Climbing beta/partners for Waterval Boven and Table Mountain

I will be there from January 10th until March 15th. Looking for Trad and sport partners and interested in trying to put up new trad routes as well. Anyone interested or who will be in the area feel free to shoot me a P.M. thanks

Never been to South Africa, but I met a couple of climbers from there this July. I said to them that I'd heard that Boven was a rather good place mainly for Trad. They replied that nowadays most people climbing at Boven are doing Sport.

(also February might be a bit warm there?)

Ken

Thanks Ken. Hope all is well! Yeah from my understanding because it is over 6000 ft in elevation or so it stays somewhat decent with the temps. Sounds like it doesn't get much more than 85 or so mid day. Either way I would love to climb trad and sport at Boven and would really like to get over to Cape Town and do some routes on Table Mountain. Looks like some really beautiful routes. Looks like the Gunks with big airy traverses. I would love to try and put up a new trad route or two in the time I am there as well. Feel like heading to South Africa Ken?

If you're looking for some beta then:

I spent a few weeks there Spring 2015. Email Rock and Rope rocrope.com
They have a nice place in town. You can meet people there. There is a camping place closer to some of the main crags named Tranquilitas, which you need a lift to get to or a car, but I heard it's very basic camping setup.

I booked a ride from Johannesburg to Waterval Boven with lowveldlink.com
It was a bit strange to arrange but it worked out very well. Very nice people doing a good minivan service. They will grab you from the airport or at a location more in the city and get you to the Waterval Boven. Then Rock and Rope can grab you. I wish I had a car while there but it worked out fine not having one since I was alone and would have been expensive.

Good Luck.

jdrago wrote:Feel like heading to South Africa Ken?

Well since January-February is my favorite time to be in the Gunks (I like the skiing there better than the climbing) -- and since summer tends to be a wet season in that part of South Africa ...
I think I'll be targeting more July-August for a visit to Boven.

You might want to read this article:
South Africa's Sport Climbing Mecca

I also saw winter season recommended in a recent French climbing magazine extolling Boven. Other crags warmly recommended by French climbers are on Madagascar (not S.A., but once you've flown that far, why not visit there too?)

Another web page I found is titled "Waterval Boven - Mostly sport climbing"

Looks like Boven is one of the many climbing areas in the world making the rapid transition from Trad to Sport. At the California crag where I met the South African climbers, the conversation started with them commenting how they weren't expecting so many sport routes at what had been known as a Trad area. Then we got talking about N.A. winter destinations and I mentioned one with good climbing but that I'd heard it was mostly Trad -- then my partner said, Well actually now there's lots of new moderate Sport routes there.

Then the S.A. climbers said they liked Boven, and I said I'd heard that was a Trad area, and they said, That was a while ago -- now mostly Sport.

I seem to be late getting the news.

Ken

Thanks for the beta guys. I really appreciate it! Ken winter here is pretty special as well. Thanks again guys! Glad to hear from someone who has used that lowveld link shuttle service. It seemed a little strange when I had looked into it.