등정들 Sunshine Coast에서 Lead solo로서

Linked every second pitch and only had 11 draws which kept things exciting. Was feeling abit intimidated before the crux pitches but made it through no worries and felt way better. Overall pretty rock and roll experience.

Painful finger pads! Needed to stick clip the 2nd bolt to feel safe.

onsight lead solo. my toes hurt from all the slabbing. line of credit was much more enjoyable than this; P1 was alright but p2 and p3 were mehhh 0 stars. Climbed every pitch twice. Climbed last pitch in approach shoes. Downclimbed caves route because i couldnt be asked to do more rope management

Pitch 3 providing brown undies like usual. Not enough draws to link p2-3 so had to skip the crux clip and the next two. Grigri didn't feed well on most pitches, something to do with the angle of the live rope because none of the pitches are straight up. Still climbing like a baby deer. I swear lead soloing turns 18 into atleast 25.

Climbed every pitch twice and punched the rock more times than I would like to admit feeding slack. Had a little nap on the ledge before p5 so 6hrs car to car total.

Nice position with decent climbing. Liked p2 more especially on lead solo. Need to hone my slab skills a bit more

Oh boy what an experience. Hopes were high at the beginning of the day when I saw the first pitch was in the shade. Armed with a sleeve for Clix biscuits and a litre of water I set off with ignorant optimism. Alas that did not last long and I soon remembered why I normally wear long pants for these kinds of climbs. First pitch took way too long trying to optimse my set-up but got through it unscathed. Got lost on p2 and had to call up Brosnan for beta - he was entirely unhelpful and told me to 'keep going straight up'. Cranked a few moves up and noticed the anchors about 10m to the left through some heinous bush. Cursing poor Brosnans name I started my down climb. Who knew that being an 85kg monster of mass means that footholds turn to dust when you weight them with your life? Felt like a scene from Cliffhanger as I was awkwardly left hanging from a shitty sloper and a meatwrap looking at a very nasty lead fall. Very glad for all that campus training. Climbed the remaining pitches (twice for that matter) in the direct sun all the while screaming at myself for getting TC's 1/2 a size too small. Ran out of water (and will to live) at the top of pitch 5. Dry biscuits were probably not the best snack choice.

Emerged from the bushes to the summit looking like a metropolitan icecream without the chocolate. Curse my Swedish great grandmother for giving me such fair skin!

Most of the climbing felt the same especially when you climb them all twice - standout pitches were probably p1 and p7. Definitely bringing my jumars next time.

Started raining at the top of the 7th pitch, not a happy camper BOM

Liked the second pitch. P1 was scary on lead solo

I need to cease lead soloing anything over grade 13. Not liking all this fear….

Started at 3:45PM and topped out in the sunset

Lead solo onsight

Lead solo onsight

Lead solo onsight!

Down climb free solo from the top of Ross Miller Route. Def the way to go. A little spicy in a few sections but nothing unmanageable

Second lead solo multi!

3 hours bottom to top linking 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8.

Better than sweet dreams

After spending half a day trying to choose between potentially wet ninderry, or potentially blown out surf at cartys, decided to take the punt on climbing, and she’s dry.

Wee bit of rope soloing then head off at about 7PM, barefoot + headtorch.

Go to stabilise myself on a boulder, feel something slimy, look down, and realise my hand is on a fully grown CARPET PYTHON.

Let out a high pitch banshee squeal and proceed to barefoot run down what i think is the approach trail (it wasn’t)

Spend next 2 1/2 hours bush bashing through the densest vines I’ve ever seen, and sinking to my knees in mud, while headtorch batteries are slowly dying, and it’s also raining. GPS is very temperamental after phone went in swimming pool so lots of confusion trying to get back to approach trail…

Back to car after 10PM, completely rinsed. Was this my first epic?

Climbing was actually really fun, Lead-solo-french-free to clip the chains, then 2x clean burns on top rope solo. the choss adds a little anxiety on lead solo. Also the fact that last time lead soloing i took a 10 metre death-winger…

Long live “chossderry” solo missions!

waiting for the afternoon shift

trailing free end from ground

trailing rope from ground..lotsa drag at crux & immense drag at top out over the round shoulder to ringbolts

Nice day out, new TC's cooked my feet

Linked pitches 1 and 2. Free-soloed 3 up to the only bolt on the headwall. Linked 4 and 5, tried to gun it and link 6, 7, and 8 naively but ran out of rope a few bolts short.

Practiced jumaring instead of top-rope soloing the pitches to clean. Mix of both is best for me. Rope soloing on looser rock required a higher level of engagement from me, and care to not be complacent.

Knot got stuck abseiling off pitch 6, jiggery pokery ensued so added another 60m of climbing.

Great day on a great route. Pitches 4 and 5 are superb