Some 25 years ago Triple Indirect – a route linking the best climbing of Last Tango, Touch ‘n go and Magnetic Wall was attributed to Kevin Smith and myself. I admit it was probably conceived and possibly even done by us but I have no recollection of the route ever being identified by us as the Triple Indirect.

On Wednesday Robert Breyer and I linked 5 pitches on Fountain Ledge to make a superb route. It starts with the first pitch of La Vida (19) and continues up a short face and recess (20) that does not seem to belong to any other route. This brings one to the base of The Dream and Last Tango. One then continues up the first part of Last Tango (21) and instead of continuing into the corner at 20m one moves right to lay back into the “Dreams’ ” recess. The route then finishes up “The Dream” (22).

Another more direct combination is to do the start of “The Dream” to avoid the crux of the “Wake-Up” (21) and then rail right and then to finish on “The Wake Up”.

Or one can combine the first two pitches mentioned above with “REM”.

Or one can combine the first two pitches mentioned above with the first part of Last Tango and then traversing right to finish up with the last pitch of “REM”.

Sweet Dreams is probably the best link-up with the best climbing with incremental grades of 19, 20, 21,22 and then the easy (14) scramble to the top.

Enjoy. But the route may cause wet dreams.

Kudos to Arjan for more hard bouldering.. Moostie Meisie and the Vice on the same weekend (maybe the same day?) The Vice looks horrifically hard. Pretty much the most incredible thing to hit South African bouldering.. Good work dude.

come-on guys us saffas should know it's "mooiste meisie", isn't it? do not think i've seen it spelled correctly anywhere....

seemonster and myself climbed "golden balls" and "the red column" in tonqs yesterday - both fantastic routes for the grade. not hard climbing but the best part of it was that it was thursday and not a public holiday

Bastards! Why didn't you come say hello to an old (and bored to death) friend instead? We could have played chess and maybe even watched climbing movies.

typo..

unacceptable!

ag okay, sorry, did not mean to make an issue of it......

Arjan de Kock grabbed the 2nd ascent of one of Fred Nicole's classics 'Golden Shadow' 8B+ at Roadcrew, Rocklands. There are rumours afloat that that the route could be 8C.
This is Arjan's 3rd 8B+ send

Nice one Arjan

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Climb ZA - Administrator

Very cool indeed! Super climbing! Are there any videos or pics online someplace?

Josh age 19, on just is 3rd visit to TM onsighted with style and aplomb the 23 20 and 22 pitches of Africa Edge 23. And what's more the only beta was to dierct him with the correct gear placements wiht no beta given for the moves.

This is a classic route for its grade with a mix of technical, strenuous and run-out bold moves.

As far as I know it has been a long time since a kid under 20 has so styled up a trad route in SA.

Go Josh.

Hey I just bolted a new route at Chosspile, called it Shelob. Its pretty cool. check it out on wiki. Grade 24. go try it! Oh who's two bolts are next to fossil. Im gonna finish bolting that and have a go on it because those 2 bolts have been there a while.

Thanks
Wes B

Report from Bruce Tomalin

Around 60 people summited the Sentinel on the 4th of September 2010. 55 of them via the standard route using Hannelie’s innovative RTS (rapid toprope system) up the first pitch! Some stopped there and several ascended via the Angus Leppan route. A few had “fun” on the SE arete…
It was a major jol!

See this link for details: Centenary of the First Ascent of the Sentinel (Northen Drakensberg)

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Climb ZA - Administrator

Ian, Herman and I had a brilliant weekend at Magageni opening and repeating routes that no-one will ever go and climb (yes that is a challenge ). It breaks down like this:
The Gay Monkey, 60m, grade 20 **** FA
A Rush of Blood to the Head, 50m, grade 21 ***** FA
Naked Reptile, 80m, grade 22 ***** FA (took a rest at the crux, so still needs to go clean)
The Impossible Dream, 110m, grade 22 **** FFA (originally opened by Druschke et al in 1979)
Head Arrangement, 100m, grade 22 **** FFA (originally opened by Fantini & Mosely in 1980)

Good stuff, Hector! Where is Magageni?

A 22 in 1979??? Did they use cams in SA by that time? Man, when I look at the stuff the pioneers did back in the day I don't want to call myself a climber. But then I remember that my mission is to have fun on my low grades, and I'm a climber again!

Next weekend we hope to open routes on this here unclimbed crag between Aliwal North and Burgersdorp:





I guess it to be 100 - 120m high at the "nose" in the centre and the area left of it. The area left of the nose looks particularly solid.

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"I have no more friends, and my nuts are too small!"

Ya, the boys could climb back in the day. Although they did aid that 1979 route. There were one or two spots where I would have traded a cam for a nice hex.

Magageni is near Loskop Dam in Mpumalanga. The MCSA gets access there once a year. Its really worthwhile for anyone wanting to open new routes.

Your eastern cape crag looks rad. Tell us how it goes.

A very strong Steve Bradshaw 'Onsighted Flashed' (the draws were in) Firestarter (29/30) at Waterworld in Bad Kloof, Montagu

Steve has also sent:
Mooiste Meisie (8B+) and The Arch (8B) at Rocklands.
'My route Down by the River' (31) at Waterworld, Montagu
'Strange Days' (31) at The Palace, Montagu

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Climb ZA - Administrator

Frigging awesome photographs J

Thanks, taken with the 'little' camera

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Climb ZA - Administrator

Biggest send in 'Boven this weekend: Claire Taylor did Monster (29) !!!

Hooray

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

Wow, well done Claire!

Nice Claire!

Ed and I went looking for Mike Scott's Trad Routes on Cogmans Buttress on Sunday. We didn't find them, we think !

I got gripped on some choss (runout above a crappy placement of course). Then we moved left onto 'Tocando El Vacio' which was great cause we were back on bolts although we ended up the avoiding the bolts and climbed alongside the route.

I was very happy to have aid gear so that I could aid a crux move "I can aid about 9a".
We left out the top pitch (because it was past beer time). Then had an exciting abseil down the route

Note: The walkup to Cogmans - there are two logs across the path (and now a whole lot of wire too) - Do not step over the logs, carry on walking up to the right.
See pic Below

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Climb ZA - Administrator

Well, it was a huge success (we survived) and great fun. We climbed on two ropes of two and tackled two lines adjacent to each other just to the left of the "nose". Technically the line (going at about 18-20, crux on first pitch) on which I lead the second and last pitch (18 - 20) wasn't opened because I had a top rope for the last 10m (ran out of gear and decided not to start another pitch for the sake of time). However, with proper gear (actually having double ropes and having more than 6 cams and 9 nuts!) it should go easy.

Our companions did a pretty hairy line, apparently going at 23-24. Their route is definitely one of note! The climbing was less well protected than our previous venture in the same area.

Cheers
gollum

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"I have no more friends, and my nuts are too small!"

Hi Gollum
As one of the companions I have to correct you on that one...it was more like a 22! still pretty hairy..23/24 I wish, maybe next time!
We are gonna try another crag this weekend closer to Aliwal North this time. Aparently its bigger than the last one. See how it goes....
Cheers

Monika Kastner is crushing the Cape Town boulders lately. A couple weekends back she picked up a 7a, 7a+ and a 7b at Redhill, then moved to High Maintence (7c) to make some good progress. Yes, this was all in one day while also watching her 2 children. A week later she picked up a FFA 7b in Paarl. Impressive. Keep it up, girl!

Willem Le Roux yesterday pointed a new scary hard start to Arms Race on Fountain Ledge. I could not do either of the two cruxy bits so the grade must be 26 or harder. I found the regular Arms Race (sand-bag 23) a walk in the park by comparison.

Michael Kastner just sent High Maintenance (7c) but from a lower sit start than the originally defined problem. It was truly impressive to watch.

Last Saturday myself, Andy Court and Sam Wolski headed out to Lion's Head to try out some of the trad climbing there.

Both me and Andy had previously been there and had tried the classic route Clifton Crest – unfortunately we both were pretty clueless when it came to trad climbing back then. We spent 4 hours trying to ascend the first two pitches, eventually bailing and walking down Lion's Head in the dark...

Needless to say we were both keen to give the route another go and this time we climbed a lot more smoothly. The pitches were brilliant and even Sam, who was tradding for the first time despite writing it off as a death sentence a month ago, was enjoying himself. After we finished, we abseiled back down to halfway ledge and had some lunch and tea.

Then I decided to give Excalibur a go, having looked at it with wonder last time we were there. It follows a line directly up the middle of the nose, just to the right of Clifton Crest's second pitch. After racking up and wondering whether it was wise to actually put myself on the route, I went for it and it went smoothly. I got through the crux – the move into the open book – quite easily and tip-toed to the top of the nose. Tis' an awesome route! Andy followed, and Sam (perhaps wisely) chose to stay at the bottom and drink tea.

Next, and lastly, we decided to give Simba Serendipity, another classic, a try. With a little encouragement, Sam led the first pitch in style - his first ever trad lead. Then I went and lead the next crux pitch, and Sam followed as my second. Considering his hardest climbs outdoors before then were 18/19s, it was quite an achievement for him to manage the 21 pitch in one go!

All in all it was a fun day, and full of firsts for all of us. One of many trad trips, for sure!

Ciao,
Guy

Fantastic background on that third pic of yours man

Great Day ... so Lower Buttress on Friday

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if your not living on the Edge...
... YOUR TAKING UP TOO MUCH SPACE!

Yesterday, Matt Bush crushed Sean Maasch's Not For Sale at The Scoop, feeling it deserving of it's 8b grading. This topped off a week of awesome climbing which included fast and multiple repeats of The Activist (30), Switchbitch (31) and My route by the river (31). Awesome stuff!

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...Chalk is cheap...