My recent hobby is finding more creative ways to transport myself to the crag and rock gym. I’ve become so sick of sitting in a car, stuck in traffic or careening around aggressive drivers and the general chaos that ensues on the streets of Cape Town. When you look at how large a car is, how much space it occupies on the road – you realize how inefficient it is. Not to mention the impact on the environment and air quality. This led me to discover the art of the ecopoint.
What is Ecopointing?
Ecopointing (as opposed to redpoint) is defined as using environmentally friendly / fair means of transport when going climbing. This can mean making use of public transport, walking, or cycling. If you like to have a bit of adventure (if the climbing isn’t enough) and be a part of the scenery – this is for you.
Getting into Ecopointing
My ecopointing journey started when I discovered an old school steel Giant mountain bike, lying around behind the climbing wall. It’s owner was happy to be rid of it, for the price of R200 ! An absolute bargain. The bike has a very trendy purple frame, and it was christened – ‘The Purple Mileage Eater.’ It’s inspired by my grandpa who did the Comrades marathon, dressed fully in purple, dyed his running shoes purple and painted his entire body purple, with “Purple Mileage Eater” written on his shirt. And so the bike restoration project started.
The bottom bracket was on the wonk – so I learnt from YouTube how to take it apart, clean and grease it and put it back together. New tyres, tubes, and a new chain, some derailleur adjustments and a very thorough clean and the Purple Mileage Eater was ready to eat some miles again.
The bike now transports me to work and back 3 times a week and always gets me up and down from the cable station for epic weekend missions on Table Mountain.
Living in the Cape Town city bowl and climbing on Table Mountain and Lions Head means plenty of opportunity for quality Trad Ecopointing. Walking is possible, depending on where you live but I’ve found a bicycle to be the most effective, as the descent is fast at the end of a long climbing day.
There is a bike lock zone that is safe at the lower cable station on Table Mountain. If you stay in Vredehoek/Oranjezicht you can get to the India Venster steps/cable station in around an hour, riding up through Deer Park. If you live further out, the MyCiti bus service is a fantastic option, they allow you to take bicycles on board – and there is a bus stop just down the road from the cable station; this is also close to Lion’s Head. Soon they will also be implementing a tap to pay service on these buses, which will make things much easier to use, rather than loading up a card at the station that runs out when you need it most. Below is my most recent ecopointing antics from the past few weekends, thanks to the trusty Purple Mileage Eater.
Africa Bust Up
After the plod up the India Venster path we begin the day with the customary cup of tea in the tea cave on Africa ledge. I rack up, and then set off, enjoying the first pitch of Oddshouters outing for the first time – a fun rail traverse into some techy vertical trickery above. After chatting to the good people taking part in the Table Mountain cleanup – we set off far to the left to find the start of the 19 pitch of Africa Bust Up.
This was amazing, my absolute cup of tea, with some corner crack climbing into some cool layback moves, quite solid at the grade. The next pitch is what one would call type 2 fun. Easy climbing up to a large roof with a sort of horizontal off width crack the only feature jutting out directly above the whole of Africa Amphitheatre. You feel the whole ravine drop away below you, it looks and feels like a monstrous mouth trying to suck you in from below. You’ve got to commit to camming your upper body into this thing and then wriggling your way through it.
I tried this a few times unsuccessfully and after going up and down a few times eventually found myself jammed fully in, with my legs dangling in space, like a sausage balanced on the edge of a braai grid. I feel as though I can’t move up or down or anywhere, and I must fight the irrational panic starting in my mind. Every single piece of gear on my harness catches on the lip of the crack as I wriggle.
After some time, I finally ooze out of this horrendous position and stand up on the lip. Phew. I continue up to build the stance – and can feel my back is properly scratched up. On examination at home in the mirror it looks like my back came off second best in a tussle with a wolverine. The pitch is only 17 – but old school 17 – so watch out!
Captain Hook
Another standard ledge weekend and I find myself sitting at Fountain ledge with a cup of tea after the India Venster walk in. The temperature is close to 35 degrees and its only 7am. We rack up, and quickly dispatch Roulette to warm up (not that we needed any more warming up). I always find the trickiest bit to be the short steep wall on the second pitch, and not the rail traverse or the supposed 21 crux above that. Maybe it’s just me.
After Roulette we rap back down to Fountain ledge for another cup of tea and then set off to try Captain Hook. I quickly discovered on the second pitch that horizontal jamming with feet smeared on blank rock, does not agree with my orangutan body. My hands feel like they’ve been dipped in a massive hot tub of Vaseline. They’re both twisting desperately in the horizontal crack rail before the crux moves on Captain Hook. My feet begin to wheelspin and my eyes are like saucers. My helmet continuously scrapes the roof above my head. I’ve never enjoyed airy traverses on overhung rock, and this one takes the cake.
With a yell, I lob off onto a good gold and a good red, Black Diamond Ultralight cam. Disappointed and annoyed to have fallen before the crux, I dog back up and then try the crux, which I find straightforward for my +10 ape index – a long, hard pull between 2 jugs, and then it’s over. An uncomfortable, small hanging stance follows, complete with an in-situ nut and a sling. I second the next pitch and find it equally as hard as the crux pitch. We then abseil off for – you guessed it – another cup of tea and lunch. By now the sun has caught us so we exit using Staircase and get ourselves off the mountain.
The Purple Mileage Eater is waiting for me below, and then comes the best part, which is pointing it downhill and sending it home, grinning like an idiot, sunburnt, legs cooked, hands dried out from chalk. Suddenly all the effort feels justified. You’re not just going climbing, you’re earning it, in the most unnecessarily elaborate way possible!
More on Ecopointing
One of the biggest things we can take away from Ecopointing is the mentality that “every effort counts”. With the right flexibility and pragmatism, it is possible to find alternatives that work for you whilst still having a positive environmental impact. To learn more about the movements founders, the constraints that inspired this project, and more ways you can approach Ecopointing, click here.
