Blouberg
It is an impressive cliff, rising more than 1000 feet out of the African savanna – the so called Springbok flats. It faces north and is bathed in golden sunlight for most of the year. The climate is temperate and allows for year round climbing, often in near perfect conditions. One rarely runs foul of the weather here but summer electric storms can be very fearsome and exciting and heat waves can wilt even the most intrepid climber.
The sandstone rock is of excellent quality and lends itself to traditional gear placements but here and there bold sections with long run-outs favor the placement of the odd piece of fixed gear. Most of the cracks are horizontal rails that traverse the wall at regular intervals allowing for excellent nut and cam placements but vertical cracks and chimney cracks also wander up and provide homes to thousands of swifts.
Blouberg is a wild and remote place but very user-friendly for trad climbers. There are several other rock faces in the area which are mostly unclimbed; one of which is the nesting grounds of the endangered Cape Vulture. These creatures spend hours languidly floating on the thermals and frequently come up close to inspect climbers high up on the wall in the afternoon.
It is here that my challenge has become my nemesis. The main wall is more than a mile wide and it is steepest at the first section on the left. There are three blank sections on a bulging and then gently overhanging headwall. The cracks and rails that cicatrize the rest of the wall are deficient here, and the holds are thin and far apart. It is my 6th attempt at finishing the route with various partners over the last 4 years. It is no mean feat to climb at Blouberg with first time visitors rarely managing to climb even one of the moderate routes. Without local knowledge Blouberg presents a serious challenge to all but the most experienced trad climbers. Even the walk in is complicated on poorly defined cattle trails. But once you are there it is an expansive place that captures ones soul and is the most compelling place to climb that I have ever encountered. It draws me back time after time to pit myself against its challenges. It is without equal.
Clinton Martinengo is presently South Africa’s best all round climber but has only become skilled at trad climbing over the last 5 years or so. His tick list of sport routes is un-equaled in South Africa and he has done some of the hardest trad first ascents. We first rappelled the wall 4 years ago to inspect the line. We went down with a drill as we knew that there were blank sections that would be impossible to protect with natural gear. This year we have already returned twice, again with a drill and the experience of Tini Versveld and Tony Dick and the young rock-jock Marijus Smigelskis. Both Clint and Marijus are the best rated South African boulderers registered with 8A.NU. Both times we were spectacularly unsuccessful at linking the route despite managing to free all the moves.
It will require absolutely perfect conditions. The crux pitches start halfway up the wall with several demanding pitches to get there and the wall only escapes the sun well after mid-day. Anything short of the ideal conditions increases the difficulty substantially; heat lessens the friction on the face and saps the energy and cold cramps up the fingers and increases body tone and muscle in-efficiency.
But we have a plan:
A 1000 mile flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg at midday on a Thursday. Then a car rental for the 5 hour drive to the Frans’s kraal to arrive there in the late afternoon to walk up 3 hours to the cave in the cooler evening air by torch-light. Next morning a 3 am start to hike to the top of the North Wall and then rappel the wall with the view to working the moves on the crux pitches and stashing food and water and bivvy gear on the way down. We would reach the base of the cliff by the time the wall is in shadow and then climb the 5 pitches to the bivvy stance where the crux pitches begin. With some luck we would even crack the first hard pitch dubbed the “Ningenator pitch.” Funny thing though, is that despite the fact that I conceived the route I probably don’t have snow-ball’s chance in hell of actually freeing the crux pitches. Age and attrition has weakened me. But no matter, desire and dreams can end in a satisfactory result. If failure wasn’t part of the agenda then the allure would fade.
But the setup has to be spot on. And training is essential: more the mind than the body.
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And so it was that on Friday 24 November we rappelled down the wall with heavy packs including a drill and 12 litres of water after waiting for the rain to stop. No further bolts were placed on any of the pitches but three rappel points were improved with bolts. After depositing our bivvy gear at the palatial ledge 130m above the ground we continued to the bottom where we dumped the drill and Clint and Stew’s approach shoes.
In very humid conditions and thunderheads approaching Stewart led the first pitch in fine style with Clint and I yelling beta at him.
I then sweated up the next grade 23 pitch where I had intended to place a bolt but had refrained to do so because Clinton had discovered a critical, but tiny cam (Alien zero) placement. This of course was missing from the rack having been left on the rappel as a directional. The smaller black diamond Z cam did not fit well but had to do. I did not even bother testing it. Clint had on-sighted this pitch a little further to the left when we had tried the route 6 weeks previously but I did a more direct but very tricky version with a desperate pinch and using small and awkward foot holds above suspect runners. I attained the belay ledge pumped to the max and streaming with sweat.
Clint then led the next pitch to the shattered ledge. On our previous visit I had thought this pitch also needed a bolt but it yielded to grade 21 climbing and good enough trad gear placements.
At the shattered ledge the tension began. It was rapidly getting dark and the mother of all thunder heads was approaching from the north-west. Lighting crisscrossed the air with many bolts arcing between the clouds. Clint was the man for the next grade 25 pitch but he had visions of being fried by lightning and was being disobedient and cowered next to us on the ledge. Stew and I cunningly convinced him that there was no ways that the lightning would be interested in him despite the fact that he was carrying about 40 shiny biners and a whole rack of other metal bits. We suggested that he could always leave all that stuff behind and solo the pitch!. We sure weren’t offering to go up.
Clint tentatively set off and about after climbing up 15m or so the heavens opened and he had to lower back down to us. We resigned ourselves to a miserable night but an hour or so later the storm had passed and we had stayed relatively dry and warm on the ledge protected by the overhanging headwall above us.
Another hour passed and Clint set off with a torch in the pitch dark and somehow, at snails pace, freed the pitch on wet rock. Amazing! As the conditions were alpine we sent him off on the next run-out grade 20 pitch too and gained the bivvy ledge where we feasted on boeries and bread and chamomile tea. Clint was rather disgusted that I had forgotten the Ceylon tea and if he wasn’t such a nice guy he might have hurled me off the ledge there and then – I know Tini would have!
The next morning the conditions were perfect. We were woken by a cacophony of bird calls. I have never heard such a chorus. The swifts were out and there was plenty of aerial plankton to feed them. The air was crisp and clear and cool and clouds kept the sunshine in abeyance. After coffee Stew set off along the sketchy grade 16R traverse to the stance at the start of the first hard pitch while I lurked on the stance sorting things out and taking photos. I could not see Clint but he red-pointed the “Ningenator” pitch and Stew and I followed clinging desperately onto quick-draws and slings. I could not even do the moves to reach the bolts and thankfully cranked on the slings. I haven’t felt so inept since I began climbing.
We called the next pitch “Measuring up….22+ ” The shorter you are the harder it gets as it requires a long reach out to the right and up off a thin left finger grip and tiny foot holds. I actually peeled off although I had succeeded in freeing it about 2 years ago on a previous attempt. Stew led it with some hesitation but Clint sailed through easily.
“Abraxis in the sky” - grade 30+ - is what Clint called the next pitch. I named it “Martinengo’s Nemesis”. He had two attempts but both times could not reach and stick the move above the last bolt. It’s very hard! Stew and I used those silver juglets and footholds to complete the pitch.
Clint then did a phenomenal red-point of the final difficult pitch. It is desperately hard with varied climbing including difficult hand jambs in a soggy crack, long reaches off underclings and then he almost blew it on the last tricky move which is only about grade 22 because he was so pumped. He hung there for about 15 minutes. He reckons it’s the hardest he has had to ever try.
Stew and I embarrassed ourselves again and yarded up to him. One of the few moves I managed was actually the one that almost stymied Clint. (I told him to climb with glucose candy in his pockets in future.)
We were home and dry – or so we thought. Those damnable thunder heads were rolling in again and it started drizzling!. This time we were exposed and lightning strike was a real danger. We set up a rappel but I started climbing the next grade 22 pitch with a single rope doubled so as to facilitate a quick retreat if necessary. But the weather brightened up and I managed to climb the pitch fairly quickly and free except for the one, very wet lay-back move that Stew also aided. Needless to say Clint freed it but his 1.8m helped I’m sure.
We composed ourselves at the next stance and again decided it was worth the risk to continue despite the tremendous power of the thunder storms all around us. The next two pitches are grotty but we managed to top out and shake hands and then down we went back to the bivvy to a leaner and drier dinner. Again the heavens opened and dumped tons of water all around us.
Was it the gods or the dogs that were kind to us?; but we finished the climb in the most impossible weather conditions. It was spectacular!!
Hector Pringle arrived at Blouberg accompanied by, +++ Editor of Climbing Magazine. He posted this on www.Climb.co.za: “We were at the Blouberg parking on Friday night and were too scared to get out the car because of the most insane electrical storm ever. One lightning bolt lasted about 8 seconds, arcing horizontally right across the sky. The ascent of this route is a huge effort and it must have taken balls of steel (and a certain lack of discretion!) to keep going. Awesome job guys.”
There is nothing in the world that could have made for a more memorable and exciting experience. The plan worked (except for one move!).
Dog of Thunder
Start. The start is immediately to the right of the start The Dream of White Dogs about 100m beyond great gulley. Three bolts are visible.
Pitch 1: 25. Clip the first bolt with some difficulty and do tricky moves into the recess. Climb up recess to the bulge and lay back and mantel strenuously to gain easier ground. Continue up the shallow recess to a semi-hanging belay after 10m or so.
Pitch 2: 23. Climb up and slightly right to place a good medium sized cam to the right of the pillar 5m above. Step left at the base of the pillar and avoid the obvious undercut flake to gain the recess on the left of the pillar. Do technical moves to gain good holds. Continue through the overlap above to gain a small but good stance.
Pitch 3: 21 55m Climb directly up for about 4 m and then tend diagonally left to avoid the white rock to gain rappel anchors. Continue up tending a little left and then back right to gain a pillar. Climb this and find an overlap that leads to easier ground. Continue to the shattered ledge and bolt and nut belay.
Pitch 4 and 5 25 35m. Step off the right end of the ledge and climb the recess to attain an obvious overhanging crack. (Shared with “Delicate Sound of Thunder” 21) At the crack step right to gain a right facing recess. Climb up to the left 2m to attain a perch. (One can stance here with small cam belay). 3 bolts are visible up and to the left. Climb up 2 m from the perch step right and then back left. Continue on good holds to the overlap below the bolts. Continue past the bolts to a ledge and good nut runners or belay. (25) Climb up the run-out face to attain a right facing corner-crack (20). Continue to the bivvy ledge.
Pitch 6 15m 16R. Traverse carefully15m to the skyline to a peg and bolt belay.
Pitch 7 20m 30+. The Ningenator pitch. Gear = Bolts and cams. Above are several bolts. Climb up to a rail and move left to a rest at a medium cam placement. Rail right for about 5m to a bolt and move up over a bulge to gain a left facing corner. Continue easily to a bolt belay on a good ledge.
Pitch 8 15m 22++++. (The “Measuring up….pitch.” Add a grade or so for every 1cm you are shorter than 163cm.) Move right past two bolts and do a reach move (for some) to reach a juggy recess/crack on gray rock. Continue easily to a ledge system and clip the bolt to keep the rope direct for the second.
Pitch 9 15m 30+ Martinengo’s Nemesis “Abraxis in the Sky”. Climb past the boltson edges to a two bolt semi-hanging belay. (Take at least two small cams 1.5 and 3cm or ¾ and 1 in). The crux is a long reach to a non-hold after the last bolt before the
Belay.
Pitch 10 20m 30+ (What is takes…..). This pitch has several bolts but also requires a large cam, some small cams and medium nuts. Gain the crack and continue strenuously to a hard undercling move. Continue up and to the left and follow the bolts. At the last bolt do a tricky mantel and move right to a small cam and nut belay directly above the previous stance. This pitch is a real fight if you are rushed after the other hard pitches.
Pitch 11 20m 22. Climb up on the grey juggy rock and then step left to a ledge. Above is a stunning lay back crack. Step up into a crack and continue 3 m or so. Move right into the layback that is extremely slippery when wet. Climb up to the overhang and clip the bolt on the left. Reach high to a rail and then continue to a bolt belay.
Pitch 12 15m 19. Climb directly up and move left to gain gnarly crack system. Continue to a bolt and gear belay.
Pitch 13 30m 21. Continue up the bird shit crack and do some funky moves through the blocks above to gain easier ground on gray juggy and a little scary rock. Continue to the top to a bolt and sling belay.
The beta.
To free climb this route in a day ground up without any beta and in anything but near weather conditions would be an enormous feat and is then probably grade 30++. And an on-sight flash ascent without the beta is an even greater challenge. So, don’t read the rest if you are a purist!
Probably the best way to do this route would be to rappel from the top as we did on the first ascent and stash water and snacks and bivvy gear and climb the first 5 pitches to the bivvy ledge on the same day, finish the route on the second day and the rappel the route to collect the bivvy gear. However, the problem would be to find the top rappel point.
If done ground up, then hauling is no problem if one has 60m ropes except it is a little tiring. All of the crux sections are less than 30m long so hauling can be done in 30m sections up to the bivvy ledge. The second can tie in the middle of the rope or climb on a single rope. If one is not going to rappel the route and top out then leave your bivvy gear on the bivvy ledge tied to the end of one of the ropes and climb pitch 6 tied to the end of one rope and tie directly in to the other rope when the leader reaches the stance at end of pitch 6. Do the same for pitch 7 and only haul once you get to the top of pitch 8! Just carefully direct your ropes as you go.
The last two pitches detract from the route so one can rappel from the bolts on the 11th pitch or even the 12th pitch unless you are a purist and feel you must top out.
Ground up I would suggest one climbs this route as close to December as possible in cool partly cloudy weather with a temperature forecast of no more than 28 degrees C. The sun gets off the face before midday in summer as the wall is north of the Tropic of Capricorn so start climbing by midday. This allows access to the bivvy ledge on the day.
Take a full rack of cams to 3 ½ in with doubles in the ½ to 1 inch range and a standard set of nuts. RP’s are not essential.
Carry at least 4 litres per person.
Pitch one: A small cam (green sling Alien) protects the start of the layback crux. Look for it in an under-cling slot. A large cam can be placed in the bottom of the lay back and a rock 8 placed side-ways one the left provides good comfort for the mantel move!
Pitch 2 : Once one steps left at the base of the pillar and into the recess above the flake there is pro with small cams and also a big cam on the left. The good holds were very slippery on the first ascent due to heat and humidity. There is a bomber tiny cam placement here with the purple sling alien fitting best.
Pitch 3 : Watch for rope drag. It is a little run out but safe enough.
Pitch 4 : Slippery if humid and hot but good pro except the start. Be careful.
Pitch 5: A bit run out but straightforward.
Pitch 6: Take care on the traverse. Get your bivvy gear across to the stance at the end of the traverse as this is also a rappel point.
Pitch 7: Take Clint or a cheat stick
Pitch 8: If you lead it and you are short there is a bolt at your knees so not too scary. Can probably use rope tension to reach right.
Pitch 9: Take Clint or a cheat stick.
Pitch 10: Same.
Pitch 11: Nice pitch; safe good gear.
Pitch 12: A bit grotty but safe enough
Pitch 13: More grotty but requires some care and also safe enough.
Rappelling: Do not combine the first two pitches; your rope will get stuck. Use a 60m rope doubled for the first two rappels.
The next rappel is overhanging so keep the rope in by placing gear (medium cams) on the way down. This gets you to the stance above pitch 9.
The next rap is sideways and requires directing the rope and clipping to the bolts at the stance at end of pitch 7 and then placing gear on the rail to reach the bolt above the stance below and clipping both ropes to this as well. The last person to rappel unclips the one rope but leaves the other clipped to the leaver biners at the stance above pitch 7 and also the bolt above the stance below. The rope to be clipped is not the pull down rope as the knot won’t feed through the biners.
The next rappel is almost 60m and is a little overhanging. Rappel about 3m and then us a medium cam in the rail to keep the rope in to the wall. Continue to the bolted rappel point about 5m below the shattered ledge.
The next rappel is only about 25m to a bolted stance. Don’t miss it. The last rappel is 55m to the ground.
The bivvy.
The bivvy is very comfy and there are 3 mats there. Don’t throw off any rocks as these can be used to shit on and then thrown off.
One can also bivvy less comfortably on the shattered ledge. The shattered ledge and the main bivvy is protected from rain unless there is very strong wind.
There is a good but exposed bivvy at the end of pitch 11 but it is a bit pointless. Either top out or rap down.
Climb with one torch per person!!
