"On gaining the neck, we were struck by two things - the heat of the afternoon sun and the apparent nearness of the summit of The Great Spitzkop. Future parties should be warned that the true summit cannot even be seen from this nek, and that it is fully 300 feet above it. A brief examination of the face above the neck sufficed to convince us of the hopelessness of attempting it, and so we continued down the small, grassy gully which descends from the nek in a westerly direction. About a hundred feet down it terminates abruptly on a small ledge below. Seventy feet lower is a larger ledge, which we immediately recognised as the one on which the July party had bivouacked. We fixed a rope, and slid down it to the ledge below. It is roomy and comfortable, and extends southwards for a considerable distance - perhaps a hundred yards. We found several places that might be climbed by mechanical methods, but soon decided that the most feasible of all was the pitch the July party had tried. They had chiselled four small steps, each just large enough to take the toe of a tackie, in a steep wall, which appeared from below to begin to lie back a little about 20 feet up. The lower pair of steps is seven or eight feet above the stance at the bottom of the pitch. The higher pair is a similar distance above the lower. Between the two pairs they had driven a piton into a fortunately placed crack. This piton provides a most welcome belay for the leader, and without it the cutting of the upper pair of steps might well have been termed unjustifiable. As it is, the cutting of these must have called for an exceptional sense of balance and a very high degree of general rock-climbing ability.

Stepping off his second's shoulders, the leader climbed on to the top steps, and dealt the rock at a point about shoulder height on his right a few blows with the back of a piton hammer. It made little impression, and all the chips blew into his eyes. So he descended, and we walked back along the ledge, climbed up the fixed rope, and returned to our bivouac. The next morning we were up at six, and at the foot of the 'step pitch' by seven. An exceptionally strong wind forced us to wait until nine before attempting the pitch again. Then the leader again climbed on to the top steps and made another attempt at chipping a fifth. It should be explained that chipping a step entails removing the red, weathered surface of the rock, and exposing the hard, blue granite underneath. Even with a hammer and chisel this is by no means easy; and so after a short attempt the leader placed a foot cautiously on the mere mark he had succeeded in making on the rock, and started to friction walk. With some difficulty he gained a stance 40 feet higher.

This pitch is really difficult, and would be graded as a mechanical super E. As the granite seems to weather very rapidly, future parties are likely to find it even more difficult than we did - for we were able to use the steps cut four months previously by the July party, whereas they will in all probability have to cut their own. Passing between two large boulders, we came to the foot of the next pitch. One can either climb the 40 foot grass crack directly ahead and traverse to the right on friction grips to an obvious stance, or one can climb the chimney on the right, which leads directly to the stance, and is slightly easier. A short friction walk leads to a ledge a few feet higher. From here a grass crack leads up for about 20 feet to the base of a second and thinner grass crack, which cuts diagonally across the face to the left. We followed the line of these two cracks, which supply most of the holds - a number of which are unsound. Near the junction of the two cracks a well-placed piton afforded the leader a measure of protection - which was not unwelcome, as the pitch is difficult, and the most exposed on the climb.

The last man removed the piton before joining the others on a stance 80 feet up, at the top of an adjacent water chute. Future parties might well examine the possibilities of the lower part of this chute, by traversing to the left from the top of the 'step pitch'. Sixty feet of friction walking, upwards and to the left, led to a substantial stance. Climbing up behind a huge boulder, we reached a smaller stance 30 feet higher. Stepping off the right-hand end of this, a difficult movement enabled one to get started on the next pitch - a lay-back reminiscent of the shaly crack on Barrier Frontal. This lands one near the start of a deep and prominent crack in the final dome. This crack is extremely awkward, and was negotiated with some difficulty. It leads to a stance 80 feet up, from which the summit is gained by a steep friction walk of a further 20 feet. We reached the summit at noon, the final 400 feet having taken three hours. After a short rest we started the descent. Fortunately we had two ropes, totalling 200 feet, in addition to the one we had fixed for the descent to the large ledge below the steps, and 100 feet of sashcord for cutting into loops; and so we were able to abseil most of the way down to the large ledge. This took about two hours. By the time the sun began to set we were again tramping across the desert. ..."

And so, on November 14, 1946, the Great Spitzkop the Matterhorn of South West Africa - finally yielded. But only after a series of four assaults spread over a period of six years. Jannie De Villiers Graaff's modest account scarcely indicates the exceptional difficulties of the climb. Past experience on the sandstone crags of the Western Province proved practically valueless on this mountain. The granite of the Great Spitzkop's precipitous slopes is devoid of all handholds, and slopes can only be friction-climbed when they lie back at angles of less than 50 degrees. In many places it was only possible to advance along cracks or chimneys. As O'Neill had pointed out earlier the ascent of the Great Spitzkop required the learning of a new climbing technique. A later conqueror of the mountain, Friedrich Schreiber, described it as a "route so complicated that one must describe its discovery as the work of genius". The "Matterhorn" of S.W.A. remained inviolate for 10 years after the first ascent. A spate of successful climbs, however, in 1957. From that year until I960 the summit book shows the following names in chronological order:

1. January, 1957: Graham Louw; D. A. M. Smith.
2. June, 1957: Horst Lachenmann; Rosalie and Ken Bethune.
3. October, 1957: K. Sobek; Walter Zimmermann.
4. April, 1958: Walter Zimmermann; Richard Helm.
5. June, 1958: Walter Zimmermann; Klaus Linning; Wilfred Trümper.
6. July, 1958: Friedrich Schreiber; Horst Lachenmann.
7. June, 1959: Richard Helm; Dr. Walter Helm; Walter Rom.
8. July, 1959: L. C. Thompson; E. Thompson; R. Davies.
9. January, I960: Ken Bethune; Horst Lachenmann; Friedrich Schreiber.
10. April, I960: Friedrich Schreiber; Horst Lachenmann; Richard Helm.

The last of these ascents, the party led by Freidrich Schreiber, was a particularly meritorious achievement as it marked the pioneering of a new route up the west wall, This western route, which called for a large selection of pitons, was an even more formidable one than the earlier one up the north-west face, and doubtless further challenges still await the brave on the slopes of the Grosse Spitzkuppe.