'Delayed Gratification'
Once again we were camped at the house of Senhor Montarivo in the village of Quithele, 10 km north of Rebaue. Our attempt on the face in 1998 had brought us to a pinnacle at the top end of “Bushy Ledge". We were now back to settle the score.
It’s a beautiful one hour walk from the car to the base of the wall. From there, the view already is spectacular, the relatively flat African bush extends for hundreds of kilometres into the distance, with massive granite domes jutting out everywhere, breaking its evenness.
The first 6 pitches were well known to us. Four of these are on good rock, sometimes a bit lead out, but generally enjoyable. The third pitch or ‘Horror Pitch’ is awful, and follows the large corner crack to the base of the overhanging off-width. The climbing here is dirty and much digging is involved to find holds and gear placements. We thus included the symbol ‘D’, representing the relative dirtiness on a scale of 1 to 3.
Despite this inevitable toil, we were completely motivated to ‘dig out this splinter’ from our minds and complete what we had started in 1998, namely the first ascent of the “Dos Amigos” Face of Rebaue Mountain. We reached the pillar in the early afternoon and proceeded to bolt-aid the 20m traverse to ‘Happy ledge’. This turned out to be quite an interesting procedure as we had lost our one-and-only chuck-key for the drill on Mlema 3. This meant a lot of yo-yoing to exchange the 8mm and 10mm drill bits. By the end of our exploits we were quite capable, in true African ‘make a plan’ fashion, using a piton, and old drill bit and a hammer, in exchanging the bits rapidly.
After 7 bolts, we reached half way across to ‘Happy ledge’ and this, we hoped would suffice, as the following 10 m looked climbable.
Happy with our day’s achievement, we abseiled past the ‘horror pitch’, glad not having to climb it again…ever!
Be Quick or Be Dead!
Since "African Light" we felt no inclination to haul and opted to change our approach and risk a fast one-and-a-half day ascent.
The traverse to 'Smiley Ledge' presented only a minor problem: The difficulty here lay in snatching blindly for a potential hold, already 7m led out beyond the last bolt. Luckily it was a jug and soon we were on ‘smiley ledge’. From here the route follows a chimney/off-width to a small stance below an overhanging corner. Alard led this pitch and when it was my time to jumar, he casually mentioned that I should not jumar while he hauled our small pack. My uneasiness at what this meant was quadrupled when I saw the stance. Four friends placed horizontally in a flaring crack, all equally loaded should one pop and all looking very likely to pop at any time.
The following pitches were of mixed quality: Some were very clean and offered some good free- or aid- climbing and others warranting a ‘D’ grade. We were forced to bivvy after a further 7 pitches up from ‘Smiley ledge’. I spent the night seated in a small cubby-hole while Alard found a small coffin-shaped horizontal crack that allowed him to sleep lying down. As far as nights on a mountain go, it was relatively comfortable and we felt good after polishing off a whole salami for dinner.
Another 2 hard and somewhat
scary pitches led us to the finishing slabs and the top. The mind blank, I stood
on the summit and looked out toward the horizon, taking in nothing, feeling
nothing. Then, a sudden whooping from far below brought me back to the present.
Not seeing our friends, we echoed their whooping with shouts of joy, a delayed
gratification well worth the wait.
Mozambique is rebirthing into a time of opportunity and growth. The past is always near, haunting the present in various forms: the damage of a recent war, general poverty and often derelict roads. This, combined with the numerous unclimbed granite domes, make up the ingredients for an unforgettable adventure. Enjoy.