Tag Archives: blouberg

Climbing Trad and Surviving Snort in South Africa

June 6, 2017 · by hrobinsondvm · in Uncategorized · 4 Comments

It’s somewhere around midnight, and my headlamp lights up a mess of four ropes at my feet. We’re on the side of a cliff in the middle-of-nowhere South Africa. Far in the distance are scattered lights of small villages, but I’m surrounded by darkness. Nine hundred feet up the wall on a quartzite ledge, I’m […]

Saturday was a success! We finally made it to the summit of Moonlight Buttress and I was able to climb the pitches free in a day with the support of Sandra. . . . I feel like it’s really important to reveal the style of how you climbed a big wall, so here is my full disclosure. My ascent was not flawless and comes with these 3 asterisks: ... 1. I stepped on the haul bag of pitch 5 off the rocker block to reach the starting holds. I watched a video of Bronwyn Hodgins doing a double clutch sideways dyno to this hold- proud work lady! That’s not in my wheelhouse... 2. I fell trying to lead pitch 6, the crux Enduro. Instead of leading it again I set up a fixed line and climbed it clean on toprope solo. 3. Pitch 9: off fingers, I climbed through the crux, fell just above and lowered down to the start. I rested 5 minutes then climbed through the entire crux to the no hands rest but my foot slipped a few moves above this. Due to time constraints and another party waiting for us, I lowered to the no hands stance and climbed the rest of the pitch clean. . . . I’d like to climb Moonlight again in a style without asterisks, but for now I’m super satisfied with the effort. It felt like the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and climbing the Nutting pitch 5.12a and last sandy 5.10 pitch in the dark was really challenging and scary. . . . We lead in blocks, Sandra lead the first 5 pitches so efficiently and I lead pitches 6-11 (except I toproped pitch 6 clean after falling on lead). There were 3 parties on the wall so it was tricky working out hanging belays and timing, but big thanks especially to the Salt Lake crew that was so patient with us at the end of the day! . . . This photo was the only one I took that day, we had a break on the Rocker Block letting an Italian party pass us. . . . Sandra, I can’t thank you enough for your psyche and support. Your organization at the belays and focus to keep us going was incredible. I couldn’t have done it without you. 💕 I’ll cherish our time in Zion together forever. . . . And excited to go back and do it in better style and support you my friend! 😘@sandra______b . . . @rab.equipment @petzl_official @climbonproducts

Heather Weidner

Tag Archives: blouberg

Climbing Trad and Surviving Snort in South Africa

Sponsors

Videos

Featured

Instagram