Ascents in Blue Mountains by Jacques Beaudoin

Climbed with hands and feet exclusively in the crack this time, a bit of a contrived challenge to up my game in preparation for the Creek. Felt really hard.

Very good! Even the start slab is great!

Very pleasant climb, good fun!

not the best warm up, found a few bits hard to read, the beta from Aaron "I think Neil grunted through this bit..." doesn't disqualify my onsight.

Just flashed the 25 bit and stopped at anchor under roof, bloody good climb!

It was all too much, too hard, too chossy, too complex, too concerning for my belayer below. At some stage the rock is too bad to even aid. Didn't make it to the crux and stopped when I asked myself "why am I doing this???" It really made me appreciate how well-rounded is Lee's skillset.

Repeat on Fanny's gear to clean the climb for his redpoint.

Aptly named, I believe the "axe" the route name refers to is a 15m long and thin feature that looks like it could detach from the cliff at any moment! Definitely felt full value for the grade as I didn't trust the rock I was stepping on or pulling on. Otherwise, I think it was a great climb. Fanny followed me and and didn't pull anything off so I guess I was just being paranoid.

Repeat, this time with the rock as clean as it can get without high traffic. Unfortunately I have to take few stars off after the ecstasy of the ground up first ascent wore out. The rock is all but perfect, It's short and has a sit down rest at the middle. Also, few flakes fell down leaving alternate footwork to the feet in the crack used in the first ascent. Still think it's a great little climb.

My second 27 onsight! Conditions were unfairly good and I kept on trucking making only few reading mistakes that I could recover from. Albeit inconsistent in difficulty, this climb delivers great moves all the way up on fantastic holds.

First Free Ascent. Very inspiring line that begged to be climbed. Not strictly crack climbing as all footwork is there and the wide crack can be underclung in the same fashion as it's thinner version Gravel Rash at the Underworld. Used #3#2#0.75 for the start anchor then 5x#6 (some shuffled from the very beginning) and #0.75#2 after turning the lip.

Not every day you walk past an unclimbed classic roof crack, you've got the right gear, you've got the right partner and you onsight it ground up cleaning the loose rock on the way up, pull through perfect fists and hands with feet in the crack. Dream. I decided to continue up above the crack to top out on a scary mission on suspicious dinner plates, lose dirt, caving under boulder and emerge trough a hole. I do not recommend that bit! I will go back and clean it properly top down, this climb deserves to be one of the best cracks at the grade in the Blueys and beyond. Fanny agreed, this is an amazing find.

Sooo good, I had to come back a few times over the years to get the crux sorted. Most of the climb is 3-4 grades easier than the crux section but for some reasons it's still exciting and it climbs so well. I rate this climb and will do it again.

Epic onsight in one monster pitch. Loads of gear shuffle to avoid rope drag and avoid running out of #4s. Crux was burly fist jams that made me work real hard but I didn't think I'd fall at any moment. For me doing this climb in one pitch made it truly memorable.

Nice climb, great gear

Warming up for Haystack Madness ;-)

Climbs much better than it looks, I really enjoyed it. I didn't clip the bolts, good gear all the way.

Great climb. Had to fight to onsight this one.

6 shots total, fantastic climb. Is the grade a baseline for 28? I'm asking for feedback because I have no idea and I've been FA grading a fair bit of much harder 28s in the recent years. Thanks for letting me know what you think.

Third shot on this. Sorted out the ground boulder, tried Gwen's beta with knee bar but although it makes the reach easier for pinkie lock, the footwork becomes sub optimal for the next move. Back to my original beta with low feet pinkie lock is now solid 80%. Also fell off at top crux unexpectedly. Hopefully this is going down next shot.

Top crux now sorted, not using the mono which I use for gear. Mid crux goes RH pinkie lock no tape.

Hybrid simul climb, Anton lead the first half, I lead the second. Was quickly over.

Awesome crack, we did it in two monster pitches

Climbed with passive gear only, there's heaps, made the climb more interesting.

Pitch 1 only. Fantastic climb! My average sausage fingers could only juuuussst fit in the second lock at a precise angle, when I worked that out it was fairly easy to get through first crux. Second crux at exit went really well but I had to grunt.

Great crack, great gear, a bit too much undercligning to my liking but very inspiring line. All dry, great friction today!

Finally completing this long chapter placing all gear from ground to end. This climb is one of a kind.

Harder than it looks from the ground. Perhaps the moist interior of the crack made it feel a bit stiff, perhaps being belayed by my 9yo little girl made it feel even stiffer 😉. Good little crack, will be more enjoyable after few months of summer drought.

World class at the grade

Insane, I can imagine people freaking out on this one! Linked the 2-3-4 together.

Really nice, end traverse unnecessary, should have anchors straight up at the break I reckon

Repeat, just too good not to be repeated

Was and epic battle. All trad gear pre-placed. Very, very unique climb. Such an improbable line.

Got advised to upgrade to 24. Although all holds are big, half the gear is tricky and suspicious and this thing is horizontal. Would be three stars at piddo.

So good!

Fantastic!

Amazing rock features with amazing texture

Second shot with all gear pre-placed, first shot was epic with passive gear pre-placed and felt soooo much harder, I gave up when placing a bad #5 breathing in a chunky gain of sand. The climb still needs a lot of cleaning.