This past weekend, 30 August to 1 September, saw De Pakhuys bustling with activity for the 2024 Rocklands Rally as over 150 people gathered together to get their climb on and enjoy a lekker party in one of the world’s best bouldering destinations!
The event kicked off bright and early with registration and briefing on Saturday morning, after which we set off to hit the boulders. Skies were blue, the sun was out and temperatures reached a toasty 25°C – not ideal for sending, perhaps, but one heck of a beautiful day!
The new and improved (handicap-free) scoring system proved to be a hit, with climbers of all ages and experience levels getting psyched to battle it out for victory in each of the grade-based categories.
Climbers unfamiliar with Rocklands (or looking for a fun sending squad) joined the CityROCK Beginners Crew, who enjoyed a fantastic morning tackling the Plateau boulders before heading to Oupoort in the afternoon.
One of the competition highlights was the ‘pad snitch’, which was roaming the boulder fields (carried by the event crew) and promised a brand-spanking-new Metolius Session boulder pad for whoever could find it first. After successfully evading capture at Oupoort, the snitch was finally apprehended at Powerlines by a psyched Luca Schuler – a worthy recipient indeed!
After a full day of crushing in the sun, it was time for competitors to head back to camp, submit their scorecards and fuel up on RAD‘s iconic roosterkoek while the event team tallied up the scores and set up for the evening’s prize-giving.
Finally, it was time to announce the winners! The three highest-scoring competitors in each category went home with some epic prizes, along with a few lucky ducks that won goodies for a wide range of weird and wonderful feats including hardest send of the day, best dressed, worst camping set-up and more.
Thank you so much to La Sportiva, Petzl, The North Face, First Ascent, Black Diamond, Scarpa, Buff, Traveller’s Rest and De Pakhuys for sponsoring such incredible prizes for our hard-working champions!
Once our victors had been crowned, there was only one thing left to do… get our party on! DJ Daniel “Danny Phantom” Estcourt brought the tunes and the campsite brought the energy to make for an absolutely smashing jol that perfectly rounded off a stellar day.
De Pakhuys was quiet and peaceful come Sunday morning as campers slept in or slowly rose to meet the day, with a group of early birds joining Amy Smith of Rocklands Yoga for a restorative flow among the boulders at 9:30 am before heading back home after an absolutely magnificent adventure.
In a nutshell, we think it’s safe to say that this was the best Rocklands Rally yet! Check out the full results and event gallery below and stay tuned for more pics coming later this week…
Thank you so much to everyone who came through and made it such an epic weekend – we can’t wait to do it all again next year!
Images by Hano Smalberger.
