Ascents in Oceania as Clean by Josephine Roper

pumpy warmup

Sam learns to crack climb! Took the flake option for this one just for completeness.

discovered this week that I have the most logged ascents at Cathedral (of people I can see anyway) but not the most unique ascents. So set out to climb new routes! This was quite worthwhile for all two moves of it.

Terrific route, very reminiscent of Frog (but short), but also think it would be 18+ there!

Actually did the end of transfixed/just one fixe which is also a 21 batman start. Felt weirdly spoogy and really battled the first time so gave up and toproped it, not sure if bad day or I just forgot what Earlwood feels like...

reccy day. nice sustained climb and although there is much dirt, it's slabby enough to stand around finding the best holds

bailed at the carrot on lead attempt. gear did not look good afterwards for how badly I was slab climbing. A #4 might be handy. The climbing is good, feels longer than most routes at this crag, but I'm really out of practice at trusting gear in shallow sandy breaks.

hard! we did as per the book, in left crack for a metre then swing onto face

still too scary and reachy for a warmup for me. At least I can do it clean on TR now lol, and the moves are nice

Led the crack but was simply not vibing with the traverse, noped my way down. Had no regrets after watching Cédric just barely vibing with the carrot positions afterwards.

Still clutch, but considering how out of form I am and not remembering the beta exactly, it was definitely easier after having sent it before. Something about not having pressure or overgripping.

few laps with UTS teaching day

warmup. never gets old

Came to do Icarus but it was busy and we didn't have big gear so just teabagged ourselves down here instead. Good fun

Also day 1. Lot of fists here for me, thank you Nomad for those practice laps

A bit more stuffing around as too much water at Whitewater Wall (lol) or Beowulf, but this was dry. Lead about the first third then decided it wasn't for me, which was good coz I would have shit myself on the finish if I got there! Not an easy slab to be that runout. But definitely doesn't feel like I understand the granite style yet, so maybe it will come.

Headed back up to the Star Factory and out this way for a nice little round trip.

Bit dirtier feeling than Mt Wellington but nice crack systems. Practising few fist jams here, one day I'll be as good as Nat

Just P1 then Cédric stepped over to the right anchors and became too entranced with the line of Jihad to continue up chimneys.

Lovely pitch

A lot of fun, even though the return became a bit of an epic, too long a story for here.

Such a good time. The first time I've led P2, going right to the crack is only about the same amount of gear as staying left, but you get to look down the corner at your partner so that's fun

Had two goes on the start, but pretty stoked to onsight the rest of P1 as some moves felt very reachy for me and had to try them a few different ways

think I did a bit of this to clean at the end, quite fun slab moves

rpt. Such a good climb with real arete moves required

repeat

On second it’s only a few minutes of thrutching really Had more trouble changing back to sport mode for the overhanging jugs at the top (a theme of the day)

I think this is how we got up there? I think it was good?

another bit of feeling like I could slip off the feet at any moment

alas, sometimes it's jugs and no feet. Pulled through it somehow

can actually find a sequence which is cool

Bit of a slow lead, I might be stronger but the crux gear hasn't got any thicker than last year. Thought I'd given myself more drag than other times so stopped after P3, it's a really cool cave to belay in, shame P4 is so short that it seems a bit pointless.

Great climbing, not in a hurry to lead it though. We only found 2 carrots too

Just pitch 1, bit harder than it looks from the ground but fun feature.

A friend recommended belaying under the roof for an awesome scenic spot, and I impulsively decided to just link from the ground to there. For no good reason I thought the roof crack was finger sized and it wouldn't matter that I had to put every larger piece into the 40m of crack before. Alas, it is #3/4 sized and the small gear anchor I found was quite low and awkward. Still a lovely ledge to hang out and eat some lunch. Would do 2 pitches to the roof next time. A little wet deep in the chimney today but nothing we needed to use.

First time trying the second pitch, it would be a fucking classic if it would have a single fucking carrot on the slab!! Tried going up the left crack but unless I'm missing something, that only gives you a piece 2m above the ledge and then you end up 5m right of that before you can place anything else, so it's kinda pointless. In other words I backed off and let Cedric lead it 😭

The steep hanging crack at the top is so awesome though, it was very worthwhile even to second.

After Cedric sent on my gear, too hot to lead it again

Thought it was quite good actually, fun fist & hand jams, only one or two spots had to remove spiderwebs or dirt