1 © Derek Marshall Access Arrangements The Alicedale boulders are on private land. The farmer has been so kind to allow us to boulder on his land, but he has requested that anybody bouldering at Alicedale contact him before going onto his property. Contents Please contact Derek 083 681 8713 [email protected] Area 1 Page 7 for access details. Area 2 Page 42 Area 51 Page 62 Area 3 Page 70 Area 4 Page 78 Area 32 Page 80 Legal Note, Liability & Disclaimer All climbing is dangerous & always at your own risk. No responsibility for inaccurate or incomplete information will be accepted by the various contributors to this guide. The landowners accept no liability at all. Climbers take full responsibility for themselves at all times. It took consistent effort, time, work & organization to get this guide ready for your pleasure! All the information & photographs are Copy Righted. You are more than welcome to download, e mail, view & print out this guide in its unchanged format, with logos & all information intact. This guide may not be uploaded to a web site other than Take note of the following basics: www.easterncaperockclimbing.co.za. without written permission. 1. Please be mega polite & don’t inconvenience the farmer in any way. 2. Please don’t make fires, litter, play music or do anything stupid. 3. Please don’t touch the Bushman paintings at all. Accommodation 4. Please don’t damage the fence as you climb over it. The owner of the bouldering at Alicedale hires out a really nice old farmhouse. This is the recommended accommodation. 5. Please don’t damage plants or interfere with wild or domestic animals. 2 Thanks & Acknowledgements Big thanks to the owners, Mr & Mrs Nel, who have allowed generations of boulders onto their land. Without their charitable spirit Alicedale would be dead. Thanks guys! Salute & Big-Up! Martin Renz, who discovered many of the areas & boulders, opened many of the problems & writing up the original guide. Alicedale bouldering would not be what it is with out Martin Renz. Dave Harding, Alli & Mike Dexter who added some problems, edited the guide & kept Alicedale ticking from 2012. Dave Harding for red-penning the guide, edits, star gradings, corrections & additions. Adam Ondra who visited for a single day in 2009, opened the hardest lines & pushed Alicedale to the next level. Star Ratings Classic problem Great problem Good problem Abbreviations & Symbols BS Bum Start SS Stand Start l Highball - high / dangerous l Lowball - small / low Project + approximate grade 1 ~7A © Derek Marshall 3 General Rock: Quartzite-sandstone mix. 845 problems. 38 noted projects that have been attempted. Lots of potential. Summer: Very hot, but you can climb in the shaded areas in Area 2 or early mornings and later afternoons. Winter: Winter is the ideal season. Better friction, dry & less ticks. Rain: It may be raining in PE or Grahamstown, but there is a good chance of being dry in Alicedale. Hazards: Ticks are a real problem. Check yourself continuously & bring insect repellent. Bees. Alicedale bees are aggressive, avoid them totally. Listen carefully & try to hear them coming. If they swarm, leave your shit & run for you life. Seriously! Hives can have 50 000 bees, it only takes 200 stings to kill a person. Snakes, very few snakes have been seen, but keep an eye out. Spiders, scorpions…no big issue, but be aware. Walk-ins: 5 - 40 minutes © Derek Marshall 4 Eastern Cape Climbing Venues Port Elizabeth 30 Coombs Gorge 37 EL urban crags & boulders Toorberg Swartberg 1 Lady's Slipper Amatolas 38 Yellowsands & Inkwenkwezi 44 Graff-Reinet 49 Toverkop 2 Van Stadens 31 Fort Fordyce 39 Lalapanzi 45 Compassberg 50 Oudtshoorn 3 PE urban crags & boulders 32 Hogsback 40 Morgan Bay Transkei 51 Gamkaskloof Bouldering 4 Sleepy Hollow 33 Stutterheim 41 Bola 46 Hole in the Wall 52 Swartberg Pass 5 Elands River Langkloof Winterberg 47 Hill of Execution 6 Kirkwood 19 Nguniland 42 Mary & Martha 48 Port St Johns 7 Cape St Francis 20 Kouga Wildernes 43 Hangklip Groot Winterhoek 21 Uniondale Pass 8 Tygerhoek Garden Route Aliwal North 9 Naga's Kloof 22 Titzikama N2 10 Eagle Gorge 23 Groot Rivier 11 Momentum Gorge 24 Piesang Valley 12 Pinnacle Gorge East London Mthatha 13 Cockscomb 34 NSA Middelburg 14 Grootbos & Kleinbos 35 Windmill Hole 47 48 Port St Johns 15 Nivera 36 Buffalo River N10 43 45 Queenstown Coffee Bay Baviaans Tarkastud 42 46 Nieu Bathesda 16 Grips Cradock N6 17 Kudu Kaya 41 Stutterheim 44 Graff-Reinet 33 18 Waterkloof 32 39 Hogsback Grahamstown 40 31 38 25 Alicedale N9 R63 King Williams Town 26 Howison's Poort Fort Beaufort N2 34-37 15 East London 27 Moodie's Alicedale R67 25 30 28 Bouldering Willowmore Steytlerville 29 R329 Grahamstown 28 29 Thornkloof 26-27 18 8-14 52 R75 51 6 49 50 R322 17 16 N2 Uniondale Hankey Uitenhage Marshall Derek © R62 21 20 Patensie Ladismith R62 19 4 2 1 Oudtshoorn 3 Port Elizabeth 23 24 22 5 More route guides can be found on N2 Plettenberg Bay 7 Jeffreys Bay www.easterncaperockclimbing.co.za 5 History The boulders at Alicedale were discovered by Keith James & “the cronies”. These were the is Nothing and Nothing is Everything, opened by Kevan. Very soon problems like dark days before bouldering was-a-thing. Keith spent some time there doing easy Rumble in the Jungle, Spirit and Beached Whale were born. Again there are too many solos & various circuits. At the end of 2000, Kevan Watkins, Shaun Miles and Martin brilliant moments to list here. You will not be disappointed by the boulders in Renz heard of some potential bouldering outside Alicedale on a farm called Witteklip. Alicedale. They took a drive out there & on that day went straight past the bouldering areas. They didn’t see anything worth bouldering & headed for home. It was only a month Then in 2002 Paul Brouard arrived in Grahamstown to study. In a very short time he later that Martin Renz took another drive-by. This time he stopped & headed up the repeated all the existing “hard” problems & just as quickly add some harder problems, hill with a chalk bag, climbing shoes & a thin blue insulation mat. He had no idea what like: Straight Up Sit-start, Grey Matter Sit-start and Fat Fanny Freedom… just to he would find & had no expectations. He was not disappointed, in fact that first mention a few. After Martin adamantly stated that the sit-start to Straight Up was afternoon was overwhelming & deciding where to start was a freak-out. So after totally impossible. Paul very quickly correcting him by grabbing two scratches on the calming himself down the Real-German in Martin decided to start on one side & rock and pulling the first moves. With a monstrous grin he turned and said ´Where is systematically work his way across....yeah right! First Time Out, as the name says, is your vision?´ this became the rally cry of Alicedale. home to the first problem in the area. Martin returned three more times before he managed to drag Kevan Watkins out. Needless to say Kevan was also freaked-out 2009 saw Adam Ondra visit Alicedale for a day & put Alicedale on the 8A map. when he saw the boulders. Very quickly problems like as FÝ2K, Pulling Babes, Extra Mild Shag & Side Winder were opened. They were hooked! Countless days were Since then there have been plenty of visits to Alicedale by various Rhodes University spent running around, exploring & opening new problems. students, most notably Dave Harding, Mike & Aly Dexter. Remembering all the highlights is impossible, but some memorable moments were Martin’s In 2016 the bumbling scribe made various edits to the guide & realized that there are still first ascent of Dungeons & Dragons, Straight Up and more recently Side FX & Anime. plenty of un-recorded problems at Alicedale. The guide was systematically reworked, Kevan´s first ascents of Chasing the Dragon, Wicked & Pinky on the Brain. At the end up graded, condensed & a surprising number of previously overlooked problems were of 2001 the basic feeling was that all the cool problems were done. Boulderers had recorded. More than 250 problems were added in 2017 & 3 areas were added in often noted the rocks peeping out of the bush 500m meters towards Grahamstown. 2018. Eventually curiosity got the best of Martin. On a rest day he drove out to Alicedale, parked & made his way into the bush. He was staggered… MORE BOULDERS!! Lots This Alicedale guide is a work in progress. Please send any additions or corrections to of them !! The following day Area Two was born. [email protected] After two more outings alone, Kevan decided to join Martin & see what the fuss was about. The first boulders that attracted Martin became two of the hard problems, Everything © Derek Marshall 6 Bleau (P 33) New World Bad Day Side FX Tower (P 34) (P 30) (P 31) (P 32) Dungeon High (P 37) Painted Baller Path starts (P 27) Light (P 36) at black box House on pole. (P 35) Park here. Ballerina (P 24) Pinky (P 29) Welcome Haunted (P 23) (P 8) Ship Wreck (P 10) Falling Raisins Path into (P 20) Flying First Time Saucer, (P 11) Area 51 Panic (P 20) Kingdom Candy Wow Anime Cave Land’s End of Slab (P 19) (P 13) (P 14) (P 16) (P 17) © Derek Marshall 7 46C 66B+ 7 6C+ 57A+ 66B 3 46C 6C 8 5 36B 2 6C+ 16B 3/4/5 36C 55A 26B 45B 16B A A B 4/5 B 16B 26C+ 1 Beam Me Up 6B SS in the open book.
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