Amphitheatre Wall

What a great day it was. It was a week before that I got the call that my friend Wayne was going to take a friend on a traditional climb up Elsie's peak. When he mentioned it I wasn't quite sure where he was going to go, but when we got there it soon became clear.

Elsie's peak is a quite useful mountain peak just south of Fish Hoek in Cape Town South Africa. It is a very good place to go climbing, it was strong solid rock with many climbing routes in all sots of grades. But arguably its biggest strength is that it is so close. To get to the parking lot not too far from the rock took probably less than 5 minutes.

The actual climb was legenday. We climbed 4 pitches of varying lengths, each one was about 10 metres in height. It was my first time leading in trad climbing. For those who don't know, trad(itional) climbing is climbing where you put the protectionm in. Unlike sport, you do not use the bolts that have already been placed but you place your own protection in the form of what is called friends, hexcentrics, slings and bolts.

Like I said I was leading for the first time in trad. It was no big deal, it was simply like sport climbing except that when you clip you place a runner. That was a new experience – but I think I managed quite well. I was personally happy with where I placed the protection and how well it was placed, but I do think that I need to mature in this area. This is why amphitheatre wall was a very good start. It is only about an 8 in difficulty in the modern gradings – trad climbing is quite different to sport as it is typically far more exposed. If you fall in trad without protection you will die – you'll probably fall hundreds of metres unlike sport where you'll probably just fall to the ground, 20 metres max.

The actual climb was particularly enjoyable – it was one of those days that you enjoy every minute. The route was great, not too challenging from a climbing perspective. Sometimes when climbing you like that.

Coming down we took a route called “outlook ridge”. It was great as well! It was soooo much fun because we weren't roped. It was such freedom, and was rather long. I don't think I could have climbed it without the astute guidance of Wayne. What a clever route it is. I'm glad we went down that route rather than walked.

All in all it was an awesome day on the mountain. If you haven't had the pleasure of climbing it, then it is highly recommended. It is a route that makes me want to build up my trad gear.

Btw, in my next post I'll be able to supply some pictures, I've recently acquired a new digital camera, canon A640. I might just post a review of it as well.