Ascents of The Obvious Elbow (of Aristocrat Arthur Decanter)

Super fun route this. Definitely better than disco, and worth the traverse in. Although next time I’ll abseil. Only had time for one flash attempt. Will have to come back to finish this off.

Had a play on this marvellous piece of stone whilst out giving Dave a catch on the best arete in the Bluies. I only made it through to the second crux (of six?!) before the big whips did my head in as i threw myself at the sequence without huge success. Initial impressions tell me this route is totally mega, even the 'non-moves' are fricken rad, and I only made it about a third of the way up (which is still like 20m of climbing...) I'll definitely be back but I think a solo mission might be in order because I can't really envision myself figuring out that crux particularly quickly and i don't want to alienate all of my belayers just yet.

Dogged up to the crux but couldnt stick the holds. Spectacular rock and moves, hard climbing. Be back in better conditions.

Another Repeat, this time for some photos, and placing draws on lead. Brilliant conditions today. Tonnes-o-fun no-pressure lap. Mega.

Clean Repeat (via Direct Finish). Route #2 of the IHaD Wall Triple in a day. Pretty psyched to re-tick this 2 days after the FA of the new finish. Much better conditions than I've had lately, but still hard work even knowing the route intimately. The final boulder-problem moves near the top are always a roll of the dice as to whether I stick it or not. So damn mega!

Direct Finish Sorted! 2nd shot today, 10th lead shot total. After falling off the crux of the original Elbow Route on my first lap, I put some time into devising a physically harder (but more reliable in the high humidity) way of doing the low sequence, and as a stormfront moved in (bringing high winds and torrential rains for Sending conditions) I set off and crushed it. Just BARELY kept it together for the top crux, then almost fell off the grade 20 final moves to top out, and again off the wet mantle topout in the rain... Shrieking and whimpering the whole way. That's the sort of Send you want!

No idea of the grade. I don't really care either. Someone else make up a grade for it. Quite a bit harder than the original Elbow Route (which is certainly 26), and substantially harder than I Have a Dream or Disco Non-Stop Party... But 26 will do for now.

4 more shots. Struggling with the hideously humid conditions on the crux of the original route, and doing my best to achieve new low-points. Radical climbing, but frustrating today. Fortunately, Neil achieved his objective, so at least there was some point to me being here today.

Did the top half at the start of the day for a 'warm-up'. Great climbing.

Also tried the bottom half later in the day; and couldnt' even pull the moves of the pre-crux crux! Would love to see someone else short (and stronger) try it!

3 more shots, pushing the highpoint higher each time. On my final shot, despite being worn-out and climbing scrappy, I managed to fall off with my hand ON the final jug, 56m up a 58m route! It's kinda funny having to lap everything that makes original Elbow route hard just to get to the upper half of new climbing. Aw well, maybe next time. Still a damned awesome adventure, especially considering the hilarious crowd of climbers on I Have a Dream wall today!

1 lead attempt placing the draws, with biiiiig falls in 3 sections, and much desperate, shouting, shrieking battling to achieve the linkage that I did. This thing is so malevolently sustained and demanding, with so much unrelenting hard climbing in the upper half (in particular, the final boulder just below the top). I tried so hard on this that I felt sick by the time I topped out... awesome!

Spent a day working the entire route... trying to re-learn the original version (the lower 3/5) and dial the new upper section... Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I never managed to climb either section in isolation clean on Top Rope Solo... Yeah, I'd definitely forgotten how tough the original Elbow Route is. Super-sustained for the better part of 52m or so (after the easy start), with 1 balancy no-hands rest, and just a single jug-horizontal throughout its entirety.

Finally! 2nd shot today, 9th lap in total. Extremely long, thin, technical, stressfully sustained, surprisingly overhanging and stunningly positioned. Took a monster whip off the last move of the crux on my first shot, and I was shaking when I made it past it and went into the pumpy/scary traverse on the Send. Rope drag was noticeable, but not as bad as I was expecting, though going into the top crux my own weariness was definitely discernible, especially when it started raining! Utterly Mega!

3 more laps Top Rope Solo. Some great sections of linkage (have now linked the entire climb in 2 overlapping sections) but still haven't managed to climb it all clean, even on Top Rope. By the 3rd shot yesterday, I was so worn-out that it was all going downhill. Linking from the start of the traverse to the very top, the top (gr24) crux of I Have a Dream became a desperate battle with much shouting, but I did it. Might be time to try a lead attempt.

3 laps of the lower 30m (crux) on Top Rope Solo. So... damned... MEGA! My best link on 3rd shot was to the final throw that ends the hardest bit of climbing (the first 25m or so) before I missed the throw, though I still had about 9m of sustained and airy gr22 before I would get a rest. I also added an extra bolt, and bolted the traverse line that gets you to the belay anchors of this from Lunch Ledge. Gr25/26?

Top Rope Solo before bolting it. 58m single-pitch above 200m of air, on amazing rock. Mega... Just... Simply... MEGA.