Ascents by Will Vidler having Distinct route

Awesome all-trad route that gets shade from sun-up to sun-down and manages to pack all kinds of varied climbing into its three pitches. The chimney on the first pitch was way above my comfort level in that style and i struggled to generate even the most minor upwards momentum. I still dont know how i oozed my way up?? Pitch two (which i linked pitch one into) is also great with a nice steep hands section and its own perplexing chimney before the belay on the slab. Then the final pitch is radness and were it longer would be one of the best bits of crack in the mountains. I fell off on the onsight and then went up and down a bit figuring out the moves and preparing for a solid second go. Here my inner sport climber kicked in and i did all manner of crack gastoning and laybacking to get myself up this pitch, which is probably not too hard at the grade once you know what to do. It was then super awesome to see Jason smash it out for a full beta spray flash on second, once more proving that hiding beneath his sport climbing facade, a trad climbing monster is lying in wait, mostly quietly biding its time but occasionally springing forth and crushing cracks with the raw bouldering power of an endurance deprived bolt clipper. Thanks Paul for the descent bolts as they make life significantly easier!

Such an awesome pitch. It called to me from the camp ground and I couldn't resist its allure. Definitely had to give it some and the calf pump was unbelievable but ultimately it all went to plan and I managed to clip the anchors. Pretty dreamy. Surely this is one of the best lines at Arapiles? Thanks for the belay Steve!

Brilliant line, brilliant climbing, brilliant gear. Very much a type one fun experience questing up this face. Everything went nice and smoothly and I found myself at the top without too many dramas. Exceptional and not particularly hard for the grade, and definitely a route that should be on everyone's list!

Brilliant route. Had the full value experience of major flash pump from no warm up above exciting pins and gear. Loved it!

One of the better routes i’ve done. Classic from go to woah.

Soft and way over bolted but totally great. Literally all I need to be content in life is stemming corners with a touch of laybacking thrown in for good measure..

A grand day out in immaculate weather and with excellent company but the route itself doesn’t live up to the reputation. The first pitch is quite good, a burly warm up. Pitch two is fun but a one move wonder, I linked this into pitch three which was also fun. Pitch four was okay but not memorable, pitch five is excellent but massively over bolted and pitch six and seven have surprisingly hard climbing on ever decreasing rock quality which was uninspiring. I linked six and seven and massively ran out of quick draws which was exciting. We rapped off from here rather than face the choss above.

I really wasn’t a fan of how this route was equipped. The apparent ethic of bolt where it’s hard, not where’s it’s dangerous seemed dumb and felt really contrived, the best example of this being a fist jam from which you can clip three bolts. I still had an excellent time though and the climbing is good enough to still make it worthwhile, despite the bad equipping and the less than ideal rock quality.

Pretty fun little jaunt. Very moderate except for the three or four meters on the second pitch where it is very unmoderate! Pitch one was meh but also fine, pitch two is all time! pitch three wasn't as bad as it looked but was stupidly equipped with two bolts at the start and no more after that. Pitch four is good climbing the whole way and probably more 16 than 18, just a little spicy at the start, and pitch five is mega for an easy crack. It kinda looked to me like the bolts were bash in stainless carrots though which I didn't love and I also think a lot of the pitch lengths are fairly exaggerated. I think 23+ is fair.

Hard and utterly brilliant the whole way. Do this rock climb.

Funky Arapiles-esque face climbing. Would get 21 there.

Awesome and soft.

Botched the onsight slipping off. Second go in the rain. Full value.

Totally rad. Punted the initial boulder which was nails and then came down and went clean to the top. Really fun trad climbing. The first two bolts had draws on them but I placed all the trads.

It's not every weekend that you get to climb four routes and accrue 15 guidebook stars. Redemption from the mega whip. It turns out that progressing logically through the grades is the key to sending harder routes and that jumping on a 23 (trad) when you have only climbed 18 (trad) is hard. A lovely and solid send in the light rain after drinking some tea to attempt to warm my partially frostbitten self. I still got stressed about falling off at a few key moves, and especially on the very top 5m or so that I hadn't climbed before (luckily here I found a non-existent crimp to absolutely ming on so all was okay), but generally it didn't seem to be in too much doubt. It also added further support to my theory that every trad route harder than 19 (or starting at 19 if you are in Tassie) but easier than 26 is approximately the same grade of "hard but doable", with slight variations depending on the year of the FA. I placed all the gear except for a blue wire in a semi-key placement that Harry whipped on and got very stuck, but this I was able to clip from a bomber fist jam and I even placed the quickdraw on it in the arbitrary interest of making sure I gained a bit of extra pump, so I don't think that made a difference. Ultra mega classic!!! "Grasshopper" you are in my sights!!

Went super easily today. Just one of the best routes in the style i've ever done. Amazing rock, slightly intimidating and great fun. Not nearly as spicy as it looks or it's reputation suggests so this should be on everyone's list for sure!!

Finally got someone to belay me and led the bloody thing. Totally sublime. I love this climb!

Accidentally fell off on the onsight when I forgot to try hard. Went fairly easily second go. Awesome rock!

All this talk about how this is really only 19 and we are all just fucking soft inspired me to come back and finish it off. Rapped in, top roped the business to warm up, then rapped to the ground and did both pitches. The weather was truly superb and it turns out it's all actually pretty easy when you know where the foot holds are (especially now that the offwidth is clean). I also did a sick layback transition to hand jam flowz move above gear which pleased me greatly. I like rock climbing.

Fear with Paul.

A truly glorious and horrific excursion and one i’m not sure i’d be up for again. The ground up epic was truly epic and Paul’s questing into the unknown was most impressive. I grovelled the first traverse pitch in all its disintegrating horror and then seconded after that, being more than happy to give Paul his good style ascent and enjoy a less terrifying day myself. I had to jumar the first few metres of pitch one as a fall on second would have meant certain cratering but i otherwise flashed it all. Massive thanks to Paul for having the vision that inspired a ground up ascent and the nerves of steel to back it up. It was a truly grand excursion.

If you are up for the adventure this is really one of the great wall routes of the Blue Mountains, just do your best to not fall off...

Second go on top rope. Cedar was on it so i thought I might as well join in as I wasn’t doing anything. Very fun, bouldery, intense crack climbing. A sandbag.

A classic pitch. Doesn't get much more absurd for grade 23 trad! Part of the Iron Throne/Asteroids link up thing.

Had a bit of an epic on this, struggling with having no chalk in my chalk bag as well as none on the route. Really great face climbing though once I figured it out, even though I ended up coming down after the first pitch. Pretty keen to get back out and finish and when I give Grasshopper a go!

Almost almost. Fell just after clipping the traverse bolt and then onsighted to the top. I had a view to trying the upper pitch too but it needs to be a little dug out I think first. I shall be back (hopefully sooner rather than later).