October 17 2007: Spitzkoppe (Again), Namibia

Once again full of food, we returned back to Spitzkoppe for another week of climbing. Where the first week of climbing had been a balmy 80-90 degrees, someone turned up the furnace full blast during our second week there and temperatures were well over 100 degrees in the shade. Nobody climbed between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. because our clothes would have likely melted off our bodies. Except for the first day where I let Matt B. and Emma talk me into getting up at 3 a.m. to make an early assault on Pontok Spitz.

Sunrise view from Pontok Spitz looking out on the desert:
View from the top of Pontok Spitz. The big feature is Spitzkoppe:
Matt getting ready to descend from the top of Pontok Spitz:
I couldn't stomach the thought of trying to do any multi-pitch climbing, so I seiged a ridiculously hard single pitch sport route with Joe over the course of the week because it was the only thing that was in the shade during the cool part of the day. And it only required that I climb maybe an hour each day.

When it's too hot to even sleep, we had to figure out ways to entertain ourselves while still conserving energy. My near disasterous attempt trying to do a handstand while using the truck crutches proved that it was really too difficult trying to move, and we devoted ourselves to more passive pursuits.

David paints his shoes gold. Definitely not a picture likely to appear in a climbing magazine:

Drew napping in the heat (but not for long!):

David thoughtfully sets up a marionette beer drinking system to reduce energy expenditure. Drew is clearly upset about being woken up from his nap:

Detail of marionette beer drinking version 3.0. This complicated system required two people to operate the ropes:
Hurray for marionette beer drinking!:
Time to move on to marionette juggling utilizing the truck crutches. Note Joe innocently eating lunch:
No one is safe! Joe gets hooked up for marionette eating:
A near miss with the sandwich:
Another satisfied customer:
David juggling with Sugarloaf in the background:

This week's random sign. Interestingly enough, the "Paining Areas" arrow does point to "Chain Climping":
Tired of the heat, flies, and weary of slabs, we were all ready to say goodbye to Spitzkoppe and go to Etosha Park for our first bona fide safari.