Namibgrens

The last long weekend I spent with a friend on the farm Namibgrens near Spreegthoogte Pass, the way to Solitaire. We had not planned anything in particular, just relaxed, went for one short and one full day hike and enjoyed the view from the escarpment down to the Namib Desert and over to the Gamsberg. The campsite was new and typical Namibian: an open "kitchen" which means a water tap, sink and fireplace, an open tent for shade, a shower next to the rock with a wooden fence around and a toilet with a little tree inside a similar fence. I always find it funny to see the white ceramic basins in the middle of the bush with no wall around or roof above. And I do enjoy the free view while sitting there. We only saw a few wild animals on the farm: dassies, a hare, a leguan and the track of a large snake which had crossed the sand road, possibly puff adder or phyton.

Spitzkoppe summit

I spent a long weekend at Spitzkoppe once more. This time the aim was to climb the summit of Spitzkoppe itself which is 1728m high. Andreas and me arrived around lunchtime and waited for a Russian woman to join us. For warming up we climbed “desert rose”, a grade 13 pure friction route up the Sugar Loaf. It sounds easy and it was not hard, but the leading climber had to have good nerves as most pitches did not have bolts or any kind of protection – just around 30m to the next anchor which was not visible from the start of the pitch. I lead 2 pitches and each time was very relieved when I could see the anchor. I did not like the idea of climbing the pitch back down in case there was nothing on the top. We happily arrived on the top and enjoyed the view around before abseiling.
The ascent of Spitzkoppe was planned for the next day. We camped near the start of the scramble and got on the way at 6am. It is a long scrambling route and not always easy to find the way as there are waymarks of stone everywhere. We made good progress and had a break for a second breakfast at the bottom of the climb at 9am. It is an interesting route with 3 chimneys, 1 traverse and very few bolts or anchors. Andreas lead all the way as he has been there 10 times before. At 1pm the three of us walked up the last bit to the top hand in hand. We enjoyed the view over to the Pontoks and the Sugar Loaf which we climbed before and they looked very small from up there. Then we read odd pages in the summit book and entered ourselves and had a short break. After that the long abseil started. It went well, but it took some time. We also used the ropes to support us at the first part of the steep scramble down. In the end we had to hurry up as the daylight was fading and it became difficult to find the way through the boulders. However, we managed and arrived back in camp at 6:30pm, exhausted but happy.
Then we had a day rest, walking around and enjoying the rock formations and climbing 2 routes in the evening. The last day we spent the morning at Klippdachswand. I lead a 3 pitch grade 17 route which went fine and Andreas a 3 pitch grade 19. After a long lunch break I lead a short grade 18 route which I had not climbed before. I struggled a bit, but eventually made it. We decided we have to come back to this great climbing area soon, maybe to climb Rhino Horn, a grade 22.