Goodbye Rocklands, Hello Photos

So I'm out of Rocklands for good. Finally. I hit a brick wall on every trip, that threshold after which I stop caring about climbing. I've been there for a few weeks now. I write from Cape Town, my home for the next two days until I get on the 'ol flight home.

Some photos then. Left you can see John on Black Mango Chutney (7c+). Such an awesome crimp, and yet again more proof that you shouldn't try problems that you've already done. Best case scenario, you do it, who cares. Worst case scenario, you don't do it, you feel like a failure. There just isn't any winning here. For the last week and a half, my fingers have been minced, so re-success was out of the question with that sharp, sharp crimp.

I've been staying at the Alpha Farms homestead, all by myself now that the Germies have left. It has something like 8 beds in 4 rooms. I slept on the couch in the kitchen. The space was too large to conceive, so I pretended smaller in my mind. This is the view from the porch. I felt like a colonial robber baron.

That's Jonas working the cube. I've always thought the rubik's cube was too complex for my little mind, and I've always given up after ten minutes of failure. Rest days with lots of coffee changed that, and now my best time to completion is just under 3 minutes. It's kind of like climbing training, at least with old cubes like this. You get pumped when going for speed! My goal was one minute by the end of the trip, but I need more tricks before that happens. A one minute cube has always been a goal of mine - a life goal of sorts, like seeing the pyramids or eating human flesh.

Golden Virginia (8A), my last rock boulder problem thing in South Africa. It certainly isn't one of the best, but there aren't any crimps, just what I needed. It also cleans up real nice with a little chalk. I keep forgetting how much temperature makes a difference, even when I'm reminded weekly. After 45 minutes on this problem, I gave up with no luck. I climbed a little more, it cooled down, and I learned that impossible is relative. I won't forget again though, thanks to a handy new mnemonic device of mine:

Shirt off, rocks you scoff
Shirt on, climb like Donkey Kong

Scott on the recently broken Crazy Legs (7A+?). So sad. You don't even need crazy legs anymore, regular ones will do the trick.

Once again, model Jonas on an 8A around the back of the Sunset Arete boulder. He wants it, look at his face! But not badly enough to go back for the send. I don't blame him, a second rate problem if I've ever seen one. But who am I to criticize after Golden Virginia?