Anyone keen to offer a bum a lift to Tonquani this weekend? I won't be able to drive (or climb for that matter) for a little while. I mainly want to go for the singalong thing and catch up a bit with Heinrich and Carlien (and whoever else). I'm keen to just muck around in the kloof for the rest of the time and I might even be persuaded to be the coffee/tea bitch. I can probably also carry stuff, but I'll need help getting it on and off my back. (I live in Clubview, Centurion)

Jis, ammal kry eina! Wat het jy met jouself aangevang? If iets a seerieass injoory, please asb post pics?

Sprained both wrists, but its not a climbing injury, it happened shortly after I suddenly stopped climbing. Could have had it on video, but the camera(wo)man fell asleep after complaining that it was more of a boring art movie than an action movie.

Was dit lekker in Amerika?

Both wrists!!
Prey do tell what happened?

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Climb ZA - Administrator

Yeah , please do tell. The trip was awesome, Squamish was spectacular... The Chief is one mofo of a piece of granite. The cracks made me bleed and my feet hurt: I learnt that if you're going to do 150m of fist jamming, you tape or you flail. Or both. Offwidths are also fun in a sadistic type of way... The open space and the Canadians were inspiring, had awesome rainday parties.

And the slabs taught me something about the meaning of 'runout'. The were 4 individual pitches (between the 10 or so multipitch trad routes we did) where you climb belay to belay without the bother of placing gear. The stance IS the placement. Not that you'd factor 2, you'd just scrape down the slab, grinding your limbs down to the knee/elbow.

On the way back did some bouldering in Central Park, on some VERY polished boulders.

All in all, great climbing, rad new friends made, rad old friends seen, awesome exposure, rather a lot of rain, a bruised heel and a lot of cattle class flying.

Alright, I was gonna trade the story for a lift, but here it is then:

It was a dark and brooding morning with the wind howling though the gap between Tafelberg and Spout . Rooibosch looked like a bleak prospect, so we decided the gully will have to do. Over the neck things looked better with the sun baking and a little protection from the wind. Seemonster said he spotted a line on the back of Spout he would like to try. Its name, Solitaire, it looked nice and protection appeared plentiful. Sarel set of and came crashing down before he could even place gear. The rock was surprisingly slippery, but Sarel managed to get to the optional belay stance halfway up and decided it was not optional and said I should carry on leading the second half. It looked better so I was keen, but soon realised that the protection was not at all what I had hoped for. I clipped the highest piece on the stance and then a solid C3 within arms length of a solid-ish small nut. A runout to what looked like a bomber rail only to be disappointed by a rail higher than it was wide, so I placed a dodge 3.5 friend and carried on, it looked better up. It wasn't there was nothing, only seams. Sarel showed me a tuft of grass, and after removing it I found a very shallow vertical placement for a 00 friend. I knew the last two placements were only there to lighten my load and would probably not hold, but I was still safe from a deck and the rock above lured me into making me think things can only get better. It didn't. At a bulge where all the slopers turned sideways I started getting quite nervous. Then I saw it! A little horizontally elongated pocket filled with mud and moss (rather weird, I know). I scratched it out while my forearms were getting a tad pumped. The hole looked good, a 0 friend appeared to cam well on all fours. I tested it with a few nervous tugs and felt very relieved. I decided I must rest before tackling the bulge with with the big crack in the roof (or big bulge if you like) just above. Last thing I remember seeing was looking down at Seemonster looking up after taking and giving me the OK. The cam wasn't so good after all and the next 2 was only there to give me spectacular cam flying flashbacks for the next week just before falling asleep at night. I think I fell with my back towards the ground until hitting Sarel on the head and shoulders with my feet. That impact must have flipped me around and the catch must have swung me into the cliff back-of-the-hands first. At least that's what I figured happened, I only know that when I got back to my senses I was hanging upside down looking up to see a very spooked Seemonster peering down at me. I never found out why the last cam failed, maybe it wasn't clean enough and slipped out, maybe the hole broke, maybe it was just a kak placement...

You really shouldn't talk about a native like that man. Your trip sounds like fun, how about a lift then we can trade stories?

Thats quite a story Shorti, thanks for the report.
Q: Which piece held your fall in the end ??

Hope your wrists heal quick

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Climb ZA - Administrator

Would love to join the fun, but am doing my dad's 70th on Saturday...nice story anyway. Eish!

well bless your cotton socks!

genugtig!


EEEEEEK!


dis shitty, jammer om te hoor. onthou, ons klim want ons is lewendig... kom ons hou dit so

Thanks, its getting better everyday. Fisio's expensive, but seems to work rather well.

It was the little C3 and small nut combo on the one rope that held. The other rope was clipped into the high piece on the stance and twisted around one of my legs a few times, but didn't take much (if any) weight.