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Round 2

 

How could one not want to come back to a place as beautiful as this??

 Mark  and Alard returned to Spitzkoppe for the second time in one year. Over eater they had been looking at a new line, so 4 months later they were back with Steve Broccardo to attempt the route.

 

Alard and Steve high up, a crack.  

 

Steve on "Jou ma se pa se pitch" grade 24

 1      2

 3     4

 

 

Alard on the last few moves of "Jou ma se pa se pitch" graded 24. Superb climbing!! 

  1         2     

  3           4  

56

 

 

 Mark showing us how to grovel and swear on the "Ox wagon" pitch. you need to be strong enough to pull an ox wagon to climb this pitch.  graded 25, or A0.

 

 

High up in the Arch, brilliant clean crack climbing. Take BIG gear for this pitch.

 

Mark bolting the Aid pitch. "Hi mom". 

 

Mark bolting on lead with drill and car battery in back pack. the pitch turned out to be graded at 17.

Mark Seuring, Steve Broccardo and Alard Hüfner spent one week in September 2001 at Spitzkoppe, Namibia.

They opened a new 14 pitch route  to the right of the SW route, on the SW wall. The route follows a
corner system that ends up in a huge arch, at the
right side of the arch it goes through the bulge and onto the face.
.
The route, named "Nothing in Moderation" is graded at 25 A0. Five of the pitches
are bolted and the rest of the route follows a perfect layback handjamming
crack with bomber gear. Two pitches are at grade 24, and the  grade 25 pitch is a very wide flaring
horizontal crack, it is about 7 meters long and bolted.VERY strenuous. The
top 4 pitches are good quality face climbing. A 5 star route!!! Superb!!
They climbed the route over 5 days fixing lines and bolting on lead, and then
Mark and Alard did a one-day ascent freeing all the pitches except for the
aid pitch.

They also onsighted the standard route to the summit in hiking boots, and
without the use of ropes gear or harnesses.That Makes for an interesting
descent.

 

The locals watched us with facination.

 

On a rest day from working on Nothing in Moderation, we decided to climb to the summit of Spitzkoppe via the standard route. This route is graded at 17. We decided to attempt the route in walking shoes and with out and gear or ropes.

 

A splitter crack.

 

 

The friction on Spitzkoppe granite is superb.

 

 

                                                       

Our climbing shoes for the day. The regular route to the summit is an excellent adventure. The decent normally involves a few abseils, but we climbed down the same way we had climbed up.

 

 

  

For route descriptions go to

Namibia Routes

 


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