Hello all,

Next year I'll be coming to South Africa for three weeks to climb. My partner and I hope to climb at Waterval (or is it Waterfall?) Boven for half of that time. We have a good guidebook for it and plenty of info. The other half of our stay will hopefully be divided between Rocklands and Milner.

There is very little information available - at least on the interwebs - about the latter. All I've been able to find are a few superlative statements about the quality of the climbing there, that it's mostly sparsely-bolted multipitch sport climbing, and that access is sensitive (private land I believe).

I was wondering if info is more readily available once we're in Cape Town - like, is there a guidebook that covers the area? If not, I'd love to gather more info (I can specify the kinds of details that would be helpful) so that we can have as rewarding and successful of a trip as possible.

In terms of experience, I'm a guide working mainly out of Red Rocks in Las Vegas, but I'm also a well-traveled climber having climbed all over North America. I've established and repeated routes up to 5.13- trad (which I believe is around grade 28/29), but on this trip our hope is to just have fun and adventure - probably focussing on routes in the 26 and under range, and hoping we can get by with just a 70 or 80 meter cord and draws (though I'm not opposed to bringing gear). And don't worry, I won't be bringing a drill.

Thanks in advance for any info you may offer, and of course, I'd be glad to return the favor if any of you are headed to the USA!

Josh

Dude it's kinda like Fight Club - the access is so sensitive that people specifically don't talk about it. There is a guide (sort of). Word has it that you won't get in unless you go with someone who has access. Most people who even post about the unnamed place in the Hex are asked to remove the M word politely. Harsh right? But current arrangements aren't a precaution, they are a compromise settled on after it was closed down completely by pissing off the land owner.

Oh and you got it right, it is Waterval Boven.

The unnamed place in the Hex is like Equinox Wall in Washington state.

The land owner is VERY conservative about who goes up there: you must know him, or one of the select crew that regularly goes there. Then, there are only 8 permits per weekend, and if his great aunt or anyone who is knows him wants to go up there the place could be closed for a few weeks in prep. last year it was closed for 2 months because his daughter was in South Africa, and there was an off chance that she would spend some of that time there- which I believe she didn't.

Milner is special, but for many definitions of the word "special"

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Sandbagging is a dirty game

We have many of our own access-sensitive/secret areas as well and if some random foreigner posted on http://www.mountainproject.com asking for info on the Horn or Mill Creek, he'd probably be ignored or rebuffed, so I'm not expecting much. I'm just trying to do some due diligence since going to SA is probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; while there I want to experience what makes SA climbing truly magical/world-class. I'd be happy to edit my previous post substituting "Chosspile X" for all instances of "Milner" if that reduces the likelihood of swarms of moron yankees (or drill-happy Germans for that matter) descending upon the place in the near future... but hey, didn't I hear that 99% of climbers aren't even capable of climbing there anyway?