Rocklands 2013

Our three weeks trip to the Rocklands is history... unfortunately!! We had an awesome time down in South Africa, met many nice people, enjoyed day after day the breathtaking scenery and were able to climb a few nice lines. Only time went by too fast!

Nonetheless both of us (Aldo and me) went back home with a big smile. Not just because of the great satisfaction after this holiday... but mainly because we were able to close our loved ones in our arms again. Especially for me it was a loooong time. Martina left Switzerland already in June to go down to Croatia with our two boys. Therefore I haven't seen them for over two months. A really long time...!! Accordingly, I was very happy to see my family again. :)

 

But what about the Rocklands?

As already wrote in the previous entry, my last trip to the Rocklands is eight years back. It feels like a century!! In 2005/2006, when Paul and me was on our "around the world-trip", South Africa was the one destination, which remained to us as the most beautiful and memorable in memory. Accordingly, I was very excited to return to this place. Sure... I knew that it would not be the same "Rocklands" as back in 2005. But this had no negative impact on my anticipation. I just loved it too much!!

The landscape is the same as years ago. The same beautiful scenery, the same grey-orange sandstone-boulders. Even Clanwilliam, the little town in this area is looking almost the same as 8 years back. Just the "Spar" is bigger today and the road over the Pakhuis-pass is not a dirt road anymore, but an asphalt road... what makes the ride over the pass much faster and more comfortable. Everything else was just like in my memory.

As we drove up to the pass on our arrival, I almost went crazy. As soon as I saw the orange boulders, I was happy as a little child. I just could not wait to finally get this sandstone back into my fingers! But we had other things to do first. It was already after 8pm and we had a 25 hours travel in our bones. First of all we had to go to the "Alpha Excelsior Guest Farm" to get our room, have dinner and to go to sleep.

The next day then we went back to Clanwilliam to buy some food and go for lunch at "Nancy's Tea Room". This is a little but very nice restaurant where you get the best sandwiches you can imagine. Still... I have to say. Already 8 years back we went several times to "Nancy's Tea Room" and always enjoyed the nice food there. Afterwards we went for our first boulders at the pass itself. What a pleasure...!!! ;)

However, there are also a few unsightly developments... especially the many people! The Rocklands completely changed to a mainstream boulder destination. As we were there in 2005, we were almost alone and it was a real adventure. Today you have hundreds of climbers there, a pretty big new campsite and many new houses for rent. Especially at the "old" classic areas like the "Roadside" and others you will never be for yourself. On the contrary ... some boulders are FULL of people. Sure, this was to be expected… but I do not like this.

However, I have to say that we never have seen garbage lying around. Unexpectedly… because of a few negative reports... but luckily! It seems that the climbers take considerate and not simply throw away their garbage or to have improved significantly. 

And what about the climbing?

Hmmmm… 8 years back I was able to push my limits in the Rocklands. This time I did not even get close to my personal best. But not just me… also Aldo was not able to succeed. Sure… both of us climbed some hard lines… but far away from pushing limits.

There was something like a learning curve during this trip… I realized that I’m getting old…!!!! ;o)

At home I just climb twice a week… rarely three times per week. I work full time and have a family with two children at home. There is not more space for climbing. However, that does not matter. With my age of 36 this two climbing days per week are offering enough rest days to be fresh at every day when I go out for climbing. I really need that… especially when I climb at my limit. In the Rocklands now we climbed more or less every second day… sometimes even two or three days in a row. Accordingly, tired and somewhat exhausted we felt on many days. I’m… or we’re not 20 anymore. I really can feel that the body needs some days rest to fully recover.

Both of us needed some time to get used to the higher load and the style itself. The bouldering in the Rocklands is very athletically. Many roofs and mostly overhanging climbing with far moves on usually quite good holds. I’m not the hardcore-crimper… but here the holds are more or less never a problem, but the athletic climbing loads the muscles and the body strongly. I like that style, but the body needs some time to get used to it.

The first two weeks we haven’t climbed many hard lines… but after these two weeks we felt better day by day and in the last week we felt that it would be much more possible with some more time down here.

Another aspect is that especially the very hard lines (7C+ and above) are mostly dependent on one or two very long or even often dynamic moves. It’s really fun to climb these things… but these moves are always a bit depending on size and coordination and they need a bit of luck. Especially the dynos. You never know if you have to try them for just a few times or for several days. Especially I made the mistake to almost exclusively try such lines in the beginning. After some time I realized that mistake and focused more on homogenous lines with less dynos… with success. In the last week I climbed “Witness the sickness, 8A” and “The shallow cave, 8A” quite easily… both at the second day after just a few tries. Also “Golden Virginia, 8A”, which I climbed in the first week and which does not have one far move, I climbed in a few tries.

I was pretty close at some harder boulders and with some more time I’m sure I would have been able to climb that stuff at my personal limit… but not in just three weeks. There were simply too many things we wanted to check out and too many areas to have a look on. It’s simply not possible to projecting some really hard stuff in this short time frame.
If I alone look at the performance, it was at least a super “training camp” in the end… and I already felt the positive influence the first climbing day back home in my local projects. ;)  

Anyway… in the end it is not about the numbers. It’s all about the fun, the fantastic experience we made, the beautiful landscape and the nice people we met. Thanks to all of you… we had a fantastic trip and enjoyed every minute in South Africa. Who knows… maybe I’ll come back again someday. That would be nice! But for now I’ve many other projects at home and I’m also happy to be back here at our lovely areas up in the mountains...!!! ;o)

Some impressions:

Beautiful arrivel in South Africa...

 

our house...

and environment...

 

surrounded by mountains... in front you see the new campsite area.

 

other view from Pakhuis pass to the same aera...

 

our little car... i'm really wondering how we was able to put all our stuff into it...!!! ;)

Aldo in "Black labour, 7B+"...

and in "Golden Virginia, 8A"...

the view out of the "Madiba-cave"...

and in front of the cave... before sunset.

no comment... :)

nature pure...

wildlife...

...

we also saw leopard tracks, baboons, snakes, giant beetles...

and flamingos...

 

after a day trip to the seaside...

with some nice slovenian guys (Jernej Kruder and Miha Hribar)...

... :)

Krudi in "El Corazon, 8B"... was extremely close, but fell on the last move.



Miha in "Witness the sickness, 8A"... congrats!!

myself in "Barracuda, 8A"... but was too tired that evening.



my right hand after some good looking tries at "Flying guitar thief, 8A+"...

 



just beautiful...

... :)

 

on the way to the pass...

the pass itself with his millions of boulders...

 

the road down to Clanwilliam...

cheers

 

The last days

Phuuu... it's going fast now. In less than two weeks I will be back in the Rocklands. Yesss!! :)
I'm really excitet and I'm wondering, how it looks like down there in the meantime. Sure... the boulders are the same. I assume that it hasn't rained new boulders since then in 2005. :)

Oh man... it's quite a long time ago and many things have changed! In 2005 we had still lived on the old campground. As we arrived there on a weekend in August, we were just a few people there. I don't remember exactly how many... but definitely not more than 6 or 7 people. During the weeks we were almost alone up there. Just two french guys, Marc Momet and Fred Sansoz (Liv's brother) stayed at the campsite with us... the whole three weeks. What a great time we had!! So funny!
From time to time we met three Turkish girls, which slept in one of the pakhuises, but that was it for now!! It was a real adventure out there. However, I think that's history. Today it is a huge rush to the Rocklands and we will not have the same experience as eight years ago. But anyway... it will be awesome! ;)

Some impressions from 2005:

Almost alone...



Fred enjoys the scenery...

Wild life... :)

...and some climbing too...

We will be back soon...!! :)

So I didn't climbed much the last days and I will not do much more the next two weeks. I want to be completely recovered when I arrive in South Africa.

But I was not quite idly. Last week I climbed two lines at the Sustenpass. The first one was "Fred's, 8A+", which I almost climbed the first day I tried it. But it was at the end of a long and hard bouldersession and therefore I was not able to finish it up.
The second day then i just needed a short warmup and after the first real try I stood on the top. Felt pretty soft for 8A+... but it is definitely my style. It's hard to rate anything, which fit's me perfectly. But no matter...

The same evening I changed to Martin's big "Highlander-project" at the Traumland-bloc and tried the first part of it. It's a traverse to the left into "Traumland, 8A". I came pretty close, but had not enough power left.
Three days later I went up to the Sustenpass again, despite of some little risk for rain. When I arrived, everything was in dense fog and some holds on the bloc were still wet from the rain the two days before. One of the holds of the traverse I had to dry... otherwise the traverse would not be possible. At least with my solution. But it worked well and some attemps later I reached the startholds of "Traumland"... even if completely destroyed.

Cool... two nice problems before my trip to the Rocklands. And both with very little effort. The shape should be good... the Rocklands can come...!!! ;o))

cheers

I LOVE IT...!!!

The last days we'd over 30°C. On Moday and Thuesday about 35°C and today at least a bit lower. Crazy... just some days ago we still had 15°C and some weeks ago still some snow!!!!! ;)

Anyway... in most of the popular spots you just can't climb in these conditions and therefore I had to watch for an alternative area. Totally clear that I had to have a look to my other project on the Sustenpass: "Reykyavik low". In the meantime the barrier is open and it is possible to drive up to the "Sustenbrüggli", where most of the boulders are located. The pass itself is still closed and accordingly there is no traffic up there. Just you, the rock, the calm and the splendid ambience.

As I arrived up there it was 19°C (15°C as I leaved). Just some other cars parked there and a few people sat in the restaurant Sustenbrüggli. There is still quite some snow around... but most of the boulders are climbable.
Firstly I walked down to boulder without any pads... armed only with a shovel. I wanted to check first, if some work for the dropzone is needed. And it was... not much, but I had to shovel a bit as a warmup. Luckily "Reykyavik low" is on the southern side of the boulder. The side to the north was still deep in the snow and no lines on this side would have been possible. Afterwards I went back to the car and picked up the pads and everything else I needed.



Just the sunny southern side is free of snow...

Some warmup first... ;)

Back at the boulder I arranged everything and sat down... just to enjoy the scenery a little. I really love it up here...!!! Especially in such nice conditions, when no other people are here, the blue sky above you, the setting sun, which puts a golden light over the surrounded mountains... you can't hear anything... no cars, no voices, just the wind and your breath.
In these moments I like to be alone. For me it's sometimes not just the sportive challange when I go bouldering. Such moments give me a lot more!! They will take you back to your center and ground yourself. I would never want to miss such moments.

Beautiful scenery... firstly in a golden and later on in a deep blue light.

I LIKE....

Later on I started to warmup. Because of the snow I had no other option to warmup than on "Reykyavik, 8A+/8B" itself. Some goes... some breaks... a few sips of an ice-cooled beer... and an hour later I repeated the original line quite easily. CRAZY!! Totally unexpected. I just wanted to check out the moves a bit to get used to the moves again. But it worked pretty well and I was even able to reposition my left hand hanging in the badest crimp in the whole line, what was absolutely impossible the last year. Unbelievable!!

"Prost Mahlzeit!!"... with an ice-cooled beer. ;)

Half an hour later I started at the "low-start" and checked out these moves. But the first hard move was simply not possible. I took a few more tries, felt some little pain in a muscle of my left arm and finished for the day, just to do not take any risk for any rupture. I would have been highly motivated, but had to stop myself not to pull too hard.

I'm really happy with this start into the Susten-season. Who knows... probably some more good FA-news will follow in the next days. ;)


cheers

Murgtal Boulders

Hi all,

In the past two years many new lines were added to Murgtal. Not just by myself. Yesterday I got a topo from Adrian Waibel and was asked to publish it in my blog. Sure... I will!!

Thanks a lot guys for your work and the ever growing number of new boulders at Murgtal.


Adrian's words:

"Hello fellow Murgtal boulderers,
Over the last few weeks my friends and I cleaned and freed the big boulder 50m right of the Love & Pain boulder (exact coordinates in the topo) and added 10 cool new lines to the ever growing number of problems there. To the best of our knowledge, they were all first ascents. (Except maybe the slab since we discovered an old piton for top-roping on top).
We hope you enjoy these new additions and are awaiting your feedback on grades and what not.
Cheers, Adrian"

EDIT:Some of the boulders seem to have a wrong grading (they're easier). An updated topo will follow soon.


cheers