Friday, August 29, 2008

August Hits

The Redhill testpiece "Chaos" 8A has finally seen some action. Dominic Riordan got the second ascent followed by Edvinas Šmigelskis, and Shaun Harris. Dominic returned shortly after to add a lower start off the pedestal, bumping the grade up a notch resulting in "Entropy", his first 8A+. "Chaos" was originally opened by Emile Esterhuizen at 7C but he had deviated slightly from how the project was intended to go, and so Marijus Šmigelskis claimed the first ascent of the proper line in 2007 which required a big pull off a sloper rail to small slopey edges.

Andrew Wood has been busy cleaning up at TDA. He added a sit start to the "Skunk Dyno" at 7C and then clocked in a few days of effort to make the second ascent of the traverse "Chinese Nosebleed" 7C+. Then after a few more sessions he did the extension "The Last Line of Defence" 8A as well, his first of the grade.

Donovan Willis has added another hard problem to the boulders of Kaapsehoop. "The Frailty of Sentimentality" 7C was a long term project in the Forest sector and is likely to be hard for its grade.

Emile Esterhuizen completed his long term project "Möwe" at Redhill. The line which follows the lip of a large roof will weigh in somewhere around 8A+ or 8B mark and is harder than Emile's previous creation "Koeberg" 8A+ at Topside. The problem starts on large underclings and then moves rightwards on tiny letterbox slot crimps to make a powerful move to a gaston before topping out.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Woody send Voodoo Thursday

Andrew Wood has made the 4th ascent of the desperate TDA testpiece "Voodoo Thursday" 7C+ after 4 sessions of working the problem. This is Andrew's first 7C+ and comes only weeks after climbing his first 7C, "Caveman" also at TDA.
Andrew on "Voodoo Thursday"

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Black Shadow for Marijus

In Rocklands, Julia Chen did "Creeper" 7A, which is the right hand start to the ultra classic "Human Energy" at the Plateau Boulders. Marijus Šmigelskis sent "Black Shadow" 8B. It took Marijus 2 afternoons to work out a sequence for the problem, then returning a few weeks later, he managed to grab defeat from the jaws of victory and fell off from the finishing hold. The next Friday, he returned to send the line on his first go of the day...
Marijus on "Black Shadow"