Climb ZA

After more than 4 years and 6 trips, we, Stewart Middlemiss, Clinton Martinengo and Charles Edelstein, have finally cracked the first ascent of “Dog of Thunder” on the North Wall at Blouberg. The route starts between \"Delicate Sound of Thunder\" and \"Wall of White Light\". The weather conditions were outrageous with much of the climbing being done with thunder storms pummeling us all three days. We somehow managed to complete the route ground up despite Clinton Martinengo having to free a grade 25 grade pitch in the dark and on wet rock after a major down-pour. One lighting flash was just 300m away (1second pause before the deafening thunder clap) and the heat seared our faces. Very exciting indeed.

The route has 13 pitches of which three are grade 30+. (The grades are 25;23;21;25;20;16R;30+;22 or 23+ if vertically challenged;30+A0 (1 rest); 30+;22;19;21.

Thanks to Tini Versveld and Tony Dick and the Fresh Air Crew and all the other dudes who funned, flailed and failed on this route at various times. The realistic grade for us less mortals is 25 A0 and it is more or less comparable to Dog Day in Heaven (25) and The Dream of White Dogs (26) that are to the left.

In the last month Clint has freed 3 South African test pieces: Streetfighter, Jabberwocky and Oceans of Fear, so the jury is out as to whether this is the hardest route in South Africa. Hopefully we can entice the Burketts, Macleods, Caldwells, Hubers Trotters and Berdots to show us how its free climbed in a day…

Awesome stuff you guys!! Nice one. Looking really forward to seeing the pics.

Was watching Snort cranking the 'no feet' monster traverse's at City rock to build up the endurance for this route. Tried to follow for a short while, until my arms lost interest.

Awsome!! Well done!! Will be cool to see the pics!

Great news indeed and a big route for the SA climbing fraternity . Will hope to see the second ascent been done by other SA climbers Question , is this the same route shown in Tea for three ?
Any chance for an article on this route in the SA Mountain magazine , its definitely more newsworthy than another mountaineering story of some \"climber\" doing Mt Everest .

We were at the Blouberg parking on Friday night and were too scared to get out the car because of the most insane electrical storm ever. One lightning bolt lasted about 8 seconds, arcing horizontally right across the sky. The ascent of this route is a huge effort and it must have taken balls of steel (and a certain lack of discretion!) to keep going. Awesome job guys.