Yep, another Candlestick post. We attempted the Original Route on Thursday. All went relatively smoothly until the third of our party of 3 started heading up the start of the third pitch. The chimney is quite deep and wide and has a sloping base exiting next to the belay ledge here. Not exactly sure what triggered it, but a rock let go towards the bottom of this which must have been holding up a whole heap of others which all proceeded to spew out and down the rest of the route and into the water. Our parties climber swung away towards the crack that the gear was in to the right as they let go and luckily escaped major injury. Still had a badly bruised/crushed toe and some other knocks to the legs. Enough that we aborted our attempt for the summit.

Anyway, it probably goes without saying, but anyone heading there should continue to be vigilant about loose rock. We were too preoccupied with bailing to have a look down the second pitch to see if much rock settled there, or if anything else was knocked loose down lower, but the second half of the second pitch was already pretty loose.

PS. We also retrieved a thick orange rope that was tied into the anchors at the top of the third pitch and hanging down this route. Maybe someone forgot to untie the initial tyrol before the last came over?? Anyway, it was too heavy to carry back so if anyone wants it, we left it coiled under the trees near the rap anchor on the mainland.