This is not exactly big news, but any Cape Town climber who has gone to The Mine or driven over Ou Kaapse Weg will know the little granite outcrops on the slopes of the pass. The main outcrop presents a slightly overhanging front face of about 10 or 12 metres with a big off-width crack that makes half the letter 'H'.
Yesterday Alan Ross and I established Half H for Juz (21) after borrowing a BD Camalot 5 from Snort. On a rest day when one wants to get an idea of a Yosemite-style granite off-width this is one of few options around Cape Town. The route only needs three pieces of gear - the big cam which you keep moving up the first vertical crack, and two mid-size cams in the horizontal rail. There is no gear after that unless one has a large Big Bro. See photo.
Also on this outcrop I soloed the black streaks just left of Half H for Juz. This goes at about 23. Last week Karl Hayden soloed the crack system to the left of all the black markings.
For anyone wanting to do some harder stuff there the arete on the right would be good (needs bolts); and directly below the top-right piece of the 'H' is a thin seam up the wall. This seam would be reached from Half H and then climbed using micro-nuts and the smallest cams.
The walk-in is from The Mine car park. En route is the round boulder Le Patat. Karl and I did 7 or 8 boulder problems on this.

Well done guys!
Yes you're right! I drive passed it at least twice a week and EVERY TIME i do, I look at that exact rock and wonder...
wonder no more shall I. Now just need to get on it!
Cheers!

For the off width don't forget to wear an overall and then duct tap all the working parts - ie ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows and head :-)

_________________
AndyDavies

Damn, I was hoping to have my soon to be famous "LCD offwidth climbing suit" finished before the expected influx of East German (any blond strong dude that talks funny) climbers lay siege to Ou Kaapse weg. At the moment the prototype is my old kreef wetsuit (plus hood) as i cant find a large enough sheet of stealth rubber locally. I am trying to interest FiveTen in taking out a 10% stake in my venture, but surprisingly they haven’t come back to me yet.
Also, to cater for the expected crowds, i am hoping to have a supply of modified "LCD flat rocks" for sale at the top of the route to offer the true big wall experience. They are based on Snorts "Yellowood frisbees" but have a comfortable rounded rim made from imported marble, as the local granite is a bit rough.
And I DEMAND that the ARF bolts the face with those nice round finger friendly bolts so that your feet don’t keep slipping off. It should not be expensive as I estimate that about 20 bolts should do even for vertically challenged climbers.
I am proud that SA is once again taking the lead in pushing new boundaries in the world climbing scene.

yip, we should put it out there on the international sites that this is the real destination for hardcore sponsored climbers....get 'em while they're hot!

Awesome! Every time I head that way I look at those rocks, cool to see someone's finally gone and done it .