Legends 25 (5.12a)

Although Legends was one of the earlier routes we bolted, it took a while to get some good pics. Gustav took an amazing series of photos of a repeat ascent this afternoon. In its short life the route has had several repeats and a few attempts which lead to a concensus of 25.
This was our last full day on the crag together since Michael heads out tomorrow for Kosmos on the start of his return journey to Seattle. Here we are posing in front of Chris' project (Dreamers - 23/24?) It was a busy day in the God No / Rainy Day area today. From left to right we have (click to enlarge):
- Andrew on Monster (29-30?), a project bolted by Alard.
- Mark on the two bolt wonder that Michael bolted (dynos abound and possibly 30ish)
- Michael busy cleaning the draws off his last new route of the season: Dungeons and Dragons (24? but needs repeats guys)
The wall to the right of Michael is the God No! wall. Earlier Andrew and Flex opened a new line on it called Hell Yeah! (27)

This is the closest Michael came to a climbing injury (one that prevents you from climbing). While walking down the main drag in Boven, his eye snagged a well camouflaged sharpened branch where a tree had been pruned for average height people and not giraffes.

Grizzly Behr 17 (5.8)

I caught up with some other climbers taking a run on the new route we worked on with Mike Behr. Called Grizzly Behr this is turning out to be quite popular with the local crowd. These shots are of Fabrice and Hannie from Jo'Burg who were out climbing the past few days.

Fabrice Showing His Stuff

Hannie Likes The Lekker Route

More trail building

At a section on the Hallucinogen-Tranquilitas trail between the God No wall and the Rainy Day crag we decided to attempt a full scale hiking trail style bench cut in a reasonably steeply angled slope. We hope to use this section to set the bar for this kind of terrain and also to learn from our experience. This first picture shows how the section looked just after brush clearing and before we actually started work. Note the leaning tree and rock in the center of the shot in the middle distance.
Here is what the same section looked like after Welcome, Glenn and I spent a day remodeling it. Note the same rock and tree in the bottom right corner of this shot in the foreground.
Here is the same section looking the opposite direction.
This is a section of trail that Welcome worked on yesterday below the left extension of the God No wall. We chose this section because he could work on it even though it rained all day.

"I wish my chick was this dirty"

Well, it's been raining here since Christmas eve. Today was the first day where we saw a reasonable amount of blue sky: not exactly the Africa we had in mind. So, driving the road up to the Wonderland has proved to be as entertaining as the actual climbing. Our new camo makes it difficult for photo speed traps to nail us on the freeway to Joburg.

Yes, we do clean the headlights and spots.

And of course we have to freshen the text that was originally written on the back window by some anonymous joker.

The Chateau

Thanks to existing bookings over the New Year period, Chris and I have been forced to re-locate from Tranquilitas down into the town (Watervalboven). Here Gustav and Alex have a bunkhouse (the "Chateau") which is quite comfortable and a lot more sociable. Notice the dirt all over our little truck? That gives you some idea of what 4 days of rain does to the road to the crags.
The happening spot at the Chateau is the "stoep" where people congregate in the evening. Remember that just because it is raining doesn't mean it is cold: the temperatures are quite mellow for shorts and T-shirts.
Chris has pretty much taken over the kitchen. Currently other residents of the Chateau include climbers from Joburg, France and the Indian Ocean island of Reunion.
Our bedroom is "the blue room" and it normally has room for 6. With all our stuff, there is barely enough room for Chris and I.

Blender Blow-Out

A few more smoothies and the blender had a blow out. Michael had suggested throwing ice into the mix and after we did the container started leaking. Eventually the whole thing let loose and we were shut down. After further examination it was determined that a set of interlocking plastic tabs had failed. My observation leads me to believe that the ice cubes jammed themselves between the blades and the bottom of the container and loaded the small tabs holding the container and blade assembly together. These tabs were part of the injection molded container and were located a fair distance from the molding gate location which can result in the tab material having molded in stresses. The additional load from the ice cubes combined with the tab's small size and prestressed state resulted in these structural failure of the tabs and the container. The net result is seen below.

After a prompt discussion and numerous attempts by Michael to throw the blender out the door I convinced him we return the device and give Sunbeam a BIG THUMBS DOWN in our review. We also do not recommend anyone in the blender market to consider products which assemble with plastics tabs or which use plastic liquid containers. Better to get the glass threaded types. If you require assistance in buying your blender, ring us for a consultation, we are cheap.

Off to Game (pronounced Gah-may), the store where we purchased the unit, with the blender just as you see it above. Michael wanted no part with the return process and promptly disappeared during the transaction. I unloaded the unit on to the counter and kindly gave my analysis. The customer service woman was either impressed with the explanation or just wanted to clear the dripping mess off her counter - regardless she refunded the whole thing. Back to isle 9 to find the next victim in our blender shoot out. We now procured the Salton Elite stainless steel 2 speed 500 Watt blender. It comes with a glass container and six chopping blades. It also has a unique blade and container assembly which is not made to be easily disassembled. It is held in place with fasteners and is really made to stay together. Clean-up requires pouring water in the blender and running it and then washing. A unique set-up but so far it has been performing like a champ.

The smoothies have been so successful that they have expanded to include deliveries right to climbers on the routes. Here is Michael working an early morning project and enjoying a smoothie on the route.

Want a farm in Africa?

Up the road from Tranquilitas is a 200 hectare (500 acre) property with 3 large existing houses on it, a river, waterfall, some crags and fantastic views. All this could be yours for about R2.1M (roughly $300k US).
Great infrastructure: power, water, good internal roads, trout ponds, etc.
All the foreground content of these pictures is included in the property boundary.

Karen and Damian Visit

Karen and Damian came to visit yesterday and stayed overnight. Karen hung out with Michael and Chris which meant a bit of walking and a lot of sitting around at either the crag or Hovel #1.
Glenn was available to play with Damian on one condition: he needed someone to look after Patu, the dog he was babysitting. Michael quickly volunteered Karen for the task.
Patu was relatively low maintenance and when Chris took her for a run, she pretty much collapsed for the rest of the evening.
On the first evening, Glenn showed Damian around the Sappi forest roads until serious rain stopped play. The next morning, they went on the grand tour of the entire area which involved 5 or 6 hours of biking. They looked like they both had a good time.

Damian has all the cool toys. We wanted to take a look at a property in the area that is on sale. The access roads have something to do with the bargain price. Damian used the opportunity to do some serious playing with his 4x4. I don't have photos of the return trip but thanks to the pouring rain, the roads turned into class 2 rapids. Karen had her eyes closed a lot of the time but the rest of us had a great time. Glenn makes a fantastic tour guide because he knows most of the land owners and properties thanks to research for right-of-way for mountain bike trails.



Karen and Damian left this evening trying to squeeze some driving time out of the remaining daylight. Chris made our Christmas Eve supper: beef stirfry with rice. It was great and came with some other side goodies like olives, pickles, beetroot, etc.

Trail Building

We are in a section of the Boven climbing area called Wonderland. It is made up of several crags which, until recently, were not connected. Most people climb at the Hallucinogen wall which is on the Mountain Club of South Africa's property. It has many moderate routes but it is not a very tall crag. Access to the other crags was either by abseiling in from above or via trashing down bushy trails that were not much more than game trails. Baboon Buttress had a reasonable approach descent.
By linking the bases of all these crags, you make it much easier to climb multiple routes of similar grades in quick succession. Linking the bigger crags to the popular Hallucinogen wall will help to increase their traffic and hopefully also the development of more longer routes. In addition to this, there was a completely undeveloped area which stays dry even during pouring rain that has the potential to relieve much rainy day frustration: The Rainy Day Crag.
Our new trail starts at the Tranquilitas Chalets. A brush cutter and some work with hoes is all that was needed to create a single track across the veld. Through rocky sections, heavier tools and more sweat are required.

In the early days, the trail was marked across open areas with cairns. Now the tread is so well used that the cairns are superflous. We'll probably leave them though so that the trail remains obvious if the grass grows back.
In the undergrowth at the base of the crags, the work is a lot different. Lots of time with pick axe and loppers. Here is a small stream crossing that also required step building, chainsaw work and stepping stones.
The whole thing is an ongoing work in progress. As we improve the worst sections, the next squeaky wheel becomes more obvious. At this point, we are actually abandoning original work and moving the trail in several locations. Initially, Michael and Glenn did most of the building with some help from Chris and Gustav. Now we are bringing in hired help and that is why we have started marking sections of work using hazard tape. Here the tape goes straight along a contour where the current trail makes a sharp steep ascent to the left.
Here is another case where the final trail will take a different line to the one we originally worked. Often the original is the line of least resistance from where the original crag developers walked. Our longer term plan is to have the entire trail be "runnable" which is a good way to judge whether a section is done yet or still needs work.

More new routes

Thanks to copious supplies of equipment and ammunition by our hosts, we've been able to bolt about one new route a day for the last week. Not the HILTI rotary hammer in the foreground. Here is Chris is prime new routing form.
Initially we offered this crack to Mike Behr, one of the owners of Tranquilitas. He got us some chainsaws to help with the trail building. Michael used one of them on a rope to clear the "bushes" from this crack. Chris placed the anchors, his first bolts in Boven. Mike then bolted the crack. Once the hangers arrived, Chris and I "tested them" for Mike. We are still waiting for Mike to come and lead it and name it but it is sure to be an instant classic on the crag. Nice butt shot of Michael red pointing Myths (23 or 24-ish) which is a variation on an existing 26 that has a scrappy crux at the chains. The variation ends below the major roof at "rainy day anchors". The entire route stays dry in all but the windiest of rain storms. It has a crux around bolt 4 and is a super quality line.