Page 19 - SA Mountain Issue 62

Blouberg the ‘Chill Pool’. Photo CHRIS WEIDNER
I agreed, and so ve of us stayed on at Blouberg on the 24th to climb an extra day, but that did not affect the participation of the other climbers in the tradathon the next day. We only started climbing late in the afternoon shade and climbed several pitches before darkness and weariness forced us down.
their comfort zone, and found the routes much harder than they anticipated for a given grade. In fact, just about everyone thought the place was a sandbag. I have been climbing at Blouberg for almost 40 years, so I have a different view based on familiarity.
Integration with the Black Diamond tradathon was seamless and a great event was had by all. I presented a talk on
the Magaliesberg history, ably assisted
by Roger Nattrass who thoroughly entertained us with captions and photos of the golden ‘lycra’ years.
On the day, two Saffas had to bale due to injury. Jean-Paul de Villiers sustained
a grade 1 sprained ankle after a deck fall and had to hobble out, but to his credit,
he carried his pack down the mountain without a whimper or a grumble, and with a smile on his dial; and Damien sprained his wrist.
On following day, climbers went to Fernkloof or Mhlabatini where Chris Weidner ashed Faberge (28 sport). Jimbo Smith and Richard Halsey on-sighted the inimitable Crystal Fire (24), which had spat Hector Pringle off the previous day, resulting in a broken cam and broken helmet! A host of other classic routes, easy and hard, were done, and all enjoyed the beautiful approach up the kloof.
Austin, nobly abandoned the route he was climbing with me and three of his American compatriots, as it was just too hard for him on the day. This allowed
the rest of the party to complete the route Dog Day in Heaven. They all freed all the pitches with Dylan Johnson performing
a ne on-sight lead of the crux pitch, nishing as it got dark.
I was the last to succumb to that damned virus that had downed so many already.
I returned home to celebrate Margaret’s birthday, and that night I was in dire
straits with fever and gastro combined with a raging pharyngitis. I had a horrible sleepless night and almost, but not quite, lost my voice.
To the right of us Jimbo and Garrreth were confounded by some of the climbing and ended being benighted for about an hour or so. We waited at the top for them. Johann sel essly abandoned his route to assist Jean-Paul and Damien who, because of his sprained his wrist, could not pass a knot on the abseil rope with only the use of one hand. Illona and James continued and sent Bush Pig, gaining Chris as a third when Johann went down to assist Damien.
On Monday, some of the Saffas climbed in Mhlabs some more and the Americans went to the Lion Park to stroke lion cubs.
Richard had a complete epic ascent with Jenn and Heather doing a link-up that required dif cult route nding, abseiling, traversing, and new routing on two pitches. Phlip and Nadine also did a link- up and nished up with Richard and his crew. Nadine slashed her leg open on the descent. Chris and Bruce climbed together on Scatterlings (22) and were the rst to top out in good time.
I returned to Johannesburg for the
nal social event at CityROCK in Johannesburg, which was hosted by Petzl and the MCSA. Much to the dismay of all present, I recovered my voice suf ciently to have the last say at the closure. Chris again entertained us with some wonderful pictures of American climbing and also of the exchange.
could see that Maury was impressed by the quality of the climbing and I could sense that he was beginning to gain just
a little respect for me and the plan I had implemented. After some pitches, he was evidently enjoying himself and, by the crux pitch he was raving. He was nally sold on the place, and found it within him to state that Dog Day in Heaven was one of the best routes of its kind he had ever done. This resulted in him wanting to stay on and climb another day, and I was not surprised and de nitely grati ed. My biggest challenge had been realized.
As we progressed on our route, I
It was a tting end to another successful exchange.
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