With our flight leaving in the next 15 days, we have been preparing in earnest for our trip to the Yosemite of Africa: The Tsaranaro Valley. The law of the 8 P’s is at the forefront of our mind: “Proper prior planning and preparation prevents piss poor performance.” A lot goes into planning a trip to a country like Madagascar, especially a granite big wall climbing trip. Add to that the fact that neither of us have ever slept in a portaledge before…the butterflies are definitely beginning to flutter.
The Vision
How did this all start? Victor and I (my climbing partner for the trip) argue about whose idea it actually was to plan this trip. Seeing that I am writing this, I will say it was my idea. Ha!
The seed was planted in my head when I first watched Siebe Vanhee and Sean Villanueva’s film “MAD in Madagascar“, back in 2018 and I was inspired to one day go there after seeing that. Then, a few months ago I saw a video of Adam Ondra on ‘Tough Enough’ 8b+. As soon as I saw that headwall, I went to Victor straightaway. “Look at that headwall!” I said. “Let’s go to Madagascar.” He immediately agreed, and after that things moved very quickly.
We promptly booked and paid for our airline tickets, 6 months in advance. This turned out to be a great idea, because shortly after that the price of fuel skyrocketed and flights would have been completely unaffordable. That being said, I spent my living costs for that month on those flights and basically lived off brown rice and cycled to work for the rest of the month. Now no-one can say I wasn’t psyched to climb in Madagascar!
Homemade Haul Bags
Climbs in the Tsaranaro are anywhere between 5 and 20 pitches, so it is obvious we will need to employ big wall tactics. On the harder lines, a haulbag (or 2) as well as a portaledge will definitely prove useful. We weren’t able to get a proper haul bag in time – so we made our own! We took a 50l Black Diamond Creek backpack, which already has what is close to a haul bag construction. Then we used some offcuts of vinyl and some old retired autobelay lanyards to create an outer shell. Mine was the prototype, which I hastily pasted together. Victor (Mr. Dual Climbing) then perfected the design and made it solid.
We put them through a few days of rigorous testing in the gym and at Paarl Rock, and they held up very well. Because the Creek is designed with more comfortable straps than a haul bag would have, I would even dare to say I prefer these over a regular haul bag, as the cover/hauling straps are completely detachable from the bag. Maybe we should patent the design when we get back? We even dragged one (just for shits and giggles) through the gnarly water chute on Casualties of War (25) and the bag took it like a champ.
Safety First
You may be wondering what our plan is with regards to safety, self rescue planning and first aid. The Tsaranaro is of course completely remote and there is no mountain rescue available. We will have a Garmin InReach with us, which will allow us to at the very least talk to someone and ask for advice or organise a rescue via satellite.
Even so, we plan to be as self-sufficient as possible. Both of us have done some training in self rescue techniques in a few different scenarios, and that gives us confidence that we will be able to handle anything that comes up. There will also likely be other climbers in the area that we can befriend as they would likely be called on if we needed a rescue, and vice versa. As far as first aid goes, we will definitely be taking a fully stocked first aid kit including a trauma kit – as there are no hospitals for miles.
The Equipment
Mountain Mail Order pulled through in a big way with some La Sportiva Katana Lace and Miura VS shoes – which are the absolute gold standard for the Tsaranaro granite. My Ocun Ozones were my go to shoes for Spitzkoppe, so it will be a difficult task to wean me off them, but I’m sure the Katanas are up to the task. We will also take 100 metres of static rope, which will be useful for fixing pitches if we want to work something hard. Something indispensable is our small posse of Petzl Micro Traxions. Three to be exact. These little devices are so versatile and will be great for a multitude of big wall tasks including:
- The haul (for the bag mainly. Hopefully not for the second)
- Enables the second to top rope solo using 2 of them on a fixed rope (using a neck lanyard). Meanwhile the leader can haul the bag at the same time – making each pitch that much faster.
- Enables safe(r) simul climbing. A Traxion (or 2) placed by the leader can prevent the second pulling the leader down if they were to fall.
- Can be used as an ascender in place of a jumar, and much more user friendly than a prusik. Although we will still have our prusiks on us just in case.
- Why Micro and not Mini Traxion? Much lighter and smaller.
- They also look damn cool! A fiery citrus colour. My favourite climbing gadget by far.
As far as quickdraws are concerned, we were extremely lucky to have a kind friend (Matt Johnstone) lend us his brand new rack of Black Diamond LiteWire draws to use. These draws are super light and perfect for a big multi pitch sport mission like this.
We feel extremely fortunate to have the CityROCK community backing us as we undertake this trip and we feel very much emboldened to push the boundaries to the best of our abilities.
Our flight leaves on the 31st July, so stay tuned here on Goodbeta for more action, live from the Yosemite of Africa!
