Monday, January 30, 2012
Oor Doos 5
The long over-due final Oor Doos clip from Marijus Šmigelskis and Arjan de Kock's trip to Fontainebleau last year. Enjoy...
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Where I Stood
Huge news coming from Montagu yesterday afternoon was that the legendary Steve Bradshaw (Senior*) succeeded on his amazing project in Oorlogskloof. Steve bolted the line in 2010, which shares the first 4 bolts of "The Dream I Knew" before branching off rightwards, and has been working it on and off over the past two years. Steve had been coming close for several weeks now, battling the high temps of the Montagu summer, but fortunately it all came together and "Where I Stood" was born. Steve is reluctant to grade the line himself, but those in the know speculate it's in the 34/8c region.
Micky Wiswedel was on hand to capture the magic and has more about it on his blog. Check out some of his screen shots below and look out for the video of the ascent coming soon.
*although this is just a nickname the climbing community gave him as there is another younger talented South African climber by the same name, but with no actual relation).
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| Steve Bradshaw - "Where I Stood" © Micky Wiswedel |
*although this is just a nickname the climbing community gave him as there is another younger talented South African climber by the same name, but with no actual relation).
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Pretoria and Potchefstroom Boulder League 2012
Pretoria's events will be held at The Barn on Wednesdays from 16:00 to 21:00. All competitors have 2 hours to complete the problems. You best 4 out of 6 count so you can drop your two worst scores. There will be 12 problems at every event. R150 gets your entry for all six competitions.
Categories:
Competition dates:
The North West province boulder league will take in Potchefstroom at the university bouldering wall. All events start at 17:00. The dates are as follows:
Categories:
- Youth - Under15, Under 17, and Under 19
- Open
- Novice
- Veteran (40-49)
- Masters (50 upwards)
Competition dates:
- 15 February
- 22 February
- 29 February
- 7 March
- 14 March
- 19 March (Due to the public holiday on 21 March, the last competition will be on a Monday)
The North West province boulder league will take in Potchefstroom at the university bouldering wall. All events start at 17:00. The dates are as follows:
- 14 February
- 22 February
- 28 February
- 07 March
- 13 March
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Johannesburg Boulder League 2012
There are two leagues running in Johannesburg. One at the St Peters wall and one at WonderWall. Check out the details below:
Check out the SA Climbing Academy NBL facebook group with more info here.
Wonderwall will have their competition evenings every Thursdays from 6 - 10pm starting on the 2nd of February. More details on that here.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
WP Boulder League 2012
As the National Bouldering League kicks off in various cities around the country, the Western Cape is first out the gates with it's opening event next week Tuesday!
This year The Cape will see 12 rounds of bouldering hosted at UCT, CityRock and MCSA. As with previous years the idea is two fold, find the strongest climbers in the Western Cape to represent the province at Nationals and to get everyone together to have as fun as possible. This year will see a few additional setters as well as some of the old ones to provide a wide selection of problems each week for all climbers to enjoy. Each round consists of 15 problems marked with a halfway point and a finish point, points will be awarded for reaching theses marks. We want boulder league to include everyone thus the problems are set so that they progress in difficulty but still allowing everyone a chance at sending. You have the whole session (5:30pm - 8:45pm) to work the problems and get up as many as possible. Please see below for details of the league including all the dates, venues, categories and costs. If you, or anyone you know, are keen to join the league, please join on our mailing list. NB: It is essential that you are on the list so that you are granted access to the venues.
See you guys next week.
This year The Cape will see 12 rounds of bouldering hosted at UCT, CityRock and MCSA. As with previous years the idea is two fold, find the strongest climbers in the Western Cape to represent the province at Nationals and to get everyone together to have as fun as possible. This year will see a few additional setters as well as some of the old ones to provide a wide selection of problems each week for all climbers to enjoy. Each round consists of 15 problems marked with a halfway point and a finish point, points will be awarded for reaching theses marks. We want boulder league to include everyone thus the problems are set so that they progress in difficulty but still allowing everyone a chance at sending. You have the whole session (5:30pm - 8:45pm) to work the problems and get up as many as possible. Please see below for details of the league including all the dates, venues, categories and costs. If you, or anyone you know, are keen to join the league, please join on our mailing list. NB: It is essential that you are on the list so that you are granted access to the venues.
See you guys next week.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Arjan in Font
Arjan de Kock's trip to the forests of Fontainebleau in France is going pretty well. He added "Ubik" 8A+ to his steadily growing list of sends, and is quite close to the 8B sit start.
Arjan has made some excellent progress on several other notorious testpieces in the area, including the 8B+ sit start to "Kheops" - which he did from the stand in December.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Micky rides the wave!
Micky Wiswedel claimed arguably his best send to date with "Point Break" 29/30 going down over the weekendin Montagu. He'd been close to success for a few sessions, but had actually given up for the day and was just going up to clean his quickdraws when something clicked and he simply cruised to the chains.
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| Micky on "Point Break", pic by L. Lundemo |
Staying in Montagu, Marc Efune is quickly running out of routes to do at the Scoop after his ascent of "Catholic Schoolgirls Rule" 30. Only three or four remain til he's ticked off the entire crag...
Over briefly to Boven, where Andrew Pedley confirmed the downgrade of the future classic, "Raptophilia" down one notch to 31.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Holiday sendage!
Arjan de Kock has made his annual migration to Europe for their winter and kicked things off by sending "Kheops" 8B, a project from last year in Fontainebleau.
South Africa's living legend, Paul Brouard, paid a brief visit to the boulders of Topside and managed a repeat of "Black Hawk Down" 8A+ and "Cloverfield" 8A at The Cinema, both on the same day in a single session. Check out his send of "Black Hawk Down" using some cunning new beta:
Andrew Pedley returned home from a few months in the jungle and wasted no time getting back to action with a fast ascent of "Anduril" 30/31 at Chosspile. Later in Oudtshoorn, he sent "Mr Incredible" 31, onsighted "Hardplay" 28 and flashed "Going Going Gone" 29.
A handful of South African climbers (James Smith, Brian Weaver, Marijus Šmigelskis, Andrew Porter, Paul Bruyere and Dave Tapp) were invited by the Nigerian government to compete in a climbing competition at the MARE Festival on the granite domes of Idanre. Although the competition turned out to be more for demonstration of what climbing is about than an actual fair contest, it lay the foundation for future climbers to come visit the fruitful area with a lot of potential for mid to big wall climbing on fairly good rock. Check out Brian's report here, and Andrew's here.
A bunch of climbers spent New Years in Montagu. Marijus Šmigelskis was among them and he managed to get the second known ascent of "Duende" 32 on his second attempt.
Matt Bush has been spending a fair amount of time at the granite boulders of Llandudno and was well rewarded with the first ascent of "The Love Project" 8B. The line climbs out a cave via a series of compression moves on slopers and crimps.
News from further afield, Edvinas Šmigelskis, who lives in Austria these days, used the cool winter temps to dispatch his first 8B by making the second ascent of "The Gateway". Check it out:
South Africa's living legend, Paul Brouard, paid a brief visit to the boulders of Topside and managed a repeat of "Black Hawk Down" 8A+ and "Cloverfield" 8A at The Cinema, both on the same day in a single session. Check out his send of "Black Hawk Down" using some cunning new beta:
Andrew Pedley returned home from a few months in the jungle and wasted no time getting back to action with a fast ascent of "Anduril" 30/31 at Chosspile. Later in Oudtshoorn, he sent "Mr Incredible" 31, onsighted "Hardplay" 28 and flashed "Going Going Gone" 29.
A handful of South African climbers (James Smith, Brian Weaver, Marijus Šmigelskis, Andrew Porter, Paul Bruyere and Dave Tapp) were invited by the Nigerian government to compete in a climbing competition at the MARE Festival on the granite domes of Idanre. Although the competition turned out to be more for demonstration of what climbing is about than an actual fair contest, it lay the foundation for future climbers to come visit the fruitful area with a lot of potential for mid to big wall climbing on fairly good rock. Check out Brian's report here, and Andrew's here.
A bunch of climbers spent New Years in Montagu. Marijus Šmigelskis was among them and he managed to get the second known ascent of "Duende" 32 on his second attempt.
Matt Bush has been spending a fair amount of time at the granite boulders of Llandudno and was well rewarded with the first ascent of "The Love Project" 8B. The line climbs out a cave via a series of compression moves on slopers and crimps.
News from further afield, Edvinas Šmigelskis, who lives in Austria these days, used the cool winter temps to dispatch his first 8B by making the second ascent of "The Gateway". Check it out:
Friday, January 6, 2012
Big update coming next week!
Sorry for the radio silence folks, team Cutloose was on holiday like the rest of you! We'll be filling you all in with the news of the past few weeks in just a few more days.
In the meantime, check out this little clip of Jimbo Smith and Marijus Šmigelskis bouldering at Echo Valley in Topside a few days after their return from their Nigeria trip...