Climbers of all abilities gathered at CityROCK in Paarden Eiland just after sunrise to get the ball rolling. After a quick briefing of the rules and scoring, everyone hopped in their cars to head to the crags. The goal of the Rock Rally is to climb ten routes, the highest grades you can, and in the best style possible. You get more points for onsighting or flashing but redpoints, repeats, and clean top rope sends (freepoints) also count. With bonus points for different crags climbers were encouraged to explore and travel between the different climbing areas of Cape Town’s peninsula.
The Beginners Crew gathered a mountain of ropes and quickdraws before departing for Lower Silvermine. Luke ran through a cleaning refresher for everyone who wanted it and a bunch of top ropes were set up by the Joburg CityROCKers on a few of the easy climbs. The sun kept everyone nice and toasty and as the afternoon arrived and the crag went into the shade, jackets and long sleeves began to appear. A variety of climbers joined the beginners crew, from people who hadn’t climbed in a while, all the way to people who had never been outside and never climbed on a rope (shout out to the boulder bros for getting out of their comfort zones).
People climbed at a variety of crags including the new additions to Fawlty Towers at Silvermine, that have been bolted by Roger Nattrass over the last few months.
After a day of sending there were spot prizes for a variety of categories: worst shoes, biggest flapper, first lead climb – to name just a few. Then of course there were also the prizes for each of the Rally categories. Only a handful of climbers managed to do 10 routes over the day, this is definitely the winning strategy for climbers who want to compete next time!
Thank you to the sponsors who put up some amazing prizes, the participants who logged scores, the beginners corner for the epic vibes, and the crushers for inspiring us all! Catch you at the next one.
