Greg Child, Salley Oberlin and Alard Hüfner hanging
out in Fernkloof, Magaliesberg. Photo: Petro Grobler
Greg Child, Salley Oberlin and Alard Hüfner hanging
out in Fernkloof, Magaliesberg. Photo: Petro Grobler
8 000-meter peaks, A5 big-walls and 5.13 sport climbs are all part of Greg Child's climbing repertoire. It's no wonder that many consider him to be the most accomplished all-round climber in the world.
Child began climbing as a teenager in the Blue Mountains of his native Australia. He came to the United States at the age of 20 to climb the granite walls of Yosemite and immediately established two of the most difficult and classic routes on El Capitan - 'Lost in America" and "Aurora" - both A5's.
Not content to push his limits only in California, Greg Child has taken his climbing skills to such far-off places as the Karakoram in Pakistan. He completed the first ascent of Pakistan's 19,800 foot Shipton Spire - a 36 pitch, 4,400 foot big-wall that is certainly one of the longest rock climbs in the world. Also in Pakistan, he climbed the first ascent of Lobsang Spire and put up a new route on Nameless Tower.
In India, he climbed the east pillar of Shivling, a 50-pitch, mixed big-wall and Alpine Ridge that pushed him and his partners to the very edge of human endurance. Child has climbed Everest and K2 - the latter without supplementary oxygen. Less known but much admired by Himalayan veterans, was his climb of Gasherbrum IV in 1986, the first success on this difficult 7000m peak in 28 years.
Closer to home, Child climbed an extremely technical route on Alaska's Mount Hunter. The 5000 foot route Wall of Shadows involved extreme -aid climbing, mixed climbing and seven hanging bivouacs.
As significant as his climbing is Greg's gift of being able to bring those experiences home to the rest of us. His countless articles over the years have been an inspiration to climbers around the world. He has also authored three books: "Thin Air: Encounters in the Himalayas", "Mixed Emotions" & "Postcards from the Ledge." In 1987, he was honored with the American Alpine Club's Literary Award for his prolific and insightful mountaineering literature.
His plane touched down at 9h41 on Friday 27 November. He and Salley took some time to get their baggage but ADK and I still managed to get him to down three beers at my house before taking him climbing at the Mine where he was on his first route by 12h50. There he climbed Sickle Moon (22), Jimmy and the big Boys (24), Red Guitar on Fire (25), Swan Lake (25) and finally flamed out on A Gift of Wings (28). That night he was being sociable at a welcome braai.
Sat 28
Late start after the party the night before. But we walked him up to Africa
Ledge (1 hour) where he onsighted one of Tinies new trad routes forget the
name grade 26. Didn't do much more than that cause he had to prepare for
his speach at the annual dinner of the MCSA.
Sun 29 Tues 31
Walked in to Milner (3 hours) and did one route. Next day did Automatic
for the people, swopping leads with ADK. Following day did one route before
walking out (2 hours). Gave lecture at the Club that evening.
Wed 1
Day off. Looked at Penguins and stuff with Phillip van der Spuy. Dinner
at Tinie Versfeld's where way too much alcohol is consumed.
Thurs 2 Fri 3 Sat 4
Walked up to Klein Winterhoek (3 hours) Next day did Oceans of Fear following
day walked out (2.5 hours) of Klein Winterhoek and in to Krakadouw (2.5
hours).
Sun 5 Mon 6
Sunday climbed Ichthiasaurus 22 at Krakadouw Mon climbed Pump of the Century
28 Walk out of Krakadouw.
Tuesday 7th day off and another talk at the MCSA before flying to Durban on Wednesday 8th.
We in Cape Town had a load of fun climbing with Greg who has been game for anything. He gave a great talk at the Mountain Club last week and we expect him to give an even better one this Tuesday. We took it in turns to walk with him and he has shown great resilience to some of the finer hikes in the Western Province. We now believe that he is ready to go sport climbing in the rest of the country. We just didn't have the chance to take him to half the venues we would have liked. He has been here for way too little time but it has been fun.
Oh, that reminds me.
He is talkin tomorow evening at the MCSA so do make an effort to pitch.
ed
Edmund C. February
Subject: Fw: Greg Child in the Cape
I read with interest about Greg Child in the
Cape, I am not impressed by the way he was route marched around the western
cape, what are we trying to prove are we trying to show how good our climbing
and hiking abilities are ,3 hrs into Milners,2 hrs out, 3 hrs into Klein
Wiinterhoek, 2.5 hrs out, 2.5 hrs into Krakadouw,who cares how long it takes
who are we trying to impress, maybe a little less of the competative racing
and a little more relaxed fun would impress a little more. Darryl
Margetts. Posted on SA Mountain - 14 November 2000
Detailed below is a program of what visiting climber Greg Child and his companion Salley will be doing when in Natal. This itinery has been sent to you so that if you wish to join up with them for some climbing you can do so. Please contact the hosts for the day directly and make arrangements with them.
As you will see below, Greg will be doing mainly sport climbing when here in Natal. I would especially like to encourage the sport climbers to try and get the time off to go climbing with him. There will be much to learn from him in all aspects of climbing.
Also try to get to the slide show on the 8th at Berea Rovers in Durban. I heard Greg Child's short lecture in Cape Town and he is a very good speaker with some excellent slides to show.
Lastly please pass this email on to anyone else who you think may be interested but is not on email. In particular Varsity members.
8Nov
Arrives 11:10am SAA 606. Gavin R. (082 9905876) fetches from Durban Int.
Go climbing at Monteseel for the afternoon. Drop off at Mervyn Gans at 5:30pm.
Mervyn to take them to Berea Rovers by 7pm to get ready for show. (Graham
Smith to bring projector)
9Nov
8am Marcel and Debbie (ph 0824457191 or 033 3434703) to fetch Greg and Sally
from Mervyn's and go climbing either at Shongweni or Kloof Gorge. Stay that
night at Marcel's in Hilton.
10th
Climbing at Hilton crag with Marcell and Debbie.
5pm. Drop Greg and Sally off with Roger and Andrea in Hilton.
11 Nov
Roger and Andrea (033 3432807 or 0834602068) take them to Everest Resort
for climbing till Sunday afternoon. 2pm Magaliesberg Section to fetch Greg
and Sally.
On Thursday and Friday last week Greg & Salley hit the Natal crags with myself and Debi.
Unfortunately rain had ruled out a number of venues. Thurs saw us at the Magnetic Wall. Greg walked in in 12min 04.35secs, while having started strongly, the treacherous going and lack of altitude leading to a slightly disappointing finish into the base of the crag, with Salley gaining good ground. Like fools we were distracted by climbing and failed to give Greg another crack at the standing walk-in time (currently held by Stumpy Oleg McNoleg, admittedly after having set his personal best at the Harrismith Half Marathon). We also failed to get the speed of asscents but great fun was had climbing - Dissing the Home Boys, Shape of things to Cam and Breakout before rain stopped play.
Thurs evening saw a relaxed dinner at Chameleons restaurant. (Apparently they are willing to swap Gregs underwear and socks for their lampshade and ice bucket, and remind him that they have photographs)
Friday saw the 7.55km long drive out to Hiltons Beacon Crag where Accident Victim, Pumping Velvet, Electric Youth, Monkey in your Soul, PsychoFanatic, White Frogs, Xenopus Levus and Reptiles Arete provided the pre-Everest-with-Roger warm up for Salley and Greg.
Ciao
Marcel
The Grades:
Dissing the Home Boys 22STRAFPARADE IN NATAL
So the PT for Greg Child continues.................
Will Snort make him break the record up Blouberg??
Watch this space
No name, no pack-drill
- Posted on SA Mountain on 16 November 2000 by Greg
Devine
Story outstanding (or is it an outstanding story?)
Thanks to Wesley Makovini and Lizelle Stone
for the taxi to Pretoria.
Hi Guys
All of you have shown some interest in going on the Restaurant, Magaliesberg, etc leg of Greg Childs trip to South Africa. The Mountain Club has put aside some money for the hire of a vehicle and petrol costs for this trip, with one stipulation that whoever goes is in fact a member or has at least signed the forms and handed them in. We are not interested in the grade you climb as long as you want to go climbing.
As with all good trips one has to have a leader. In this case you great and glorious leader is Tinie Versfeld (work 4486574). The people arranging the Transvaal leg of the Child trip are Petro Grobler (petrogrobler@icon.co.za) and Alard Hufner (rudebushman@hotmail.com). While I have got this trip working to this point, I am not going to be accompanying you. So it really is up to all of you to liase with each other as to when you want to go, where you want to go and how you want to go there. I cannot do this for you.
When you have made some arrangement, get back to me with it. Alternatively don't bother but go out there and ahve fun climbing.
ed
10 November 2000
I am looking forward to doing lots of climbing JJJEEEEEEHHHHHAAAAAA!!!!!!
BUT blouberg would have been good!!!!!
the climbing at the restaurant is soooo good, who would not want to spend
lots of time there???
Till soon cheers Alard
9 November 2000
The Bard of Boksburg has been coaxed to pen a commemorative verse, entitled
"A Child Beguiled"
When impressing a climber called Child
The Cape okes are bosses self-styled
This caused them to pick
A venue less slick
Than Blouberg now Joburg is riled
13 Nov
Hi Petro and Alard
Nicky and i have decided that we would like to
join everybody else at the Restaurant over the weekend.
What chances are there of us catching a ride to and from Jhb International
on Friday and Sunday with the following times of departure.
Depart CT on friday 17th at 14h00 arrive Joburg
16h00 SA342
Depart JHB on sunday 19h00 SA367
ed
15 November 2000
Hi Petro
Thanks for everything.
We should keep in touch re lifts and stuff.
Looks like we could get quite a crowd at Boven
. Sounds great to me.
Nicky only booked our tickets on Monday so we are paying an arm and a leg
for them (business class, grand huh) but with a good bunch of people it
could be a lot of fun and definitely well worth it. Tried phoning Alard
last night, hoping for cell reception, but obviously that wasn't going to
work. Snort has confirmed that he will definitely be picking up Alard, Sally
and the Child. They should phone him with an address 0823750310. He won't
be at Gregs talk this evening although knowing him all things are possible.
Tinie is at the moment picking up the Kombi and they are hoping to leave
by 11h00 and then drive straight through getting to Boven early hours tomorrow
morning. By last night there were six of them but that fluctuates so wildly
I will phone them later to see how many actually climbed on board. Its Tinie,
Ross, Malcolm Gowens, Tristan Firman, Jason Orton and Mattieu de Villiers.
Yeah, I knew Child could speak well but he did
perform way better than expected.
Very pleasing actually.
All from me
ed
More tales than climbing?...
A hornet's nest on one climb (backing off ... to protect the second??);
a missing nut (or more?) on "a rack dating from the 1924 Mallory expedition"
(to quote Greg Child) and a rusty peg [backing off again ...]; one easyish
climb.
At least rested a bit (much needed?) and saw many rheebuck.
But here from the lion (cub)'s mouth:
The e-mail messsage went something like, 'Looking for strong climbers to climb with visiting oversees climber'. This sounds good, I thought, until I saw the name Greg Child and refreshed my memory as to his achievements by reading the attached CV '…currently climbing 28, trad or sport and has opened A5 routes at Yosemite.'
As it turned out, Petro couldn't get a commitment out of any of our local hard climbers, fast becoming endangered species with their rare appearances, so I ended up with the honour of taking Greg out to Tonquani on a sunny Monday morning. 'How bad can it be', I thought, 'after all I can jumar 28', until I suddenly realised that I don't have jumars!
Anyway, as it turned out the climbing was really a non-event. Greg was tired after being pointed up every test piece in Durban and then the Western Cape, including such name droppers as Oceans of Fear, and didn't want to climb anything hard - nothing more than 23. We settled on Alchemy as a 'warm up', which the guide book grades 22. I have always suspected this route to be a lot harder than 22 since I have never heard of anyone other the first free-ascenders completing this old aid route route 'free'. It was first freed by Kevin Smith and my brother when they were at the peak of their Magaliesberg trad climbing days. I had been looking for someone to lead this route for me for some time as I have been put-off (scared shitless actually) by other Kevin Smith undergraded classics.
In confirmation of my suspicions I noticed a carabiner on the crux as we approached the climb, an obvious sign that someone had retreated off the route recently. I srambled up the first easy 10m from where Greg took over the lead. He moved up the first few metres easily but cautiously to the base of an overhanging open book where there is a fixed peg. He clipped the peg, muttering something under his breath and continued to look for other gear to place. Obviously not happy with the protection, Greg tried had a few tries at the awkward move into the open book and then retreated.
I was a bit surprised that someone who has opened A5 routes in the Valley was not prepared to trust our rusty Magaliesberg pegs. However the fact that Greg has survived as long he has while pushing the envelope of mountaineering and rock-climbing is a good indication of his excellent judgment of protection, whether fixed or placed on lead. It is was a rather sobering experience to realise just how bad the fixed pegs in the Magaliesberg must be and I, for one, will be much more cautious of old pegs in future.
I tried to make light of our failure and muttered something about our hornets being much more of a danger than our poor pegs. Sure enough on our next attempted route a nest of wasps was strategically positioned on the crux move and I had to recommend a retreat. In the end all we succeeded in climbing was Hyperadrenia (20) before heading back to the cold beers in my car.
The talk in climbing circles is that Greg blamed his retreat off Alchemy on my old climbing gear, which he claims must originate from the 1924 Everest expedition. This is not entirely true since some of my gear is from the 1922 expedition and I recently retrieved some modern fancy stuff with gears and levers and things off a route in the Magaliesberg. Any claimants of the 'modern' gear must state where and what was lost and I will gladly return it.
- Stephen Mallory
Alard reports: One of the first things Greg liked about Fernkloof was the hike in, only 15 minutes compared to the hours of walking he had done in the Cape. The sport climbing in this gorge was what we were here for. The choice of warm up routes is limited to grade 24. So Greg started up "Strong arm of the law" 24, and onsighted the route, commenting "this is a bit hard for a warm up", I agreed as I worked my way up the route. Next on the list was the classic route "Faberge" 28. Greg had heard much of this route and of "Snapdragon"28 (at the Restaurant) from the climbers hosting him in the other parts of South Africa. We both worked the route on Tuesday, figuring out the sequences and moves. The climbing was a bit difficult for Sally, but she toproped "Strong arm of the law".
The evening was spent around the fire eating lots of meat and potatoes so that we would be strong for the next day. The beer from Roger Nattrass also went down very well.
Wednesday morning, Joffrey and a host of other strong climbers arrived and we got on with the climbing. Due to a little hitch Joffrey had to cancel his day of climbing. Greg, Sally and I warmed up on another 24. Greg who had been climbing now for 4 days in a row decided to give "Faberge" one attempt. Well he did a superb job of redpointing the route, he looked solid all the way to the top! I think this is a superb effort for some one over 40. Climbing with Greg showed me that age does not have to limit the grade of your climbing.......too much!!
After a hectic trip with the guys in Cape Town, Greg Child and his partner opted for a little change of schedule in our part of the woods. Instead of making a mini-national meet happening at Blouberg and hitting various other venues, Greg and Salley admitted that the Cape trip made them tired. They walked a lot and Greg shared an impressive amount of hard pitches on long routes. Ed Feb, ADK, Tinie Versfeltd, Ross Suter and the guys down South entertained them well. It was understandable that after climbing Oceans of Fear, Automatic for the People and a bunch of other classics, Blouberg sounded like a monster of a mountain.
What better place to rest then, than our own little sport climbing mecca in Mpumalanga: Waterval Boven. Greg and Salley enjoyed hanging out at the Roc 'n Rope Adventure Lodge, kicking back with big bonfires, late morning starts, playing Petanque (French marbles) and simply chilling out.
Now to make sure that things by The Restaurant at the End of the Universe were not too laid back, guess who organized to crash the party? None other than our Cape contingency. Seven guys from the Cape Section of the MCSA received a nice grant when the Club down there decided to sponsor their transport with a hired Combi. Even Ed February flew up for the weekend to smother us with his standard verbal diarr…route descriptions. Charles Edelstein pulled in and forced boerries on sticks over the fire down our guests' throats … a long night for Snort.
If anything, the flurries of rain prevented everyone from overstraining. For many it was a first time in 'Boven and they found the climbing of the high quality that it is famous for. Jayson Orton thought that 3000 bolts were not enough to clip and added another thirteen bits of stainless by opening a new route at the Foundry aptly called the French for rain dance, Dance de la Pluie (20).
It was a great week for all of us. Apart from Derie van Eeden and Stephen Mallory from Magaliesberg section, some visiting Austrians and regulars from Jo'burg made the most of the couple of days of action. Greg and Alard Hufner hung out on Al's new project at the new crags left of Jabberwocky. Here, Greg made special mention of how impressed he was about the fact that the MCSA has such an awesome attitude towards climbing. He couldn't believe that the Mountain Club bought that land and even sponsor the bolts. "A club should be looking after the interests of its members" he said, "and it looks like the Club is getting it right".
Talking about new crags, I decided to show these guys some awesome new potential crags past Wonderland out on the dirt road (Correction, mud road). Moments from being stuck we pulled the hired Combi back without any view of the futuristic climbing spots around there.
When the weather cleared, Greg took a bit more than a day to figure out the moves and redpoint Snapdragon, arguably the best (and hardest!) grade 28 in the country. Well done.
After Greg and Salley whizzed off to Kruger in Petro's little trustworthy Toyota, I took the chance to hang out with Greg, take some pics with his long lens of distant climbers and share some ideas on issues from climbing to politics. It seemed like he and Salley neared the end to a remarkable visit and both felt that they'll easily stop over for longer next time, breaking their normal migratory route from the USA to Greg's native Australia.
Chris Lomax was really nostalgic about the idea to return to his teenage climbing haunts and told many anecdotes at dinner the night before the climbing. Greg looked rather perplexed by Chris's tale of how long long ago, whilst camping up top at Mhlabs, Chris was confronted by two naked men. Perverts, these South Africans?
The next day he found out for himself that that's the way to do the wade to the climbs.
They had some enjoyable climbing (the minute note listing the climbs went missing... sorry, but so what?) and at late-afternoon a PROPER thunderstorm thoroughly wet them. Chris then also got to practise his long-forgotten (?) Scout skills in order to create a shelter for the night - probably just to add some more to his nostalgia as of course there was a tent in the car and they were only within half an hour of the car...
- Leaving Pretoria at 16:00 in typical Snort
style so as to ENSURE a walk-in in the dark.
Cool day ensure some of the best climbing weather ever experienced by Snort.
- The rest of the story might be told (by a 'professional'?) , but
we definitely have Snort's version:
To cap Greg Child's magical mystery tour to South Africa I (Snort) travelled up with him to subject him to the Blouberg experience. The drive-up was uneventful and deliberately timed so that I could listen to the Boks scrape in a win over the Welsh. Nando's burger, Frans's son's kraal and we started walking at around 9 pm to arrive at around midnight. I didn't get us lost which was a bit of a let down. Up at 05h00 and to Dog Day in Heaven. Greg led the first 2 pitches. The second pitch was wet in places but he coped. I led the run-out 3rd pitch and banged in a not-so-good peg which doesn't really make it any less bold.
At the stance before the 24 pitch I flamboyantly pulled out the ½ litre Coca Cola to spurn us on with a Caffeine fix. I forgot that I had replaced the contents with Allesverloren port which seemed very desirable but inappropriate for what we needed to do. I had a few swigs and perhaps this accounted for me dropping all the wired nuts from rock 2 upwards off the next pitch. Greg climbed the 24 pitch well but at the crux he asked me if he should move up right which appears to be the obvious way to go. This invariably results in a fall and confirms the grade. With beta, the moves are only about 22/23.
I climbed the next pitch (23) and dropped all the nuts but worked out that we could complete the route with a little bold climbing. Greg then did the 22 and an excellent flash of the 25 pitch. Nothing short of perfect weather all day made for a great day. A gentle stroll back to camp, beer, steak on the coal and, yes, you guessed it, the port.
Next day we felt a bit jaded but after all these years Dogstar got its second ascent. Greg had to work it a bit and placed gear on aid. I left a fixed nut to make it easier for further ascents but it is around grade 26 to redpoint and probably harder to on-sight. Definitely worth doing as there aren't many roofs like it around.
A gentle stroll through the yellow-wood forests and the long haul home. It is still the most natural rock climbing experience in the world.
Great weekend. (Ed. Well...Sunday afternoon to Tuesday night is Snort's definition of a weekend...)