The wall is divided into
three distinct sections. The first is a short but compact slab, offering good
friction but little natural features for protection. The second is approximately
300m high, steeper and follows a series of cracks and corners, leading up to the
large diagonal overhang extending across the face. The third is once again on
angle but has long lead-outs between sometimes very poor gear placements.
I was keen to start the ascent and headed up the bottom slabs. But soon enough the fear started pushing my insanity aside and I stopped with my feet on two good edges, hauled up the drill and started placing the first bolt. I cursed at the effort needed and the precariousness of my position, balanced there, 20m above the ground. It has been only two years since I was in a similar situation on Rebaue mountain vowing never to do this again. However, the minute I stepped off that mountain, that fear and experience of struggle was shoved into some tiny space at the back of my mind , to remain there dormant…until now.
This “Climber’s amnesia” allows us to come back to these places, the memory of the successes, the beauty of the place and the good times sucking us in to believing it wasn’t all that bad.
Now, after all that, I find it
hard to explain how good I felt when, 2 hours, 4 bolts and 50 meters later I
reached a ledge signifying the end of the first pitch and my turn to watch how
Alard would deal with the next bit.
It turned out easier than expected and by the end of the day we had reached “Bundu ledge”, four pitches and approximately 200m up the 700m face. After abseiling back down into the green evening shadows of the trees below and bushwhacking back to camp, we celebrated our first success with a hearty swig of "Enika", the local banana schnapps.
My first hauling session two days later left me with 2 blisters on my hands (toughened from writing exams) and cursing the hard work involved. Added to this was that the hauling rope turned out to be none other than the10 year old access rope we were scared to even jumar on in 1998.
The crack system leading from the right edge of Bundu ledge looked extremely daunting. Alard headed off up the nearest crack. Soon though, the climbing became harder and he moved into Aid mode. Delicately balanced on 2 tiny micro-nuts, he carefully hauled up the drill and placed a very welcome bolt. Then I lowered him 8m and he began running along the wall, gracefully leapfrogging the rope until after 3 full swings he jumped, and using some grass-tufts, pulled himself onto a small ledge at the base of a perfectly clean corner crack. Then came a classic 50m of grade 22 (5.10d) liebacking and jamming, bringing us to ‘Happy ledge’.
One pitch later saw us a roomy ledge below the large line of overhangs that cross the whole face. It was totally dark as we set up the porta-ledge and crawled into our sleeping bags. A three course dinner followed: a starter of mussels, cold spaghetti and meatballs as a main course and fruit salad for dessert. Quite a selection if you consider our location.
The next morning’s sun rise was indescribable, as we hovered above the clouds and ate
our breakfast. The climb continues
from the far end of what we called the “Walk the plank” ledge. One steps out
delicately onto the face to the right of the diagonal overhang and follows its
edge for 4 pitches of satisfying exposure along vague cracks and slabby faces
(grades 21, 19, 20 and 18). From there we reached the summit slabs which
involves continuous friction, on very led out roughened and sometimes knobbly
granite. The climbing is easy (grade 16, 17) and the pitches are split by
solitary bolts, 60m apart (by that time we had run out of petrol for our
drill!). The last pitch thus is a full 80m long with no gear. Because it is very
easy (14), we decided to connect 2 ropes and just head for the summit.
After a gruelling 5 hr descent the
following morning down the north gully to the car, we celebrated our success
that evening with a good chicken meal and many cervejas at Malema town.