Ascents in Australia by Will Vidler having trad-cpr or ascent-date

One two three with Adrian, Brittany, and me.

Pre-placed.

Brilliant route from James and Hugh! Deserves a whole lot more attention than it gets. With this, Harbinger, and La Niña, Boyce Town has some of the best under appreciated cracks in the mountains. Second go on the first pitch and then onsighted the upper two pitches linked together with Paul belaying on the ground. The first pitch is an amazing roof crack at about 24 that is unfortunately guarded by a pretty hard boulder off the ground (I do not know what grade it is). This should however not put you off! With one aid move or climbing in via a bolt to the left you can access the amazing upper crack which really is rad, or just do the move. The upper pitches are a bit shit and on shit bolts; either very old carrots or stainless bash ins. I wouldn’t really recommend bothering to do them. I didn’t enjoy the climbing and thought it was kinda dangerous; probably takes away from the quality of the first pitch. A much better thing to do would be to step right and finish up La Niña for sustained trad radness (or lower off). Because of rope drag and gear and general shitness and so I could rap clean the route, after pulling the steep section on the top pitch I climbed direct up the grey jugs instead of traversing left to the snappy orange rock for the last few metres. I think this makes the climbing less offensive and allows you to get to the tree belay on top in a way that means you can easily belay or rap. You can rap from this tree to the anchor at the top of the first pitch on a 70m.

One of the very best cracks in the mountains but I did not find it to be jugs. Seven days of effort, one some years ago and then recently three on TRS and three with partners. Thanks Paul for the send belay and Harry and Will for coming down on the other days to support. For the third pitch I did a long traverse right to meet up with Telstar placing no gear. It's a bit of a choose your own adventure up there but at least this way was easy...ish. Someone go do it and tell me what grade it is.

Mega mega mega! Definitely one to add to the trad canon. Started up Boisterous then stepped right at the ledge as per FA and pulled the rope up and dropped it back down at the stance for drag purposes. All the bolts had draws on them but I placed all the trad on red point except for the two fixed wires that I hung the draws on during the send. I could wax lyrical but you should just go do it instead. Second go.

Adrian did it!

You can’t not climb Punks on its birthday!!

TR pre inspection.

Winner winner! Top roped it twice for maximum chance of success then managed it without too much drama. Almost fluffed the top. One of the finer trad outings i’ve experienced.

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

After taking an absolute monster whipper into a tree off the very final move (and the ensuing jumar to get back on and then down climbing the whole route to get the gear back) I managed to haul my very tired self through the belly of the beast, around the corner, and to the top of the scary flake where the route ends. I placed all the gear on lead except for one semi-stuck and easy to place wire at the start, which was the compromise to allow for safely and efficiently cleaning the route each time. A very very good process. I think it could be 25 but also 27 depending on how tall/short you are and a whole bunch of other factors, so we’ll leave it at 26 until someone tells us otherwise. Radness! (x2)

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

Pretty rad to be down playing on this wall. Not sure how many opportunities i’ll have to try the route whilst working on this film about Duncan with Tristan and Tom for TNF but was cool to have a play as Duncan rested. Seconded pitch one first go which was pretty chill and then did three back to back laps on the 25 pitch. I went up it first to figure it out and fell off a few times, came down to the stance just above the balancy start and climbed from there to the top but figured I should do it properly so lowered back down to the belay and did it pulling the rope through the grigri the whole time which was a bit brutal. Hopefully it feels easier on lead.

Actually unbelievable.

Dreamy. TR to warm up and get the gear back out of it after Swena’s heroic onsight attempt and then had a lovely time on the sharp end. One of the best routes at Araps, well protected, and not too hard for the grade by the standards around these parts. Single pitch (obviously).

I top roped the easy first half on Ash’s gear after her valiant attempt and then quested onwards through the crux and beyond and got scared. Not jugs.

Awesome day out on a route I have wanted to do forever. First pitch is pretty good and mostly trad, probably kinda easy at the grade but with one gripping section. Pitch two saw me get mighty flash pumped and bog down on the arete for a while before somehow squeaking through on friction alone. Pitch three was super duper rad but probably also not too hard for the grade (especially with small fingers). I sent it with a tonne of Paul's beta and I doubt I would have been able to onsight it as it is pretty cryptic and hanging the draws kinda sucks as some of them are in fairly inconvenient spots. I only placed about half of the gear on this pitch but where there is trad it's about grade 16 so I don't really think it matters that much. Pitch four is not amazing but also totally inoffensive. Pitch five is kind of crap as you have to do real moves on some very scary rock. I was terrified I was going to punt the last pith snapping something off.

Ultimately though definitely worthwhile and should see more ascents.

If you aren't super fussed with perfect onsight ethics it could be worth hanging the draws on the bolts as you rap down the third pitch, and especially leave behind a sling to extend the life out of the first bolt in the corner so you can clip it low (we are talking 1.5m+ runner) and thus alleviate the potential for a pretty heinous swinging fall.

Suggested rack is small to medium wires and cams from BD 0.3 to 1 with doubles of 0.5 to 1.

Total dream send. A very high quality rock climb! Huge thanks to Liz for the gear and excellent beta. Super duper psyched!

Was on the 2018 trip list. Good to do!

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

Third go after Chris did it, taking out his gear. A bit of a spicy meatball this one, not sure if I’m brave enough this trip.

Classic in the genre! Burly, reachy, steep crack climbing on generally good rock. Definitely needs to be added to the Bluies quality cracks circuit. I found it very intimidating at times but rarely actually hard. Would round out an absolutely mega trad day at Engineers doing this, Static, and CTW. Took the advice of rapping in on a fixed line and rope soloing to get out. Harry and I both thought the pitch lengths were fairly generous.

Another three on the last day. An unfortunate foot slip and fatigue from twelve days on meant no dice for me. No sends in doggers gully were had this day.

Same log as the previous one. The whole no rest days thing really gets to you.

Another three goes. Two one hangs from different points.

Two goes.

Nice to get done. Not too bad when you know where all the gear goes. It is a shame that the difficulty of the top 5m isn't spread over the whole route.

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!

A ten star grovel. In a single pitch.

This is seriously the best! Pretty much everything I could ask for in a pitch of rock climbing; stemming, laybacking, finger locks, hand jams, bomber rock, and a stunning location. If you claim to enjoy good routes you have absolutely no option but to go down and jump straight on this king line of the Bluies.

My ascent was almost an onsight, I had no real knowledge of any of the moves on the route but I did get some gear beta from Emil and I do think that increased my confidence a fair bit and possibly allowed me to push through some moments of intimidation to get to the next bomber placement. So a flash placing all gear on lead. I also have the benefit of chisel-tip fingers which I think definitely makes a difference on some of the cruxy sections. We only climbed the first (money) pitch as Emil was trying his bolted route next door.

Ultimately though, none of that matters because pulling the moves on this is just so much fun and to send in good style was an absolute dream.

One of my most memorable climbing experiences.

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.

Had an absolute epic on this. Was probably on the route for two hours. It turns out the gear is really quite hard to get in when there isn't a wire at the crux. Took lots of big falls before eventually managing to scarily aid the crux piece in and continue, which still didn't go smoothly with having to back clean and it getting dark, goodness me. Did all moves except the crux one. Really emptied the tank. Proper.

Totally my style. Lots of gastons and difficult standing. Climbed it in three overlapping sections between the two shots including the final crux into the top half of Yesterday which was some great retro flash pumping action. One I would happily come back for.

Three goes with Paul. Best effort nearly took me to the lie down slot. Has probably the best jump in the mountains, or at least the best one at a moderate grade. Psyched to come back!

Joyful. Taking out Lee’s gear, not that there was much of it.

One of the better things I’ve ever done. Don’t know what this nonsense about a poorly protected start is.

Not really harder than curtain call but with poorer gear and less nice everything else too.

I think I went up three times on TR after my flash go, two of them clean. Thanks Chris for sorting out an anchor etc.

Some fairly severe slabbing to start the day, and I found the beginning of pitch 1 nails!! Fairly pleasant after that and linking pitch 3 and 4 was fun.

Man I am psyched to tick this off. Honestly just an absolute delight. Warmed up on TR and then sent it packing first lead shot placing all the traddy bits. On the grade, I think this is easier, if a little spicier, than The Thin Line of Reprieve, which in my opinion is benchmark 24 for Bluies trad. If anyone wants logistics beta, let me know.