The sharp end proved a little to sharp for Tini Versveld who fell and hit the deck when a foot hold broke while attempting a direct variation of the last pitch of La Vida on Fountain Ledge TM on Saturday 9 May 09. Despite his candid and considered opinion of himself that he felt like a "right heel" it was actually his left calcaneus (heel bone) that was shattered and that required surgical re-assembly yesterday.

He is laid up but remains un-laid and lonely with his heel encased in a plaster cast and elevated on pillows at the UCT Private Academic hospital. So call him or sms him. Send me a PM for his cell phone number or make a post here and I shall print and take it to him or forward it.

Tini was just coming back into his own and was warming up for a red-point of his test piece "No Longer at Ease" 25. He recently ticked Sanitorium 25.

He has led a charmed life on trad being a bold climber on lead. This is his first injury other than bruises and scrapes in about 35 years' of climbing. This accident comes hot on the heels (sic!) of his brother Dirk's shattered wrist after he pulled a cam aiding a route called Bowstring on the lower buttresses of TM just 2 weeks ago!

A bunch of Cape climbers took time of for some climbing Boven around easter. Most of the time was spent climbing the hundreds of easier classics which are still new to us or checking out the moves on some of the harder classics but still some some medium to hard routes were sent.

Jason Temple Forbes:
Redpoint: Kindred-sprits (25?)
On sight: Sweetplumb (25) & Superfly (23)
Flash: Hell-yeah (27)

Beth Higgins
Redpoint: Rudebushman (24)
On sight: The Three Mosquitoes (21)

Douw Steyn
Flash: Karfoefeling (26) and Hell Yeah (27)

Naureen Goheer
Red Point: Transmogrifier (26)

Andy Davies
On Sight: Out on a Limb (25)
Flash: Paradise by the C (26)

Micky Wiswedel (i stayed on a week longer...)
Red Point: Paradise by the C (26), Tripolactic Fairytales (27) and Lotters Desire (28)
Flash: Hallucinogenic Torreador (26)

Visiting German climber Jorg Mund put a weeks worth of effort into Snapdragon (29) which he sent in thunderstorm with hail starting to pelt him on the last moves before the top.

A bunch of us went to Boven for the first time. We stayed at Tranquilitas and had an awesome time - its a beautiful place. Friday night we could hardly see the next chalet because of the mist, saturday lunch time it rained and hailed (we still managed a fire to cook some boerewors rolls), sunday had perfect climbing conditions (although the baboons barking in the valley below us made me a bit nervous). I really enjoyed the variety of different styles of the climbs (crack, chimney etc) we climbed a variety of easy routes rather than focussing on working one route (that said I got pretty pumped out). I also took a pretty long fall off one of the routes (got my adrenalin flowing nicely )

Routes climbed

Last Hurrah - 16 (bland warm up)
Smokey the Bear - 16 (bland warm up)
Rat Palace - 20 (balancy first moves, interesting section over the little roof)
Snakeskin Safari Suit - 18 (awesome exposure and view over the valley)
The harder you push the harder it gets - 18 (fun chimney climb against massive pillar... which sways )
Moondance - 20 (pumpy crack climb - nice whipper towards the top )
Little Bonzai - 16 (enjoyable climb)
Chimneying Tammy - 15 (interesting chimney climb)
Caviars Whiskers - 17 (nice crack climb)

All in all a great weekend ... and we will be back

Worked Cedar Rouge in the rain Friday the 1st and got the Redpoint on the first try the next day. What an awesome route! I initially planned to work through the route one last time, putting draws in for the RP, but after clipping the second bolt the moves started flowing so I just continued and went all the way. Nearly lost my cool at the last bolt before the anchors, but I just decided i wasn't going to do all that hard work again and pushed through. And afterwards one thinks it wasn't that scary really.....
That was my 3rd 24-climb ....

Two weekends back I cranked Stuart Browns new route at Worlds Apart.
The route is located to the left of Rolling Stone (24). The new route is called Beyond My Control and goes at grade 25.
Its a great addition to the crag, it starts off with a tricky sequence up the first wall and then goes into a nice overhanging finger crack, finished off with a pumpy crank to the chains.

Matt Busch cranked 'My Route down by the River' (31/32) (also opened by Stuart Brown) this week. He got it on his 3rd try and managed to pull a huge 80/100kg block off which grazed his leg, skinned his rope to the core and luckily missed the belayer!

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A week ago a couple of French guys made a 3 day Boven stop-over on their way to Kruger. Mattieu onsighted Lotter's Desire and Snapdragon, flashed Monster and red pointed Hack and Slay second try.
Xavier, with a severly damaged finger still managed to flash Snapdragon and red point Monster second go.
Perhaps more impressive was the fact that a couple of us made an adventure trip to The Island this weekend . We had to carve our own path, but the quality of some of the routes there make it worth while. I reckon Springtide (23) Castaway (24) Old Spice (25) and Shrine of the Sea Monkey (24) are all 4/5 star routes that were too easily surrendered to wasps and spiders.

Just noticed Roger finished his route, 'The Godfather'! At 8b its some impressive cranking!!

And he is only 43!

Imagine what he'll be up to when he reaches 50!?

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Gustav
Roc 'n Rope Adventures
Waterval Boven
013 257 0363
rocrope dot com

Yup at 43 years old that is not bad!! He's been climbing for 25 years.
Roger put in about 20 days of effort, +- 40 attempts... and the old man with stick SENT.
The God Father 32 /8b

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Ok, I'm bored, the forum's dead and it's frighteningly cold, so I'll tell you about my monkey friend Heinrich Kahl and his new found love. On Saturday we went back to Cedarberg kloof to give him a second go at Eliminator (just right of the infamous Terminator). He fell off on the first try, but found a better way and sent it on his second try while placing gear. He goes on about bomber gear, but don't be fooled, the first nut placements are too high to protect the first bit and too low to protect clipping the bolt. The bolt is a bit dodgy if you ask me, but it held a fall so I guess all's well. Then you get a piton with a 00 friend placement right next to it. Then a 1.5 friend that swivels in the horizontal crack below the roof and that's it! I think it is a pretty cool route and it looked flipping hard (I got pumped just by looking at it). I would have taken a nice picture but he insisted that he'd rather be belayed than shot - bugger!

Report by Neil Margetts:

New 5 pitch line on Wellingtons opened last weekend by 2 visiting Germans, Joerg and Till.
The climb is called Thepe (which means 'African War Shield') which goes at 20, 23, 26, 26, 20.
It was bolted for the bold with bolts some 4 to 5 m apart!

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Dion Van Zyl - at the grand age of 45 or so - effected an awesome and exceptionally bold flash ascent of the first pitch of Don't Squeeze I'll Laugh - 21 trad on Fountain Ledge, TM today in very windy conditions. He was too pumped to place gear after the crux and continued to the belay ledge with a mega run-out.

If you dunno what chicken winging is then, you ain't been pumped. He gave a world class demonstration. But rather than sag on the pro, or jump off he prevailed and did it!

To put it in perspective, there are only a handful of climbers (I would say less than 10) in SA at any one time that would achieve such a lead on trad without sagging or bailing. His on-sight sport grade is no harder....

Well done Dion! Never chicken winged on a Trad route before -- scary stuff.

Snort, your estimate seems a bit low. I would have thought more like 20.

---

Hmm, or more than 20. But I don't know where these numbers come from!

The vast majority of routes on TM are graded for the red-point. Every time somebody writes up an old route the grade drops because everyone has got them waxed. Farewell to Arms 20 which is an easier route and less scary than Don't Squeeze I'll Laugh when first opened ground up was graded 23!!!!. Maybe not but it is probably 21 to on-sight for some arb from up-country, the UK or wherever.

Don't Squeeze is closer to British E2 5b on-sight than E1.... It has a high-ball boulder problem start that is quite something to do without beta and very reachy. Then it has a run-out to the first stance. Then one swings around onto a face with thin foot holds past a cammed in and very scary rocking block.....etc. It is difficult to read and very pumpy if you don't know it.

Ok, I get you. The key phrase in your post being "achieve such a lead" and not the grade as such... I'm thinking of routes at that grade in Magalies or Monteseel where there is probably less exposure etc etc...

Arjan De Kock redpointed 'Hulk' 34/8c at the Ali Baba Cave in Rodellar, Spain His comment on 8a.nu is 'Awesome, could have been better with tight shoes, no can do with fractured heel!'

Also on the tick list is:
Sueurs Froides 31/8a+ at Ceuse / Demi Lune
Ambicion Cero 7c+/8a / 29/30 Rodellar / gran boveda

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Flex and I repeated the Germans new climb on Wellingtons (pictured above). I loved it, great face climbing all the way and sustained. We linked first 2 pitches to give 23, then reckon 25, 26, 20. Really not run-out at all but a few fragile grips. A great day out, highly recomeneded.
Andrew

Ian Kotze and I were at Spitzkoppe last week and did the following:
Standard route, To Bolt or Not to Bolt + Abrasion in a day (highly recommendable), Royale Flush - a big adventure and a fine long route with a 70m final crack pitch 400m off the ground - spectacular, Rumours of Rain, Rhino Horn, Watersports, Nothing in Moderation first 3 pitches (we backed off after that cos of the frightening runout), Beyond Suntan Lotion's first and second pitches (another 60m hand crack - sublime), and loads of small sport routes and other gnarly cracks and grovels. Its a brilliant place.

We went to Mary for the long weekend. Stunning. Opened/recorded 9 lines. 6 went all the way to the top. Really stunning!

If any one has details of routes they may have opened at Mary. Please send them to me.

marshall (at) qsafrica.co.za

Dion Van Zyl, Robert Breyer and I visited the Ledge at TM yesterday. To compensate for my aging and weakening state, I have now replaced my 60m skinny ice floss ropes with 27m versions that weigh in at a mere 1.8kg each. Dion at the tender age of 47 earned his first set of trad wings by flying off Leo's route (20) on the Cock-n-Bull buttress. We finished up on the Last Tango/Dream combo...(210

JP partly cratered while trying new lines at Donkerkloof near Caledon this weekend. He slipped off while trying to clip pro that he had placed above him and missed the clip. He says he was about 8m above the ground. As he was climbing on a single rope there was a long loop of rope out. As a result of the high fall factor he broke a gold camelot and a yellow alien's cam lobes came off the end. He injured both his feet and his back but was lucky not to seriously injure himself.

Two ropes are always safer than one even if they are very thin ropes....

Damn!!

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he snort, just want to make sure about something - the gold camalot "broke"; it did not pop out? hectic!

aren't they supposed to be rated to 14kn? that is higher than the max impact force on any rope out there. maybe the cam was in bad shape?

Headed out to Nsa in east london. Was so so climbing felt a little weak so me and taygs just hit some 19's and one 20!!! Was very lazy i hate to say it but would rather have slept! Checked out Martin working his insane project,looks just like my house wall!! flat with some fine cracks in it. He nearly made it but it sadly was not his day either i gues...maybe next week well witness something awesome!

Awe,

It's the yellow alien cam that broke completely, the #2 BD cam is the
one that saved my back from breaking even though I hit the
deck it was still solid in the rock, I fractured both my feet
(damn it's frustrating ) learned my lesson...but it was AWESOME there!!!

Will definately go back there to send it...

Martin Renz sent the 33 that Adam Ondra opened at NSA...this afternoon...well done Marty!

To escape the wet weather, Robert Breyer and I went to find some sun at KarbonaaitjiesKraal. There was awesome snow all round. The Matroosberg had his white sailors hat on. When we arrived it was 6 degrees C and when we left it was 9. After warming up in the sun on Dinkum Dog we tried to do find a moderate grade 19 to the right which is in the shade but hopefully out of the freezing breeze (which it wasn't). So , despite wearing a down jacket, I alternatively shook and shivered up what turned out to be fine new route with Robert cajoling me up from below where he sat reverberating with the cold. The route no doubt needs to be named Bivvering Bitch.

The first pitch (20 or 21)has a tricky move and then the next pitch is really awkward and airy. It's probably grade 23 to on-sight. The final pitch is easy but still quality at grade 17 or so.

Given the fear factor, the icy conditions and the poor climbing form we are in, we did quite well I thought but it needs a clean ascent as we both tested the runner placements.

KZN is the place to be! Check out this blog for some of the wicked sends that have been happening in Durbs and surrounds in the last few weeks. http://www.kzn-climbing.blogspot.com
Enjoy

Brian Weaver and I have managed to clinch the 2nd and 3rd ascent of the uber classic Twist & Shout (28N) in Cederberg gorge, which has only had one free ascent (19 years ago, by Richard Lord) since it was opened in 1974 as an aid route. Yesterday (saturday) I redpointed it sport-style (gear pre-placed) and this morning Brian got it in the same style, on his first attempt for the day. We agreed that it's a too stiff for 27, so upped it to 28. After Brian pointed the route, I cleaned the route and redpointed it placing gear, to stop the ethical debate in my head... Absolutely brilliant line it is!

So one of the golden trad climbers passes on. Tony Barley with his brother Robin set the Magaliesberg alight with new routes and set the stage for us younger uns to free them. There was commonly a route with a point of aid that we swore and sweated to free but we did some of them. To this day many of their first ascents in the kloofs are classics and on the tick list of every aspirant trad climber.

On Thursday 30 August, Tony Dick, Hilton Davies and I paid tribute to Tony Barley by climbing Roulette on Fountain Ledge, one of the all time classics of South African climbing.

To enjoy the moment and the position, we decided to have tea in a hanging stance halfway along the Roulette rail. And to test our old skills we left our chalk bags and cams in our packs and did the ascent with nuts, hexes and slings.

It was an inspiring ascent. Tony led from the upper fountain ledge to the hanging stance. I followed tied into the middle of the two ropes with the tea kit clanging behind me and then hanging off a sling round a flake cooked up the brew.

Hilton came last tied to both ends of the ropes and took some poor quality photos with my phone as my camera battery went flat.

As he arrived at the hanging stance the tea was ready and we thoroughly enjoyed the moment. We also tanked up on Margaret’s yummy home made biscuits.






In fact, since Anthony Hall was so incensed about the stash at the tea cave we decided this would be the new stash place and tea spot!



We toasted Tony and Robin. Hilton finished the pitch finding that the rail was too large for a hex placement. I climbed the overhanging crack and up the little trick above to an abseil point on the far right.



To Tony, rest in peace….