September 16, 2007: Magaliesburg, South Africa

In contrast to the vast climbing spaces with sweeping views that we had become accustomed to, Fernkloof was claustrophobic. A narrow slot of a canyon with a stream running through jumbles of boulders and trees, the canyon squeezes down to 12 feet across in some places and, at one point, it is necessary to swim through one pool in order to continue up the headwaters.


Charles swimming across the pool with a rope so that we could set up a Tyrolean traverse in order to get our gear across:

As a bonus, Fernkloof features incredibly difficult, short sport climbing routes on its orange-pink walls.

Other than being really cool, Fernkloof was notable for two things: 1) our stay coincided with the first stop of a climbing festival and 2) I discovered I was capable of climbing more difficult routes than I had previously imagined. I guess I should also add 3) I decided to shave my mohawk off. The climbing festival featured a few top South African climbers and was designed to give some exposure to climbing areas that are not well-known. Although Fernkloof is not ideal from a spectator perspective, it was really interesting to watch the men and women crank on mind-blowingly hard routes.


A cameraperson filming one of the women climbers:




And inspiring. Charles had started working a climb rated South African 25 (around 12.a or so on the U.S. scale) that I decided to try, as well. To my surprise, I was able to pull many of the moves, although I lacked the endurance to complete the entire thing. We had both gotten stumped at the crux of the climb,


Me trying the slightly overhanging (hard to tell from pic) crux the hard way by slapping for a desperate sloper with my left while trying to hold on to a desperate sloper with my right. Note my shaved head:

but, as luck would have it, the women climbers were competing on that particular route and we were able to watch the preferred sequence of moves (which was completely different from what either Charles or I had imagined). The next day, Charles almost completed the route, while I was just happy to put the crux moves together. Regardless, it put me in a good place psychologically, and I finally felt like I was making the transition from a climbing gym to real rock.