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Battlecruiser 24-Mar-2013 At 10:41:48 AM Doug

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On 20/03/2013 vwills wrote:
>Any guide that gives brown madonna 3 stars is clearly a bit liberal on
>the starry side :)

This is rather harsh. On this very wet Sunday morning as I peruse the Mt Wellington guidebook (2007 edition), I see that there are relatively few three star routes (Note: I'm omitting Brown Madonna and Space Cowboy: the first because it just isn't, the second because it is only about 11 metres of climbing separate from Battlecruiser - the raison d'être for this thread). Working downwards from grade 24 (only because this is the hardest grade I've climbed on the mountain) this is what you've got:
24*** In Flagrante Delecto (sport), After Midnight (sport)
23*** Ultrasound (trad), 23 Rosy Pink Cadillac (trad & 1 bolt)
22*** SSSSI (trad), Heat Pump (sport), Blank Generation (trad), Beaten and Abused (trad)
21*** Left Out (trad), Holiday in Cambodia (trad), Farewell to Arms (trad), Cold Power (trad), Atlantis (trad)
20*** Subterfuge (trad), SKY ROCKET (trad: yes, it should be all caps!), Precarious (trad), Lone Stranger (trad), Improbability Drive (trad)
19*** Split Column (trad), Punk (trad), Battlecruiser (trad), Carpe Diem (trad)
18*** Third Bird (trad), Lost Wanderer (trad), Black Magic (trad), All Systems Go (trad)
17*** Raspberry Jam and Crackers (trad), Chancellor Direct (trad), Centaur (trad), Blue Meridian (trad)
16*** Moonraker (trad)
14*** Fiddlesticks (trad)

That's only 33 routes across an 11 grade span. I've climbed all but three of them and they are all worth three stars, except maybe RJ&C. There are also 13 routes graded from 25 to 31 that have three stars. Can't say anything about those except that they are all sport and seem pretty popular. Given that this addition of the guide lists approximately 500 routes, only about 9% doesn't seem to be excessively generous.
In the last 6 or 7 years, quite a few new routes have been done including some fantastic-looking sport routes that get three stars. Quality sport climbing really kicks in at about grade 24. The best trad climbing is from about grade 17 to grade 22.
I reckon Mount Wellington has to be the one of the most atmospheric climbing destinations adjacent to any reasonably large population centre in the world (now there's some parochialism for you!). Now that we've got a fantastic new, easy-to-follow, signposted track network on the Organ Pipes, maybe some of you mainlanders should buy the guide (http://www.thesarvo.com/confluence/display/thesarvo/Mt+Wellington+Guide) and get down here and check it out so you can judge for yourselves.