Ascents by Anton Korsun having Distinct route

Up was fine. But Sloan-bagged once again, we simulrapped straight down the wrong gully (apparently marked “NO!” on mountainproject).

What was meant to be easy raps with a 60 became absolute ropestretchers with our 70m, mostly off little shrubs and requiring exposed down-aiding, unbelayed because the shrubs would probably rip.

When the trees were bomber we would simulrap again, comically running across the wall in search of further non-existent anchors for the “easy raps with a 60”.

probably the single most splitter crack ive done!

The snow cut the first pitch in half - so good!

Thought both pitches got .10c - it definitely felt that way.

Later we got on a bolted .11 and bailed after one bolt due to scary runout. This place is hard.

Went up with 6 cams and placed half of that before running it out to the lip.

Then had a funny moment when I forgot how to mantle (now decently runout) and sat sideways, awkwardly toehooking the nose for probably a good 5 mins, too pumped to stand up or clip the anchor, which was now 3 inches from my face. Like riding a horse but sideways. And 40 meters in the air. Fun.

yay

Flashed the 11+ to the first chains, and it looks like the party is just getting started there.

Had a bad time. I don’t know if this counts as an offwidth (was told it’s not), but I do know that I went up with two 5’s and a 6 and basically shat myself from pure terror.

So yea, it’s probably an offwidth.

Cruiser than expected but would be something else on lead! Flashed the first crux transition and finished the bottom section with 2 sits.

Then a loooong sit to work out the roof. Pretty pooped on that one but it went. Double kneebar. Rad.

Was told this was 5.11 and kept awaiting some heinous crux monstrosity. Easier than chokky corna for me.

One hang on the flash. Better rests than Swedin, but also like 3 Swedins stacked on top of each other.

Hoolyyyy where the feet be at?

Yay rock climbing again!

Kept nervously awaiting the crux on each sequence... it never came 🥲

Rebolt... and downclimb. Way better than it looks, bomber gear and rock the whole way and not dirty at all.

Laps. This time placing the crux gear, which I somehow haven’t done yet despite being up it so many times.

Never in doubt, but it was wetter than last time so I had a moment or two on the layback. Henry onsighted P4 without much rest after P3 - top work!

Cool route for summer. Finished up the last pitch of West Face.

Absolutely emptied the tank on this one. Last shot of the day, climbing into wild pump followed by foot slip after foot slip. Haven’t tried that hard in a while, and it’s the longest I’ve taken to do a 24 this year, but happy to get it done.

Also got to watch Pat double-icecream in much better style, which was rad.

Possibly the first repeat by someone not on the FA team (neither Jason nor I knew anyone else who had done it) - and I have to say this is a brilliant addition to Blue Mountains climbing!

Despite some soft rock that can be expected on a long new route, almost all the loose stuff will clean up with another few repeats and all belays are protected from rockfall. There isn't anything too ugly, and gear is much better than expected (look both ways in the chimney).

When it comes to large gear, we brought three 4's a 5 and a 6. The 5 and at least two of the 4's are necessary, but the 6 only protected the first few ~gr18 moves of P1 and spent the rest of the climb sandbagging the follower.

P1 - Not the best gear, whether you bring the 6 or not. Up worrying flake or corner with care.

P2 - Brilliant climbing and gear once past the chossy start, very much Samarkand P2 in style but 5 grades easier!

P3/4 - If you want the full value ~60m marathon chimney experience, end P3 early below chimney/roof (hanging stance off threads - do it 🤪). Then P4 quests forever into the void... we had a 70m rope, not sure if a 60 reaches.

P5 - Funnily enough, the most dangerous part of the route is probably the fully bolted ~gr15 traverse. Easy, but be careful with breaking footers on second, you don't want to take that swing!

P6 - Is ok. Bolts.

P7 - Is absolutely insane for the grade - brilliant and relentless face climbing. I think that the true "line" wanders left after 3 meters, and stays left of the first bolt (don't clip it! climb left of it entirely on gear) before rejoining the bolts at the 2nd bolt and questing up past the 3rd and some more gear.

Whatever I climbed felt every way 22, but going direct and clipping the first bolt looked even harder.

All in all: great climbing and good gear, easy access and wild hanging belays - go do it!

Happy to get this done. Lead/seconded the same pitches as last time, but ticked P2 with more rest and less panic.

Helped by a big effort from Jacques, who put up with my stuck cams and slow progress (and even seconded p2 clean while dragging up a tree stuck in the haul line...) thanks mate!

boom

Pitch 11 today - ok now I'm feeling it. Almost slipped out of the first few moves and took more rests than on Psychopath (pitch 9).

Pitch 10 of PIAD

Pitch 5 of PIAD

Pitch 4 of PIAD. Too much rest, Jacques fell asleep. Difficulty was on par with the Eternity today because I left that one for pitch 11 lol

Progress! Sent the first crux clean from the beginning to where the next hard bit starts. Everything after that was seeping so just had a casual aid look.

Recovering from a cold, so went partnerless today and played around with lead solo systems.

Yay!

All things considered I must be the weakest climber to have done this. When I first had a look last year it was a solid 2 grades above my limit, and although I'm stronger now and can crawl up a 25 or two, the mental aspect remains.

All in one pitch, naturally (shit pitch included 🙂). On that note, there are enough ways to bail from the mid anchor that I'd support it being removed.

Probably my longest standing project, mostly because finding a belayer for "desperate ringlocks with nothing else to do at the crag" has proved difficult... maybe I should change my marketing strategy?

Pretty stoked to check this out. Mostly went up to do the 180 move, Ben's photo of which got me keen on cracks in the first place!

That went well, so I kept going to the birth canal. Surprised to do all moves (and clip all gear) free! But I know it gets harder later... Working a ground-to-birth-canal send could be a nice short-term project (Jacques suggested 25 to there but I found it a huuge step up from the 24 version 🤷‍♂️)

Another lap straight after the pink placing all the traddy stuff - not that 4 cams is much to place...

While I've only sampled a wee fraction of Araps, this takes the cake of the best crack I've been on anywhere! The wild sideways gymnastics just left me sad it wasn't longer.

SPG assessment

FFA. Cheers for cleaning this one Tom Bes! Unfortunately it gathers run-off so I pretty much had to reclean the entire crux while humourously grovelling up and down the mantle 😅

Team sends with Zac

Two laps solo. Fun in the sun, I like crack climbing!