Redhill Sends

At Redhill, at the Vajra area, Emile Esterhuizen got the second ascent of "The Sound of Violence" 8A. Then, at the Mushroom area, Julia Chen sent "Einstein's Nightlife" 7A and Edvinas Šmigelskis opened "Vena Sera" 7B+, which is a low start to "Eyeball".

WP in the EC

A carload of Cape Town boulderers visited the Eastern Cape for the inter-varsity bouldering comp. On the way, they stopped of in Cape St Francis, where Marijus and Edvinas Šmigelskis both flashed the testpeice of the area, "Black Pearl Extension" 7B+ and Edvinas managed to open one of the projects which climbs a short overhanging wall, calling it "Queen of the West" 7C. The UCT crowd then moved on to Hogsback, where a bunch of new problems were established, the highlights where "Limited Edition" 7A by Joe Möhle, "Raptor" 7C by Edvinas and the highball classic "Joe Lives" 7C by Marijus.

Champs in Rocklands

At Rocklands, Kate Fairfield showing her victory at the 2007 Bouldering Nationals was well deserved, sent the high 7B arete "G1" on the "Cripple" boulder at Roadside. She also made a bold ascent of scary highball "Creaking Heights" 6C using a very dynamic sequence high off the deck. Marijus Šmigelskis aslo sent "Les Gloire De Papu" 8A after 2 days on the problem.

Two 8A's at Redhill

Marijus Šmigelskis managed to opened two new 8A's in one day at Redhill. First to fall was "The Sound of Violence" which took Marijus 3 days of effort to link. The problem starts as for "Dark Lord Sharon" and then traverses right to finish as for "Schwann Ping". Then, while showing some first-time visitors around the Mushroom area, he decided to have a go on the much tried "Chaos" project, and after a few tries, the line was completed at last. Emile Eszterhuizen had done an alternative version of "Chaos" using holds further right on the boulder, but Marijus managed to open the original version (which goes up and left from a sloper rail via long pulls to poor edges) after 3 years of attempts by some strong climbers.

Scott at Roadcrew

Scott Noy sent "Planeta Tierra" 7C at the Roadcrew area in Rocklands. The seldom-repeated problem climbs the arete behind "Rooi Klavier", starting with a shallow hueco low down for the left hand and then finishes up the easy angle slab.