A Weekend at Topside

So after sending Accountant's Project last weekend I was feeling pretty psyched to get onto the next thing. Next on the list was Mintberry Crunch (8A) up at Echo Valley. There are so many lines to be done there, its crazy. Just project after project. Anyway, Mintberry Crunch went rather quickly once Marijus got me to use his beta, although the topout almost had me. Check out Marijus's video below:

Woody at Echo Valley from Cutloose Bouldering on Vimeo.

So after having too many drinks at the Power and the Glory the night before, I wasn't feeling too amped for another session on Sunday, but at about 3PM I felt the urge.

We headed out for a night session at the Cinema in Topside. There were a few lines I wanted to get on here, but first in line was Cloverfield (8A). This line has some awesome moves, and although it doesn't take the line it originally intended to, its still great. The original line does a bigger move further out left, and was opened by Paul Robinson as Zodiac (8A+). I'd love to do that line too, but it really pushes the reach. Cloverfield went quickly, which was a nice surprise. I've had about three or four sessions on the line over the past few months. While I was there I did the right hand variation War of the Worlds (7C), which is also a cool line.

Marijus on the FA of Cloverfield (8A). Photo by Paul Robinson.

Next up was Paranormal Activity Stand Start (7C+). This is a cool line, short and quite crimpy. It felt fairly hard the last time I was on it, but not this time. I quickly got the wierd toe squeeze move, and started working out the top. The problem has a bit of an arb finish, but basically you just wedge yourself into this big gap and catch your breath for a few minutes.

Paul on the stand start part (7C+) of Paranormal Activity (8B+)

Went back to Echo Valley on Tuesday with Marijus and Julia as I was really keen to send Midnight Barber (8A), but alas, the two days on of climbing on the weekend had taken their toll and my arm started giving out. Marijus got the send though. Pity I don't have any pics, its a really cool line. EDIT: Check this sweet clip Marijus put together of him sending Midnight Barber (8A):

The Midnight Barber from Cutloose Bouldering on Vimeo.

Apparently my left shoulder is slightly imbalanced, and so after too much climbing everything tires out and starts transferring the load down to my elbow. Anyway, nothing a physio and a few days rest can't sort out. Unfortunately I was too hung over to attend my Physio appointment. Work dinner got way out of hand the night before.

Accountant's Project

8A in the bag.

NBL 2011 & Alicedale

The finals for National Boulder League were held in Grahamstown this year, and turned out to be a rather successful event. After weeks and weeks of hard sessions of Boulder League every Tuesday night, it was time to make the trip and meet up with strong climbers from all over the country.

Out of the top scoring Cape climbers, myself, Duncan, Robbie and Clara were heading to the finals in Grahamstown in my car. So in preparation for the trip, I decided to make sure that my car got a service, and was in good working order for the 800km odd drive out of Cape Town. So bright and early I drove to pick up the rest of the gang, and off we went to Grahamstown.

We made it to Grahamstown safe and sound, and set up camp at the local camp site. Early the next morning we headed to one of Rhodes University's sports halls where the comp was to be held. Paul Bruyere and Wesley Black had been hard at work setting the problems for the whole comp, and had done a rather sterling job. The wall was great; mostly overhanging, not too high and had been stripped specifically for the comp.

The Rhodes wall.

 

Paul Bruyere setting away.

The turnout for the younger age groups was amazing, which is likely a result of the strong schools leagues that have been in action for the past two years. The high turnout meant long waiting times between rounds, which is never fun, but inevitable nonetheless. Trying to keep fingers warm while waiting is always a schlep. The qualifying rounds were great, and resulted in a nice split in the fields in preparation for the finals.

Duncan, Benj, PW, James and myself made it into the mens open finals. After some fair and well set problems the field was split, except for some tie breakers. The method used to break the ties was unusual to say the least, and I'm not quite sure where the method was taken from. The tie breaker used was the amount of time one took to get to the bonus hold on each problem, and then the average of that over the final problems. In the end the results turned out fine, although personally I was rather annoyed with the end result, mostly due to the fact that after I had placed second, the judges and organisers failed to record my result, and I had to query the final result at the end. As it turned out my scorer failed to mark my flash of one of the final problems on my score card.

On my flash of the second Men's Finals problem.

At the same time as missing out on a prize, I was rushed through to the drug testing procedures as now I was required to submit a urine sample (having another man actively watch you pee is not cool, I can assure you). I would like to give my support to the organisers for a great job, but at the same time we are trying to meet international competition standards to be granted membership of the IFSC, and so we cant really let errors like this slip through the cracks...

All in all, the comp was great, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. A huge thank you needs to go out to Neil Margetts for his dedication to the SANCF and the organisation of this comp and also to the route setters Paul and Wesley, and another huge thank you to Tristan who (i think single-handedly) provided all prizes for the competition. Hopefully all of Tristan's generosity will soon return to him.

 

Rachelle de Charmoy cruising the ladies problems.

 

Benj on the second Men's Finals problem.

Benj sealing the deal with his flash of the third Men's Finals problem.

After the comp we all headed out to the sports bar/hall for a couple drinks, which then turned into a good night out in Grahamstown.


Final Results:
U15 Boys
TRISTAN SWART
DAVID MUIR
BYRON CROFFORD
BRANDON VAN HURTEN

U15 Girls
ERAN WALDECK
TSAI-NI KU
RACHEL SEALY-FISHER

U17 Boys
EVAN MARGETTS
DEVIN MURRAY
TRAVIS GILLESPIE
DILLON VAN STADEN
JORGE GONCALVES

U17 Girls
SAMANTHA STAINTON
GILLIAN BESTER

U19 Boys
JASON  SALT
CALRIN CURTIS
DYLAN VOGT
STEFAN LUTGE
ROBIN SHERWOOD
GREGORY OUDHOF
KERN LEASK

U19 Girls
EMMA PINNOCK
CLARA GRANT
LORNA BORN

Senior Men
BENJAMIN DE CHARMOY
ANDREW WOOD
JAMES BARNES
PIETER WILLIAM
DUNCAN FRASER
ROBBIE FRASER
MATTHEW SCHNEUWLY
DAVE SCOTT
GREG  CARTER
CARL BURTON-DURHAM
NKOSINATH NAMA
MITCHEL PINDUEAS
JOHN WESSELS
GARETH BERRY
JONATHON HATTING

Senior Women
ILLONA PELSER
RACHELLE DE  CHARMOY
CANDICE BAGLEY
LESLEE SALZMANN
JESSIE PEARSON
EMMA JACKSON
LINDI FRYER
DEZ BENOIT

Alicedale was on the cards for the next day. I had heard good things about this area, and had seen topo's while drunk the night before. The topos looked really good, and had a surprisingly large amount of problems listed. So after a short drive out to Alicedale, as well as a fairly short walkin, we were there. The area has very nice rock, a fairly rough sandstone that varies from sandy and flaky to super rough to glossy smooth.

 

Unfortunately the day after a comp isn't the best day for some hard bouldering. I had multiple tweaks in my fingers and was taping them a lot. We still managed to get on some great problems, only to be rained out before we got a try an awesome looking 7B slab...

Cape Nature & Rocklands

I was lucky enough to be present at a meeting with Cape Nature with the intention of communicating the management plan for Rocklands and Truitjieskraal. The focus of the meeting was on Rocklands, as there are currently little to no structures for managing almost anything in the area.

(c) climb.co.za

First of all, CN are committed to getting the Kliphius campsite back on track, and they envisage it costing up to R1m in terms of infrastructure etc, and the funding required isn't an issue. The main issue at the moment it that they need to create a new post for the area, i.e. a new job role that requires new funding. As the meeting was getting under way they found out that the funding for the position has been frozen temporarily, but they did commit to resolving the issue internally so that they could move forward on the management plan. So the primary issue at the moment seems to be that CN need to get someone working out there to supervise and manage everything going forward. The costs around that are tricky, as funds obtained from managing permits effectively in the area do not translate to extra funds to be used in the management of the area at all. Hopefully CN can resolve the issue.

(c) climb.co.za

The next item that was brought up was the zoning of Rocklands [when I say Rocklands I'm only referring to the CN land], and this is something that is still being decided upon. The land will be zoned as "Wilderness" or "Nature", where wilderness is more sensitive, and nature is less sensitive. Nature allows more visitors and classifies the area as a more casual experience, as one would expect to see many visitors there. In any case CN stated that the zoning would not ultimately affect anything, as if the area is classified as wilderness it will be given a special zoning to allow the use that it currently sees. The issue that most of us were very concerned about was the impact assessment that CN made of some of the bouldering areas. Some of the areas in Rocklands have been worn down and cleared to quite an extent, but as CN believe that the impact is very localised to the favoured boulders it is not likely to spread and is not an immediate problem that requires anything to be changed. If problems do arise, the first step will be to limit numbers in the areas via permits, which will be monitored much more if CN have an active person in the area.

Some slacklining at the Kliphuis campsite...

There was some concern over how the expansion of the bouldering areas would be managed, and it seems that CN will basically designate areas that allow bouldering, and if expansion passes that then CN would be consulted and they would give their judgement. This was still very much up in the air. The last thing brought up was the education of all visitors to Rocklands; hopefully through more signage and a better CN presence in Rocklands there will be greater communication on how to look after the areas and respect the more sensitive ones.

So there was a lot of good feedback from the meeting, and it definitely seems like CN are keen to get back into the picture in Rocklands, and hopefully we'll be able to camp at Kliphuis in the near future... Right at the end I did ask about fee's etc, and the fee structure for Kliphuis will likely be R180 per site per night, with 6 people permitted per site, so it definitely seems like it'll be good value. Now we just have to wait and see if CN get going with all this...

Easter Island...

Went to the easter island sector of redhill a few weeks ago with Micky and Calvin. Still feeling rusty outdoors, but hopefully that is soon to change. Opened a nice new line that goes up a slightly overhanging and quite tall boulder... it felt around 7A+, called "the hand that feeds"...

Redhill

Some cool pics taken by Calvin of Duncan and I bouldering at old redhill.