Cape St Francis

Julia Chen and Marijus Šmigelskis bouldering at Cape St Francis in the Eastern Cape.

James Kassay in Rocklands 2013

Bradshaw in Rocklands

The younger of the South African Steve Bradshaws has spent the past few years living the life most of us dream of; traveling and climbing around the world. Steve is currently busy with a 3 month stint in Rocklands and has gotten off to a flying start, racking up an impressive ticklist of hard problems, the most impressive of which so far is "Derailed" 8B+.

It took Steve around 8 sessions of work to put the line down, but at least half of those were spent falling on the final hard move. Steve says:

"At first the moves were quite strenuous, especially to link, but after a few sessions I found the climbing became fluid and not so difficult. I could just never get the swing right to snatch the final hold.

On the final day I went with good skin and sent it first try.  The difference between sending and falling seemed to be placing the toe very precisely on the smear at the lip before launching for the last edge.  (Angie could always tell whether I would do the move by how the toe looked.)

To clarify beta, I used a knee smear for the second move instead of a heel hook or the more dramatic sideways knee bar option which supposedly lowers the grade.  For more beta watch our Rocklands video which is on the way.  I have no idea what grade was for me as I haven't done enough in the range to tell."

Steve also made a single session ascent of the spectacular highball "El Corazon" 8B at De Pakhuys. Highlights of Steve's other sends include:

• Oral Office 8A+
• In Between Dreams 8A
• Green Mamba 8A+
• Gliding Through the Waves Like Dolphins 8A
• Witness the Sickness 8A
• The Hatchling 7C+/8A
• Barracuda 8A
• Royksopp 8A
• Out of Balance 8A
• The Full Tony Tick 8A
• Weichie 7C+
• Caroline 7C+
• Umbuli 7C+
• No Late Tenders 7C+
• Stretched and Pressed 7C+
• Last Day in Paradise 7C