One of the most famous boulders in Rocklands, South Africa, collapsed last week. The Hatchling (f7C+), first climbed in 2008 by Noah Kaufman, was given its name due to the shape of the precariously-balanced boulder resembling a cracked-open eggshell. Initially graded 8A, the difficulty eventually settled at 7C+.

US climber and photographer Daniel Gajda was the first to find that the boulder had tumbled while walking in the Kleinfontain area on 18 August.

Commenting on his discovery, he told UKC:

"I was mostly just shocked! I had never been to the boulder, so I never got to see it in all its glory. It was very weird passing the GPS pin a few times then looking over to see the holds in the dirt. A sad day for Rocklands for sure."

The boulder was one of the most photographed climbs in Rocklands. Its improbable position, teetering on a pedestal, enabled it to be rocked up and down by weighting its counterbalancing tail.

First ascensionist Noah Kaufmann posted on Instagram, writing that he believes the boulder was intentionally trundled:

'RIP to an old friend, "The Hatchling" has been destroyed sadly. I think I knew that eventually someone would push it off the pedestal, but it's still so sad to see, especially since I have friends who wanted to do it next season.

This was one of my most memorable climbs during my climbing career. This is what I wrote in my blog after doing the First Ascent so long ago:

"Here is an amazing first ascent I was able to nab in the Rocklands of South Africa. It is a proud line that I named "The Hatchling." At V11 (font. 8A) it was no gimme! Jesse almost sent this last summer, but hurt his ankle falling from the last hard move. The boulder is amazing because you can actually rock it back and forth on its pedestal! SICK! Daniel Woods made the quick second ascent as did Wills Young and Paul Robinson. Walker Emerson sent this year as did Nalle Hukkataival and others. I have done many many first ascents, but this one is truly a world class climb. I have footage of the FA and will put it in "Try Harder" which I am currently working on."

Anyhow, I debated camming a rock underneath during the rocking of the hatching to prevent this from happening, but part of the magic of that beautiful boulder was the fact that you could rock it. I didn't want to take that away from the experience of others even if it meant maintaining the risk of someone destroying the boulder.

I'm sure there's video of the trundle somewhere, and I don't really care who did it. It's not like there's a law against it, I mean, it's a big rock in the middle of nowhere. Yet it's really sad because this takes away the climb from all future climbers…

It's a pretty selfish act that's kind of like chipping but in a way it's much worse.

Anyhow, all things die and this is how the story was written.

RIP to an amazing climb.'

One UKC member claims to have "got crushed during the onsight" on 18 August, according to a tongue-in-cheek entry in our Logbooks.