Urgent request from Guy Paterson-Jones (who is incommunicado):

Can anyone in Cape Town loan Guy a pair of etriers, ideally with fifi hooks, for Thursday to Saturday this week?

We promise to show the ets a good time!

mucho gracias amigos

Hilton,
This reminds me of when Andrew Lainis came out from the U.S. to do a very early (2nd/3rd?) ascent of Oceans back in 1986 and I had to get a special letter from Andy Wood (MCSA Chairman) to my Principal at Rondebosch Boys to get a week off school! Andy Wood told my headmaster it was the equivalent of playing in a Test match for the the Springboks and it seemed to work. Thanks Andy! David Davies leant me a pair of jumars and Jono Gordon leant me some etriers. It was my first aid route and learning how to aid for the first time on the Horror Crack was an education.

Guy, I have all the kit you need but unfortunately it is on the other side of the planet to where you need it. A new route I expect. Let me guess, to the left of Children of the Sky? If memory serves me right that was the original line the Davies brothers tried before Lacey and De Klerk did Oceans but the Davies brothers got rained off. How history could have been different if it hadn't rained that weekend!
Good luck with the route! You can allways knot a few slings together if push comes to shove.

Jeremy Colenso

The DIY option for an aid climber on a budget
http://www.climbing.com/print/techtips/ttaid216/

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Open hand, open mind...

I got etriers if you get desperate, no Fifi hooks though. Will be in CT tomorrow for the day - let me know

Interesting bit of history above, thanks Jeremy.

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Climb ZA - Administrator

Jeremy, Mark, Justin, David Vallet, Ant Hall - thanks guys. Borrowed etriers from Ant.

Jeremy, I love your story. You and Andrew did damn well given the times. The idea was that young Guy Paterson-Jones would follow in your footsteps and get his first aiding experience in the Horror Crack! We weren't heading for a new route on this trip (but Guy is writing a story on what we did there a couple of weeks ago - I won't spoil the story!).

On this trip Thursday and yesterday we were thwarted by weather and got down last night just ahead of the rain- so we didn't do Oceans but we did something quite nice.

Dave and I tried to open Oceans in 1980 but after four days got totally baked off. Like 50 degrees celsius. We got to the big roofs. AdK and Greg then made Oceans in 1984. David, Andrew Lainis and I then tried to do a new line to the left in 1985. After four days a big dump of rain and snow knocked us off. (At last.... a few years later.... in 2012 - but without Dave...)