Words: Hanneke Pienaar-Steenekamp | Photos: Cara Fleischer, Van Zyl Steenekamp and Hanneke Pienaar-Steenekamp
Many a late night my friend had to listen to us talk of our most inspired climbing trip ever! Using her birthday as an excuse, she got us all to return to Fight the Feeling, the playground of our ‘youth’. To add to the appeal we had to go in winter, it was tradition after all ...
Photo credit: Cara Fleischer
But first, let’s go back six years to the winter of 2005 and the start of our love affair with climbing.
We were a vivacious group of friends, sharing one great passion, the outdoors. If it was a sport and it could be done outdoors, we did it. And then we discovered rock climbing. Always looking for ways to make our climbing trips extraordinary, we decided on the renowned Fight the Feeling; a five-star route that climbers travel across the country to tackle! It’s a multi-pitch sport route consisting of six pitches that vary in grades from 14 all the way up to 21; one of the classics! But of course we weren’t satisfied with just climbing it like normal climbers, so we decided to modify it and make it a sleepover party, in the middle of winter. Now for those of you not acquainted with Harrismith’s weather, it’s COLD and in winter it is EXTREMELY COLD! But we always liked a challenge, so this just added to the appeal. After the fourth pitch there is a large overhang optimistically called Rave Cave and this is where we spent the night chatting under the stars, with a bit of OBS to keep us warm. It was a truly magnificent weekend, with great company! And so began the tradition of making all our trips to Harrismith in the heart of winter for years to come. Now back to the present.
Our group of friends, having grown in numbers and a preference for more comfortable accommodation, hired a chalet at Arendskop as our weekend base. This cosy cottage comes with a fireplace, piping hot water that thankfully never seems to run out and enough beds to sleep nine people. The plan was to climb this epic route again, without the sleepover, but as the weather had dropped below zero with howling winds of more than 25km/h and gusting over 45km/h, we almost changed our minds. Now, although we like to believe otherwise, all of us aren’t as adventurous as we used to be! The end result was that only three of the group set out to brave the frigid climb up Fight the Feeling that morning. And little did we know what an eventful climb it would be!
Arriving at the start of the route, still full of spunk, we didn’t realise that the wind here, which was pumping quite hectically between the brushes, was nothing compared to what it was a few pitches up.
“Belay on, climb when ready!” “What?”
“I said, BELAY ON, CLIMB WHEN READY!” “WHAT?”
Photo credit: Cara Fleischer
And this is how it went for the rest of our short climb, the wind whipping the words away the moment they left our lips. If we had thought that the going was tough so far, it was at the third pitch (graded 21) when events really turned pear-shaped. Our designated difficult-pitch leader took a magnificent fall after the wind swept him off the rock, millimetres before clipping the bolt at the crux move. And then a second and third fall. Accepting that we were not going to get the better of Mother Nature, we called a close to the climbing proceedings for the day. But this was only the beginning of the fun she had in store for us!
For those of you who have climbed this route, you will have seen the chicken heads littered all over the face, except where the line of the route goes. Now add these chicken heads to a howling 45km/h wind and a rope that ripples out in the wind like a thread to the mix and what you are left with is a rope that inadvertently tangles itself around every chicken head in sight, as well as those you can’t see. Not a pleasant sight or experience!
Then as you dropped the rope below you it instantly became tangled horizontally downwind from you, the moment you started abseiling. Struggling on, we crabbed this way and that to unhook the rope as we slowly inched our way down.
The last pitch is over an overhang where you have to abseil far away from the rock and into a tiny clearing in the bushes created by climbers before you. It’s a truly amazing experience on a relatively windless day, but on this day it was a nightmare. Me being the stunt dummy, probably because I’m too air-headed to worry about technicalities, went down first. But once again the demonic wind played havoc with the rope, which got stuck on an obstacle that was out of sight. Left with no choice, I boldly abseiled over the edge of the overhang. BIG mistake! The rope was not only solidly jammed, but it left me hanging impossibly out of reach of the rock! Luckily my survival instincts kicked in and I quickly attached myself to the rope with two prussicks. My two climbing partners, quite resourceful individuals, eventually managed to release the rope! Unbeknownst to us, another group of climbers had observed our predicament and were halfway up the first pitch to try and ‘rescue’ us! Now if you are a climber, you will understand that image is everything and you can do whatever, as long as you look good doing it – which we were definitely not! So although we were grateful to the other group for coming to our aid, we were left a bit red faced.
The next day, after we had soothed our bruised egos, we climbed Men Behaving Badly (17) and then set off for home at peace with the mountain again. My friend maybe didn’t get the Fight the Feeling experience she had looked for, but she had gotten a Fight the Feeling EXPERIENCE!
dinFO
Climbing Mount Eagle is Top Notch Eagle Mountain, previously known as Mt. Everest, is a game ranch that’s a stone’s throw away from Harrismith. For those more versed in the climbing scene, it is one of the most appealing sport climbing locations in South Africa. It has about 140 fully-bolted sport routes ranging from grades 7 to 28, which include more than a dozen multi-pitch routes. There are also about 20 trad routes. If you are thinking of climbing there, I would strongly recommend Gavin Peckham’s book, ‘Rock Climbing at Eagle Mountain’. It can be purchased online at www.climb.co.za
