The Rain has stopped and the climbing is going super well!!! The temps have been better, the rock has dried up, and the climbing days are getting better and better. People have left the house and more people have come. Tommy, Beth, and Courtney are the newest inhabitants and super fun to have around. Sarah left the other day but not without leaving a final amazing mark at the end of her trip by sending her 10 day project “Caroline” V10. This was the first of the grade for her and she was super psyched to leave the trip having sent her amazing project!
For the remainder of my trip, I told myself that there were 8 boulder problems that would be awesome to do before leaving. The list is as follows: Amandla V15, Madiba V14, Sky V14, The Power of One V13, The Vice V13, Green Mamba V13, Quintessential V13, and a project at the Fortress. So far in the last 3 days of climbing I have sent four of them and am super psyched to continue on with the rest as my trip winds to an end before the departure date of July 30th.
After the rain finally subsided, I was so psyched to get back to working on my projects again! The first day I gave my first attempts on “Quinntesential.” Though the rock was still a bit moist and it was near dark, I got very close and am very psyched to get back on it as soon as my tips heal enough to crimp on those sharp crimps again. The next day was dedicated to my project of choice, “Sky.” This line is absolutely amazing and climbs the underside of this amazing roof on huge moves between decent holds. I did the stand start but was so close, but still unable to link it from the bottom. I so psyched to try this one again. After a rest day it was up to “Madiba,” which on the first day of attempts felt extremely hard and maybe impossible for me. But today was different; I felt really good on it and sent on the 3rd go of the day. Madiba climbs out this amazing roof through 16 powerful moves. Daniel and I thought the boulder in our minds was a link crux that pieced out consisted of a V9 followed by a V12 followed by a V9/10 final redpoint crux. After this climb, we were both psyched and headed down to “Green Mamba.” This prob was not on my list at first, but after a few tries quickly hopped aboard. The conditions were not so prime the first day and I came back the next day and quickly finished it off in 2 goes.
Yet again another rest day which consisted of driving Sarah to Cape Town to catch her flight back to the US. It was a nice day away from the dirt roads and simple life of the rocklands, but as quickly as I was glad to get away, the boulders were calling me back for another day of climbing. I was psyched for “Quinntesential” but at the last second decided to go up to Road Crew for my first attempt on “Amandla” and “The Power of One.” “Power” went quickly, both Daniel and I sent it with quite differing beta. It was really cool to solve a boulder problem using the exact same handholds but completely different feet due to the differences in our styles. After sending this and realizing colder afternoon temps were coming in we quickly headed over to “Amandla.” At first I thought it looked sooo hard! I tried the top first; after a few falls off the top bit I had it pretty figured out, but knew the bottom was the crux. I tried the bottom bit a few tries and figures out some pretty good beta for myself. With a nice 10 minute rest I felt strong, stuck the crux move and climbed it to the top! What a great feeling it was to climb the most impressive and possibly the hardest line in the Rocklands in less than 2 hours on my first day of attempts. I will admit, the climb is my style to perfection and crimps up a 45 are what I love to climb on I may be a little biased in saying it was one of the most amazing climbs I have ever done. Big Up Productions was there to catch the send on film and will surely be a part of the Real Rock Tour this upcoming Fall. Daniel did most of the moves but was unable to do the crux bit. I am not sure on the grade at the moment, other than realllly really hard. I hope that he will send in the upcoming two weeks and we can talk about a consensus of how hard we think it is. But, for now I will say it is at least V14 and in my eyes a harder version of “The Swarm” in Bishop.
After topping it out I realized I had a quite heinous split on my left pointer finger, so the next few days will be used to heal it up in an attempt to finish the last four climbs I want to do on my list before leaving this amazing place on July 30th. All I can say is that there is a 100 percent chance that I am coming back next year! This place is just beyond comprehension and there will never be a shortage of hard amazing climbs to be done here.
