Ascents as sport by Jack Seawright

I was lured in originally by a dude at a tibro rap station who frothed this line, then upon reading Iain Hunter s crag log about not having to pull that hard, i knew id have to see what the hoof is hissin up here. 3 seshies later, accompanied each time by johnny 'cavemaster' sullivan, who eventually sent the approach hike in evolves, i came away with a very unlikely result.

1st burn 3rd session, i went for a lash, threw the full laundry load at it and got tossed at the crux. Johnny went up there and found a new way to traverse the crux, claiming yet again hed broken the beta. Naturally skeptical, i was on the fuckedge of not going for a second shot but johnny insisted i at least suss his magic genius-guy beta and dipstick clipped first before i could packup. I somehow made it back to the highpoint and figured with nothing to loose, id put all my biccies in the bucket of the guy that holds the slowest known time (skt) for descending caves route. I clipped and found myself above the crux. Terrified id fuck the dog on the final stem corner, i bridged as long as my calves held out and landed the most satisfying of alpine knees in the bushy ledge.

Id recommend this route to anyone that can climb 22 (you read correctly). Lights out movement thats never too burly the whole way up, well protected, and easy to aid.. because its literally an aid route. Very beta intensive, and a great opportunity to learn about the dark arts of stemming in a state that doesnt offer much of it apart from 27Rs at frog. Im still not real into projecting but to echo Angie's comments in a previous log, this one is worth it, even for the most purest of naked barefoot onsighters.

2 arvos of rock climbing at smith rock. First time on conglomerate rock. First time trying to spell conglomerate. Definitely a tough place to try onsighting stuff but if you lower your grade expectations it feels like a great challenge trying to suss the pockets and millions of sequence combinations while the pump builds. This route was by far the best one i tried, a number of dihedral switches and long, balancy lateral movements that never felt contrived. Also almost came off it several times so felt good to clip the chains. Anything harder than 11a unfortunately felt like abuse to my fingers or too shouldery. Some very nice team sunset dinners in the carpark with the euros (when they werent on spanish time eating at 11pm)

Phoah pretty tricky face climbing at this spot. Nice to work the fingies and take some solid wings. Still learning to spot a layback. Accidentally took dylans tcs for a burn up some trad route but he still sent this after in the same shoes. Even though he wears 40.5s and i wear 42s. Must have warmed them up for him. Youre welcome mate.

Not what we came for but what we came for required 74 purple cams and 268 greens as per usual so we popped the zion cherry with a bolted arete. Some pretty unique movement and shuddering mantles which were fun. Tony wasnt psyched on the sandy holds, but with zions reputation id feel cheated if we got indian creek standard rock. Jumped on a very intreguing route called inner chi. Placing .2s in sandy flares then blasting face moves to slopers 2m to the right might have been a little too zion. Encountered a 1m long rattlesnake (a hissa) next to the bags. Tony got some photos while it sat in a perfect coil, patiently waiting for him to get the perfect shot for wild country to steal for their website.

Just to first chains this morning. Rock was so cold tony had to bail so i began climbing in gloves. The locks feel pretty abusive with these temps but glad to experience this line. Serious wages of fear vibes and very aesthetic

Not every day you cop a 50m limestone pitch with this much going on. Awesome dihedral climbing. Done at 6pm with full moon out and sundown views over north west arizona. Accompanying this over the 2 unplanned days at the grail were some 11d slab pitches with exciting edge dancing, another cool 3d pitch in the lower 11s and the crag classic, 2 pitch route vesper. Shit name but very unique route. Verdon-grey limestone blankness with a sloper layback rail leading to a bulge. Stopper crux shut me down but nice that tony and i both squeaked leads in on the crux pitch before the rain came in and chased us off to utah.

Epic top moves to the chains. Definitely the highlight of the gallery. Amazing views and sick holds. Hottest day so far aswell. Felt nice to climb without 3 jumpers on

Absolute frothlympics. We waited out a day of rain to do this as my last day in el poty and i can tell anyone.. its worth a year of rest days. Shit access pitch, cryptic face climbing pitch, 3d groove pitch, deceptively hard slab on weird coral holds followed by a very rude roof turn that almost sent me to slumpville and a finale pitch through an arete bulge with a hammy tearing heel hook. Then after the climbing fun, a wild rap into space with a 10m sideways boulder to reach the next rap chains. I dont think it gets better than this. We timed the shade situation well, taking advantage of the proximity of the spires to link a very unorthodox and somewhat dangerous mega pitch to the top. Speed rapped down past a party of three rigging silks across the spires. Foath. Then. Habanero. Freddie did the full link, i did the first chains. Went surprisingly close to the flash but instead locked in the aidsight, feeling lazy after a big final day.

Elite. Fun day cragging in the fog with some new cool peeps fighting off the internal crying over the boys jumping on sendero luminoso today without me and my non-5.12 climbing ass.

Hike up here was longer than we thought but contained a nice little tunnel similar to sublime point. Access pitch turned out to be mixed trad. I climbed it with mixed quickdraws and also mixed feelings. No one died so i climbed ripped wall above. Terrific route. Climbs like a bluies slab. Thin as fuck crux to no hands rest x10. One was a layback though and abit streno for me so i climbed onto the route next door and back, from above you can see the hidden incut.. must be a tricky onsight. Lowered to the ground and encountered the biggest most ripped spider ive ever seen. I guess the route name isnt referencing toned bodies or bong hits..

Another clean day for freddie and oh so close for me. Would have been a terrific route to get clean but alas.. absolute mega levitation though. My toes are fucked but so worth it

Julio took us up a choss gully without really detailing what was up there and low-and-behold, an arapilean water-polished hand crack! Fully bolted. Probably grade 18 in araps but 25 here apparently. Virgin canyon in the arvo which is defo the porters pass of epc. Dense as fuck with ultra classic tricky low angle flake pulling. La botelo reminded me what 12a actually feels like.. i now need to find creative ways of getting my credit card out for fear of my pads touching the edges. Gross pasta and margi at la posada

Day 2 in EPC and already journeyed up one of the lines i was most psyched to try this trip! After watching freddie onsight a slew of 5.12s the day prior, i decided he was the perfect candidate to drag my muscleless biceps through the 12b boulder problem up top. With enough meat in my belly to feed the town after family dinner the night before, we rolled out and started the first pitch at about 940 (quite lazy for this route). The first pitch seems way to steep to have any right to be 11b but with hand pockets reminiscent of the bungonia gorge classic revolution, it fuccan goes! Great start. We lead smoothly through to the top of pitch 6, for me that pitch was thoroughly absorbing, many 11a/b moves in spots youd be taking a proper ride onto a ledge if you cooked it, and so sustained. Never been happier to see some chains. The boulder on p7 was no issue for no-fall-freddie on lead who ended the day with a clean sheet. It was the first move i had decided was too high on burl and whipped out the trusty sling, aided the move, got the jug, couldnt retrieve the sling, took the seconder whip to below the hard move, took the sling off and then freed the move - fucken dumb as it gets. Fast forward to the 12b boulder - pretty insane sequence. Even my aid climbing deteriorated. Thankfully i didnt join yim on the aid whip registrar this time.

Terrific route. Bit rude for a warmup but ive never been a heavy subscriber for warmups (watch me regret that comment in 4 years time). Looks like a power endurance pumper from the ground but ends up a balancy, barndoory mental pumper, a little like tannin at araps with the wall stemming and flat crimps. Feels about 24 or hard 23. Really stoked with my own climbing on this and great little sesh with aaron and freddie. Learning new terminology like 'beloggles' (belay goggles) and new sports (silks over at finca).

2 days out at the arcotete. First day, a scrape together trip out from san cris via the collectivo system with glenn, a dutch backpacker i had recruited as a climbing partner the previous day after hearing him say 'i think i know how belaying works'. 24hrs later he was catching my gross ledge whippers on a 22 that i eventually bailed off. Id rented the rope from martin who was running a trip out there the next day so i invited myself along. I climbed with nick the next day, a 50-something british fella, sporting much better biceps than me. Our partnership was efficient and we punched some roovz. I pulled this route together with every move a kneebar, hand jam or body bar. Amazing coral limestone roofing that feels like a non-possibility at grade 21. Watched martin cruise the local grade 31 through the arcotete. Our trip group were a great bunch, all got dinner together after in town. Great little leg of the trip in a not super big ticket climbing destination, and what an astounding place to climb! Id like to make the effort to visit more local spots like this on the trip as theres something to be said for the community vibe of it.

Still cant believe this.. A dude called marco rolled into longlea just after i had gone to bed with free bread from a bin dive. I heard everyone collecting bread so i came out and collected some myself and got talking to the bread man and turned out he was happy to be our 4th for tomorrow. After flaming out on nefarious (22) for the warmup, i didnt know if id be able to dog up after midnight which i was so keen to experience. I made a very empty agreement with jim that id try onsight, so i took my rests and tried to contain my everpresent bumbliness and assume a sport climber psyche. Professional, smooth, strong. After about 7 moments of being sure i was fucked and a footslip that i was very lucky to hold onto, i pulled through the top of the crux, absolutely limited out and trembling. 15min rest on the no-hands, caught a fly, continued shakily through the final 4 bolts, id never felt send pressure like this before, downclimbed everything till i was sure i wouldnt drop, and pulled the final mantle, gave a big hoot out towards the general hobart direction, then came down and felt like a legend for a couple minutes. Fuck 50m aretes are cool and fuck rock climbings cool. Did a victory lap on neon god (first pitch only, my ego is still somewhat in check) before the clouds consumed us. Frothys at longlea pub are on me tonight. Fucken yeasss.

Cruised out with matt to get the arvo toe warm up for some hazards action. Not as dull as i was prepared for. Definitely some interesting climbing on it. Great that this exists to get intermediate climbers out on the hazards wall. I dont think you could ever get sick of the position out here.

Cluan. The crag with climb names so similar you have to reference climbs by grades and a unique feature. Also home to some stunning climbing. Namely, this one and the traddy roof traverse 21. Cluedo i will remember though, as its in contention for the best pitch ive ever laid mits on. Brilliant foot pasting and committing pounces. The mind boggles of tassie and just as good, maybe also abit harder. Took some good whips including a piroette and a cheesegrater up high. A journey to sort out the toe match crux. Kris had an adventure of his own on another climb and jumped on the phone to the FA from behind the wheel as soon as we drove back into service.

A nice bday surprise to coast this one today after about 7 previous trips ive jumped on it and struggled bolt to bolt to top. Since i began sport climbing in 2019ish ive used this route as a yard stick to see how my climbing is going. Night and day difference today compared to any previous attempt. Who knew 6 week climbing road trips could sometimes improve your climbing? I dont normally care much about sending or climbing too hard but turns out i am human, and can feel proud to climb like im not being weighed down by choinards original hex collection every so often. I did get a kneebar rest which i attributed to the teaching of coolum sensei johnny. Also did a nice climb next to CCC (an oft repeated chimenay classic) called little buddha which was quite good and deserves abit of attention. Sho kosugi i found to be abit of a waste of time and zazen is a waste of time for me because im planets away from being able to climb it. Climbing my age is now irretrieveably in the rear view mirror. Celebrated an unseasonably spoogeless day at the vista with marty lucie and georgia with a birthday croissant, complete with candle.

It was a wednesday night when kyle messaged at 10pm asking if i would be able to attend a rope holding exchange with him at frog the following day. Tempting, but i had unadjustable plans. 'Sorry kyle, im going to coolum. Johnny is living in the cave in his tent and needs a catch.' Kyle: 'im not sure which part of that message im more shocked about, this is alot to take in'. Indeed. We got in and started on chevy. Johnny stuffed consecutive send burns post crux from not screaming enough, and then screaming unnecessarily respectively. I strategically broke my send burn into a bunch of little sends between the bolts. Ill admit it, I. HAD. FUN! Kneebars are pretty fun until they start falling off. And the pub-like sunny coast crag culture makes thursday morning feel like jungle juice night at bluies; an elite bunch of lads that were a pleasure to be beta sprayed by. Dan, a local barefoot and bare-kneed send king put me on an awkward slab with some slippery mantles and told me there was no kneebars so you can imagine the elation when straight off the deck, i swung my knee into the perfect scoop and proved him wrong. My winning streak lasted another 2 metres. Had a taste of the crag classic; screaming insanity which went quite well till the sequence guarding the chains. The chains were safe this time. My biceps were cooked, but i knew that i would have to come back the next day. Not just because i brought my tent, but because of that giant donger in the western cave. That would be my goal for the trip. To caress that great, hard protrusion. Back at the beach, 1L Flying dutchmans, cheesy garlic bread from the mudjimba coles bins put us to bed early. I vomited the bread up cos i forgot im lactose intolerant. Next morning: 1hr search for my car keys behind the toilets i pitched the tent behind. Coffees then crag. I got lia to put me on belay while i stumbled up the slab, then pulled into the steepness. Kneebar glasses on, i found some spots, aided across from some 28 i accidentally choofed onto, then, with great rope drag, i calf hooked and mantled up, clipped and found myself face to face with the donger. Triumphantly, i straddled that big cock, clipped the chains and begun the descent. Coolum done. A life-changing ride.

I swear i didnt mean it. I really did mean to experience the real nowra. Big moves to smooth scoops. We got some of that in the morning at cafe cruiser wall, hang dogging 9 stars out of the wall in short order, but as we were packing up afterwards, i remembered seeing this climb on the next wall with a perma ledge. 3 star 20 with a traverse. The perma was my reason. A problematic rap through a roof that almost left yim to ditch an extender, put us on the wooden board that looked like a fart would send it to the ground (im sure the good people of nowra have infact put together a sturdy setup). Turned out this climb was traddier than most of frog and has more jams than a mt tambourine tea house. Incredibly airy position in the corner with heel hooks around alpine extendos. Very very cool. Yim was stoked aswell which was good cos i vedoed his wish to call it before this climb.

We woke up having agreed to go to catch the wind for a 7th time, and for a 7th time we got sidetracked. Jim asked me a question into my soul” if you like arete climbing, why not do the best arete in the mountains— Disco non-stop?” It was so attempting. I looked into the guidebook and the crag, decided it was too hard for me probably. Yim came back from the loo with the news that we could grab Dan’s static rope for the second time after yesterday’s wafer. “ just jumar past the hard moves and enjoy the rest, mate” I was convinced, and got a second lesson from Dan. I led first, got scared after a few arete-cutting whippers. Jim dogged off to the top and rapped down back to belay my second attempt. I had to jumar on the fixed line past the arete traversing terrifying move. “Take up the black rope!” “ black rope?” “Oh I mean white rope” Jim had a bad time jumar the differ line while being top belayed to clean the route. finally 6hrs one pitch done. Boys had crappy lunch at the top at 3:40pm. Fish and chips in Blackheath. Hope tomorrow morning we won’t have to rush into the toilets.

Quite good climbing actually (on p1 and 2 atleast - i can tell you how jumaring p3 is). Went off without a hitch... except leaving the climbing rope at the top of the cliff!! Had to do the big jumar ascent 1.5 times. Yim was predictably enthralled by the holes in the arete. We bumped into some cliffhangers on the way out. A brave pm start on their part, hopefully works out well for them.

Fuccn froth!! What a sick route. 5 pitches with consistent grade 22 climbing and varied styles the whole way up. Has to surpass whymper as my favourite bolted multi in the bluies. Some goey starts off the belays. I dont know if ill make it back to do the neighbouring climbs as yb takes the most interesting looking line at each turn. The scene of yim toe pinching the break rope on top belay of the second pitch.

Too good. Warmed the fingers up on a 25 at dca wall ('jack finally sandbagged himself' - yim). Hart agreed to belay, i think without knowing how long the pitch was. The muddy start (yeah im blaming the mud.. all the other hang dogs do) knocked me off the traverse, but after sneaking through, i enjoyed a smorgesboard of delightful slabbing moves through to the novelty finish laybacking up the thrustblock and a better-not-fuck-it-up left leg knee bar in the block to rest. Lying around with everyone at chasing amy reminiscing in the memories of slab heaven.

Best sport multi ive done at bluies id say. Really interesting climbing. Captures the best terrain and position on the arete and consistently around the grade. A spot more serious than weld and the other ones at that grade due to needing to use plates, slightly runout in spots by modern standards and consequently precise route finding can take some patience on the chalksight, but it really should be on everyones list. Rach and i both aided the first move of the climb lol. Fried rice lunch in p2 belay cave. Had to dump the contents of my leaky water bladder. At least i got to enjoy p3 with a lighter bag. And p4 is absolute class aswell. No one enjoyed the views more than rachs phone which now has a camera roll full of panos.

After getting thumped by the top crux on black heathen, my ego still had weight enough to not stick clip the first bolt on p1 and jump off to the ground when it turned out to be tricky. Disappointingly misread the start, yim showed us how it was done after waking up from a crag nap. The rest of the pitch went swimmingly and loved the heel toe cam in the flake up top especially. Tim quivered his way up p2, i was pretty stoked with a mostly clean 2nd (shafted by the roof).

Tim yim sam. Lazy start but efficient speedclimbing up the wall. Cracker onsight of p1 for yimbo. Cruisy flash for tim, my second was almost devoid of free climbing. Enjoyed the traverse aswell as p7 and 8. Much nicer climb overall than bbb.

If pump wasnt a thing this pitch would be a 21. Unfortunately however, it is a thing and it has a remarkable affinity for populating in my forearms. Yim tim and jim (jack/me) set off to not repeat the plethora of day ending errors marty and i made last time. Error 1, 1st rappel rope stuck: almost happened again, needed a double person tug to free it. Error 2, dead air trap on rappel 2: almost happened again, just swung into a bolt, not quite sure how i could have done this cleaner tbh. Error 3, lost on pitch 1. Yim seemed to have no trouble finding the way. I must have been on drugs in february. We did almost cock up by getting a stopper knot stuck in dead air at the bottom, luckily it got trapped to the wall by the anchor. That would have fucked us royally. 2 ropes does lend some insurance in this way. This sport multi proves itself again to be a logistics heavy operation. The traverse pitch dished out a draw grab for me and an unlikely epic for tim who almost took a pendulum off the p1 anchor. Ask yim to send the video! (pretty dog). I was abit nervous about the big pitch but technically it wasnt hard, just managing the pump is quite tricky. Putting attention into creative rests tested my patience and ultimately i resigned myself to 2 or 3 sits. Tim pulled onto the ledge next, visibly delirious, claiming "fuck 25s at ben trovonia tomorrow". Yim still somehow had energy to do 10 pull ups off a flake on the top out pitch (wtf).

30 metres? Pretty sure i climbed at least 180m. went to the secret crag that shall not be named for fear of people finding out about it with max and some of the bluies fellas. Warmed up on the belles, a slab they said, although i think a drill tip would have blunted against my forearms after it. This piece was next up. I was surprised slightly with my jugging but the slab up high was insanely techy and i suffered. Finished with traxion thrash, i dont remember getting traxioned at the sidepull crux, but ahhh.. yeah. Stoked to take some skin off and shoot the shit.

Wicked route that i gave the os up for cos the crux crimps were hurting my fingers. The crew had a swim at porters then a few of us headed down to dogs. Sandbagged hart on a 23 i told him was powerbra (19). 2 days in a row! Ended up cleaning that one up then bashing myself against qutopia. Magnificent route that one. I didnt do it justice with the geniuses. Love to go back in the tcs

Last move to the chains is defo worth tying in for.. post aid practice on the 14 nearby

Tinny day finally happened! Will and grace were camping at imbil, marty bell and georgia were done assessment and johnny and i were.. as usual: free. Johnny forgot bolt plates. I forgot 1 shoe. We still somehow salvaged a few climbs apiece. Highlights of the day included johnny asking will if there was rope drag while he was the one leading, georgias grigri escape from the runout finish of MAMD, leaving the noosa carpark with the boot open and realising halfway down the road. Climbing in 2, 1 and 0 shoes at various points in the day was memorable. Oh and of course (thanks to wills crag log - how could i forget) wills round-the-block-to-cross-the-street solution of getting everyones bags out with a heavily weighted rope solo followed by an attemped 6 pig haul. The litter did not cooperate so marty and belle regretably had to use their legs for 45 seconds and walk down to grab said pigs

Easy, easy, moderate, easy, fucked, fucked, chains. I am a hang dog.

By far the most shithouse route ive ever laid hands on. Bouldered up the arete instead of what must be a dyno for 7ft tall lads only direct start. Somehow no broken ankles. Resisted the urge to use the steel poles protruding from everywhere on the wall until a rail near 3rd bolt that presented a gr17 move but was so slimey i couldnt hold it. Ended up squirming around the tree branch after exploring the area for rock not covered in fur and clipping the chains. "Wanna top rope it lia?". "O ohh haha i thought you were joking. Who would want to climb this?". Fair enough. Grats to rumblr johnny on the piles send.

Watch me marty! Throws self off wall and no one even had a camera out for it. Thought the fist was fully bomber but it slipped. A miscalculation. Almost hung on but no. Had to boink up and quickly found a pretty chill position for the anchor clip. Atleast it was a funny whip im told. Also enjoyed thunderdome and desert treasure

One day i will send this line. Dont hold your breath though.. it might take a couple decades. Such an iconic climb and definitely does feel like a frog hard wall route. My toes are mushed and my fingers feel like the dodgy debt collectors got hold of them but greatly enjoyed mucking around on it. Traverse into and turning the roof are absolutely wild. Thankyou for having me mr olos and excuse my punter grigri + prussik rope solo setup. It will be refined next time

Man finds jugs.. in a sea of tiny crimps! A mystery. How did they get there. 25 or 21A0 if you climb second

Best climb on the wall has the least stars. Worth a couple laps around here if you cant be fucked to climb a multi. Post caves route, pre surf. Not bad for monday. Beaut qld weather but shaded crag how good

Entertaining to watch moby boulder this to the 7m high first bolt. Being belayer was advantageous here cos it meant delegating spotter duty to tom and scotia. I could just eat popcorn. The boulder at the start is wild and seems impossible upon ground inspection but i think 21 is fair, the crimps are quite positive. Once your actually on belay though, the route gets alot more 'adventurous' and not in the cool tassie kind of way. Good to catch the gang albeit briefly.

Will and i troped up sodden ground to revisit the slidome for our annual trip out. Onsighted slider after a bunch of falls on the boulder at the start and even a few draw grabs on the send too. Had one good go on squelcher and 2nd burn was sandbagged 4 grades by my ludacrously pumped forearms. No top. Went down and took photos of nick cleaning slider and throwing draws off in rage. Hes an angry fella init. We gave him our distance and did the overseer. More jams in the first half than half the routes at frog. Then got hit with a rude bulge where i realised my arms were in such a state i couldnt even hold dog bones. All that was left to do was stare through the bolt and contemplate another cliff jump. Some nice delicate finishing moves makes this a very worthy line of the upper slider collection

Training day with martino. A month of walking around in the snow was not beneficial for pump management funnily enough. We started the day bumbling up to latitudes. I clipped bolts on about 17 different routes downclimbed upclimbed and almost circumnavigated tibro to eventually drag the rope through some anchors. A hang dog, retreat, bail AND onsight all in one pitch!! Except maybe for the onsight. Marty finished us off and we were forced to experience simul-jugging after we cruised past the anchors down clemency wall. Straight onto aphelion. Just like last time.. fuck were going well for time.. already at p3! Ohh shit. Cannot do this pitch. Or the one after. Feckn hard. Basically boinked my way through p3 crux on 2nd. Eventually we got to halfway house and both fancied a cockpounding as opposed to being rubiconned into another multi. I was stoked to squeeze thr first bit out with some 3d trickery to avoid martys athletic alternative, but i was suspicious after marty came down stoked on the climb that this route might not climb like the corner it pretends to be.. my fears were well and truly realised. Theres even a flaring finger crack that tempts the fingers, but it was jug hauling at the crux. Some interesting movement up top however i think means this route clears the 2 star bar. There you go, not just for the name.