June Hits

At Echo Valley in Topside, Marijus Šmigelskis opened a slightly contrived but rather hard little problem named "Turboset" 7C+ which involves a deperate pull off a polished sloper to catch a small edge.

With rumours of the closure of the main boulder at TDA flying around, many Cape climbers have been busy tying up loose ends and trying to send their remaining projects. Marijus Šmigelskis managed to establish another worthwhile linkup traverse which starts as for "Super Skunk" and joins "THC", resulting in "Chinese Nosebleed" 7C+. He then returned a few days later to add an even further extension to the start and bumping the grade up one notch to 8A. This latest addition was named "The Last Line of Defence" and starts as for "Inertia" 7A+ and traverses rightwards to join "Chinese Nosebleed".

Back in Rocklands, Shaun Harris repeated "Sean's Roof" 7C and added the classic "Sunset Arete" 7C to his ticklist. Marijus Šmigelskis took a visit to Frenchside and managed to do "Stroh 80" 7C+ as well as "Scorpion" 8A (which has lost some of its holds) in 3 tries after figuring out the sequence.

Marijus on "Stroh 80"

May Hits

With conditions improving in Rocklands, Evan Wiercx and Scott Noy both sent "Born Into Struggle" 7C, with Scott also sending "Louder Than Bombs" 7C and "Sean's Roof" 7C. Jon Reading send "Arch Baby" 7C and the ultra-classic "Cedar Spine" 7C.

Shaun Harris briefly tried "Pudgy Bitch" 7C+ at Echo Valley in Topside a few months ago with no success but returned for a quick send after one sessionl. He also did the TDA linkup "Caveman" 7C.

NBL 2009

The South African National Bouldering League Finals were held at a brand new sector at Redhill, dubbed Coppermine (check out the results here). This new area is a tremendous addition to the Cape Town bouldering scene and already features some instant classics. Marijus Šmigelskis managed to open "Pandemonium", which is certainly one of the proudest boulder problems on the peninsula- tall, hard and beautiful. The line was originally graded 8A, but a new hold was discovered by Andrew Wood the following weekend which resulted in altering the crux move drastically and dropping the grade to 7C. Either way, the line remains a super classic must-do...

Andrew Wood on "Pandemonium".

Classroom Action

The Classroom has seen a lot of activity lately with the cooling temperatures of autumn. Dominic Roprdan extended "Fromage et Baguette" to create "Dikfer" 7C and Greg Streatfield made the 5th ascent of "Swim Coach" 7C+. Dom and Shaun Harris both repeated the campus/slam dunk/dyno "U19 Girls Basketball" and consensus is being reached that this problem needs an upgrade to 7B+ or 7C. Marijus Šmigelskis finally managed to link the starting crux of "Swim Coach" into "U19 Girls Basketball", after washing the holds and waiting for a cold day, to create the condition dependent "DPR" 8A. Clinton Martinengo made a fast repeat of the problem, confirming the grade.

Marijus on "DPR"

April Hits

Shaun Harris finally managed to get some time off work and got out to Rocklands. He managed to send "Weichei" 7C+ and "Who the Fuck is Minky" 7C, both with a fair degree of comfort. Julia Chen sent the classic roof problem "From The Secret Laboratory" 7A at the Fortress.

Mat Rowe made the second ascent of "Black Hoodie Rap" 7C at Redhill after a few trips to work the line. Mat used a slightly different sequence than the opening ascent and the video can be seen below:

 

"Dikfur" 7C at the Classroom got its 3rd ascent by Greg Streatfield. The problem is a fairly long link-up of "Fromage et Baguette" 7B+ into the top-out of "U19 Girls Basketball".

Marijus Šmigelskis made the 2nd South African ascent of "Leopard Cave" 8A+ at Rocklands after two days on the line. He nearly sent the line in a day over a trip during new years but a large cut on his hand prevented success.