Season's greeting to all! I hope the psyche is starting to build for an amazing year

Does anyone know if there are any established routes going up the faces around the Left Face area on TM or on the big, triangular buttress/face on the Camps Bay side of Kloof Corner ridge? If so, any ideas as to which Mountain Club journals I would need to fish through?

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Chuck Norris wears Ueli Steck pyjamas

Bump

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Chuck Norris wears Ueli Steck pyjamas

Ask Hilton Davies

Thanks

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Chuck Norris wears Ueli Steck pyjamas

Hello Arno

Are you the Arno I met at Skoorsteenskop?

I'm no expert on this business but I can share the following:

1. There are a lot of routes on the left faces of Table Mountain. Some of them are very easy and you can find all these RDs in Tony Lourens' new book Table Mountain Classics. It's a brilliant book.

2. Adam Roff, Bruce Daniel, Tienie Versveld, Jeremy Berrisford and the other Tuesday evening runners know these routes really well. They jol up them at incredible speeds. Bruce took me for a high-speed soloing mission up Right Face. Tafelberg Road to summit was just over an hour. I nearly died (and we were slow!). These guys can give you excellent beta.

3. In the 20s we had one of the leading-edge climbers in the world - for the time. (Like Mike Mamacos and Andy de Klerk later). This guy, George Londt, made Klein Winterhoek Frontal - a truly awesome route and one that every local climber should do. George died when he took a leader fall on Rainbow Crag on the left side of Table Mountain on 13 November 1927. I've always meant to climb the route but haven't yet. With this history it would be interesting to do.

4. A year or two ago I was talking with Mike Mamacos (he's in his mid-eighties) and he told me that his first hard climb was on the left face of Table Mountain. It might have been 'Breakaway' but I'm not sure.

5. There are routes on that wall above Camps Bay. I remember in a write up of a new route Mike Scott described the climb as being lousy - very vegetated and grotty.

6. A couple of years ago Bruce and I climbed Fountain Ridge which is to the right of the Camps Bay side. We did about a dozen pitches of 14 - 18 and saw ancient cairns along the way. Then we did a new route through the big overhang near the top (about 100m below Fountain Ledge). Nice route. Three pitches, grade 21.

7. Mike Scott would be the go-to guy on this stuff. My knowledge is very limited. (But I'm off to Yellowwood now...and that's a place I know well! Ask about that! I'm taking young Guy Patterson-Jones for his first taste..)

good luck!
Hilton

Hi Hilton,

We have met, but at Main Crag. There's obviously another Arno running around the Cape

1. That's actually why I'm asking. We walked up via the Left Face Mystery B route. The mist was very thick, so it might look a bit different in sun, but it looked like there were some cool lines going up the top faces.

2. This just got added to my training schedule

3-6. Like you and all these other guys I'm quite keen to go check it out anyway. I'll be sure to add my 10c

7. Brilliant! I've yet to climb there. New years resolution!

Thanks for all the info!
Arno

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Chuck Norris wears Ueli Steck pyjamas

Hey Arno,
A friend and I spent a fair bit of time last year 'exploring' those walls above mystery b. Also chatted to Mike Scott and trolled through all the journals from the 60's and 70's (which is where the RD's for some of the obscure routes in that area can be found). Many of the obvious lines have been done, up to about grade 18 or so, a few of which are quite worthwile to check out. There is plenty of harder stuff left to be developed, but the rock needs a lot of help exfoliating. We did open a nice line that still needs a rope gun to free the crux pitch (about 26-27ish - let me know if you're interested), and started a couple other projects that have promise. It gets a lot of sun most of the year and drips a lot in winter, but has potential to be a really fun area for those in-between days if a few more good routes get developed. would be happy to share any other info with you if it'll help.
Cheers

adnanawad@live.com

Thanks Adnan! Definitely keen to go check it out

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Chuck Norris wears Ueli Steck pyjamas