Montagu Rock. A guide to Sport and Trad climbing in and around Montagu, by Tony Lourens

Montagu Rock. A guide to Sport and Trad climbing in and around Montagu, by Tony Lourens. Blue Mountain Design & Publishing. Cape Town, South Africa 2022. ISBN 9780620995696 / ISBN 978-0-620-99569-6

Montagu Rock: A guide to Sport and Trad climbing in and around Montagu by Tony Lourens, is a comprehensive climbing guidebook covering all the sport routes, and the trad climbing as well, the first and only to describe all the trad routes in detail in and around Montagu.

Tony Lourens  

Climbing in Montagu - a historical overview

Strangely enough, even though many mountainous areas in the Western Cape fell prey to the early explorations of mountaineers and climbers in the early and mid 1900s, the mountains and rock walls around Montagu only received attention in the very early 70s. Not sure why, perhaps it was that the mountains were not quite as big as the huge and extensive ranges like the Hexrivier, Du Toit's Kloof and the Swartberg. Be that as it may, Montagu had its first taste of climbing in 1971, when Cape climbers Greg Moseley and Brian de Villiers climbed the spectacular-looking arete/ridge up the crest of the buttress to the right of the very prominent Cogman's Buttress, which one sees as a huge twisted mountain of rock when approaching the town of Montagu, just after you drive through the rock tunnel. It is unmistakable. They called their route Eagle's Folly, and it takes a grand line up the ridge in about seven pitches. Montagu's very first rock climb and still considered one of the finest ridge climbs in the Western Cape. Soon after, Moseley and co put up a meandering route up the middle of the main Cogman's Buttress, and in 1974, Richard Smithers and Brian de Villiers put up another trad route up the same buttress, but a little more direct. But climbing in the Montagu area really took a turn when in 1978, visiting Transvaal climbers, Eckhardt Haber and Errol Nienaber, discovered a somewhat hidden kloof a few kilometres on the Barrydale side of Montagu. They went to investigate, and opened a route called Lost World, which they duly recorded in the MCSA Journal. But it wasn't until 1982, that the big break through happened. Cape climbers started showing interest in this kloof, which became known as Lost World, named after the first climb opened there. Local heroes, Andrew de Klerk, Ed February, Greg Lacey and Dave Kelfkins, amongst others, made a trip to Lost World to see what all the fuss was about, and they walked into a climbers' paradise. They put up a slew of excellent routes, single and multi-pitch, and over the next few years other strong climbers joined in, Jono Fisher, Paul Schlotfeldt, Jeremy Colenso, Tinie Versfeld and quite a few others, added many quality routes to this now growing trad-climbing venue. But it was South African climbing legend, Andrew de Klerk (AdK), who made Lost World his own by projecting The Wall of Darkness, and in the process opening a clutch of excellent hard routes, like the brilliant and timeless classic, Technicolour Darkness (26), as well as Technicians of the Sacred (28) and Amandla (26), amongst many others. AdK, along with other climbers, went on to develop the various crags over the next five years or so, during which they opened some excellent routes, making Lost World one of the premier trad-climbing venues in South Africa. Sadly, the land on which Lost World is situated was sold about a decade or so later and the new owners developed an up-market tourist resort on the property and stopped all access to climbing. [...]

This is an excerpt from Montagu Rock. A guide to Sport and Trad climbing in and around Montagu, by Tony Lourens.

Title: Montagu Rock
Subtitle: A guide to Sport and Trad climbing in and around Montagu
Author: Tony Lourens
Publisher: Blue Mountain Design & Publishing
Cape Town, South Africa 2022
ISBN 9780620995696 / ISBN 978-0-620-99569-6
Softcover, 15 x 21 cm, 328 pages, throughout colour photos