Rachel Strate climbing in round 4 of the NBL

Tuesday evening was the 4^th round of boulder league at the UCT wall, although attendance was not up to previous week’s standards the climbing definitely was, with everyone putting in some serious effort into the evening’s problems.
The Men’s Open category saw some challenging problems starting with problem 12, Robbie Fraser put in some serious effort but was unfortunately not rewarded with the send. In the end only Benjamin de Charmoy, Marijus & Edvinas Šmigelskis topped out problem 12.

Problems 13 and 14 proved to be the deciding problems, with Andrew Wood and Marijus managed to reach the halfway mark on this problem, while Edvinas was able to finish the problem. Marijus managed to grab half points for problem 14 to level out the score between him and Edvinas. The round ended with Marijus & Edvinas tie for 1^st place and Andrew Wood close behind them in third place followed by Benjamin de Charmoy.

The Women’s Open category was a challenge between Wiebke Toussaint and Rachel Strate with both of them matching each other problem for problem the whole evening. Though it can be said that problem 7 provided the greatest entertainment with both climbers being pushed to their limit with the reachy moves right up until the last move, grabbing the final hold definitely looked like quite a relief to both of them.

The Men’s intermediate category was a close battle between most of the climbers competing on the night. Problems 8 & 9 saw lots of attempts with most of the climbers proving to be successful on it in the end. Problem 10 seemed to separate the group with Keith Forbes, Micky Wiswedel and Michael Woodward sending it to tie fro 1^st place. Sebastian Wyngaard and Luke Gregor were both unlucky to send 10, both very close to the finishing hold.

It must be said that problem 12 definitely provided most of the evening’s entertainment with lots of climbers trying various tactics to get through the moves, from Greg Bowden’s noisy ‘Sharma inspired’ lunges and Keith Forbes creative yet incredibly awkward looking Figure-4 beta. All in all it was a rather enjoyable evenings climbing. ”

Men’s Open
1    Marijus Smigelskis    138
2    Edvinas Smigelskis    138
3    Andrew Wood    123
4    Benjamin de Charmoy    108
5    Robbie Fraser    98
6    Duncan Fraser    98
7    Jimbo Smith    88
8    Alan Hills    68
9    Greg Bowden    53

Women’s Open
1    Rachel Strate    120
2    Wiebke Toussaint    120

Men’s Intermediate
1    Keith Forbes    68
2    Michael Woodward    68
3    Micky Wiswedel    68
4    Sebastian Wyngaard    58
5    Luke Gregor    56
6    Hugo Krynauw    28

Micky Wiswedel climbing in round 4 of the NBL

Marijus Smigelskis climbing in round 4 of the NBL