Ascents in Arapiles by Karina Schofield having trad-cpr or ascent-date

Absolutely stoked with this onsight, first real grade 21 onsight for me. The start is actually pretty easy if you're comfortable at grade 21, but the consequences for hubris are high here. It felt like there were three real onsight cruxes: each of the two left facing bulges in the first half of the climb, and then the traverse to the right afterwards. It took me ages to figure out the bulges, downclimbing to rest on better holds repeatedly while working out the sequences. I also got lost on the second half of the climb and went left to Round Up instead of right, finishing on a balancing act on the thin ledge at the top to get back to the Comic Relief chains.

Very nice, but I don't think it's a 20.

Finally did it. What a mission. The colder weather helped heaps at the crux.

Crux pro beta for anyone climbing this in the future: A sideways, #6 Wild Country Rock nestles perfectly into the bottom of the sidepull to the right of the large hole in the wall, just before you get into the crux proper. An equivalent DMM Offset is not nearly as secure. This is your last real piece of pro for the next 4m or so, so make it count.

Did it again to do the final face climb correctly, and had the scariest traverse to the right of my life. Ended up hanging onto the wall with only an opposed knee press and heel/toe, desperately questing for any handholds. Found a terrible crimp blindly and sent the rest of the climb.

What a ride. The guidebook certainly was not exaggerating when it said it was committing to gain the ledge. What wasn't mentioned though was how hard the face climb was at the end after traversing right from the ledge. It didn't feel like a 19 to me. Pro was sparse throughout, though good where you can find it. Falling from the ledge would be a guaranteed decking.

Very cool moves, good pro.

Very fun and technical climbing with a bit of crack to boot. Flashed on pink point.

Mega classic. A fantastic benchmark grade 20. Pumpy with good rests between.

The crux of this climb is the lack of pro as placements are sparse, but they're pretty good once you find them. Definitely deserves a 19 on lead, even if the moves are fairly cruisy; wouldn't be the same experience on top rope that's for sure. Recommend micro cams if you've got them because being 5m up over only a #1 and #2 nut isn't confidence inspiring. Enjoyable climb.

Very fun and technical moves up and over the traverse. More thoughtful than Tannin Direct but not as muscular.

Offwidth start into a puzzle of a box to escape out of. Super cool.

Felt hard and scary, really shook my confidence, but the day went well in the end. Hard to be sure what the grade is from an onsight though. Went straight through the roof/mantle which was also pretty nerve racking.

#repeat After flailing on Wraith.

Bit of a spooky warm up. Went all the way up to Red Wall.

Did the direct finish. For the first 2/3rds of the climb I placed only small wires and nothing larger than a 0.3 Camalot. It definitely felt like the R rating was deserved, and there was significant ground fall potential at the beginning of the climb. However, the traverse (which was easy) was actually not as scary as the unprotected, first 3 metres of climbing (which was one of the hardest parts of the climb) where I thought I might pitch off and land on the rocks below. I would recommend considering protecting the very beginning of the climb on abseil and stick clipping the first piece.

That start is spicy and seemed to be the hardest part of the climb. Would recommend that you're confident leading at the grade because a fall at the beginning would be no fun. We didn't really observe any risk to the second though, must need some pretty dodgy pro to let that happen.

This climb was epic. Terrifying but so good. Rack beta: Despite appearances, you don't need more than a double rack up to #2 BD cams. A single #3 is nice but not necessary.

Very soft and juggy. It's overhung a little bit. Felt like an easy gym climb.

I really didn't like pitch 1. Pitch 2 was alright. Pitch 3 was just a scramble out. This climb eats small gear, I took three micro z4s, and two sets of small nuts, and felt like I barely had enough gear, but I don't think the route really merits an R rating as the pro is bomber. Overall I wasn't too thrilled, I felt lost the whole time I was on pitch 1, and a lot of pitch 2 as well; was never sure if I was climbing Brolga "as intended" or just wandering randomly up the wall. Maybe that's the point? It didn't gel with me. To be fair, I just came back from climbing Winning Streaks in Freycinet so it's kind of unfair for me to think about Brolga being in the same league as that.

Superb and very pleasant. Started the climb in the crack on the left which was a lot harder than the slab. Recommend taking at least a #5, I took a #5 and #6 and used both. Third belay station is kind of silly, they should just put two bolts there.

Was so sure I had it, but I screwed up the crux again and then went for a ride. Dogged to the top before trying a few more times after lowering, however, the sun was already blasting the wall. The nut I fell on seems to be welded now... It's all yours if you can get it. Should be easier to clean when the rock cools off. I'll be back to try and clean it again in April if nobody else has by then.

Tried again but found it too hard to not rest after placing the cam at the layback. Having to place a cam in your only decent hold for a four meter stretch is kind of mental and makes me wonder if a bolt there would be beneficial. Maybe I'm missing something. A nut instead? On a side note, it seems pretty random as to which climbs get R rated. This climb probably deserves an R: falling at any point is pretty sketchy, it's difficult (if not impossible) to double up gear at the crux(es), and critical gear is very fiddly. Make sure you're confident in your gear placement before continuing the climb, because that's probably the last piece you'll have for a while, and if it blows, you're on the ground.

Wow, what an intimidating climb. Every piece of pro is critical, and most pro is sideways and horizontal. Took a 4m whip on a sideways yellow tote about a third of the way up after messing up the foot sequence. Figured it out after a bit of faff. Will be back tomorrow. This climb is not one for the arachnophobes, there's spiders and active webs throughout.

That overhanging offwidth/chimney at the start of pitch 2 is brutal and committing. If 15 is your max trad grade and you haven't done much crack climbing, don't even think about it.

I felt like it was a bit of a sandbag but I'm reserving my judgement on that. Not sure it's worth the one star it's got, but I was tired and it was the end of the day so maybe I was a bit grumpy. The climb also felt a bit run out and sketchy, especially for the first half.

I quite liked this one. Fun and easy crack climbing to start. The friction slab finish was a bit scary but very cool.

This climb was phenomenal. The wide crack on pitch 2 was more like slightly overhanging jugs, and the traversing chimney climb across the roof of the cave on pitch 3 was brilliant and incredibly unique. The only drawback of this climb is that insane switch back at the start which caused so much rope drag that I had to downclimb it to remove a cam and basically free soloed back up. I highly recommend not placing any pro directly under the switchback in the first place to avoid that situation. Either that or set up an extra belay before you go to the normal belay at the other end of the ledge. I don't think two ropes would help this situation either because I barely placed any pro under the switchback, only one cam below the bulge, and still had unclimbable rope drag.

#repeat One of the better climbs at Bushranger. Probably a sandbag. Onsighted it a few years ago but barely remember and never logged it so taking it as an onsight.

Great climb. It was a good warm up for Mari. I don't remember much of it after doing Mari though haha.

Fun climb. The vertical crack was a bit of a puzzle but pretty easy once I had the beta sorted.

The direct finish was slightly sketchy but worth a climb.

Came back for round two. Got through the crux without much fuss this time. Still pretty tricky and hard to imagine someone climbing this if they can only climb 15.

Climbing in the torrential rain was interesting. The second pitch has a pretty committing maneuver right off the belay.

Made some moves and inspected the pro while lowering off Tannin. Found a rest I didn't notice before, and left a nut to clip for my send go tomorrow morning. Feeling better about this climb now, though I still think there should just be a bolt at the crux.

#repeat That roof is pretty exciting. Worth climbing just for that at least. Probably a sandbag too. Taking the onsight since I onsighted it a few years ago but never logged it.

#repeat Last climb of the trip before heading off to the Gramps. Still an excellent climb. I forgot how bad the belay placements are at the end of the 2nd pitch. Probably could do with some bolts here.

This climb, like a lot of the other climbs in the Organ Pipes, uses a lot of quickdraws and pieces. Recommend 12 draws and being conservative with your placements.

I take back what I said before, this climb is more muscular than Tannin and does deserve to be a 20, or is at least physically harder than Tannin. Bailed off Wraith to this, remembering that it was "easy", but I could not deal with the thuggy jugs when I was so tired. Whipped off the roof with my tail between my legs. Not complicated but you do have to be strong, or at least fresh.

Excruciating and brutal. Got through the first crux into the elephant butt and tried the second crux out of it but decided to bail onto Agamemnon. It was so dark in the elephant butt that I actually couldn't see for a minute and had to adjust. The sun was also going down after spending almost an hour and a half on this route. Relentless climbing. This one's going to be my project for a while to come.

Something new to get to Red Wall

Fun bit of crack climbing at the top, but a bit short.

#repeat Another run to Red Wall.

#repeat

#repeat Always lovely. I often wonder if I'll be bored of this climb one day, but every time I do it I am reminded how wonderful it is. My favourite way up to Red Wall.

The beginning is quite sketchy on lead and probably deserves a higher grade.

#repeat Should have brought my second rack of cams. Ran out of pro and draws about 80% to the top. Lucky the climbing is pretty straight forward after the horn. Was originally going up to do Tannin but thought better of it after that.

#repeat Just the best. Maybe a bit of a sand bag but it is great climbing. Take a #4 or #5 for the second pitch.

#repeat Great little climb. Haven't done it in a while. Taking the onsight since I didn't log it before. Just did pitch 1 to get to Red Wall.

The climb itself was fun after the cave. Spoiled a bit by the large number of droppings and flies around the cave.

Amazing exposure, terrifying when the wind is up. Easy single pitch if you manage the rope drag.