Back in Rocklands...

We arrived in Rocklands on Thursday night and set up camp at De Pakhuys. First stop in the morning was dihedral boulders, as Benj was keen to have a session on "Ray of Light" (8B), a super hard problem, but he's already done all of the moves, it's just a matter of linking them all, although it's going to be a mammoth task. Duncan jumped back on "Jaws" (7C) and managed to complete the final move quite easily, and just has to link it from the beginning. I chilled for most of the time, but ended up deciding to head to the fortress with Marijus so I could finish off "Cedar Spine" (7C) and try out "Desperado" (8A) and Marijus was planning to get on "The Vice" (8B).

"Cedar Spine" (7C) Photo by Calvin Kemp.

When we got to the parking we were chased away as we didn't have our Wildcards with us, and so we opted for Campground, and set off working "Rasta Roof" (8A). It's not the most aesthetic line, but it has some cool moves. Marijus and I worked the crux moves for a while, and although we made some progress and found beta that seemed to work, we seemed to lack that extra notch of strength, and so we were done on that. We headed to "Tea with Elmarie" (8A+) so I could give it a go, and to my surprise I managed to get through the first moves on my first go, and it actually felt quite good, but my next two tries only deteriorated. So back to camp for a good supper and checking out some of the footage we had taken of the day's climbing. Matt managed to send "Black Velvet" (8A) quite convincingly, his first 8A, and a pretty awesome one at that. So on Saturday we decided to head to Campground, and the first problem we headed to was "The Woody" (7B). It ended up being just my style, nice and crimpy.



Then after heading back to the car for some lunch and a slackline we headed up to "Tea with Elmarie" (8A+), but this time I planned on just doing the left variation, called "Teatime" (7C). It runs through the same crimpy leftward moving crux on the boulder, only to go left and then up instead of finishing directly up the face as for "Tea with Elmarie" (8A+).



After sending that quite easily and feeling really good on the crimps, I felt re-psyched to get back on it for the direct finish. I had a few goes which got me close to getting into the sidepull/crimp on the face, but not close enough. My fingers were feeling great on the crimps, without a tweak anywhere, which is such a nice relief after having dealt with so many finger tweaks over the past few years, its great to see them improving and getting stronger.

Setting up to hit the sidepull in the face on "Tea with Elmarie" (8A+). Photo by Duncan Fraser.

So hopefully "Tea with Elmarie" (8A+) with be possible quite soon, with some fresh tips and strong crimps. Benj did the stand start called "Teatime Direct" (7B+), which is the problem I need to do after the crimpy crux, and it's still no walk in the park, with a painful left crimp to pull yourself to the top.