After three days of rain earlier this week we began to feel, for the first time this trip, that we were being rained out of a few valuable climbing days. In actuality I think we benefited well from some forced rest because when we had the chance to climb, we ticked more of the remaining Rocklands climbs left on our tick lists, with little effort.
Our first destination after the rain stopped was the Campground boulders. April and I went there one other day back in the earlier part of our trip (about 40 days ago, wow how time flies) and left several really good climbs incomplete. Our plan for the day was to each tick our projects on the famous Teapot boulder and then move on to the classic roof problem, John Denver, 7a.
For April, her focus was to send a several move 7a on the right side of the Teapot boulder. Previously she fell several times dead-pointing to a slot midway on the climb and after tiring herself, could not pull off a send in one day. After refreshing her memory about the movement she stuck the dead-point and cranked it to the top after just a couple tries. Sweet!
April setting up for the dead-point: No Name #2, 7a on the Teapot Boulder
Sticking the dead-point
Cruising to the top
For me, I chose a variation which starts on the 7a April completed and veers left. If you travel across to the left and link up with the classic, Up the Spout, you score a 7c+ called Tea Time. But, by sticking the 7c+ crux and taking the direct line up the blank face and adding another few hard lock-off moves, the full sequence comes in at 8a+ and is called Tea With Elmarie. To my surprise, I grabbed the lip and pulled over the top, sending on just my second try for the day! We high-fived and were off.
Paul nearing the top of Tea With Elmarie, 8a+
After Tea With Elmarie I ran over and tried a climb called Baboon Sumo, 7b. As I was working the climb April and I were talking about why it was called Baboon Sumo. Minutes later, we heard a bark, uh…a screaming, barking, howling battle taking place in the nearby campground. April, who was filming my attempts quickly flipped the video camera around and pointed it towards the action. Below the tree cover which was blocking the majority of our vantage point, a baboon sumo wresting match was taking place, right in front of us! All we could see was the congregation of over 30 baboons coming in to watch, or take part in the fight and all we could hear were what sounded like blood curdling yips and yells coming from whatever was loosing the battle.
When the baboon action subsided a little April flipped the camera back in my direction. You see, after spending nearly 7 weeks in Africa so far, we nonchalantly dismissed the baboon murder scene and chalked up the incident to a simple phrase we’ve learned well here: TIA*. I sent next go, we packed up and were off.
In the climbing video Rocklands, John Denver is a stunning roof climb that Scott Milton gracefully climbs. With the very limited guide we obtained from the Internet we had no record of where the climb actually was. However, in the video, as Scott Milton tops out you can clearly see the campground in the background. For us, that was the only clue we needed to perform a little detective work of our own and find the problem’s location.
After a short snack of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I was energized enough to find myself topping out John Denver. Rather than gracefully take in the view of the campground like Scott Milton had in the video, I glanced over to the baboon murder scene and doubled checked the status. To my relief I saw the baboons migrating further away from us and heading up the mountain side opposite the campground.
Unfortunately, April didn’t manage to pull off a send that day but was able to complete all the moves and give a few good sending attempts. As the sun started to set we called it a day and were off.
The following day we hiked to the Roadside boulders in the main Rocklands area to continue the clean-up of our tick lists. Throughout our trip friends we’ve met have recommended a variety of great climbs we should try. Two recommendations high on our favorite lists were a beautiful, high, sloping arete which April needed to send and a long, powerful traverse with a rewarding top-out that I needed to send. After warming up we went straight to business. April managed to give a few tries, getting higher and higher on the beautiful arete. Each time she got further on the route and fell off she would show me how little chalk remained on her fingers. The climb faces the sun almost all day and the heat was causing her to sweat off. Wondering if conditions were not in her favor she looked at me, questioned if it would go and then pulled on and showed me the answer…
April sending the unknown sloper problem on Boulder C, Roadside
I give our great friend Ander from Alaska credit for the recommendation of Black Spider. High up on the hillside near the Roadside boulders is a long traverse which ends in a steep face climb to a high top-out. After trying just a few moves I instantly got motivated to send. While blasting through the moves on my second sending go I realized that I was nearing the finish and starting up the scary face. April, who was filming my ascent decided she needed a better view and in order to get a better stance she grabbed a tree branch to pull up on. Well, as I was making one of the last moves, locking off a crimp, reaching to another, I felt the end of the tree branch she was grabbing clock me in the head and press on me. My lock-off became extra hard but I still managed to pull it off. Whew! As I stood up on the top I was rewarded with an amazing view of Rocklands in the late afternoon sun. Ahhh, another climb ticked off but millions more to go.
Paul sticking the crux on Black Spider
The top-out view from Black Spider
*This Is Africa
posted by pjv
