G Man v. Frosty - A tale for those who love happy endings...

Keep going mate, you're almost at the first bolt!

Graham Fairbairn attempting Frosty, circa 1993.

Photo taken from the first Nowra Guidebook.

A story that has been over a decade in the making came to a happy conclusion at Rosies a few weeks ago. Frosty, now a classic 29, was the first route bolted at this crag in he early nineties shortly after the crag was discovered by Paul Westwood. 

Little Graham standing below Rosies on the day the crag was discovered! No Bolts, no chalk, just potential!

Jarred McCulloch put the bolts in and originally envisioned the line going right to the top of the crag (the finish still hasn't been climbed). At the time, Jarred's dreams were haunted by the sinister figure of Frosty the Bondage Clown who had a fetish for the colour orange! And so the route was named. After departing the Nowra scene to start breeding, Jarred bequeathed the route to Graham Fairbairn, then commonly known as Little Graham. Graham sensibly decided to route should finish at the obvious break, below the 8c finish and threw himself at it for a while. During this time the route became controversial as a bottom-feeder tried to steal the first ascent. To prevent this, a tyre was padlocked to crux bolt for a while! Graham then burned himself out and abandoned Frosty, Nowra and climbing all together. 

As this saga was unfolding the real estate around Frosty was increasing as every other piece of climbable rock at Rosies was bolted, cleaned and climbed. Frosty went from lonesome figure on mighty wall to one of a number of classic lines. But Frosty sat idle and unloved until Andrew Bull took up the challenge and made the first ascent. A few years Graham, now known as G Man fell in love with climbing again and has jumped back into the sport with he same passion he had a teenager 15 years ago. Frosty still called G like a siren luring a sailor onto the fatal rocks. But this time a more cunning navigator was on the bridge and the G Man sailed safely to the anchors!