Ascents in Bells Line of Road & Chifley Rd as various tick types

new proj. Fateful day where wet mist dissipated after our long walk to the crag (gate was locked). Mega route, I went well with moves to 4th bolt, need to rest more and move efficiently to next clip and until next jugs where we clipped an alpine quickdraw. Find rest for tough next clip, respite at heel hook in flake then squeeze out the rest to anchors.

Pretty psyched on this one. Rad face climbing into a kinda unlikely roof and lip turn, so good. Keen to get more comfortable on steep terrain

I was very silly and placed both my no. 2s in the first third of the climb, got to the last 10m had to go down at a couple points and retrieve gear. Was a shame because I felt like I was really in the flow! There were also some creative placements when I was still going for the onsight, including some questionable stacked nuts...

Fell off the last move twice

Super cool climb, happy to have tried and done all the moves. Second go worked the bottom trying to find some better rests, and linked from below the crux to the anchors, third go I linked from the ground to the crux, and butchered 2 of my fingers in the crux and ended up coming down. Super pumpy route, will need a few sessions to go.

Mega. Best attempt clean to the crux and then 3 sits to the anchors. Nothing is too hard if you are tall

Work out the crux but too sore for the send

Fell touching the last small hold, dam so close, if I skip the last draw it should go.

working the route, the best trad 23 in the mountains

The shots for the day. Another session or two should see it go clean. One of the blue mountains great finger crack lines. Will be back for more laps.

Goes

Higher red points, work out better few moves, but not that confident to get the send soon

Too powered out, too much high stepping, the sun was just at the wrong angle and casting shadows on footholds, I'm scared of trad gear, didn't eat enough lasagne. Epic

Not the easiest warm up

Pumped and scared - one arm campus clip out the roof, pretty epic

Very sequency route, with a bouldery crux around bolt 2. This felt very stiff for the grade. I'll come back to it to try again!

Back in 2019 I came a hairs breadth from freeing this for the First Ascent after sieging it for an entire season. A year later Nigel did the FFA, and since then I've had this in the back of my mind as an "obvious project to return to for a gr30 slab I know I can do".

Trying it today, I did all the moves "okay" (certainly better than my first days of trying it back in 2019) though it would still need a tonne of effort to put it all together.

But you know what I realised? I just really don't enjoy this style of razor-blade crimping much anymore, and I'm not so desperate to chase my first gr30 to suffer it for the sake of the grade. Honestly, I'd rather climb something steep (though it suits me less) and have more fun.

This is a proper slab/face test piece, and substantially harder than it looks from below. If you're still vibing that style, this is definitely your cup of tea. Now, after 18 years of climbing, I know it's not mine anymore.

2* dogshow, 1.5 redpoint attempts. Should go soon, long franken draw on the 4th.

The reality of punting off the finish jug. Absolute banger!