Another week another blog. This week was a little bit less exiting, but how can you beat a broken leg… This week was full of projecting, frustration and a couple of sends.
On Sunday we went to 8 Day Rain. It was still a bit cloudy and rained a little now and then. I gave some tries on Black Mango Chutney (7C+) which is this overhanging blank face with shitty crimps. Not really my type of boulder. But very sick. I got pretty far. Figuring out the bottom, and working the top. I might wanna come back for that. Later in the day we went to this cave cause the rain was to heavy. There is a 7A in there called She’s a Man Eater which I had done before. I decided to give it a retro flash burn.
Monday we finally walked up The Pass. This area is beautiful and great but it’s always such a chore to get there. With walks of 30+ min mostly uphill it’s not my favorite. The boulders really make up for it tho. We first went to The Rhino, a mega classic of Rocklands. Max really wanted to try this problem and I don’t blame him. He gave it some really good burns and got super close. I wasn’t really doing anything and decided to give it a retro flash go. I ended up doing exactly that. Later that day I did Question of Balance (7B) and tried Nutsa (8a) and Coroline (7C+) managed to do all the moves on both. Gotta go back for both of them.
Tuesday was a rest day and at the time of writing I can’t really remember anything exciting I did that day…
Wednesday was my first session on the BIG project: Mooiste Meisie. I slept horrible and didn’t really eat the evening before. Arriving at the boulder I felt a little low. After a quick warmup I jumped on the boulder. Man it felt hard as shit. At the start I couldn’t really do any of the moves. Putting the toe hooks above my head felt impossible. After a few tries and getting the feeling for the boulder things started to look better. I was slowly getting moves done. And in the end I did all the moves. I must admit the big move I didn’t reaaalllyy stick. I stuck it for a second and dropped it. Still really happy with my first session and I have quite high hopes. Better luck next session with maybe some slightly colder conditions.
Thursday was a shitty day for me personally. I did not feel very well but decided to go out anyway. On our way to 8 Day Rain we saw a black snake. I think it was a black spitting cobra. Cool, but scary. After a couple of hours in the sun I started to feel worse so we cut the day short since I just felt to sick. Tomorrow is supposed to be a rest day but I didn’t do any climbing today. Maybe I’ll do a night session at Mooiste Meisie if I feel better.
The next day I woke up still feeling not too well. I don’t know what is wrong but it has knocked the shit out of me. So today is another day of feeling shitty and doing nothing. After some Henhouse breakfast Max and I played some Magic the Gathering which was pretty fun. After that I went back to bed to chill and watch some Netflix. In the late afternoon we went to Clanwilliam for some shopping and I started to feel a bit better. I loaded my crashpads and climbing gear in the hope to maybe do a night session. On the way back from the supermarket we stopped at Tea Garden. I saw some people trying Black Shadow (8A+) which is still on my list. After a bit of bushwhacking and searching er couldn’t find a path in the dark, so we gave up and went back home. Guess I’ll take the two rest days and hopefully climb tomorrow.
I woke up finally feeling a little better. After a breaky at The Hen House we went for an early session on The Pass. We first walked up to The Rhino since Max got really close and after talking to some people and looking at some vids he found some new beta for the end he wanted to try. After warming up and figuring out the end. He send it in his second go of the day. I was super excited for him and my sike was high! Walking up a bit further I was so excited to climb. I did some ground warm up and went strait in Nuts. Man this boulder gave me some struggle. I wasn’t really that warm when I got on it and the first moves just felt horrible. Even though I linked the bottom part into the stand two moves in…
After a couple of tries I started to feel it and got super close. I proceeded to fall off of the last a hard move four more times. Frustrated as hell I decided to call it quits and headed up to Caroline. I wasn’t expecting much from getting on there but made some good links in the end which I’m satisfied with. I did a bit of playing in Pendragon (8A) but was really to tired to feel any of the moves. After not sending anything today I felt kind of bummed out. But I did make some good progress which is also important. Meeting up with Mason and Jackson we had a little night session at the Pendragon boulder and walked to the car. Today was a long ass day, I’m waiting for the curry to finish so I can eat and go to bed. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
Whaattt I’m a day late with posting so we get a free Sunday story. Sunday we were really debating if we were going to climb. In the end we decided to do a short day at the Dihedral boulders. Here I did Jaws (7C) and did a bit of playing in Gliding Trough Waves Like Dolphins (8A) this 8A is one of the weirdest boulders I’ve ever tried. It is more struggling your way up the boulder instead of climbing. Very unique and interesting. Later in the evening we managed to get a spot for pizza night at The Hen House. We ate a delicious pizza played a game of pool and went to bed.
The song for this week is gonna be:
Rage Against the Machine, Killing In The Name Of
I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read my silly little stories. See y’all next week with another blog. And remember be nice, think twice and most importantly, crush some boulders.