Nalle Hukkataival opened new sectors in the Rocklands (South Africa) for about three months and opened Boulder. From this hard work he has taken a break and climbed lines that have other first come. So recently the first by Jimmy Webb Boulder Khoi Khoi.
Jimmy Webb originally gave Khoi Khoi a rating of 8b +. Nalle Hukkataival and Shawn Raboutou, who incidentally also climbed the boulder on the same day, upgraded Khoi Khoi to 8c.
Nalle Hukkataivals on the celebration of Khoi Khoi
“Felt so refreshing to take a break from developing new areas! It's been just about 3 months of opening new bouldering areas here in Rocklands for me. As much as I love it, it's hard labor much more so than actual climbing - endless hiking, establishing trails, building landings, rapping down boulders, brushing rocks. At the end of the day you usually get rewarded with something to climb on.
For a much needed break we ventured out to the Cape Winelands district with Shawn Raboutou to get on Jimmy Webb's Khoi Khoi (V15).
Khoi Khoi sits solo a ways from anywhere else but man is it worth the trip! A little piece of orange Fontainebleau! Slopers and precise body positions - and heavily reliant of getting the right conditions.
The first round we got dealt the worst hand with the weather. But it worked out alright for fine-tuning our beta. Shut down any real attempts.
A few days later we were back for some more. Well into the session, just one minute before sundown I managed to catch a nice breeze and found myself at the mantle! However I looked down and my spotters were nowhere to be found. With no one spotting, it was unsafe to do the last move and I had to drop down. I was goodted just climbed a really hard, highly friction dependent and never made it back to the top again that day. Pretty classic bouldering moment right there.
So back to it the next day again. Luckily this boulder is such a pleasure to climb on, because motivation to repeat it again hoping someone will be spotting this time was not at an all-time high. Many attempts and many slips later it started getting more frustrating. Finally I lucked out and timed my try perfectly with a solid 30 second breeze. The opportunity was there and I took it to the top! Makes it that much more special when you can't just muscle it out but have to roll the dice and have it all click at once. Later that day Shawn followed with an impressive ascent as well! 5 stars for this piece of rock! "
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Credits: picture Arjan de Kock