This is about my latest climbing event. I managed to get a Saturday off work and escape on Friday 1pm. Andreas from the mountain club drove with me to Spitzkoppe and we did 5 routes that afternoon to get used to the rock. All went well and so we decided to go for the route “to bolt or not to bolt” up to the peak of Pontok Spitz on Saturday. We camped at the foot of the walk up the Pontoks, a mountain range next to Spitzkoppe. It was going to be my first long climbing route up to the top of a mountain! There would be full daylight half past six, but Andreas crazily decided we have to get up half past four already. It did not matter as I was so excited that I hardly slept anyway. So we had plenty of time for breakfast and to sort things out in the morning. With the first faint sign of dawn, still under the light of half moon, we started walking up a huge slab towards the beginning of the climbing route. At the end of that slab we had to pause and wait for more daylight in order to find the little stone cairns which marked the further way through the boulders. Sunrise up there was great! The landscape was like a huge, beautiful stone garden with strange plants like Aloe and Euphorbia. Half past seven we reached the bottom of the first climbing pitch. We re-packed our things, left the hiking shoes, enough water and what else we did not need on the climb there, tidied up the ropes and off we went! In front of us waited 9 pitches, 270m, partly natural, partly bolted, granite route of grading 15 to 18. 18 was the highest I ever managed to climb, so it was quite a challenge for me. Andreas has been there before and he was kindly leading all the way. Especially granite is so much easier on a top rope! Most of the time you feel like sliding down, standing on almost nothing and holding at nothing at all. Nevertheless, I enjoyed that climb very much and after 4h and only one slip of myself we reached the top. We were rewarded with great views over to Spitzkoppe and the field around. After a short break we abseiled down to an overhang for lunch in the shade. Then we abseiled all the way down which took quite some time. At the last pitch the rope got caught between the rock so Andreas had to climb up again and free it. Back at the bottom of the climb I was glad to take the climbing shoes off, the feet were really hurting from all the standing on the steep slopes. 12h after setting off we were back in camp, enjoyed a bush-shower and braai. We went to bed very early that evening and slept well until the sun was high up. On Sunday we climbed a few single routes to round up the weekend. Then I even followed Andreas up a grade 21 route, although he said it was overgraded. When toes and fingers hurt too much we called it a day and made our way back to Windhoek.
