rock climbing in Cape Town

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to hook up with people to go rock climbing in Cape Town, try the forum in climb.co.za, visit the indoor climbing gym City Rock, or send a message to the Mountain Club of South Africa Cape Town Section (or go to their facebook group and post something there). I found one guy to climb with through the Mountain Club (John) and one girl from City Rock.
for sport climbing, I went to Silvermine (Table Mountain) 4 times: Lower Silvermine, Pinnacle, Blaze of Glory and Main Crag. the best climb I did was the one graded 18 (5.10a) at Main Crag. it has a 2 star rating in the book but I loved it. there are many 3 star and 4 star routes at Main Crag and one 5 star one, but most routes are over 20 (5.10c). The 5 star one is a 22 (5.11a). so Main Crag is definitely worth a visit if you don't have much time. if you come during this time of year though (summer), you have to go after 1pm after the sun has passed to the other side of the rock face or you will cook (was 38 Celsius one day). best time to rock climb in SA is March to May and Sep to Nov. winter in too rainy and summer is too hot and windy.
there are some classic trad routes here. John and I did the one that is the most climbed route on Table Mountain (lower buttress). rated 12 (5.7), 3 pitches, and abseiled (rappelled) down a different area so we climbed with our backpacks. the rocks at Table Mountain are so perfect for climbing. the best I've ever climbed outdoors.
another awesome thing was the "Monster Traverse" at City Rock. its a traverse route with more than 100 holds and goes all around the gym on every wall and the ceiling at one point. I love traversing and its like my dream traverse route. I "salivate" when I think about it.
I lucked out and met John who has all the equipment and took me out on all my climbs here including trad climbing. John is very safety conscious, very knowledgeable (not just about climbing), and extremely patient. He is also a mountain rescue volunteer so goes out on rescues once in a while and I went with him on one of them. Thanks so much John for everything! especially for coming to pick me up wherever I was and driving me to wherever we were going climbing!

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