Centenary of the First Ascent of the Sentinel

The event was awesome! More than 50 people summited via various routes. Will post more details and pics later.

mike, Bigberg, gollum, John, and many others: was great meeting you guys!

Also a big thanks to various individuals of the KZN MCSA who co-ordinated the event, and many who spent the entire day belaying people at the stances of the standard route.

@gollum: my party was alone at the summit too (ClimbyKel, Roy Turner, and myself).

We got to the base of the first pitch of the Standard Route at 9h45 and had a very long wait until the three of us were finally at the top of that pitch at 13h00! We hit the queue at a very bad time! Less than 20 minutes later we were at the base of McLeod's Variation though. By the time I got to the top of that pitch, most of the crowd had moved off the summit - John Hone and Terrence Jonker came to say hi briefly while the others were belayed up. Then Tony Van Tonder and Gavin Raubenheimer came to chat about borrowing our ropes. They had aborted their attempt on the South East Arete earlier that day (because the going was too slow) and had come up the Standard Route. Their 2 team mates had continued on the route, which eventually proved too much for them and they radioed for help. Our ropes were tied together to make about a 70m top-rope, which got them to the top just at sunset (this was after we had left)! After our lonely moment at the summit cairn we headed to the top of the Standard Route just in time to catch Nigel Bailes and co topping out on Angus-Leppan, and just in time to be the last to ab off the Mountain Club rope. We caught up with a small group of folks cleaning up the gear at the bottom pitch.

So, Standard Route had a little over 50 ascents (exact number to be confirmed). McLeod's Variation was only done by our group. Angus-Leppan had Nigel Bailes' party (around 3 I think?) and gollum's group (how many?). Another 2 aborted the route due to lack of time. An attempt was made on Paradigm Shift, but was aborted on pitch 2 due to loose bolts. South East Arete had 2 ascents (albeight on top rope for the last bit), and 2 aborted but summited via Standard Route.

No attempts on Here Be Dragons, Thatcher Route and Blood On The Rocks, as far as I am aware.

I've created a special gallery for this event. Please upload your pics here .

I'll upload more of my own pics in time to come. Have also posted GPS tracks from the event in the download section for those that are interested.

For those that are interested, in the latest issue of SA Mountain Sport is an article titled "The Berg is for Baboons and Vultures" which is the story of the climb on the South East Arete which was part of the centennial climb. Two climbers got stuck on the route as you may recall. Our little group had just topped out on McLeod's Variation when our ropes where whisked away to set-up an approx. 70m top-rope to help them to the top.

You can read the introduction here:
www.samountainsport.co.za/articles.php?p=68