Fantastic Time received its second ascent by Tony Dick, Hilton Davies and me. It really is a stoncking good route. The 7th pitch caused insurmountable difficulties for my companies who had to succumb to using silver juglets and is now graded 23.

It involves a short but brutal overhanging jamb crack that should cause climbers no difficulty after a good long visit to Yosemite or Indian Creek.

Fantastic Time is a classic Yellowwood route involving a mix of climbing on micro-edges , steep overhanging lay-backing, jambing and stemming and even a classic traddy chimney.

It is bold, scary but safe with good gear.

It really is a 5 star YW route as good or better than anything else on the wall.

http://www.climb.co.za/wiki/index.php/Y ... A.2A.2A.2A

I've gotta hand it to Snorty - Fantastic Time is a fantastic route! One of the best.

The route is classic Yellowwood, and therefore not everyone's cup of tea. It's big, steep, intimidating and scary - not at all like doing a little route like Arms Race or Captain Hook.

There was a photo of Stewart Middlemiss on the second or third pitch by Hector that gave some idea of the route. Justin can you provide a link?

Snorty was way-impressive yesterday. He made the two monster leads; both very hard, sustained, overhanging and long (like 60 metres!). He is a meister of hard and scary. Tony was his incomparable self. Sixty-four years old and fighting up this hard and scary shit. He is in a league of his own in this country having been at the forefront of hard, bold rock climbing for 50 years. And doing at least his share on the proper end of the rope. No one comes close to that in SA (or ever has)!

Hey Hilton, see below the photo and Snorts article about the route

Article: Fantastic Time at Yellowwood 21 Feb 2011 | By: Charles Edelstein
Route Description: Fantastic Time RD

Below: Stewart Middlemiss having a Fantastic Time on Yellowwood. Pic by Andrew Porter

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Climb ZA - Administrator

Wow what a route. Amazing find. After seeing those pictures it's a must to try out.

Willem Le Roux and I climbed Fantastic Time yesterday in nothing short of ideal conditions despite the forecast of 37 degrees C for the area. We got going on the first pitch by 05h20 and by combining the 2nd and 3rd pitches (not recommended if you don't know the route), got to the halfway ledge before 8.

Willem lead the first 23 pitch in fine style and then having rested while I followed, he led the next 23 pitch as well. He really did put up a fight of epic proportions but somehow managed to flash the brutal overhanging crack which he reckons is no soft 23 (he felt it is much harder than the crux on Prime Time so maybe it is 24). He then expressed some concern that he was so pumped that he would not be able to belay me properly or finish the final pitch which is also no push-over.

However, we did have absolutely perfect cool conditions and only climbed the last pitch in the sun with a cool breeze making it a synch.

Fantastic time is just that. It is a very steep route with move after move of grade 19 to 21. There are no real stopper moves and it is just the steep angle that ups the grade. Conditions also are critical and 3 degrees cooler or hotter than yesterday would probably have led to failure on the route. We were both cramping by pitch 7 and we even had ice water and salty chips.

I rate it and Prime Time Direct as two of the best multipitch routes in SA. The interesting thing about both these routes is that they have no serious reach moves which is so different from the routes at on other Sandstone cliffs like Tafelberg, Krakadouw and TM where there are often big gaps between the rails.

My hit list for the top11 trad multi-pitch routes in South Africa in order are:

1st.
Dog Day in Heaven at Blouberg

2nd. (all these routes are equally good - just the grades are different really)
Prime Time Direct (YW) Fantastic Time (YW) King Kong (Krakadouw) Fun Time (Yellowwood)
Celestial Journey (Wolfberg) Australopithecus (Krakadouw)

3rd:
Hey Jude (Blouberg), 8 Miles High (Blouberg), A Dream of White Dogs (Blouberg), Gorilla Grooves (Krakadouw)

Of all these routes, the most user friendly because of the ease of access and the forgiving grade, is Fun Time.....

awesome stuff Snort & Willem!!

Snort, do you know where one can find proper RDs for Krakadouw? At this stage it is more to dream about the classics there, but would like to go check it out this year nonetheless. Are there any worthwhile routes graded 20 and below?

The one to do is King Kong! At the grade the best route in SA