Climbing Experience

It can be so exciting, riveting even – clinging to a rock face, watching your footing and carefully choosing where to hang on, where to reach for next and with just some rope to save you should you make a wrong move. Rock climbing is something that once you get into it you can’t help but continually bigger and bigger goals for yourself. Alteus et latius: higher and wider.

What to do and where to go if you’ve never done any rock climbing before? As with most dangerous things in life: ask the experts, get the right training and gear up properly, then take things gradually as you get fitter and stronger, ready for the next challenge. And one of the best places in South Africa to get a good introduction to rock climbing is CityRock, the Indoor Climbing Gym in Observatory, Cape Town: large climbing wall, huge bouldering cave, big top rope and lead climbing area, a rock climbing gear shop second to none.

For the uninitiated, bouldering is a kind of rock climbing but done just three or four metres above the ground. It’s about accomplishing intricate manoeuvres on and around big boulders – you don’t use any ropes but there are thick mats below to help lessen the blow should you fall! Some find indoor climbing and bouldering to be fantastic in themselves. Others regard it as a means to work on your strength and technique in preparation for your next rock climbing expedition who knows where.

The basic courses one can take cover the use of harnesses, climbing shoes, ropes and knots, karabiners (mountaineering clips), safety procedures as well as belay devices and techniques – belaying being the process of managing the safety ropes for your rock climbing partner. Then there are lead courses, technique courses and, should you wish, personalised courses and training tailored to suit your specific requirements. 

Many a rock climbing convert wants to get into the great outdoors as soon as possible, and outfits like Roc ‘n Rope Adventures in Waterval Boven offer one of the ideal ways and places to get started – nothing like the Alps or Everest, but sufficiently challenging and fun while taking in some beautiful places and historical sites in the Mpumalanga Highlands. Over 700 routes with various difficulty ratings to choose from in this, one of South Africa’s premier rock climbing destinations.

Outsidedge Adventures, based at Hartbeespoort Dam and specialising in outdoor adventure activities in the Gauteng and North West provinces, is another option for those both new to and experienced in rock climbing. And whenever one talks about rocks and climbing the conversation will inevitably turn to somewhere or other in the vicinity of Montagu.

Based at Montagu’s Aasvoëlkrans B&B, say, you could explore what some refer to as the rock climbing capital of South Africa – sweating and toiling under the heat of the sun, discovering muscles you didn’t know you had, enjoying the challenges of the various rock faces and looking forward to returning to your oasis in the valley at the end of it all.