Ascents of West Ridge of Mitre

Classic at the grade

Nice ramble to close out the day good view of arapiles

Shit. Don’t tell Mum!

Probably the best route ive ever done. High levels of exposure and some terrifying runouts.

Look mum, no hands!

last climb of the 2000m day, counting it bc its on the crag and that's about it

Almost didn't make it...

almost turned around at hillarys second step due to oxygen deficit but struggled and pushed through the heavy winds and past the oxygen tanks to the summit

Guidebook description does not do justice.

Trudged over the blood and the bones of climbers gone by who failed in their ascent of this exposed route. Be careful out there. Did the downclimb solo too.

No hands, but did use the kneebars

The climb team consisting of my wife and myself awoke before dawn after a restless night of sleep. If you could call it that. We knew what we were up against on this epic beast, 100m of free solo glory lay ahead of us.

We laced up, racked up, and prepared ourselves as well as we could for an onsight solo. We reviewed our notes from other climbers, packed our snacks and PLB and set out.

The climb starts off easy with a ramble across the parking lot, but it felt more like we were being lured into a false sense of security. Our suspicions were confirmed when we performed our first scramble, high legging over boulders at least a foot off the ground. We bit down and soldiered on.

As we came to the top of the ridge we noted that we could see our vehicle and swung leads. My wife had gotten us off the ground, it was now my turn to bring it home.

The scrambling continued and we knew this climb was sandbagged. Honestly it climbed far more like a grade 2 than a 1. We ambled to the descent area, popping ourselves from ledge to ledge.

Then it was done and we were standing on grass. The elation is hard to describe and honestly we will likely float on this one for weeks.

Life now feels sepia toned by comparison. Food has lost its flavor. We will clearly need to find new ways to stretch our limits if we are ever to be happy again.

Hahahahahaha

Best grade 1 free solo around

First "climb" of the day for my mega day, onsighting the classiest routes possible of every grade from 1-21

not easy

All about that vert

for shit and giggles

Descent

The descent

The watermelon in our party nearly took a solo fall but some extra beta prevented any mishaps

Down climb. Like Killian Jornet; in sneakers

Guiding

Had to do it again with Jason.

Easy scramble to the summit.