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Top rope solo

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"

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

5 days of effort in total to put this all together. I pink-pointed the top 2 pitches, and had the first 2m of gear pre-clipped on P3. I broke 4 fixed pegs, and 1 hourglass carrot during this process. I also took 5 falls -one of which was a sideways whip onto an hourglass carrot, that somehow held my fall!

I wanted to climb something hard on Dogface to prove to myself that I could -I've always believed that I could, but the time had come to prove it.

I found this a conflicting experience. I liked the climbing on the crux pitches, and -surprisingly- didn't end up finding the bad rock/gear as terrifying as I expected. However, because every single lap the route gets harder (breakages, holds become sandier, others become more rounded, fixed gear breaks, etc) my whole experience was stressful due to the knowledge that sooner or later it would be too hard for me to climb. I've never really climbed with this type of time-constraint before (wherein, every failed lap is punished by adding .1 of a grade to the pitch).

Interestingly, the bottom 2 pitches are quite moderate, and actually surprisingly good (the rock isn't too bad, the gear is pretty good, and the climbing is fun!). These pitches are probably worth doing in their own right. After that, it gets rather sandy, and kinda hard

P3 had a wildly technical thin stepped corner (on good gear) to start it off (it took me quite a while to figure out the beta), followed by easy, loose, runout rambling.

P4 had a very cool seam-crack crux, followed by interesting, technical, runout slab climbing on deteriorating rock.

Survived another day with Dave. Lots of protection but had to work for it. Most of it held. Super fun day out. Our second aid climb training for Ozymandias and hopefully Yosemite. Took 7 hours (2/3/2 for each pitch).

Gigantor C2+, ?16R, multipitch aid route.

P1 lead by JB on quasi TR (mixed free/aid). P1 belay anchor backed up with rap line.

Lead p2/3 linked lead by DD, this does have the advantage of not having to worry about landing on your belayer on the p3 crux shortly off the belay.

?6ish hrs from start of route, probably about the same of time spent faffing on gear sort/locating rap access point etc etc.

Sandy. The anchor stations are an obomination and in terrible condition. At least one of the carrots has recently been removed by hand.

Rack notes:

Hooks - took selection, used none

Micros - set brass offset, set peanuts

Would have liked set std brass or two as well

Took one set stoppers ,2.5 sets alloy offset Would take 2 sets walnuts and three or four offsets

Black/blue alien - used none.

Triple black totems/C4s to green

4*red totem/C4s

Double #2,#3

Didn't bring offset cams

Bolt plates

Usual anchor kits/belayer care etc etc.

Would consider taking safety glasses/goggles and a buff especially for the belayer - I had to clean a fair number of placements on lead and showered the belayer in sand.

Pretty disappointed at the state of the bottom of the cliff, removed the volume of several shopping bags of rubbish from the base of the cliff. Given the position unlikely to have been left by non-climbers. Hopefully those responsible reconsider their behaviour. Lots of planks (?parts of an old lookout?) yet to be removed, would likely require destruction in place or epic haul out.

No doubt will be back to do in better style, hard to beat the convenience. Get on it before it falls off (again).

Previous route description:

The obvious line at the cliff. “Trade aid route” (Read: might see a few ascents year) - goes clean ie no pins, some hooking (Read: The rocks so soft even ‘clean’ aid placements are enlarging and will eventually blow out during normal placement and cleaning).

Safety goggles for the belayer recommended to keep sand out of the eyes. Fixed belay anchors in poor condition, consider backing up with extra gear/rap line etc if you’re so inclined.

Apparently originally led in a single pitch by Ewbank with pins & hammer with belay anchors hammered in after the first ascent (?source)

P1 (? 25meters) - Unprotected free climb on choss - start either direct or traverse in from left to reach the base of the crack. Mixed aid (~C1/C2) and free to belay . Belay anchor is just an introduction into the eyesore of apparently self-replicating corroded bash-in drilled circular pitons on this route.

P2 (? 28 meters) - Can be linked with P3 but 70m+ rope recommended. Bit of aid and free (?some may hook here?) up to C2ish. Arrive at the belay station littered with more carrots than Alex Megos eats in a year that have aged about as well as Keith Richards.

P3 (?28 meters-depending on belay position) - Few aid moves to aid crux (C2+), then up crack finishing on carrot-ladder to chossy ledge. Up ledge to gully. Carrot belay on a boulder hidden in the bush 20m+ back (difficult to spot) or better yet just belay off a few of the trees.

Exit gully climbers left to tourist track and up to landslide lookout. And onto the pub to spray/replay the aid climbers rant.

A little bit of TR reacquainting with this king line ... great to get back, been too long ...

Pretty epic. Didn't think I would need hooks, I was wrong. Had to spend a long time chiselling out a placement for a 000 C3, it gave me hope, then at the crucial moment ripped, along with two other pieces sending me flying 4 metres below the belay. On the second attempt I finally managed to chisel the crack into a marginal nut placement and squeaked past. The highlight was a police rescue officer greeting us at the top, after more than 3 hikers had called up worried, one even with a photo of the whipper.

I mostly went down to belay Paul, and to have an opportunity to be on this wall. It's super impressive. The sort of wall that makes you feel like a tiny insect on a screen. The position couldnt get much better - and the sunset from there is spectacular. The climbing movement was actually quite cool as well - but thats about all. The rock sucks, the bolts suck, its chipped ect ect. Totally worth it for the experience - but probably only once for me.

Wow... hard to rate the quality of this route because its so "unique", but im going to give it Very Good with the caveat that its not REALLY a sport route, and its on Dogface: continue at your own risk! Went for the true Onsight (no inspection, no ticking or chalking, no pre-placing anything), and consequently fell about 6 times (some of which involved some shrieking... I REALLY didn't trust some of the bolts). A great position at the top of The Dog! Pumpy, loose-ish face climbing with powerful moves past chipped holds, and sandy rock... but surprisingly, I only broke off 1 big hold (though there was a constant rain of small debris). The bolts are a novelty for how terrible and corroded they are (and held in by mesh!), some are missing, 1 is a hilarious unclippable lump of rust, others can be flaked off with your fingernails... a few are okay. Having said that, none of them broke when I fell on them. A great afternoon adventure by the setting sun Weirdly, I enjoyed this.

A great experience, fun aid climbing with mostly solid placements a few interesting sections !

Various free attempts over the years working the route… Ground up to start, then working out the top before finally piecing the middle together… An amazing adventure that we hope to finish soon..

Fan-bloody-tastic

That kind of route - snapped the head off an ancient peg, busted a TCU, and Dave broke his nose after ripping two cams! Our late start saw the last pitch done in the complete dark! Very trippy.