Cranking in Wonderland...

This weekend has proven to be the best couple of days climbing since the trip began. The Satuday was the first day back after spending Friday resting.

For our first day back on we headed up to the "Gym" sector near the Restaurant area. This proved to be a bit of an adventure as the map is not altogether too acurate and the trail down is not marked. So we ended up doing a bit of bush whacking to get to the crag.

The gym is a short crag, maybe 8-12 meters at most giving it the height of most climbing gyms and hence the name. To warm up I cracked off a pair of 19s (5.10a) called "Any Objections" and "Monkey Monkey" both overhanging jug hauls. Once warmed up I jumped on a climbed called "Lithium" 24 (5.11d). This climb went up an overhanging wall on good crimps but no feet to the second bolt. Then a high left foot and a hip level high left foot which your rock over on thin crips and a rounded side pull to stand up and back to a juggy finish. I got the flash but the climb felts a bit soft.

To round out the day I got on a slab climb called "The Dark Side" 22 (5.11a) which climbed the steap slab on the other side of the river from us. I have to say, I have gotten out of practice of climbing thin slab as I got spit off at the first and second bolts. I decided I needed practice and should get back on but was shut down again at the third bolt. I did get the red point on the third attempt. Then ended the day cleaning "Any Objections".

Yesterday Klaus, Anna and I went to the Hallucinogen sector up near Tranquilitas campground. We hiked and by 10:30AM we at the base of some of the best looking climbs I have seen in Waterval. The lines are clean and much higher than yesterday's outing standing at around 15-18m.

To warm up I did "Old Crusty's Last Stand" 18 (5.9) which moved up an arete next to an offwidth crack. The climb was a touch technical as it involved laying back off the offwidth.
Klaus climbed Old Crusty's up, down and up again before cleaning it as his warm up. He then moved on to climb "Be Quick or Be Dead" 24 (5.11d) which was right next to Old Crusty. This climb looks to be quite a push with thin and blancy face moves as well as bad side pulls and thin crimps. The draws were put in but not without a few falls.

Still not totally warm I moved on to my second warm up "Doom" 19 (5.10a) which proved to be much more fun because of the exposure of climbing the arete that sticks a bit out from the main wall. I then moved on to climb "Be Quick or Be Dead" 24 (5.11d) the moves were wonderful and thin, requiring balance and good core strength to keep yourself in on the open hand side pulls and thin crimps. I fell at the lower and upper crux but worked out the sequence on the excellent climb up top.

For the button I had decided that the wall where you climb up Old Crusty's was in but after re-reading the description in the guide book, it states that the face is only to be used. So now I had to rework my beta for for the bottom. The new sequence involve a high right foot which rock up onto using a half pad side pull crimp and a one and a half finger crimp which gets you onto a incut 3/4 pad crimp. Another two things moves with feet tracking the crimps gets you to a nice incut flake where you get a shake before moving into the open hand sidepull sequence. Which I fell on. I lowered and made another attempt after a short rest.

My third attempt proved to be clean execution of the sequence and I felt good and in the moment. I moved through the top sequence of powerful high steps and side pulling to finish the route. This is the hardest climb I have red pointed yet on this trip. The only climb I would say I have worked harder on was "Je Suis Un Communist" in France, but this climb certainly felt better.

Klaus red pointed called "Fat Annie" a 25 (5.12a) and then another 24 (5.11d) called "Women Ain't Nothing But Trouble". He left the clips in "Women Ain't Nothing But Trouble". After five attempts at the thing crux off the second bolt I manage to get high enough to dyno for an incut rail next to the third bolt to pull past the crux and then finish with 8m of beautiful laybacking through a series of rooves and the red point.



To cool down I finished with "Rat Palace" a nice 20 (5.10b) which moves through a some thin balancy moves at the start and pulls a small roof at the end.



To celebrate my best climbing day yet we made our way down into the Township of Waterval and bought some "Chicken Dust" chicken which they sell from BBQs on the side of the road.



I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Welcome to Waterval Boven

Picture: Elands Falls and the township of Waterval Boven

This is my fourth day in Waterval Boven and am finally taking a rest. I arrived here four days ago with no partner and a lot of energy for climbing. Its been 20 days since I last touch the rock so I was eager to get there.





The lodge where I'm staying is a climbing lodge and I had hoped to meet some people to climb with there. After arriving it would seem my like would hold as there was only a climbing couple from Austria stay at the lodge and they were more than happy to have one more climber with them. Their names are Klaus and Annalise.





The first day we headed up to one of the crags near the water fall called "The Last Crag of the Century". Gustov the owner of our lodge gave us a ride down to the crag so we wouldn't get lost and the road is rather rough and would be hard on the car not to mention the security concerns.





We abseiled (rapped) into the climbing area and got cracking. Me being the eager beaver, warmed up on "Who's your daddy" a nice austrialian 19 (5.10b) for an easy warm up. Anna toproped it as there were a couple run outs and Klaus cleaned the route.





Next Klaus put the draws in a climb call "Good Times" 23 (5.11c). I followed it and pulled through the crux but got a flash pump and came off about 3 meters from the top. Guess I should have warmed up more.





I moved on to do "Endless Summer" 22 (5.11b). The climb was really nice, with big holds and long moves. A pronounced crux at mid height where you have to step left on small crimps and make a reachy up and left. Then its sustained jugs on veritical wall to the top.





To finish the day and exit from the location I decided to finish on a climb call "Three Mosquitos" 21 (5.11a), since we were leaving the area and this climb topped out allowing us to leave without hiking through the train tunnel.





Since we were leaving I was climbing with my pack on. I headed up and then started traversing diagonally up and left under a crack system when I took my first fall. I was a little off balance from the extra weight in my back. I was clearly tired but continued up feeling I could rest above.





I moved up several more bolts and reach as series of roofs. By this time I was terrible tired but not pumped out (my forearms could still grip). I clipped the bolt below the roof and moved up and left a few moves to a small ledge that I hoped I could rest on. As I was pulling onto the ledge my right foot blew (slipped) and I went for a huge 30ft wiper in which I had to kick off the 2ft ledge that was 25ft below.





Scared but determined I climbed the rope back to my high draw and clipped my pack to the bolt. After some rest and two more big falls I conceded that I was to tired to complete the route. Since I had spent so much time on the route we now had to hike out through the train tunnel.



That evening over dinner we were joined by two native South African climbers from Johannesburg: Paul and Doug. Paul was a retired stats professor and Doug was a software developer residing in Sydney Australia now. Both were friendly and interesting. It would turn out that Klaus and another climbing friend Kyle (AKA Canadian Kyle) had climbed the Nose on El Capitain in Yosemite last summer. After climbing there Kyle had cycled up to Vancouver and we climbed a few days together in Squamish. Welcome to the small world of climbing.



The next day I was so I decided to take it easy and climbs. Since we had left my draw on "Three Mosquitos" we returned to "The Last Crag of the Century". Paul and Doug also wanted to climb here so we all piled into Gustov's car and got a ride down to the crags.



Trying to stay gentle I warmed up on a climb called "Caffiene Jitters" 15 (5.7) then on to do the first pitch of "Electric Avenue" 17 (5.9). I finished warming up by putting the draws into "Who's your Daddy?" 19 (5.10a/b) for Anna to red point (which she did).

Now warm I jumped back on "Three Mosquitos" 21 (5.11a) but armed with some cams to protect the right travers at the roof. I quickly climbed to my hight point only to find that all the cams were too big for the placement midway through the right traverse in a horizontal crack. Instead I climbed above to place at the back of a roof above the traverse, this placement would prove to be my undoing as I didn't have any runners to extend the placement out from the back of the roof. The lack of extension would prove to be the critical mistake that would cost me the climb.

I completed the right traverse by commiting my weight to my right hand moving my left hand into an adjacent crimp next to my left hand. Then making another move far left to a ledge which was just incut enough to move left on then moving up to a good hold next to the third last bolt and standing up.

Clipping this bolt would prove to be a nightmare as the rope had tracked around a corner doing a near 90 degree turn at the TCU I had placed and out of the roof. To make matters worse the rope going from the last bolt to the TCP had sloted behind a flake to add to the drag. Pulling in the rope must have weighed 30lbs to get it clipped.

I struggled up gaining a few feet with my legs to reach the next bolt. The weight of the rope made it nearly impossible to clip but I managed to do it and fighting the pump in my arms. Once clipped I down climbed to the previous clip which I removed to reduce the 90 degree angle to a mere 60 degree with a roof edge and the rope still slotted behind the flake.

With 10ft of climbing and one bolt left I pressed on. I manage to drag myself up to face level with the final bolt, only 5ft below the anchor. I manage to get the clip into the bolt but the rope drag was too much to pull up and clip. I surrendered my red point attempt and sat on the rope to recover my forearms.

We rounded out the day by climbing out of the valley via the warm up climb "Caffiene Jitters" which tops out. We then walked about the hill that the rail tunnel passes through. See picture below.

Picture: Me hiking out from "The Last Crag of the Century" near the Elands Falls, Waterval Boven.

The next day Klaus, Anna and I were to have a rest day. Well, that was what I thought atleast. We decided to go check out the boulder fields at Kaapsehoop, a small town about one hour drive from Waterval Boven.

We drove out of town fairly early after having a light breakfast and arrived at Kaapsehoop after a little over an hour. The owner of our lodge recommended the pancake lodge there so we had only eaten a light breakfast so that we could enjoy the treat at this sleepy town. The mushoom and garlic pancakes were a delight and filled us up before heading out into the boulder fields.

Picture: Annalise and Klaus hiking into the boulder fields at Kaapsehoop.

We managed to find more than enough boulders to keep us happy and entertained for the day. There were boulders as far as the eye cold see, the sandstone was very features as you can see from the pictures. After a short hike in we settled on some promissing looking boulders that offered some overhanging crimpy fun. After a bit of skin punishment we threw in the towel on our "rest day".

Picture: My fingers after the bouldering session on our "rest day" at Kaapsehoop boulders.

Picture: Klaus hiking out from the Kaapsehoop boulders.

I didn't manage to get this posted before my internet ran out on the rest day that followed but here it is now. I now have to catch up on the weekends climbing which was amazing.