South Africa - Guide Service

Hey Everyone,

      I have a work trip to South Africa near the end of July 2022.  I have a couple days work in both Johannesburg and Cape Town and was hoping to hire a guide for a day to do some climbing.  I guess at this point I'm looking for ALL THE INFORMATION.  Hah.  Best places to climb? Any classic must-do routes (would like to stay in the 5.10 and lower range)?  Any recommendation on where to stay (Cape Town vs. Johannesburg (elsewhere?)) for the climbing portion. Literally any information anyone has to shed some light on this future trip would be helpful.      

As far as climbing around Joburg, your best bet is waterval boven (renamed emgwenya). It’s about 3 hours from Johannesburg on a major highway. There’s a business there called roc ‘n rope that will set you up with whatever you need (gear, guide, accommodation). Rocrope.com 

Table Mountain in Cape Town is incredible.  It climbs like the Gunks, but with bigger cliffs and an ocean view.  

Getting to good climbing from Joburg takes some driving.  Watervall Boven is great single pitch sport climbing on nice sandstone.

Patrick Stefanski wrote:

I have a work trip to South Africa near the end of July 2022.  I have a couple days work in both Johannesburg and Cape Town...      

Just remember that July is winter down there, and it can be quite stormy in Cape Town (but it can also be very pleasant between cold fronts). Sometimes you can escape the wet weather by driving two hours inland to Montagu. Johannesburg isn't as close to good climbing as Cape Town, but winter there is usually sunny and dry, with mild days and cool nights.

Here's a useful site: https://www.climbing.co.za.

I've recently moved to Cape Town, and would recommend Ross Suiter if you want a fun day out climbing trad at Table Mountain.

For sport climbing silvermine is your best bet for climbing in the 5.10 and under range.  

Waterval Boven (2.5 hours from Johannesburg) is the best sport climbed spot in the country and will have hundreds of great routes in the 5.10 range.  I'm climbing at Boven right now BTW!

Hope this helps.  Feel free to DM me also for any specific questions

https://www.highadventure.co.za

Here is Ross' webpage

I'd second the vote for Ross Suter (=correct spelling).  We had hired Ross to organize all the logistics short of leading stuff for us for a 2 week climbing trip to Western Cape in Dec. of 2017.  It was great!  

Ross was slow responding to emails back then.  Might want to call him instead.

There's so much more to Western Cape than just Table Mountain (esp. if you like, long multi-pitch trad lines with no other climbers anywhere in sight).   Here's the stuff we did there if you're looking for ideas:   chossclimbers.com/testing/a…

Thanks everyone who responded!  This is such a help as I plan my trip, THANK YOU!