The start of 2012 had bode well for multi-pitch climbing in the Blue Mountains. Fortunately the New Zealand team returned with Glenda and Megan tearing up the crags for a whole month, which gave me the perfect excuse to bring the rope out of the cupboard and brush up my leading skills. Saturday the 18 February was another chance to attempt one of the big lines in the Blueys. This time my new climbing partner Dan joined me on a trip to Sublime point near Leura. The forecast was dreadful so we started at the crack of dawn and arrived at one of the Leura coffee shops just after 8:00AM. After filling our tummies for a big day out we headed straight to sublime point and down the steep and exciting approach to Sweet Dreams - probably the most famous easy multi-pitch climb in the Blueys. But this was not the only superlative we would come across on that day. I had climbed Sweet dreams with Glenda and Megan about one month ago so the steep access track with the short magic hole did not faze me, but it was the amount of people, which we discovered working hard on developing the crag, that took us completely by surprise. It was a virtual who's who of the climbing community, working hard to move this crag out of the dark ages. There were at least two parties bolting new climbs (including Jamie's friend Mat who had lost his two front teeth in a bolting accident the week before) and there was an explosion of some twenty new ring-bolted climbs were none was a mere month ago.

Sublime point was a traditional old school area and now had dozens of hard-core sport climbs equipped with modern ring-bolts. Throughout the day Mike Law and later Giles Bradbury turned up and the place was alive with some of the Blueys most legendary talents. We had big plans and wanted to get as much multi-pitching in as possible before the storm was supposed to hit later in the afternoon. After warming up on several steep overhanging classic grade 20s, one of the developers told us that just around the corner, hidden away from view, was the best grade 20 in the Blue Mountains. Unbelievable, that is a big call to make in the Blue Mountains and we headed straight over to test this remarkable reputation. The climb is called Theory of Negativity and soars vertically for what appears to be only ten meters, once on it you realise that it is at least twice as long but the angle accounts for a kind of optical illusion. The verdict, well you will have to climb it for yourself, but let’s just say that the area isn’t called 'sublime point' for nothing and it was living up to its name this morning. On we went along several hundred meters of cliff line abuzz with many teams of climbers putting up new routes. It was spectacular to see so many climbers at a crag that is hardly known. After several 'warm ups,' it was time for our first project, so we headed over to the mythical 'Bentroverto' wall. The name really does justice to this hidden gem. Attached from the main crag this independent wall sits high above the escarpment - composed of a 100 meters of breathtaking and sheer verticality. It is composed of exposed immaculate bright orange sandstone. It appears as one of the most relentless faces in the Blueys with some very hard face climbs - all several pitches long.

We had chosen “The Sublime and Beautiful” a three pitch 22 with four stars and a few hanging belays for good measures. I will keep a long story short but the crux second pitch on tiny edges was relentless and gave Dan (who was suffering from a hangover) a hard time. In the mid-section of the climb with burning digits you find yourself high above your last bolt and the crux is to clip the next one. High above the valley we noticed that the afternoon storm had decided to turn up early so we finished the airy final pitch just when it started to drizzle. We rapped the route in record time just when the lightning began and we sought shelter amidst one of the steeply overhanging crags, where everybody else continued to climb as if nothing was happening. Apparently this happened for the whole of summer and people where quite used to thunderstorms. We planned to climb out of the valley via a five pitch climb called Whymper (19***) right next to the fabled Sweet Dreams, but with thunder and lightning all around us we decided to switch to the huge roof climbs and sport climbing. One of the new crags was covered by a roof the size of a swimming pool and no matter how much it rained the climbs stayed bone dry. Unfortunately the only climbs where grade 25s but what the hell we decided to try them all. Luckily after getting completely wasted on two of them, the sun came back out and we could move to easier territory: there was the mountains best 22 ! and what probably was the mountains hardest grade 21 along with many other superlatives. Often we were amazed by the smooth orange rock that caressed our fingers rather than shred our skin like the usual abrasive Blueys sandstone. By the time we fell off the last hold on pitch ten we noticed that suddenly amidst another rain shower mixed with golden rays of the dying sun we were alone. The crag was suddenly empty and checking our watches it was seven o'clock: do we have time for one more we looked at each other? But then there was the long exit up the steep descent so we decided to call it a day and one hour later we shot a final photo a sublime point look out. It has been a while since we had tasted Blueys climbing culture at its best...... .

.Roman 21 February 2012.