First things first however and upon our arrival it was hard not to think about climbing. The first day we made our way out to the Sassies, which is a small and relatively new area. I was very surprised at the length of the hike (which was almost 45 min) and there was no established trail.

Steph, Sarah and Flann look back towards our car (near the pond)

I was immediately taken by the proud, independent lines and the impeccable quality of the rock, which is an extremely hard, orange quatzite that seems to form perfectly solid and wonderful features for climbing.

The first problem I tried was Shosholoza V12, an absolutely stunning boulder problem. It begins on an obvious jug and takes a very direct line up a bulging wall. A massive move leads to a nice incut crimp. Match the crimp, reset the feet and make a hard, dynamic move to a thin hueco. From there an easy move leads to a massive jug. The quality of the rock is second to none.

Shosholoza
I thought this could be a potential for a five star problem. It’s rare to find such an incredible line and in all of the traveling I have done this is one of the best problems I have ever seen.
It seemed hard and I was jet lagged so I walked around the corner and Kevin and I made quick work of the short but very good Paula Abdul V10. It was a great first problem.

Paula Abdul V10

Just across the way from Shosholoza is Pinotage V10 (Lisa Rands FA), another obvious 4 star problem. Pinotage was something I had heard about before I came and was really psyched to try and climb. It looked straight forward enough and with high motivation I gave a flash burn. I felt strong and soon I was at the final lunge to the jug. I punched it and scampered my way to the top. These kinds of problems justify the $1600 plane ticket. Here are some pictures.

Pinotage V10 Thanks to Chuck Fryberger for these awesome shots.

Splash of Red V10, which is also 4 stars, climbs the arete to the right.

I climbed two other problems that day, Petit Hueco V8, which is a 20 some move Ghetto Simulator like problem. It was the last problem I climbed that day and I fought hard to flash it.

Flann sends Petit Hueco V8

The other problem I did was called Panama. This is basically one very hard move followed by another hard move and then an easier finish. I had never heard of it. Chuck who was giving me the tour told me he thought it was V12, and of similar difficulty to Diaphanous Sea. It looked really straightforward and I thought I should try to flash it. I spent about twenty minutes feeling the holds and thinking about beta. I pulled on and tried as hard as could. My feet swung way out but somehow came back in. I slowly climbed the rest of the problem. As always with a hard flash it’s hard to give a grade, and I hesitate to give myself 12 points for this one. It is my hardest flash ever though and although it’s not the best problem I was psyched to give it a commited effort.

The first day was awesome, I had climbed some great problems and found an amazing project (Shosalooza).
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