. A stunning, intimidating, all-day epic. Completely worthwhile and inspiring.

Came back for the crux pitch. Thought I'd be able to dispatch this in a day, but it was bloody hot, I was spent from Air Malta the day before, and it's just a very power-endurancy pitch. Good improvement throughout the day, and I came close to victory, but couldn't quite fight the pump. I think fresh, with the beta, this should go down with another day of effort. The final moves to the anchor are terrifying on link (when pumped out of your mind).

Absolutely brilliant. One of my favourite multis at Bungonia (possibly my favourite?) with consistently good climbing on every pitch. It took 3.5hrs for Neil and I to get from the car to the Evolution Cave, as we danced up each pitch. P1 - 2nd Clean (kinda hard at the grade, the short traverse was gripping. Great rock!); P2 - Onsight (Substantially easier than it looks. Great slabbing on improbably good holds); P3 - 2nd Clean (More great slabbing with a variety of moves and no "hideous thin moves". The traverse at the end of the pitch is engaging); P4 - Onsight (50m of continuously cool moves at about the same great, with obvious gear and no rope drag); P5 - Pink Point (Weirdly tricky steep-ish climbing. None of the moves were hard, and I wasn't pumped at all, I just totally misread the moves after the 5th bolt. Quite technical, despite its steepness. Thanks for coming back down to give me another shot for the send, Monty); P6 - Dog (Fell off on -literally- the last move to turn the top of the cliff on the Send shot. Awww. Not too hard at the grade, with 4 no-hands rests separated by harder moves. The two main cruxes are both very cool on stunning rock, but that final move could be -and was for me- a heartbreaker).

3 x Laps of the entire top (crux) pitch clean on 2nd via TRS, taking off the gear as I climbed on every lap (to make up for my failure to tick the pitch yesterday). Still not a true "tick", but harder than Seconding the route normally, and if I never get back to tick this properly (which, difficulty-wise, is almost superfluous at this point), then I'll just have to be happy with lapping this thing. A great pitch and fun even after so many laps.

P6 (crux pitch) only. 1st Shot today placing all gear on lead. We chose to finish up this pitch rather than the normal jungle-dawdle exit pitch to Evolution. Psyched to punch this out clean after 240m of clean climbing on Evolution. A brilliant pitch and superior finale.

I finally got to do the 3 "classic" pitches on this route, and sure enough, they WERE bloody classic. P1-P3 - Repeat, Lead Clean (I've onsighted them previously when I climbed Aurora) - Very slabby. A Poxy start pitch, a very thin middle pitch, and a bold (but not as hard or as scary as I remember) finale pitch. Not as terrible as I remember; P4 - 2nd Clean - Probably the hardest bit of climbing on the route. I found this sustained, pumpy, technical and with terrible feet. Great!; P5 - Onsight - Great, sustained technical climbing up a vague corner-system. A proper classic. P6 - Onsight - Extremely juggy, steep-ish climbing on perfect rock. Very straightforward, but tonnes of fun in an exposed position. P7 - We chose to finish up the top (crux) pitch of Jumpmaster instead of the normal finish (which I ticked first go today placing all gear on lead).

With Carlos. Audacious to attempt this after Masters of the Universe the day before (we were both pretty spent) and in the full sun, but the opportunity was just too good to pass up. Almost no chalk on the entire route. 9.5hrs car to car. My second favourite multi in Bungers (after Siblings of the Sun), and the Money Pitch on this (P7) is possibly the single best pitch of climbing I've done here (210m off the Gorge floor). P1 - Dog (didn't find the trick hold at the end of the initial pumpy section, and also slipped off the gnarly slab move). A Pitch of two halves. Very cool, but pretty sandbagged at 22. P2 - 2nd Unclean (random foot slip after sticking the challenging slab crux). Sustained 21 slab, with a single nails sequence. P3 - Onsight. Kind of a joke grade at 19 (try 21), and kinda sketchy in the pro department. A fun, tough boulder-problem for the first 5m, then easier, runout slabbing. P4 - 2nd Clean. A brilliant pitch of complex face climbing with an appropriate mix of gear and bolts. Hard at the grade. Very worthwhile. P5 - Dog (fell off the final moves of the top crux on my Onsight). Two hard sections split by easier, enjoyable climbing. The final traverse and boulder-problem crux are very cool moves. P6 - 2nd Clean. Probably more gr23. Hard start to gain a very-strange overhanging, arcing V-groove system, the interesting face climbing above. Quite a fair bit of gear, that is a bit tricky to place. P7 - Dog. A brilliant, varied pitch in an amazing location. Sections of steep jugs, with technical boulder-problems separating them. A wide-array of moves and styles, and some demanding final moves.

2 x Laps of the entire top (crux) pitch on Second via TRS, taking off the gear as I climbed on every lap. On my 2nd lap I JUST managed to climb it cleanly (by the skin of my teeth). As with my laps on Jump Master, this is not a "true tick", but is still harder than seconding the pitch normally, and I'll have to be satisfied with this if I never come back for the lead. This remains my all-time favourite hard pitch of climbing at Bungonia, with only 1 no-hands rest, and continuously engaging, sustained climbing throughout. There are so many moves you could fall off on this, right up to the very top of the pitch, I'd definitely call this soft-ish 26 (feels a grade harder than Jumpmaster for sure!). I love the moves out of the pumpy jugs, across the thin face, and into the quarryman-esque hanging blade feature. A dream pitch.

Sometime 2010.

Repeat, taking Guns on his first ever multi (he lead every pitch). The climbing is very average, but the grade is reasonable, and the position is spectacular. It's popularity is justified.

Climbed from the ground to the top of the cliff in 1 50m pitch with two ropes and only minor rope management. I actually thought Screen Gems had been Retrobolted and I was following that line. Took a rack of cams and I'm glad I did, though it's still excitingly run-out at times. I think the crux move is probably more 22 than 19, though the rest of the route is about right at 19-20. I got confused with the divergent carrots at the crux and rested to try and figure it out. Not bad. Adventurous!

Repeat. Climbed out with (heavy) packs rather than walking out of the crag. Lead Pitches 1 & 2 (linked) and Pitch 5 via the grade 17 variant. Entertainingly picturesque.

With Cam from QLD. An ALMOST-bold classic with an old-school mentality: mostly trad wtih a few spaced bolts, a tad wandery, run-out but not TOO run out. Great! O/S Pitches 1, 3 and 5; 2nd Clean 2 and 4. Stoked with the pitches I got to lead. The traverse on P2 isn't as scary as it looks. P3 is the crux for sure, and comprises a nice sustained awkward crack-outing. P5 doesn't seem to see much traffic and was dirty and a bit obscure, but was actually great climbing.

6.5hrs car to car! A great, heady, adventurous multi-pitch adventure with a decidedly old-school feel. Have your headgame in check before you attempt this one! All but 2 of the pitches have real quality. P1 (23) - 2nd Clean. Great, pumpy climbing right off the ground. P2 (22M1) - Onsight. I had a huck at the 25 free version, but the crimp-dyno off the belay was kind of hideous. Funky hard start (after the aid move), then average wandery, dangerously runout rambling on easy-ish terrain and dubious rock. P3 (22) - 2nd Clean - The slab-arete start is brilliant, after which its just enjoyable orange thinness. Easyish for the original 23 grade? P4 (24M1) - Onsight. Had a bit of a go at the free version, but it's very its very illogical from below (it only made sense when I was well above it). Onsighted the 24M1 version by pulling on a single bolt to gain the next hold. A thrilling, and terrifyingly committing sequence to gain and turn the arete (feet first?????), then technical thin climbing up the left-side of the arete to the top. Brilliant. P5 (24) - 1 Fall (right at the end of the hard moves) on 2nd. D'oh! A brilliant, pumpy, power-endurance pitch on great rock, and quite sustained for the first half. Super-exposed position. P6 (10) - Onsight. A junky, loose exit pitch. Meh.

I had an hour to kill, so I free-solo'd this. Much more fun without a rope. Fairly enjoyable for a low-grade Blueys multi, and the high winds added an element of cataclysm. The only pitch I didn't enjoy soloing was the last one, due to the poor rock quality.

Another repeat, this time via the Narcolepsy (gr16) finish. With Neil Monteith and Simon Carter, the 8th and final route of Neil's 11hr 30min 1112m climbed #40pitches40years . In the full sun, and as a group of 3 at the end of the long day, we climbed it in 1.5hrs of time on route. Fun and easy, and a laugh with mates (even if it was 1,000,000 degrees celsius). And a great end to the day.

What a journey! Surprise send, after spending the morning on Simmo's route, and only tackling this at the end of the day with a view to sorting out the "send logistics" (with a route this long, steep, and wandery... It's fair to say that it's involved).

There's just so much here to remember, and with it being so steep, you're always on a timer to get it done. Steep, gymnastic, and sometimes quite technical. Would be megaclassic, but the rock is only about as good as Sunny Side Bell, so far from the best the Blueys has to offer. It's almost too hard to sum it up at an experience, even with the copious amounts of hyperbole I can command

2 Full days working the bottom 26/27 arete, and the effort I originally put in to climb Gaze a Gazely Stare (as well as a few repeated laps for fitness and training). On the send, I committed to constant 5m+ runouts to avoid dealing with rope drag.

Led all pitches, done as a 15m pitch (P1) and a 55m pitch (P2-P4) belayed from the ground. Old school equipping and commitment, and as psychologically demanding as it is physically demanding on the crux pitch. Rope management is crucial to keeping this safe. P2-P4 (as a giant pitch) probably warrant "classic" status for the unrelenting arête-y nature of the climbing. P2 is crazy overhanging in the first half!

Repeat attempt (not clean today). Pitches 2 & 3 only (as a giant pitch).

Sure, this is obscure, but P2 is radical bold-ish gritstone-style arete climbing. Better than I remember, and also quite a bit harder.

P1 (Grasshopper Access Pitch) ONLY - Flash. Probably grade 15-16 climbing, but with the amount of dirt in it at the moment it felt hard. Bring a rack of wires.

P2 - Flash to the crux (last 8m of climbing) then took two big falls figuring out the crux. On the 3rd attempt I figured it out and climbed to the anchors for this pitch. Absolutely brilliant technical climbing. Sustained 21 from the start to the crux 20m up, then 23ish to the anchors. One of the best pitches I've bolted.

P3 - I Broke off a hold I'd always planned to use, and couldn't do the crux between the 2nd and 3rd bolt. There are other holds here out left, but I haven't explored/cleaned them, and was just throwing to them blind (and getting tired of taking big falls trying). I need to rap the route again and clean/tick-up what I need to use before I can get the send. Since I couldn't pull through this move, I ended up backjumping and bailing. Technical and strenuous to the crux moves. Could be great.

Pitch 2 (23) ONLY - Sent 2nd shot today. Probably the best single pitch of climbing I've ever bolted. Super technical, moderately pumpy, with an exciting final sequence which could be a heart-breaker. Mostly brilliant rock, and every bolt is spot on. Probably soft at the grade, but would be solid at the grade for anyone shorter than me (6ft 2in). Super psyched!

Pitch 3 - Still can't do the crux move, even after rapping the route and working out a new sequence. The move is there, and it will go, I just need to actually TRAIN to be able to send it. This one could be a bit of a long haul.

P3 only. Rope soloing lap. Can now climb every move in good style EXCEPT for the crux move. I'm going to move one of the bolts and redirect the route slightly.

2 x Rope Soloing laps to warm-up and practice the sequences. Everything was clean but both laps I fell off the top (heartbreaker) crux.

Pitch 3 (24), finally! A great sustained pitch with no rest until just before the final (third) crux at the top. Technical, pumpy and crimpy in a radical position. Perhaps tarnished by the reinforced flakes and a repaired hold (broken during the first attempt to free it), and a bit wandery... but in an interestingly old-school sporty way. Stoked.

Repeat. Pitch 2 (the slab) only to get to the half-way anchors. Climbed clean placing the crux draws (Gene placed the draws on the lower section). Still a great pitch of slab/face technical climbing, with some "gritty" (but not bad) rock. I surprised myself by sticking the crux sequence without being able to see the crucial holds. would be a great climb at somewhere like Cosmic County.

With Gene. Both pitches onsight. Brilliant. Far better than Wally World if you can handle the much harder climbing and having to place some gear. The first pitch is a long one of stunning face climbing (with a VERY hard crux, I suspect its gr24, with another gr23 move higher up) on good rock, in an amazing position, and the gear placements only add to the experience. I'd recommend it to anyone.

My favourite route at the Boneyard, and also the most frustrating. Definately 25! Sustained, long, super-thin technical seam climbing with as much trad gear as bolts and many, many hard moves. I got stomped by the bouldery upper-crux (30m in) leaving the crack and got shut down for quite a while. Even the final slab is hard!

Now this was a long fight, and hard work for a warmup. A long, wandery adventure. I used a #2 and #1 cam, but could also take a #0.75 and #3 if you dont like runouts. Only a short crux section, but lots of techy thin moves throughout that would be easy to mess up. The rightward traverse below the roof is a real chinese puzzle in itself. Quite stance-friendly. I totally bogged down below the final roof for a good 20min before suddenly unlocking it and scoring the onsight. Stoked!

Far superior to Spoilt Brats and Gash Attacks! Some of the best rock in the Blueys. A hard warmup. Climbed the 2 main pitches as a giant 45m pitch. Seconded the doddle trad access pitch; Pink Point the traverse (I ended up too low (below the roof) mid-traverse, had to do a DESPERATE move to get back on-line, then ended up going too high and falling off right at the end. It went 2nd shot); Onsight the pumpy top pitch despite epic rope drag and mega flash pump. Brilliant climbing as a big pitch.

1st shot today as a warmup for the Alzheimer's Onsight. Not a grain of chalk on it! Quite hard at the grade even for Tassie, with some tricky to read sequences, some rad hard trad, and an utterly diabolical final slab that almost spat me off. Only marred by sections of friable rock. A great, long, rarely repeated gem.

Nothing like getting schooled on your own routes (as a warmup, in the sun). Clean lead P1. Bungled the crux at the end of P2 for a single fall. Linked into P3, which involved many falls on all 3 cruxes P2 is a cool slab with a rad finale. P3 is really great climbing up a soaring exposed face, but the rock is rather sharp, and -I hate to admit it- my bolting from 2013 is not great (in terms of bolt positioning). I'll fix this up (and move some bolts) within the next month.

Repeat attempt (not clean) trying (yet again) to climb this as a 40m monster... unsuccessful (yet again) as I dogged the hell out of the upper pitch. Old Frothy was MEAN with his route grades! (24???), but at least with the repositioned bolts this is fine for the ground-up attempt. With better rock this would be classic, as it is... its an upper-tier very good.

Repeat attempt (not clean). This is almost starting to feel like a ritual: repeat lap(s) on Grasshopper followed by one hail mary attempt at le grande link. This is just so hard absent beta and chalk. Still... probably my best "ground up" attempt yet, mostly turning pear-shaped on the upper crux and battling through the rest.

Morning onsight free solo. Hehe... grade 8? This would be like 16 at Shipley Great climbing on perfect rock.

Would be a Classic with a rebolt, and without the utterly hellish mantle on P1. With Hugh. Lead all pitches. P1 (Dog) - Fell off at the mantle (15m up), then various falls working out the other nails moves. Quite a bit of gear to supplement the 8 bolts on this pitch (I brought all the wrong gear, so got to place "bad gear" instead). P2 (Dog) - A single fall at another very improbable mantle at the 3rd bolt, but otherwise clean. P3 - Onsight. P1 has a very "gritstone" trad start at about gr22 up to the V5 mantle, which I could do all the "sections" of, but have no chance in hell of linking into the rest of the pitch. After that its a series of extremely powerful (but rad) face moves, then tenuous and desperate (and scary!) moves up the arete to the fully-hanging belay. P2 - Has a steep start, a nutty V3 mantle (think "Dynamics of Change" on the Grit), then tenuous (and run-out) moves up the arete. P3 - A slabby exit pitch. Nothing special.

Yep, that mantle is still nails. V5ish? Had no trouble on the rest of this route this time (probably hard 25 without the mantle) and its a bloody awesome line to climb as a giant push from the ground, with great run-out arête climbing... Just that damned mantle to contend with... ugh.

Some interesting climbing with okay gear, but rubbish rock. Quite dirty and loose, with a rather runout start.

Went for the unchalked, spoogey onsight, and managed to make it to the roof before falling. After that it was bolt to bolt. Happy with my effort and the fight at EOD, cause it is proper stemmy stem insecurity to the roof.

2nd shot total. Scrapped by way up this with the help of some funky crux beta from Michael -necessitating some gnarly foot-above-head insanity to work with my physiology- which was key to my success without working the route. It's far from over even after sticking the roof, and I felt like I was questing desperately all the way to the anchor. Highlight of the Bruny trip for sure.

First shot today, in the freezing gale-force wind. Entertaining traverse, bizarre overhanging arete-feature (full of huge holes), and a thin face climbing finale. It's a shame about the terrible rock on the arete feature, because the climbing, the feature, and the exposure are outrageous. Coupled with the mixed-bag first pitch this probably doesn't deserve a star, but it's still a crazy adventure!