Wellington’s Dome Weekend

The sun is already burning down but a stiff breeze is hiding the heat. You’re halfway up a 120m high chunk of granite wall. Your left big toe is pushed down onto a little crimpy ridge, while you right is just, kind of, smeared against the wall. Your hands? They’re currently massaging the rock above you, looking for anything to hold. You find a small, sharp edge up high on the left, place your fingertips and find some friction. For your feet, you’ve got a solid 5mm pebble around your right knee. You move your weight, get your foot on there and just…step up. To what you ask? No idea yet, we’re about to find out. Balancing on your toes, you can’t see any hold, nor any chalk. In a hail mary, you just slap that slopy looking rock above you. It sticks! Cool. Now move the other foot up, stabilize yourself and take a breather; you’re about to do it all over again, and again. Sounds fun? Hell yeah, welcome to the world of slab!

For a while now, I’ve been wanting to go climb at a place called Wellington’s Dome, in the Mokopane area, along the N1. However, around 8 years ago, there were some serious security issues, and it was deemed a better idea to go in a bigger group. While reaching out to Joburg Section, I had noticed there was already a Wellington meet planned mid-June. Perfect timing. After getting some early details from them, we managed to hustle up four MCSA Limpopo members to join their meet. We’re calling it a joint-meet, but little organization was required on our end: we just rocked up ready to climb.

Luckily all four of us, Karine, Jason, Carl and myself were able to get a head start by leaving Friday afternoon for the long drive to a farm called Thabapashwa, the campsite for this weekend and about a 40 minute drive away from the Dome. We had booked one of the cabins at the ‘Dome Rock camp’, as this was historically a favored spot for most climbers. On arrival we were surprised by the most quirky ‘cabins’ we’ve ever seen. It is hard to describe but it resembles the glass cabinet where your mom keeps her expensive china. Glass walls and doors on the front, with the beds taking up about 90% of the indoor space, and the firepit basically right next to our beds. Luckily we were first and picked a cabin with an extra indoor room for our food and gear. It was proper weird, but great at the same time. Only afterwards I learned these aquariums were designed by an actual architect; the plot thickens.

During the braai that followed, we made plans for the day after. Between the four of us, we had different levels of experience, but all of us were new to slab. Mostly for this reason, and to avoid congestion on the main Dome, we decided to start our slab-mission on the Sarcophagus, a smaller, isolated granite dome just before the main Dome. This would give us a nice spot for some workshopping and practice on granite slab, before attempting to hit the bigger multi-pitch routes on the main Dome on Sunday.

The next morning, we headed out early in convoy with the Joburg folks. The area is a bit intimidating; stories about crime were still in the back of our heads, and more pronounced, a big vanadium mining operation all along the road. At our exit to the dirt road, we were stopped by a long line of fences that seemed to have advanced since last time climbing meet. The Dome was right there in sight, but it seemed far away at this point. Luckily, the high-profile security patrol came by to check up on us, and told us we could just continue the road going round the fence, and it would bring us to where we wanted to go. They even promised to come to check up on us for safety. Climbing was on!

As per plan, we parked at the Sarcophagus, while the rest of the crowd went ahead to the main Dome. After a bit of bundubashing, we hit the routes we were aiming for, a 2-pitch, grade 16 called Ramses Ramrod for Carl and me, while Karine and Jason were heading around the corner for another beginner 2-pitch. The climbing was easy enough, but at the same time, still challenging to figure out what you can get away with on slab. This marked the beginning of an ongoing conversation about slab and how different it feels to what we’re used to. In a way, you make the same moves as with more regular sports climbing, but at the same time, you’re much less reliant on finger strength and more on balance. Balance and pure, almost blind faith that your foot will stick to the wall. Personally, I felt it was much more of a mental game than a physical one. Falling would not be dangerous, just painful; cheesegrating your knees or face against sandpapery granite did not seem appealing. On top of that, we noticed quite a few sections were ‘run out’ between the bolts. More experienced slab-climbers wouldn’t even notice this, as the climbing was easy enough, but for us it definitely was having an effect.

This first practice run gave us enough confidence to tackle the main Dome on Sunday, although still a bit undecided on what route to take. As my first go at leading a multi-pitch, I was content to tackle a 6-pitch 17 called ‘Older, Slower, Wiser’, not at all offended by the name, with Carl. Karine was thinking about checking out the classic 19, ‘Where Eagles Dare’, but after learning that the hardest pitch was halfway up instead of at the bottom, it seemed wiser to follow us on the 17.
After a bit of a slow start at the bottom, we hit the rock. The first pitch was the hardest, but in the end, it was all very doable. Apart from some fumbling at the first anchor, the rest of the climb went smooth as butter. It was all pretty easy, with plenty of holds and honestly, super enjoyable. Proper fun all the way up. The plan was to combine the last 2 pitches, but when I reached the end of the 5th pitch, I was somewhat surprised to top out right then and there. I can only imagine somewhere lower they removed one of the anchors to combine two shorter pitches. The 6-pitch turned into a 5-pitch. It mattered not. Once Carl joined me at the top, we had plenty of time to enjoy a snack, with a beautiful view of the mining operation pretty much all around us. Yah, it’s not the most picturesque climbing location, but the climbing itself was worth it. Somewhere below us, we could hear Karine and Jason making their way up. Two routes to the right, a team from Joburg was coming up the 19. While huffing and puffing at the top, they told us this route was no joke whatsoever, and they did struggle a bit on the hardest pitch. Perhaps we made the right choice to avoid that route…

After Karine and Jason joined us for some mandatory group selfies, it was time to get down and get out of the burning sun. No one was coming up behind us on the route, so instead of taking the gulley on the back of the face we rapped down the route.

A cool thing about Thabapashwa and Dome Rock camp in specific, is that there’s three bolted boulders around the camp. So even though we had a nice time out, we weren’t done climbing yet! The 19 boulder problem whooped our asses for a while, until Karine managed to make the big move and send it just before dark.

Of course, the dark is followed by another campfire, and another day to plan. While we weren’t exactly done with climbing Wellington’s Dome, we felt like we weren’t keen to struggle on a harder route, and the easier routes would be too similar as to what we already did, except, well, easier. Instead, we made a plan to spend the Monday at Thabapashwa and its own granite slabby crag.

The goal was to get a lot of climbing in, and try some harder climbs, just to see how those would feel. Luckily, there’s a good variety of routes, so off we went! From the parking, it’s a conveniently short walk up to the crag, where a massive fig tree was waiting for us to provide welcome shade. We weren’t the only ones there though, as the place was absolutely crawling with red bug nymphs, many, many thousands of them; an added handicap as a single squished bug is not great when your desperate for friction.

Again, we started with a warmup on easier stuff, and slowly built it up. Carl and Jason hit a 16, possibly 17 called Crackadelic, while Karine and me went up a 17 called Triple Town, right next to each other. After switching routes, Carl and Jason went looking higher up for some other easier routes, while Karine was eyeing the 19 ‘My Big Toe’. Luckily, due to the routes being close together, we could set up top ropes from one route to the next. Some moves looked quite challenging and my fingertips were already beaten up from all the sharp crimps so there were no complaints from my side on the extra security blanket of a top rope. From Triple Town, we moved onto Money on the Rocks, then My Big Toe. All of these climbs were good fun, in a slab kind of way, but I think we were all very glad we did it on top rope, for now. This trip was not about struggling, but all about learning new techniques, and trusting the rock.

We ended the day by going to the Kanniedood hut, named after the massive green Corkwood trees all around this three-story, wobbly mountain hut: perfect for sundowners, and a last climb for some on the adjacent route. Time for reflection, and talk about how slab can feel amazing and horrible at the same time and watching at the sun sink down behind the distant mountains. O, and laughing at the perfectly chicken-shaped rock on top of one of the koppies.

What a way and place to end a spectacular weekend of climbing! Thank you Joburg Section for organizing the meet, and thanks Karine, Jason and Carl for bringing the psych!

Written by: Marcel Span