Well done dude. Will do it next time I am there.

Some pictures of Blue Moon:

Jonathan Hajos and I climbed Fantastic Time 23 at Yellowwood on Tuesday. 250m of continuous climbing with move after move after move of steep grade 19 to 21. A few brutal moments of harder moves. Not a drilled hole or fixed piece of metal in 250m of over vertical rock.

The 23 pitch does not have a single move harder than 21 but it's not for Sissies. And the overhanging jamb crack, pitch 22 is brutal, on the hands and actually harder.

Sorry Greg (Hart)!

Clinton Martinengo had a good weekend at Oudtshoorn and made a First Ascent of The Viking 8b+
It starts up Kohler Turkstra and at about the seventh bolt you brake out left, till a hands off rest. One has to then climb through a 7C+/8A boulder problem to a nostril shaped hole. Then easy ground to the chains. Take long slings for the bottom half of route. Needs a second ascent as I have no idea how to grade it. Thanks to Linda and every one for the encouragement on the day.

Marijus Šmigelskis has been busy at Topside and nabbed the second ascent of The Midnight Barber (Echo Valley) yesterday.
He also recently sent G.I. Joe Kung Fu Grip (Turtle area) and also opened Cloverfield at The Cinema
All 8A+ - last I heard he was giving Paul Robinson bouldering advice

And lastly to mark off on Women's Day: Faye Brouard sent Mango Tango 8a+ at Umgeni commenting "what an awesome line! the Angelina lip move is one of the coolest moves I've done"
Making her the first SA women to climb the grade of 8a+ Well done Faye!!

To the best of my knowledge this route was opened by Roger Nattrass "A curving arete that is worthy of the same name as its famous USA counterpart. This route is SPECTACULAR! Classic arete climbing that gets steeper and steeper still. Very pleased to bank this one. Snow on the berg today meant perfect conditions for the mind bending final sloper. Almost dorked the cake walk to the anchors. Thanks for the pro belay Kath. Yeeeeeeeha!"

Source: 8a.nu

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UKClimbing.com reports that Adam Ondra is back in Rockalnds

It would seem Adam Ondra has began his onslaught on world bouldering standards.
So far, he hasn't really excelled beyond what the likes of Robinson, Woods, Koyamada and others have already done, but his recent sending spree suggests he is on his way to at least catching up."

After his first week in the area, here is some of what he's been up to:
Monkey wedding, 8C - 3rd ascent of this Nicole problem. Originally given 8B+, Adam feels it's the hardest problem he has ever done.
Amandla, 8B+
The power of One, 8B, flash
Madiba, 8B, 2nd go
Oral Office 8A+/ 8B

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get adam o to open digital warfare!

Dave Richardson from Durban sent Blue Horizon (8b) at Umgeni Valley last week.
The route was bolted by Roger Nattrass and declared an open project in September 2011.

Commenting "An amazing line! bolted by Roger Nattrass. My ideal kind of route, sustained with no real rest. Classic!"

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New boulders found in the Garden Route, check out on FB, "South Cape Climbing Forum" and lots more to come.

More pic's to come

Joe Möhle pulled off the 3rd ascent of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (30) and opened Victims Of Comfort (29) (Straight up from the guillotine flake left of Magnetic Wall. Gear from previous attempts left in place) on Table Mountain.

Go Joe!!!

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Great effort!

Jeremy, Jeremy, Joe? Alphabetically Justin is next!

Hasn't Dave Birkett done it?

With Jonathan Hajos, and Ilya Kull, I climbed a new route at Yellowwood on the buttress left of the main gulley. We called it Tea Time. It provided pleasant climbing with a crux pitch that is un-grade-able but at least 23 and specially made for short people as it traverses a very thin finger tip rail along an undercut overhang. So you have to be super short and finger tip strong or extremely flexible and finger tip strong or able to campus on fingertips with knees against rock or whatever. Even though I could keep my feet up sort-of I still failed dismally as did Jonathan and Ilya.

Jonathan also fell off before trying the crux while removing his Crocs and putting on his climbing shoes that resulted in him dropping a shoe.

This the third time I have been involved in a dropped climbing shoe. Tony Dick of Private Universe Slangolie, Clinton on the Nose and now Jonathan.

Well we drank lank tea and that's what counts.

This is nice route to do when it is hot a it faces mostly west and is shady at least an hour longer than the main amphitheater.

A few of us Capies joined our visiting Joburg buddy Ian Kotze at Wolfberg. Ian and Julia Wakeling climbed the Alone in Space while Guy Paterson-Jones (a 16 year-old schoolboy) and I climbed Whinge.
The third pitch of Whinge is a little odd and not the natural line. The route is all about the sharp, steep, white arete for a couple of pitches then busting out big red roofs at the top.
The third pitch of the route is a little around the corner to the right of the arete and not standing proud like the rest of the route.
Better looking to our eye was the smooth white wall on the left of the arete and the arete itself. But it looked desperate.
We scrambled up an easy route at the right-hand end of the ledge and then traversed in above the arete. With a top rope Guy worked on the highly technical wall. We figured it may be possible but that it would be dangerous to lead.
To get an idea of leading possibilities Guy placed gear while on the rope. The first crux would be 4m to 7m off the rocky ledge and there would be no gear between 4m and 7m. After a hard but protected middle section the top of the pitch is a long run-out.
At 4m off the deck there is a tiny non-continuous rail that at times gets to a width of about 3mm. We squeezed the three tiniest RPs into the crack with opposing angles. We tested the nuts with the weight of Guy and myself.
After quite a bit of rehearsing Guy pulled off a really, really brave, impressive and stylish lead. This one really rates. And it's hard 25R/X.
I came up second. After doing all the hard stuff I was shaking out when a foot popped and I was off. Back on the rock I climbed up to Guy. We did the rest of Whinge to the top where we met Julia and Ian. We were all so stoked for Guy. It's an impressive addition to an already impressive route.

(To finish the day Julia and Guy did Day of the Jackals, and weren't very impressed; Ian and I did Satisfaction Guaranteed, and found little satisfaction). Great times with great buddies...

While Guy was being bold at Wolfberg (nice work dude!), myself and Joe Möhle were getting cold (snowed most of yesterday!) at Tafelberg.
Joe is still there today, so the list may grow, but we managed to have a fairly productive week despite some hostile weather.

We did the FFA of Nambarrie (with Joe freeing the first pitch at about grade 30!) and put up some good quality multi-pitch routes:
Groove Amandla (26, 3 pitches) right of Big Groove and Bazooka Rodeo (25, 5 pitches) on the Spout. I also completed Boombox (24, 5 pitches) from an earlier trip. Also some new single pitches: Flaming Woozel (24/25), Go Go Gadget (23), The Inventor (21), and The Cynic (18).

The info will be added to the wiki in due course... and the routes from the trip before this. Eish lots to do.

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What's the story behind the name Flaming Woozel? Any chance it involves this little critter???


Nice work on the new routes!

Yip, it is inspired by that little critter, but don't worry we did not set him/her on fire.

The route is on the deceptively steep wall on the Spout just right of Thumbelina, so quite close to the Woozel's home. It also ate a hole in one of Joe's gloves (which resulted in some choice words) so maybe that is where the flaming part came from - not sure. I just liked the name.

You should do it next time you down this way, it is well cool.

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Funtastic stuff guys. Seems like there some strong climbers sending up great routes.....

Illona Pelser is back in Montagu for a month and off to a great start with a send of 'Whoa She Poopie' (28/7c) at Supertubes (for the record: she did not use the rest out halfway

Steve Bradshaw who is looking incredibly strong these days recently sent 'Thunder' (32/8b+) at Lei Pi Shan, Yangshuo. His 8a.nu scorecard reads "Excellent line! Did it on a hot sweaty day tagging along with a crew of Russians. Climbed the crux direct without meandering onto the left tufa system or rest jug above. Quality!"
Steve also Lightning (31+/8b)

And at Tafelberg, Joe Möhle sent 'Echoes and Shadows' (25/7a+), did a FA of Bazooka Rodeo (25/7a+)

Lastly, Benjamin de Charmoy who is back after a two month break sent Mintberry Crunch (8A / 32?) - not bad considering it was his 2nd day being back on the rock!

- Route grade conversion table
- Bouldering grade conversion table

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To Justin, we have a strong climbing culture here that is unique to SA and that includes how we grade things. Please give the SA grade for rock climbs. Local is lekker.

Sorry Justin, I must agree with Snort. Plus lots of us never go over there and don't have a feel for that grading system.

Garvin

Willem Le Roux and I completed assembling a project at Yellowood that I started with Deon Van Zyl in 2008. Between us we have freed all the moves without any fixed gear. A free accent is still needed.

The climbing is classic Yellowwood, scary, run-out in places and tricky moves. Perfect!

Agreed and amended (I have included both grades).
- Route grade conversion table
- Bouldering grade conversion table

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On a quick trip my Joburg buddies took me for my first visit to Mhlabatini Kloof in the Magaliesberg. Man, what a fantastic place! So beautiful and with excellent climbing. One superb route called Bullet, two very good routes and one sorta funny one with a thrutchy start. Although I didn't get on to it, Crystal Fire looks brilliant, and I'm way impressed that my old mate Chris Lomax soloed it.

Ian Kotze, Nic Grech-Cumbo, Andrew Porter - thanks big time okes. Missed you Hector.

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Good ticks!

That rock in Blyde River looks great.

Long weekend at Krakadouw.

Thursday
Richard Behne and Ian Kotze do 4 pitches of King Kong then escape out onto the ridge. Too wet.

Friday
David Vallet and I do Icthyosaurus
Ian Kotze, Richard Behne and Marian Penso do Icthyosaurus

Saturday
David Vallet and I do Australopithecus and the Last of the Great Explorers. Chris Lomax for first four pitches.

Was good

I heard there were some difficulties on some of the pitches?

We opened a few more routes on Towerkop. Was great!

Was a good crowd at Tafelberg for New Years.
A number of parties having fun on the classics in good weather. Rob Zipplies and Uwe Pitsch did a great looking new line on the Black Ice wall. Mark Johnston did Red Letter Word (24), which if you are climbing the grade is one of the most aesthetic lines I have seen in SA, so you really should do it. I put up two new single pitch routes: Aqua Spring (22) and The Amber Phantom (24), did (the 2nd ascent?) of Joe's Luna Penumbra - which is excellent but darn hard for 25, and Danger Mouse - which doesn't deserve an X rating - there is gear right on the arete if you look carefully.

But more importantly, great times in the hills with good friends.

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One life, one body. Use them well.

My new young climbing buddy Guy Paterson-Jones did his first country route yesterday. Armageddon Time on Yellowwood. Probably not your average country-climbing start for a sixteen year old.

We did a hot and heavy walk up on Friday so that we could do a big sort in the light. On Saturday morning I was leading the first pitch by 5:50am, the whole idea being to beat the sun and heat for the crux pitches 7 and 8. My old buddy Chris Lomax phoned to say we were mad and that a heatwave was on its way. We swung leads and Guy had to dig deep on the "over the void" pitch. He managed to avoid a mental meltdown in this intimidating countryside - just - and pull off a very good lead that took more than an hour.

We made it to the jumbo ledge in the shade! This was a big change from my first effort on this route when Dark Horse (Neil Havenga) and I failed on the hard pitch off the ledge when we were fried off the wall. I just couldn't go through that again. It is such a massive investment to get to this point and then fail.

My onsight of this hard pitch off the ledge was dissipated a year back. Guy now went for the onsight of this very, very challenging pitch on beautiful rock. There isn't a lot of gear and it is difficult to place. The start of the layback took a while to work out but then Guy moved up with good control. He placed a nut then clipped the old fixed nut that had put a little bit of air between Bryant Roux's upside-down head and the jumbo ledge many years ago. There were several 'watch me's while he slowly worked out the crux moves to get up onto the scary, run-out slabs above.

Guy made a hanging stance and I came up to take over for the short, brutal overhanging-corner crux pitch. I'd been putting this lead out of my mind but now confronted by it I felt pretty daunted. I couldn't stop thinking about my buddy Hector Pringle winding out of the corner and smacking into the 70 degree slab far below; upside down and back first. Also John Alexander's story that he loves telling about Andy Wood flying off and out of sight after Jeremy Samson had led the corner without placing gear, kept coming to mind. I started up the corner and felt the crux hold - eish. I couldn't help myself. I clipped into a dubious cam. It wasn't the only one. With ropes from above, Guy came through and kept his slate clean. Fantastic!

By this stage we were suffering in the baking sun. With less than 1.5 litres of water each we were not going out for a well-hydrated day. Higher up, with a big headache on it's way I asked Guy to swap with me for the last two pitches. When I seconded the brutal, scary, dubious, hard, sketchy (but only grade 20!?) pitch I was really glad that I made the request. The trade gave me the grade 19 last pitch which was easy and half way up offered a shady hole. I had to stance there. A frazzled-looking young Guy came up and wouldn't continue. He wanted the shady hole. The cheek of these young guys! And I had to watch Guy lick the inside of his water bottle!

I topped out into a fresh and refreshing South Easter. Within minutes I was freezing.

We did a slow and thirsty hike down. We did a big sort while the light faded and the air cooled. Then brewed coffee and tea in Snort's very tired kettle. With very heavy packs laden with much of the kit I had accumulated up there over the last few years we started a slow hike down the treacherous scree. Setting off at 9 we took it slow and were thankful for a bright moon and one headlamp. I set myself a new record. I didn't lose the little path for one inch of the descent. Walking along the road we laughed about what the midnight drivers must have thought about our sorry figures.

Through the course of the day I'd taught Guy a few of the unspoken rules of my circle. Things like - a seconder must be ready to climb the instant that the leader yells 'on belay'; and you're only allowed to eat or drink while you're the belayer. I had one more for him as we approached Hout Bay. I told him that when he gets dropped off he can say goodbye but no more than that. At 1am Guy said 'goodbye'.

Well done Hilton and Guy!!!

We had a good start to the year as well. Hector and me did Scatterlings on Saturday, topped out at 3 PM. Then did Hey Jude on Sunday, topped out at 10 AM. Andrew, Beth and Jaco did Something of Value.

Was a blast!!!!

Cheers
Ian