UKC

I have just returned from a 2 week touring and camping holiday in Namibia. One night we camped under the amazing granite mountain called Spitzkopje.

I understand there is rock climbing on it.

Have any UKCers climbed here? What's it like? If the quality of rock around the base is anything to go by, I suspect that the holds may be prone to flaking? It's also very hot with no shade.

I spent 3 weeks there in Aug/September, but haven't yet uploaded any photos. The climbing is amazing. We did a mixture of existing and new routes. Some of the rock does vary, but a lot of it is sound.

Wow! Would love to see your photos when you have uploaded them.

We climbed there about 25 years ago.  I think the camping is a lot more organised now.  The rock on the mountain itself was pretty good, apart from in some of the chimneys.  Certainly the normal way up is solid, with the only difficult bit being a bit of a pull to get onto the finishing slabs from a big ledge.  And getting back down.

Some of the routes on the Pontoks are a different story.  Desert Rose is (was) easy but crumbly and sparsely bolted with long pitches - indeed, longer than our ropes unless you start in the right place!  Some routes had hangers missing but I'm sure a lot of this has been sorted out by now.  Dave Barlow clearly will have rather more up to date information.

Beautiful and rather fragile place.  I hope it hasn't been spoiled by too much 4x4 traffic.  The big ground-living chameleons were very vulnerable.  

Thanks. We found that 4x4 driving and the camp sites were discrete and not too intrusive, although spoilt a bit by large groups from the overlander trucks which is a pity. Still plenty of room to get away from them apart from near the rock arch

I was there last year. Climbed the Normal Route on Spitzkoppe and To Bolt or Not to Bolt on the Pontokspitze. Both brilliant (though very different style) on superb rock. Utterly fabulous place and country. Hope to be back next year! A few photos on here in my gallery.

I spent a while there in 2007 on a Hot Rock Africa trip. We climbed the Normal Route and some smaller sport routes near the campsite. Also went over to Swakopmund for some sky diving etc. 

It's a beautiful place with amazing light, stunning rock formations and (at the time) grim long drop loos    Some of the better climbers among us did some of the more adventurous routes thereabouts and had some real adventures. I recall a route called 5,4,3 (I think) which had that number of bolts on its three pitches....bold to say the least. Rumours of Rain, and routes on the Rhino horn were popular.  It's a while ago now, and I was too busy romancing my wife-to-be to concentrate on the climbing

Hi, is this not the face that Alex Honnald did on his ‘Africa Fusion’ video. I saw it on ITunes and it’s pretty good.

I've uploaded a few photos https://www.ukclimbing.com/photos/author.php?id=555

Thanks. Great pics