Ascents by Geoff Cooper having Distinct route

Great climb in a really exposed environment. We got a little lost so directions are as follows:

700m take right fork onto fire trail

800m take left fork onto smaller track

Follow track for 2km until you reach the top of the upper Fortress wall

Take the right hand fork down to the back of this ridge (western side) for 200m

Turn left at small cairn

Follow path under upper cliff line for 80m then zig zag down for 40m to chains

We took around 1:15 to walk the ~4km. My advice for attempting this climb:

Avoid windy days. We were lucky to have no dramas on the 3 abseils, but the wind picked up whilst climbing. Bring a whistle to help with communication.

Bring a headtorch and start early if climbing outside of daylight savings.

I used 3 litres of water.

Single rack of cams (#0.3 to #3) with no doubles. Single rack of wires and no hexes.

Wear a helmet. The rock quality was reasonably good however there is a lot of ironstone that could break off.

We used 2 beefy ropes and clipped alternatively to avoid rope drag.

Pitch 1 - led by Geoff

Pitch 2 - led by Ben

Pitch 3 - led by Geoff

Pitch 4 - led by Geoff

Pitch 5 - led by Ben

Pitch 6 - led by Ben

Approach is long and particularly strenuous on the loose scree heading off the canyon track to the base of the climb. We didn’t descend far enough and traversed into the top of pitch 2.

Pitches 3 to 7 are quite good. Some run out sections but climbing was quite nice. Rope drag tends to be the main struggle with long pitches even using double ropes.

Quite disappointing that pitches 8 to 10 are much worse for climbing style, rock quality and gear placements. Pitch 8 was terrifying as we ended up putting all our lives in the hands of the thread belay. Rope drag caused a big problem and delayed the process - leading to pitches 9 and 10 being done after sundown. These involved a lot of dirt thrutching.

I led pitches 3a, 5 and 8.

Left carpark at 8:30am, returned at 6:00pm.

It appeared as though there is an escape from the top of pitch 4 back to the scree slope.

Should be graded slightly higher and with an X rating as there were some moments where a fall would have been extremely serious.

Compared to Tom Thumb this has a much harder approach and the climbing is nowhere near as good.

Great climb. The roof at the start is quite easy with the jugs above. Then a solid slabby climb with excellent pro in the crack. Place a high cam at the rooflet before traversing out left on easy holds then up to ledge

Had some trouble with rope getting stuck in the crack when lowering

Really nice climb. Quite easy and well protected with #3 and #4 cams. A touch of fist jamming to make the flake at the top of the crack. Nice to have abseil rings to avoid the traverse to Faith

Nice climbing on easy holds. Didn't have good pro though. Next time would take a #4 and 2 x #3 cams

Lots of good placements for small cams

Poor pro

Quite a good route. Used single rack from 0.3 to 4 and some hexes. Bigger gear needed for the top section. Belayed and abseiled off tree without realising there are new lower offs

Anchor off small tree

Easy climbing on good holds

Good climbing with pro in both large crack (Bangers & Flash) and also the smaller crack on the face. Some nice face holds. Excellent corner stemming and then out to lower offs for Fingers

Good pro in horizontal breaks

Contrived