Clinton vs The Cape Summer

Before shipping off to Argentina to build soccer stadiums, Clinton Martinengo had several good sessions at various venues around the Cape this past December. He managed to walk away with the much awaited second ascent of "Standard Grade", a 7C (or perhaps harder considering the lack of repeats) at The Classroom. Also in the line-up were the 3rd ascents of "Black Demon" 8A at Redhill and "The Butterfly Effect", a sand-bagged 7C at The Maze in Topside. "Chaos" 8A, and "Flaming Pig" 7C got the treatment as well...

The tale of Chaos (8A?)

One of Redhill's oldest proposed 8A's, "Chaos", has seen a lot of attention in the past few months, with several climbers bagging the line for their 1st of the grade. Most recent was Alan Hills, who has agreed with common opinion that the problem should perhaps be downgraded? As reported before "the original concept of the problem involved a long move off a sloper rail to poor sloping crimps, before slapping up to slopers on the lip and topping out. "Chaos" remained a project for several years, repelling attempts from a number of capable climbers, until Emile Esterhuizen thought of a slightly easier sequence by moving further to the right to a poor sidepull, and then moving back left into bad underclings above the sloper rail and skipping the crimps altogether. Although the line was complete, many Redhill locals felt that the true line was yet to be climbed. In 2007, Marijus Šmigelskis finally made the first ascent of the originally intended line bumping the grade up from 7C to 8A".

Now however, it seems that the problem may be suffering (or benefiting?) from a strange phenomenon that is common for sloper climbs at Redhill. Fresh rock in the area seems to have a strange form of micro lichen that grows between the texture of the holds. As people start climbing on the holds, adding chalk and brushing them, the lichen dies off and over the years, the friction improves dramatically. We've seen classic examples of this on "Rolling Stones", which went from 7B+ to 7A+ and "Four Singers".

Check out Clinton Martinengo making light work of "Chaos" this past summer, climbing it on his first redpoint go after flashing the crux section in isolation:

New 7C Roof at The Turtle Boulders

Joe Möhle has opened a new line, "Eyes on the Prize" 7C, on the much spied but seldom tried roof just off the trail at the Turtle Boulders in Topside. Joe nabbed the central and most obvious line out the large cave from a stand start at the lowest of the good holds, but notes several harder versions exist, awaiting an ascent.

Benj sends Black Hawk Down

Benjamin de Charmoy has had a strong start to the 2011 season with two fast 8A+ repeats in Topside. He managed to make the 8th ascent of "Ard Ay" after 3 sessions of work. The last repeat of this excellent roof problem was by Emile Esterhuizen back in 2007 so it's good to see it getting more action.

Moving to The Cinema, Benj made the third ascent of "Black Hawk Down" which is the 4 move sit start to "Flubber". The line was opened by Marijus Šmigelskis in 2009 and has only seen a repeat by visiting American climber Paul Robinson last year.

2010 Round-Up part 2

December 2010

Two more hard classics have been added to the boulders of Echo Valley in Topside by Marijus Šmigelskis. First to fall was "Heart Feels No Bass" 7C up at Bonnydoon which climbs out a cave formed by a massive boulder. Next was "Mintberry Crunch" 8A, a line conceived by Maciej Fijalkowski hiding in plain sight on another massive boulder just off the main trail. It's surprising both these obvious and great lines lay unclimbed for so long, but it shows how much more potential lies in the boulders of Cape Town.

November 2010
Arjan de Kock managed to open the "Options of Insanity" project at Coppermine at Redhill, which branches out right from "Paper Plane Warfare" at a rather reasonable grade of 7C+. Marijus Šmigelskis found some cunning beta making the line far easier than the original 8A+/8B estimate but he ripped open his shoe in the process and had to leave the job to Arjan.

October 2010
KwaZulu Natal can finally claim to have a legitimate bouldering area now that the blocs in the thick forests below the Umgeni Valley sport crags have been opened for public access. The area currently has over 50 opened problems, with scope for at least several hundred. Marijus Šmigelskis helped put the area on the map during a brief visit where he and Julia Chen made the 1st and 2nd ascents of "Venga Skebenga" 7B+ (Julia nearly nabbed the FA ahead of all the boys in the horrendously hot and humid conditions, only falling on the last move).Marijus then went on to open the instant classic testpiece of the area, "Death Professor" 7C, but there are many more projects awaiting future ascents.