Ascents in Mount Wellington by Chris Speer

Great climb - loved the mantle and the whole route kept me working hard. The sport climbing era on the pipes kicks off.

Underrated.

Alex put in a solid effort leading this one. Great to do it on the toppy.

I on-sight yoyo'd this in true 70's style to ensure that the ascent was as true as possible to the time in which the climb was put up. But this was the kind of yoyo in which one does not untie once at the ground, because in this version of the 70s universe if you haven't gone through the crux yet but your gear happens to slide off your harness, you still retain the onsight if you eat a blue lobster but only on a Monday, in the dark and preferably wearing blue jeans. Which is to say, if you complete the climb, then you untie at the anchor and call secure rather than safe. Then you can safely call onsight without being called out. Yeah probably fair enough. Thanks Fraser

Been wanting to do this for awhile. Rapped down to clean it but discovered it was clean! Awkward and strenuous but good fun.

Sandbagged. I think this used to be 26? Desperate crux.

Repeat

Sussing out moves and gear on toprope first for this one. Nice climbing. Technical and pumpy!

Extremely sustained. One of the great, hard, classic finger cracks on the mountain. Should get more traffic. All moves free but need to work the crux a bit more to dial a sequence before I attempt a lead.

Just pitch two on the toprope. Damn this is good. Slip and fall at the crux but then took it to the top. I'll have to come back and lead this. Awesome moves.

Pretty hard for the grade. Gave it a toppy lap and sussed the cruxes and gear first, then fired it without too much trouble. What a route.

Nice climbing. But a bit contrived.

I liked it. One committing move which adds some fun. I ended up humping the arete shortly after said committing move, which I thought was quite entertaining.

I think 19 is about right. Or old school 18. Pretty good, a couple of hollow sounding flakes near the bottom but it’s pretty straightforward climbing there. Never felt unhappy with any of the gear.

Ultraspanked. Will need to lay off the whoppers to get up this one.

Warmup

Can confirm this is still sustained.

A forgotten classic! Led last pitch. Wouldn’t recommend the first pitch as it’s a bit dirty and vegetated, though the climbing is still good. Crux is definitely uncompromising as the guide suggests, but I wouldn’t say brutal. The rest is excellent grade 17 crack and face climbing up a really unique and interesting feature. Will do again. Rapping in from the top with a 60 m fixed line is the go for access. Flash as we rapped down the line.

So you want adventure you say? But you only want to climb 15m you say? We’ll look no further than this shining pile of interest. ‘Struggle up the offwidth’ says the guide. Well I can tell you I did more than struggle. It may only be 4m long but you’ll have to work for every inch of it. Careful not to look down at your belayer giggling because you look like a cat in its box of kitty litter at 2am in the morning, whilst also feeling like a 1500s jungle explorer. Well done on making it through the gurgler, enjoy some nice hand jams until the roof. Oh, you like German baked goods you say? Great! Because you’re about to become a pretzel. Have some grass with that. And don’t forget that the beached whale top out into hardy shrubs is the coolest way to top out. You’re almost at the top. But oh no! The east exit chimney is now grade 36 because you’ve just circumnavigated the buttress with your rope and you can’t move. Keep struggling to the tree at the top. Also, make sure you start this as late as possible on a weeknight so your second has to do it in the dark. 10/10 experience. Everyone must do once, but then never again.

Great route.

Second lead burn and it went. Great climbing.

So good.

The jamming felt more technical but less sustained than Savage Journey. Offwidth was pretty easy in the end, plenty of good rests. Great route.

Rad route. Brutal offwidth. I’ll come back and lead this.

About time I led this. Quite the undomesticated campaign.

2 clean laps. Better start leading again.

Finally led second pitch. All quality. Alex did great on pitch 1. A lot harder than I remember.

Still hard. Had to work hard through the crux to get through it cleanly.

Thanks to Zac who convinced me to go ground up rather than take the soft option and check it out on the way down. Proceeded to dog it like an absolute mutt. Had a clean toppy lap once I ticked a few holds and then seconded Zac on it and had a couple sits. Seems doable. Next lead should see it happen I hope.

Woohoo. Original finish with direct start. After some consultation I'll accept the 25, but it felt kind of 24 to me. Definitely 25 with the direct finish - something to work on for the future.

Direct start with original finish. Couple clean laps on the toprope and figuring out gear. Time for the lead.

Bit over this. Hurts my fingers and isn't all that inspiring. Back to project shopping.

Needs a downgrade. A really good route that needs more attention.

Turns out you can hand traverse using your forearms. Nice route. Pumpy.

Mandatory yearly ascent. So many good nut placements.

Short but stout. Really good and one to come back and lead for sure. Feels like 24 to me (and I'm short with fat fingers!).

Can't believe this hadn't been done yet. A bit of cleaning has revealed a hidden gem. Goey at the grade and a good test-piece. A good one to learn the necessary jamming skills before jumping on Albatross at Lowdina.

Great route and a good onsight by Rach.

Warmup repeat. Hard little route.

Repeat. Good good good good good.

Undercling move is cool. The rest is either dirty and weird or uninspiring.

First half is dirty but climbs well at about 16/17. Second half is the money with the pumpy steep layback corner. Thought this was tough for 19.

This was great. Led first pitch, but didn’t have any issues on the second which I thought might be a little tougher. All felt pretty straightforward to me! Great line.

Really nice. Got into the flow on this one.