Does anybody have a more detailed description of the RD for No More Bells, Yellow-wood,

Cheers
Cormac

From: Climbing Areas & Routes page

(The Castle, left turret)
200m; 19; ****(*)

From the grassy sleeping cave ascend to the huge descent gully to reach
the huge chockstone obstruction. Traverse 40m out to the right to a left
facing corner.

Pitch 1: 45m, 15. Climb up from the beacon for 3m then move right up the
corner for 2m. Move right onto the white face with the big Cape jugs to a
big ledge.

Pitch 2: 45m 19. Walk 10m to the left to a beacon. Climb up the obvious
crack to the left of a left-facing recess. Halfway up the crack runs out.
Then climb the grey face on small holds; this looks blank from below but
goes on good, small holds to a ledge.

Pitch 3: 25m, 19. Move to the right then up a crack to the top. Step around
the corner to a ledge below the overhang.

Pitch 4: 45m, 19. Climb up to the base of the roof then move left on flakes
to a break through the roof. Once over the roof climb out right to the edge
of the buttress. Climb up a thin orange crack to a small stance.

Pitch 5: 45m 19. Climb the crack to a jam crack then through a small roof
and up a further series of cracks to the top.

Pitch 6 (new final pitch): 25m, 20: The route previously ended on the
prominent walk-off ledge. A new pitch was added to finish at the summit.
This pitch heads up the white face using the slightly overhanging recess
with a razor sharp vertical flake. At the first overlap head up left and then
with balancy moves head out left to the break in the big roof above. Tricky
and serious.

FA: David Davies & Alan Ross, March 1992.
FA (pitch 6): Hilton Davies, Bruce Daniel & Neil Havenga, Nov 2009.

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Climb ZA - Administrator

This is what we used on the w/e, It is very basic. A better description would have led to less time wasting,
Shot for trying to help,
Cormac

A lot of country routes have fairly basic RD's, I think it's to keep the spirit of adventure alive. Or perhaps like me the have the memory of a gold fish. Was it the third bush or fourth that you stepped past and reached up for the right hand crimp or was it left hand sloper following the obvious black water streak or was that white bird droppings. Oh hell I can't remember really.

The walk up is enough adventure!

Cormac, did you have a topo, because there are some around, probably on the wiki - might have helped. I was updating the Chess Pieces RD at one stage, but that is an unfinished project - maybe this is motivation to do it. Personally I believe in accurate RDs. Often they are written with a presumption that the reader already has a fairly good knowledge of the area (eg references to other climbs), and if you are not familiar with it, its a problem. There is a fine balance though between too much detail and too little in an RD.

Can you improve the No more Bells RD after your experience? That's obviously a very effective, Wiki way of ensuring user-friendly, accurate RDs.

We got the topo off the wiki, I feel it could have had a little more detail on P2 and P4, otherwise good. Logic says the longer the pitch, the more detail is required.
I plan on climbing the route again soon, so will take some notes.
Cheers
Cormac

Am I the only one that wants a "Country Cuisine Route Guide" or some such book depicting all these routes that are not easily found?! be great to get something on the Apostles too...

I think the next Lions Head Guide should include the Apostles, however I gather there are still plenty of those guides about.

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If you aren't willing to solve your own problems, how can you expect others to?

Chromes I think you have been climbing to many sport routes

Country routes are unique and should be filled with adventure.

I believe an RD should give some general description to allow the climber to interpret the route and allow the climber to "find the line of least resistance."
Route finding is an art and like all creative ventures, the more you practice, the easier it becomes. But most importantly it's open to interpretation.

Thanks for a lekker climb & well done

I really love this note in the RD of Castle Buttress in the Drakensberg

Note: Roy Gooden, Mervyn Gans and Gordon Bulter opened a frontal route of about F2 grade in about 1977. They've forgotten where it went!

1) I might be getting soft.
2) I might have suffered sense of humour failure from the walk up
3) I am all for giving back to the sport: updating wiki, ARF etc
4) With Malcolm, Ant and Johann's help we will improve the Wiki

Cheers
Cormac