A list of best Trad routes in ZA - Any grade, anything goes, can have a bolt here or there but must be primarily Trad

(I'm going to keep on editing my list (below) with suggestions that are made)

Wolfberg
Energy Crisis 20
Celestial Journey 22
Alone in Space 22

Tafelberg:
Big Groove 20
Comes a Time 20
Baboon Speak 21
Rooibosch (18')

Krakadouw:
King Kong 21/22
Ichthyasaurus 21/22
Austrolopethicus

Table Mountain
Triple Indirect
Jacobs Ladder 17
Roulette 19
African Lunch 23
Magnetic Wall 19
Atlantic Crag
The Dream

Lions Head granite
Millions (18)
Bastille Crack (20)

Lion's Head Sandstone
Clifton Crest (16)

Lakeside Pinnacle
Crack of Dawn (17)

Muizenberg Crag
Crackle
No Name Brand
Understairs and Dilettante

Du Toits Kloof
Exposure in the F Major
Armageddon Time
Renaissance

Hellfire
Hellfire (the route) 24
Burnout

Montagu
Technicolour Darkness [area closed]
Nuclear Waste [area closed]

Karbonaaitjieskraal:
Rastarock
Divine Dog

Blouberg:
Eight Miles High (24)
Dog Day in Heaven (25/6)
Hey Jude

Magaliesberg:
Mhalbs: Space Walk (21)
Upper Tonquani: Last Rites (19)
Cedarberg: Boggle (19)
Boulder: Dogstyle (23)
Kranskloof: The Cruise (22)
Hourglass (F2/15) (in Lower Tonquani)

Mary (E Cape):
The Legend (26)

Wilgepoort:
The Key (21)

Paarl Rocks
Stem Gem - 22

Yellowwood:
No more bells

The Berg:

The North Face Route on Sentinel Peak (also called the Angus-Leppan Route).
Devil's Tooth.
Mponjwana, Standard Route.
The Bell, Hoper's Route.
The Pyramid, Standard Route.
The Column, Escarpment Arête.
The Monk's Cowl, Standard and Barry's Route.
The Injasuti Western Triplet, North West Ridge Route.
Giant's Castle, Schole's Route.
Giant's Castle, Makaza and the Main Loteni Couloir (ice routes).

Not so auto (on Monks cowl)

Boven:
Heart of China

Monteseel
Powderfinger
Fiddler in the roof
Granny's souped up wheelchair

Pinnacle Gorge
Lycra Trea
Por_noster
Slow ecstasy
Snip Snip
Fingercrack
Think Pink

Nagas Gorge
Old man's ecstasy
Moonjig

Lady Slipper
MacKegnie's madness
Twinkletoes
Flashdance

Hogsback
Fame and fashion

Both gorges in EC

_________________
Climb ZA - Administrator

Hiya

Maybe add Roulette to table mountain?

If easy grades aren't an issue, I'd definitely suggest adding Africa Crag to Table Mountain. As far as setting and exposure, and good clean fun go, it's a treat!

Muizenberg Crag
Crackle
No Name Brand

Blouberg:
Take Psycho Reptile off the list (bush/choss). Add Eight Miles High (24) and (by all accounts, havent done it myself) Dog Day in Heaven (25/6).

Magalies:
Mhalbs: Space Walk (21)
Upper Tonquani: Last Rites (19)
Cedarberg: Boggle (19)
Boulder: Dogstyle (23)
Kranskloof: The Cruise (22)

Mary (E Cape):
The Legend (26)

Wilgepoort:
The Key (21)

Havent been to Krakadouw but its sounds like there's some amazing routes there?

Paarl Rocks
Stem Gem - 22

Take a look at the discussion on 10 Ten SA Classics (mixed with sport climbs too)

Some \"old\" transvaal lists from saclimb:

http://www.saclimb.co.za/magaliesberg/classics.html

http://www.saclimb.co.za/gautengother/old_tvlclassics.html

The MCSA KZN section web site reports: (http://kzn.mcsa.org.za/mteer.html)

The main Classic Berg routes are:

The North Face Route on Sentinel Peak (also called the Angus-Leppan Route).
Devil's Tooth.
Mponjwana, Standard Route.
The Bell, Hoper's Route.
The Pyramid, Standard Route.
The Column, Escarpment Arête.
The Monk's Cowl, Standard and Barry's Route.
The Injasuti Western Triplet, North West Ridge Route.
Giant's Castle, Schole's Route.
Giant's Castle, Makaza and the Main Loteni Couloir (ice routes).

Lion's Head Sandstone
Clifton Crest (16)

Krakadouw:

King Kong 21/22
Ichthyasaurus 21/22

Table Mountain:

African Lunch 23
Magnetic Wall 19

Tafelberg:
Big Groove 20
Comes a Time 20
Baboon Speak 21

Understairs and Dilettante at Muizenberg are definite candidates!!!!

best trad lines I have climbed:

TM:
Jacobs ladder
Roulette
Triple indirect

Yellowwood:
No more bells

Exposure

Be that as it may popularity and context must feature in any decision.
Where is Monteseel in this list. Hallucination and Pin-up! Magaliesberg has got hundreds of quality classics and must-do's. Red Corner, Hyperaedrenia, The Moke etc.etc.

Du Toit's: Exposure in F must be the steepest, finest route of it's grade in South Africa. And you can't leave out Armageddon Time and Renaissance.

Hellfire crag has several must-do's not the least of which is Burnout and Hellfire.

On the Ledge Jacobs Ladder is a no-brainer as are Atlantic Crag, The Dream and many others.

Montagu: Technicolour Darkness and Nuclear Waste must be included.

Wilgepoort has many superb routes and The Key must be in.

Krakadouw: Austrolopethicus.

Blouberg: Hey Jude is the most do-able route there for moderate climbers and has some brilliant pitches and my first recommendation for a first visit. The other good routes are much harder.

Karbonaaitjieskraal: Rastarock, Divine Dog ....

The list goes on and on.

A better way of doing this is to first select a climbing area and then rate 3 or more routes of easy, moderate and hard as \"must do's\". So grade 17 or less, grade 18 to 21 or so and then Grade 21 and harder....

i was thinking something along the lines of what Guy did in his western cape crags books. Besides the obvious star rating he had a 10 day visit and 30 day visit. obviously to the cape but maybe we can use an idea like this for all areas. If you only have one day to go to a crag what are the must do's. If you're going somewhere for a week then what else is there to do?

For example, like Snort said, hey jude is a must do in blouberg and then look at other lines.

I think this list is a great idea. It certainly gives you perspective on what others think are great lines.

Boven

not that i have done it but i hear it's an awesome line, \"Heart of China\"

Drakensberg,

\"Not so auto\" on Monks cowl, a route that shouldn't have the rep it does and deserves loads more ascents.

Monteseel
Powderfinger
Fiddler in the roof
Granny's souped up wheelchair

Well Justin seeing as you said anything goes for this list, maybe you have space on it for the following line:

Lakeside Pinnacle
Crack of Dawn (17)

I would agree with Russ's list of Magaliesberg classics on saclimb (see link above) although I would add Hourglass (F2) in Lower Tonquani to that list.

Also what about Millions (18') and Bastille Crack (20) at Lions Head granite and Rooibosch (18') at Tafelberg.

Pinnacle Gorge
Lycra Trea
Por_noster
Slow ecstasy
Snip Snip
Fingercrack
Think Pink

Nagas Gorge
Old man's ecstasy
Moonjig

Lady Slipper
MacKegnie's madness
Twinkletoes
Flashdance

Hogsback
Fame and fashion

Both gorges in EC

Resurecting an old thread.

Cedarberg Tafelberg:
The Frontal
Human Highway
Comes A Time

Wolfberg:
Celestial Journey

Table Mountain:
Jacobs
Staircase
Frazers
Bombay Duck

_________________
Inspiration exists, but it must find you working. – Pablo Picasso

Hello

I was just wandering - are all these ratings based upon quality of climbing, setting, and the walk-in/out standards etc... or just comments on personal achievement.
For people who seek advice on routes to do this could be misleading.
For example, taking some of the longer routes into the account:
Exposure in F-major- I agree the setting is spectacular and all - but it must be the most incorrectly named route in ZA; Minimum exposure factor- mossy rock - s***t load of scrambling- and plenty more walking. My advice is to bring a boulder matt along so when you top out quickly - you can do some quality bouldering on your long hike down...
Or a paraglider and try to beat the just over 2 hours (if i remember correctly) carpark to carpark record.

I think a route rating should be proportionate to the effort you put into getting there,quality of rock , sustained-ededness of the climbing, walk out etc.
Exposure in F maj - uhm- not the best trad route ofits grade around- maybe some consider it a classic -but hey different srokes... We want to know of the best routes around - not of the names of the routes okes have done...
be safe

Hi Guys,

What about where it all started 24th October 1885,Towerkop!!
Classics like Nefdt,Jacksons and Ed February's Trilogy to name just a few!
C'mon guys,get your gear packed and get your behinds up that beautiful piece of rock!

Absolutely!!
Next year is 125 years since Neft opened his route on Toverkop - in socks (his boots were slipping in the rain).
I hear that a meet is planned at Toverkop to celebrate Neft's route's anniversary.

_________________
Inspiration exists, but it must find you working. – Pablo Picasso