While his companions rested, he circled the Great Spitzkop on foot to see if there were any alternative routes up the tortuous slopes. He found none. The northern and western slopes looked impossible, and the southern appeared no better than the face they had already explored. The following day the three men, now guided by beacons, quickly retraced their steps up to the whaleback and reached the point where they had previously run into difficulty - the ledge from which the two cracks led upwards. Le Roux tried the other crack this time and all went well for 40 feet:

"Then about twenty minutes had to be spent in wedging stones in the back of the crack for a belay for the top part. The crack had narrowed and was barely wide enough to squeeze into. It also overhung a bit. Working up the outside Servie had to use great care as the rock was rotten. The crack led up to a few more ledges into another maze of boulders, corridors and tunnels, and after much futile exploration, we anchored the rope over the top of an enormous boulder to enable us to walk down the side of it. After a sensational traverse along a bare granite hogs-back, sloping down on one side in an unbroken curve to the slopes a thousand feet below, we arrived at a fairly level platform with a few huge boulders on it which was our furthest point. Separated from the platform by a narrow deep cleft was a pinnacle of rock about thirty feet higher, quite smooth. There were only two of us and it was getting late owing to the time spent in the maze on the crest, so we decided that we were not justified in attempting more. The view was superb. To the west, beyond the yellow glow of the Namib desert, we could see the blue sheen of the sea, with empty space between".

Although they had not succeeded in overcoming the defences of the Great Spitzkop, the isolation and immense height of the mountain had woven a spell over the three climbers. For Smith it had "an air of hostility. Some mountains are friendly: this one was not." Regretfully they left for home, all hoping to return for another attempt on a peak which offered such a sterling challenge. The far flung ramifications of the war made the early forties, difficult years for mountaineering enthusiasts. In 1942, however Woods and Jarvis found themselves with leave and able to spend a short time climbing in South West Africa. Servaas Le Roux, back from "up north" at an opportune moment, did his best to join them but the exigencies of service life proved insurmountable. Unbeknown to any of them, Le Roux had already trod his last mountain slope. It was not the mountains, however, which claimed his life, but an aircraft crash into the sea off Durban. The sea was determined to have him; if not in one way then another.

Several years earlier, whilst swimming out beyond the breakers near the Strand, Cape Town, Le Roux had been attacked by a huge shark. The shark's jaws had closed round the lower part of his body, but with great presence of mind Le Roux staged a dramatic fight underwater for his life. He jabbed his fingers in the shark's eyes and prised its jaws open with his hands. Somehow he managed to free himself and struggle safely to the beach, the shark making repeated rushes at him all the way. The scars left by the shark's teeth remained with him always - a testimony to one of the most miraculous escapes from a shark ever recorded. The incident in no way damped Le Roux's passion or physical capability for mountaineering. Without Le Roux to accompany them, Jarvis and Woods contented themselves with what the latter subsequently described as rambles through the Ai-Ais (Fish River-Konkiip) area of South West Africa. For the present wartime petrol restrictions and limited time ruled out further attempts on the more distant Great Spitzkop and Königsstein.

In August, 1943 Woods, on army leave, again made tracks for his beloved South West Africa. This time for another assault on Königsstein. Accompanied for part of the way by an old Berg Damara (Johannes), Woods tried a different route from the one which he had attempted in 1940 and this time had little difficulty in reaching the top. A small cairn confirmed the previous ascent of the German party led by R. Maack in January 1918. Maack had spent some time in this area, searching for evidence of Bushmen occupation and copying the fine rock paintings which decorate many of the ravines. In 1945 a party of German mountaineers from Swakopmund made another unsuccessful attempt on the Great Spitzkop, following the route pioneered by Servaas le Roux in 1940. The next attack was made by O. Shipley, L. D. Schaff and P. O'Neill in July, 1946. A preliminary reconnaissance showed that the key to the conquest of the mountain was probably a gendarme (tower) on the west of the south ridge, and that the west wall would probably provide an easier approach than that tackled by Le Roux and Smith.

"By friction walking on hands and toes up the long whale-back formations stretching diagonally across the western face the ridge was reached towards the late afternoon, and following Servie's beacons, through a labyrinth of tunnels and open passages, we reached the gendarme. If we had thought to overcome this obstacle the hopelessness of the task was quickly realised. A towering block of rock, 50 feet high and as smooth as an eggshell, blocked the ridge entirely and effectively. To climb it was out of the question; to pass it on either side was an engineering feat, not a climbing one. Descending a hundred feet to the left on a rope gained nothing. Even should this block be negotiated, a hundred feet or more of climbing of unknown difficulty remained to be done before the summit could be claimed."