This n that from here n there

In between attempts on "Boogie Nights", Shaun Harris has made possibly the second ascent of "Blame Canada" 7C at the Summit in Topside. The problem starts on the lip of the "Boogie Nights" cave, then campuses rightwards to join up an existing 7A+ and finishes as for that problem.

Martin Renz has provided some images of the bouldering in Alicedale, check out the gallery for more...

Julia Chen made a few trips to check out the Roysten Vasey boulder at CBD and managed some swift sends of "Bab's Cabs" 7A and "Papa Lazarou" 7B. These are first female ascent of both problems and each was sent after a single short session working the moves. Check out the CBD topos page for more bouldering info.

Adam Ondra in Rocklands

The South African climbing community is super hyped over the visit of Czech wonderkid Adam Ondra so a run-down of what he got up to in his week long visit to Rocklands seemed necessary.

Day 1

• "Paula Abdul" 8A in 3 tries at the Sassies 
• "Pinotage" 7C onsight at the Sassies 
• "Shosholoza" 8A+ on his 2nd go at the Sassies 
• "Splash of Red" 8A onsight at the Sassies, proposing a downgrade to 7B or 7C 

Day 3

• "Tomorrow I'll Be Gone" 7C+ onsight at Roadcrew 
• "The Vice" 8B FLASH at the Fortres 
• "Armed Response" 8B FLASH at the Fortress 
• "Out of Balance" 8A onsight at Roadside 
• "Pendragon" 8A flash at Roadside 

Day 4

• "Ray of Light" 8B at the Dihedral Boulders 

Day 5

• "Derailed" 8B+ at 8 Day Rain in about an hour of work 

Adam's double 8B flashes are without a doubt one of the most remarkable feats in climbing, especially considering that "The Vice" is widely considered to be at the upper end of the 8B scale. He also spent some time trying "Sky" and "Amandla", both 8B+ as well as "The Quintessential" and "All I Need is a Smile" both 8B but was unable to send on his brief stay. In between hastily trying to show Adam the best that Rocklands has to offer, Marijus Šmigelskis managed to get in a quick send of "Royskopp" which is 8A now that a hold broke, altering the sequence. Adam also climbed in Alicedale in the Eastern Cape prior to his vist to Rocklands and managed to open "Ratatouille" and "Morphological", both 8A, and "Mad Man" 8A+. Check out Adam's send of "Ratatouille" below:

In other Rocklands news, Guy Holwill and friends have discovered "The South African Area", a vast new sector in Rocklands which already hosts dozens of problems including a 7C from Michael Janata called "Pronoid". Jon Reading visited the Fields of Joy and sent "Macho King" 7C+, a proud highball roof problem and Benjamin de Charmoy kicked off his three week stay in Rocklands with a fast send of "Pendragon" 8A.

CityRock Boulder Comp

CityRock hosted their annual bouldering comp with a huge turnout. Andrew Wood managed to complete all 30 or 40 problems for the win in the mens, and Julia Chen took lead in the ladies category, as well a the ladies dyno comp.

 

	Mens	Ladies
1.	Andrew Wood	Julia Chen
2.	Duncan Fraser	Lynn Kerr
3.	Moritz Seiler	Nadine Methner

Redhill and Rocklands

At Redhill, Andrew Wood made the second ascent of "The Crazy 88" 8A after two sessions on the line! Julia Chen continued her good form and sent "Dark Lord Sharon" 7A.

Rocklands local Jon Reading has sent a few more good problems. First to fall was "Winnie" 7C, above the Roadside boulders followed by "White Mazda Clan" 7C at Riverside and "Rasta Roof" 8A at the Campground boulders. "Rasta Roof" was originally graded 7C+, but after several holds broke off at the crux an upgrade has been justified.

Botswana Bouldering

Guided by a single photo found on the internet, a group of UCT boulderers set off for Botswana with rumours of granite covered koppies on the edge of the Kalahari desert. The village of Thamaga was the first stop, but the boulders did not yield many problems, although only a tiny fraction of the potential was explored, and the team moved further west to Moshupo. Here the stone quality seemed to improve and had more features. Gotau Hill was the focus of the trip and the first problem to fall, "Donkey Kong" 7B, was an instant classic and climbed a short overhanging prow. Andrew Wood moved further up the hill to establish a techinal arete problem dubbed "Hungry Lion" 7B. Marijus Šmigelskis spent some time exploring and discovered another cluster, in strong shade the entire afternoon which produced "Four Forces" 7A+ and "Twin Paradox" 7C. As the cherry on top, Marijus tried a blunt arete which seemed completely featureless at first, then after a few attempts only highly improbably, until somehow he pulled through the first move and sent the line to create "Dark Matter" 8A, boosted with extra energy from a mouthful of golden syrup. Check out the gallery and the video below.