First Ascent of The Platypus (5.12d) - Sport Climbing in Indian Creek

The Platypus is a 35 meter long sport route at the Cat Wall in Indian Creek, Utah. I spotted and developed the line over several days this fall. The result was something fantastically unique that fits in with all of the cat themed splitter cracks about as well as a platypus would with a bunch of cats. My friend Jarrid was hanging around and was psyched to snag some rad footage of me on the first ascent, which I am psyched to share here!
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Music by Banco de Gaia - "Kinkajou" and "Amber"

[@mackiesnapper]

What a cool looking route, Tavish! A real variety of climbing techniques.

[@ascotter]

Nice work! I agree that there’s like wayyyy too many bolts at the beginning but I guess I haven’t seen the route in person and wouldn’t really know. Beautiful addition. Cool to see a sport route and face holds in Indian Creek.

[@AEIProductions]

What a line!! Love it, can’t wait to try it some day.

[@alcupone6462]

At first I thought you went bit nuts with the bolts in the chimney and was scared for the rest but it is really nice sport route.
Fits nicely on a pillar that would be impossible to trad climb, thank you for your work.

[@adamborg1]

Looks awesome!

[@nathanmankovich6171]

So. Sick.

[@paulheimweh]

Looks really beautiful but a lot of bolts especially in the beginning.

[@ianlingley5144]

Looks like a stellar route!!! I'm curious how it was developed.
Ground up bolt to bolt aid tactics? Ground up with a mix of bolts to bolt and other aid? On rap?
I'm not chirping just wondering how you approached a new line.
Cheers, and thanks for the video.

[@cascadeclimbingschool]

I climbed a route just to the left and pulled some slightly scary shenanagins to get over to where I put the anchor and a fixed line in. I cleaned as much loose rock and sand off as I could, then figured out all the climbing on microtrax before putting the bolts in.
I really try to create safe, high quality routes that other people will enjoy, and I have the most control over what I create by approaching things top down. I've gone ground up on occasion for the fun and adventure of it but in this case I probably would have made a mess of the line with bolts in weird places and pin scars in the seams if I'd tried to get up it before cleaning or working out the sequences, so luckily getting in to the top worked out.

[@ianlingley5144]

@@cascadeclimbingschool right on. That's usually my approach as well. Nice work.
And the line looks super fun!!

[@seandemello916]

it looks like a good climb.

[@kx85lover]

Jesus Christ you had a bolt every 2 inches for that first part.

[@chrissandoval6684]

Pretty sad that you can clip four bolts all at once, shame, no sense of climbing clean and minimal.

[@seandemello916]

its not a first ascent if hardware is installed.

[@cascadeclimbingschool]

Uh, I was the one that put that hardware in...Unless you are saying bolted routes aren't real climbing?

[@skylinesclimbing]

Lol

[@paulheimweh]

what?