Ascensiones en The Cathedral por Tom Bes

I mainly climbed fisticuffs once I could reach the crack. Those jams are too tempting

Took my first Trad whip in a long time from a foot slip on the layback up the top. Blaming new shoes. Had a light bounce of the ledge below. Thrilling. Great climb. #7 is good for top

Feels hard. Would love an extra inch of reach on this one

Tried to stay on the face too long. When I got back to ground my boots were full of leeches. Such is life

quotes from this ascent in chronological order: 'why do i have all this stuff?' 'these are the worst conditions i've ever climbed in' 'f*ck oh f*ck its a leech'

I was suprised to get a clean repeat of this after having a heat death on vitez. But the highlight of the day was then catching Jake Delaminate on the Longest Survivable Whip™ on his greenpoint attempt. fell from the chains to just below the first bolt. jeez louiz.

I've been wanting to climb this crack for a long time. turns out it doesn't climb much like a crack. Named after the FA's ironic farewell at the start of every climb. And today was the last time we will climb together for the foreseeable future so it couldn't be called anything else. I'll miss ya Jake

now i have the awkward first move dialled this climb is a joy

climbed this the best i ever have. stayed left side in the whole way for a change. Green point

where has the greenpoint tick type gone?? Anyway the greenpoint needed a #7 mainly and a #6 to leave behind in the tighter bits. and then gear of #1 and under for the top. I'll have the inserts ready soon to update page 175 of your guidebook with the greenpoint pic.

this felt easy today amazingly. a great confidence boost to start the day. but everything is easy when seconding

dont believe the anti slab sentiment in the guidebook, it was a very enjoyable slab. once i figured out where to go. i stayed right of the first bolt to move up initially. great friction moves

A nice way to finish vitez. Some thin stuff on that headwall. Thank Glob for toprope

Somewhat akward powerful start into a fantastic slab of supreme slimperz.

A strange one. Great burly start. Friction slab is imposing and the route finding is possibly the bigger challenge. We found left of the penultimate bolt to be the way to go.

Oh man so much harder than I remember. And much less passive gear than I remember. I pumped out every few moves. Cathedral puts me in my place yet again!

I lord. It's like 3 hard crack climbs on top of each other. And they all are a bit of a grovel. Chimney at the top really wore me down. Or maybe is was that fat leech that sapped my send juice just before

I always get confused when to step around the arete. Great first half though. And I didn't need to use the tree this time. It definitely goes without. But it seems to be via some holds that feel chipped. Did MikLawGelo get to excited? Maybe 3 24s in a row would have been too much.

Thought it would be an easy warmup to monopoly but felt even more committing. As Jake said; I may as well bake in the sun standing on crsytals of the climb I came here to do. Cool though

Finally trusted those crystals. What a great slab. The slabbiest of slabs. Highly recommend.

So glad I wasn't doing the top moves on lead. Big first move of the extension seems a long way off too. But those rope moves are amazing.

After working this over the years, finally trusting that bloody crystal and a heartbreaker fall on the last difficult move the heavens opened. Got utterly saturated and had to shelter in the little cave just the other side of the waterfall. Said waterfall became a wild stinky power torrent about 10mins after the downpour stopped. I now have a much deeper understanding of how flash flooding works. Another classic cathedral time. All leeches all the time

Hand dog plus aid to get past the low high foot crux. Classic cathedral times.

Cruised up this on top rope like I was at st Pepe's. Can't wait to try it on lead and hangdog it to death

Set default tick to hangdog

NOPE!

Old-school style. Don't ever attempt it to save the onsight for when I'm strong enough. Is it an onsight if you belayed someone up it a year or two ago? And asked maybe one question about it before hand? My belayer thinks not. A pink-sight? Anyway, works really well as a hand Jam crack on gear for the first half. Second part was a breeze comparatively.

About 2 years ago, and on maybe my 3rd climb outdoors, I tried this and had my first (but not last) major panic on a route. Somewhere in the seemingly endless spaces around the 4th bolt. I managed to calm myself down, get out of the chimney, but then it started to rain, I forgot bolt plates, and I bailed only a few metres from the anchors. I have since visited this crag more than any other but have refused to give it another go. Not today internet! It was still full of very hollow sounding, flexing flakes, pure friction moves and a big distance between bolts. But my head game was up to it this time.

The thin bottom half is really fun. I just can't get through that buldge. Gonna change it to an open project if anyone cares to give it ago. Try it if you are good with thin hand sizes or have thin hands.

The big #8 Merlin cam could have been made just for this climb. I backed it up with a big bro and used a #2 at the top but could of just done it bumping that 1 cam. Felt 3 grades easier than when I tried it a few weeks ago. The dream of greenpointing these big cracks has begun. Watch the bumping action in 15x speed here .

That metre and a half of bomber hand jams is glorious. Some rattly fists above and below. Crux for me is stepping in to the start.

First take on my Big Bro in the many metres before the first bolt. The pebbley nature of the walls make this a more painful experience than I remember. Man a #7 would perfectly bump up the whole first section I think. One day

A year or so after I first flailed around seconding this I enjoyed this triumphant return. A great, decent length crack climb right in the middle of the shire. What a town.

Another repeat of this tremendous climb. So great. Lots of thin crack techniques possible. Went for the PAS to anchor clip for maximum karma.

Avoided the hard start and v v hard finish to just climb the lovely traversing middle section. Thanks for the power belay dynamic jak

Chimney variant cause the direct thin hands crack roof is haaaarrrd. Thin start, finger lock central with average feet. Chimney take gear in the back of it on the freestanding block that is attached at the bottom. Thanks to dyno Jake who got very cold on the patient belay.

Hexes only. Glorious as always

Wish I had stuck with it and not placed the cams at the start to make another hex only climb. Did most of it on hexes though. Dropped my binder of big hexes halfway up and almost hexed my partner to death. Soz about that. Also did an amazing FA by traversing way too far and finishing up another climb. I'll name the new link up 'is the rope stuck or is the drag really that bad?'.

10pm, pitch black, possums watching from the trees with red eyes reflected back from the head torch, just ate a brownie (thanks grace), 4th attempt of the night, probably 15th overall in the 11 months since I first tried it,and it finally all fell into place. Amazing how chill the send felt after all the failures. Great climb.

Fun, thin. Ended up in the offwidth finish of fisticuffs but quite liked it. One fall

Pumpy to thin traverse to crimpnation finish. Maybe one day

Hard start, easy finish. Chipped? Those crimps at the start seem too perfect. As always at cathedral, ad on a grade or two

What a sublime climb. Next time for the red point.

I find the crux in this harder than Hercules all up. And not as nice a climb in my opinion. Maybe just cause I find it harder.

Greenpoint (ish) hang dog. Most bomber hand jams at cathedral at the start. The offwidth payback hell. Then stemming and goodby leg muscles. Classic cathedral sandbag

Finally got up this monster. And learnt how to do heel toe jams in the process. Chicken wings for days. Everything down here is really hard for the first bolt or two then eases off a bit

Did you know beavers can kill an alligator by wearing it out until the lactic acid in its muscles builds up and poisons it?

Start is a pooper

My first clean 21 lead. What a joy of a route. Easier than the 20 and even the 18 slabs either side of it for me.

Direct start up the 24 to the left makes way more sense. Also one of the few climbs at cathedral that isn't a massive sandbag? Fricken cathedral...

Dodgy bolts at the anchor. Both have deepish exposed notches cut into them. Possibly but fiddly to traverse to Anchors of next door climbs