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TR The Iliad (16), Sublime Point, Blue Mtns 1-Dec-2013 At 9:52:35 PM PThomson

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G'day all,

This morning I managed to free the tips crack that you can see in some of Neil's photos, for the First Ascent of Trojan (The Illiad Pitch 2 variant) at ABOUT 23. I'd seen that Macca estimated the grade at 21-23 on TheCrag, and thought he was being a bit soft because somewhere in my mind I thought it was a FINGER crack, and didn't LOOK that hard.

Turns out it was desperate, super strenuous climbing on tricky gear. Very sporty, not at all like a conventional trad climb. I'd budgeted 2 hours to climb Pitch 1 of The Illiad (to get to the crack), send the crack (maybe 2nd shot if it turned out to be harder than I thought) and finish up P2 of The Illiad, then rap to the ground off Cynics United and head over to Bentrovato wall.

Well, 2 hours because 3.5 hours, and I only managed to send it third shot after coming up with some new beta for the crux after failing the link on the final move (2nd shot). Considering its only 10m of variant start to P2 of The Illiad, its almost crazy that it was such a battle. Suffice to say, when I finally got to Bentrovato it was very much in the sun. =)

Some photos of the ascent can be found below. Photos 2 and 3 show the sort of strenuous climbing required (with super slippery feet) and a damp flared crack in the top section).

Regards,

-Paul Thomson