May 2007 1. EDITORIAL This has been a rather interesting quarter for me. Whilst I didn’t get too much hiking or climbing done, a lot of other things have happened. For starters, being meet leader for the Krantzberg meet was just enough to hold sway, to convince my rather pregnant wife, that it was my duty to the club, to go on my last weekend mountaineering trip before the birth of our first anarchist. This was an awesome meet, the breathtaking untouched beauty, solitude, and warm campfire nights with good friends, all the things that make Krantzberg a special place. I am always amazed at how every time I go there, the mountain seems to get bigger and bigger, and my body feels more shattered, and abused, after each successive trip. You would think it gets easier with experience, but not! Let the mediocre grades of most of the routes not lull you into confidence, as even the easiest route, can be a serious undertaking, and requires a significant dollop of big match temperament. The number of times you find yourself on the face, you think you are off route, the gear is dodgy, the rock unstable under your feet, and you are surrounded by overhangs and eerie blank faces. There is no comfort, in any direction you look, you are stuck. That sick feeling begins to sink into your stomach. You peer down below at the cars, the campsite, the beers in the cooler box, your warm sleeping bag, and you long for them, you keep asking yourself, what am I doing up here, and you crave for that desperate feeling to go away, and be replaced by something sure, something safe, and something comfortable. You know you can’t be lowered off, you have to keep on going. You stare at your options again and again. The blank face, the evil overhang, or the polished open book, none of which look like they will swallow so much as a micro-nut, or size 000 friend. A small group of vultures start circling a little closer around you, and you wonder whether they know something you don’t, and you wish for wings to be able to fly off, and glide down to safety. Then you see it, on the face: left foot on that edge, pressure off the little ridge, reach for the crimper, right foot up, and lunge for the ledge and safety. It might just work. You chalk up, you look again, carefully measuring the distance between the holds, making sure the big old mountain is not trying to fool you by its awesome size. You breath in, and exhale deeply, more chalk, more breathing… and you go for it, leaving the safely of the jug and foothold. Like clockwork, you follow the mechanical sequence you planned in your head, you feel the warmth in your heart as your hands latch onto the big ledge above and drag yourself up. Gasping, you look around for hope. Miraculously, like Jacobs ladder, the most magnificent crack line towers above you, declaring the ecstasy that will lead you to the top. You look down at the flat world below, and realise that at that moment, you wouldn’t swap that feeling for anything else in the world. That’s Krantzberg, and I love it. Other interesting things this quarter, are a couple of changes on the committee. Firstly, we have a new chairman, Chris Ziranek, who has promised action. Since I keep bumping into him at the crags, I can at least say that he is out there, and doing stuff, and not only that, is probably the first chairman to deliver an article (on climbing!) for the newsletter on debut. We also welcome Peter Lazarus to the legal portfolio, and Vanessa Mayman to public relations. The JHB section hosted the first trad-challenge, a weekend of unbolted bliss, at Cedarberg/Tonquani, for real climbers, on real rock. This quarter promises to be even more exciting. To keep us amused during the cold winter nights, we will host the first ever MCSA club Cookathon: BBC food eat your heart out, as the MCSA’s greatest chefs battle it out with MSR stoves to see who will be king the gourmet mountain. And if the popularity of the family meet was anything to go by, we will also be running the first ever “babies in the bush” evening, for parents and tots to share their secrets and experience, on how to successfully introduce your offspring to the mountains, from a very early age. Perfect timing, as yours truly is now the proud father of little Clara Edda Adrian (born 15 May), and our esteemed treasurer Dave Jewel and wife Zoe celebrated the birth of Timothy Bryce Jewel on the 24 May. And finally, so that you don’t think we are all going soft, we have decided to do something really hardcore, and for the first time ever, an MCSA section will host South Africa’s most talented climbers, to pit themselves against Gauteng’s hardest sport climbs. And finally, you guys have outdone yourselves this quarter, with some awesome contributions! Thank you! Thank you! Peter Adrian 2. MPONJWANA (3117M), DRAKENSBERG It was twenty to three in the afternoon and Chris and I were looking up a grass gully wondering if it was 'the obvious grass gully immediately round the corner' from the 60m traverse on mixed grass and rock, 2 pitches from the top. 3pm was our pre-set cut off time. We were weighing up the options; advance to the summit and risk a very cold night out or the disappointing safety of backing off. Mponjwana is a magnificent freestanding peak, separated by a deep gully from the escarpment, and at the north end of the Rockeries. Situated in the Mweni area of the Natal Drakensberg, it has grand views of the Eastern Buttress and Devils Tooth of the Royal Natal National Park to the north, and the Bell and Cathedral Peak to the south. We had hiked up the escarpment with the meet into the area organised by Rance and Andrew over the long weekend. It was a good crowd of about 20. We had taken 2 days to get from the Tourist Centre up to Mponj Cave. I was somewhat reluctant to join the trip as the weather forecast suggested a possible family of cold fronts blowing up from Cape Town. Both my last 2 'Berg trips had been rained out. But this time there were mostly clear blue skies, though the nights were quite cold. Mponj Cave (2935m) is really ideally placed, actually overlooking the peak's southern face. It is a comfortable overhang, shielded from most of the wind. Being NE facing, it catches the sun for most of the day, and can get quite warm, even in mid winter. Fortunately it was unoccupied when we arrived. That night it blew like hell in the exposed areas; the temperature dropped to well below zero, and even the swirling mist froze to form a light dusting of snow pellets. So when we woke up to sun and clear skies on 'the day', there was some reluctance to leave our warm sleeping bags. We eventually levered ourselves away by about 8am. I had Duncan Souchon's book, Serpent Spires, which gave a short but adequate route description. Nevertheless, we lost ½hour finding the cairn about 200m E of the cave, which marked the easiest access to the decent gully. Then it was pretty easy scrambling down the 150m or so, through the 'worm hole' to the start of the climb at the base of some water worn gullies. Under the circumstances, we proposed to take the easiest (and hopefully the fastest) route to the top, following Thomsen and Snelson's original route first climbed in 1946. There are 6 formal pitches on the climb, the hardest graded at F1, with significant sections of scrambling. But it is the length of the climb (about 300m) and the route finding that are the challenge. Chris took the first lead. We soon found the rock and the gear to be bitterly cold. Getting to the top of a pitch, one's hands were numb but one's feet were toast. However, after belaying the leader for a pitch, the reverse was so, as one's feet froze but one's hands had the hot flushes. So the leader of the first pitch was destined to lead all the pitches that morning, at least till it warmed up. We progressed well clearing the depths of the gully. Coming within sight of the cave, we found we had quite an audience, as the hikers had slogged up from their campsite below to check us out. After a couple of 'misinterpretations' of our route description, we arrived at the 'obvious grass gully', 2 pitches from the top. What swung our decision to go on, was that some kind soul had bolted rap chains for the descent. It would make our retreat so much faster, safer and more manageable than abbing off the bundles of very dubious looking tat, even if we backed them up with more cord. So, it was up the grass gully, then to the grassy face to the right which was a bit scary as it was only graded D but totally unprotected and quite exposed. Scramble on to the base of Thomsen's chimney, (10m, F1). Up and a final scramble to the summit. I heard this ecstatic whoop of delight as Chris lead to the top, shortly followed by mine.