Devil's Tooth and Tyrolean Traverse

Awesome stuff!!

Kel, you had me a bit worried for a second after seeing this posted in the Security section and then starting with "I just got a phone call from Intrepid (Chris Sommer)"

Glad to read the rest though, and can echo ASLs comment

Well done guys, can't wait for the report, Oh and I moved the post to Drakensberg Climbing.

Its a very surreal feeling to have finally climbed the Tooth! And to have finished it off with the Tyrolean Traverse back to the Inner Tower is something I thought I would never get a chance to do.

From the very first time I saw the Tooth it captured my imagination and has haunted me in an enchanting way ever since. In the days leading up to the trip it haunted me literally as I thought about the climb. And I will never forget those delicate moments of my body stretched out and balanced across the rock of the long traverse on Pitch 2, with nothing but very thin holds for my hands and feet, and this for several moves! The peak is a fantastic climb, technical from start to finish, with some very exhilarating and scary moments.

The small summit of the peak is a very sacred place. It is no bigger than a car in area, with no flat ground at all, just a small grassy and rocky dome with a cairn. Indeed a majestic pinnacle that does not disappoint!

The Tyrolean Traverse back to the Inner Tower is a concept that still has not hit my mind fully. I did it in semi-darkness. The feelings of being so incredibly vulnerable, suspended high up in the middle of nowhere are frightening to say the least, but it is truly an amazing adventure!

The whole trip was an adventure from start to finish. The logistical exercise of climbing onto the Inner Tower with full packs and water for 2 nights, bivvying on the middle summit, the 100m abseil down to the base of the Tooth, the climb, the rope-work, the traverse, getting off the Inner Tower will all that gear (5 ropes, one of them weighing 10kg!) - and all of this with a fantastic team of people! Truly a great privilege for me to have been part of and an experience I am very grateful for. I still cannot really grasp that we did this.

Not many people climb the Tooth, and even less have done this Tyrolean Traverse. Initially I thought it had only been done 3 times, but I think our traverse is actually the fifth one, not the fourth. It was Neil's second time doing this (he did the second traverse previously).

I will see about doing a more proper write-up at a later point, but here are two pictures as an appetiser:

@mnt_tiska: I did not see such a flake, assuming you are referring to the traverse pitch (Pitch 2 of the MCSA RD) - some people combining Pitches 1 and 2 into one. However, we took the lower of the two variations on the traverse pitch, below "the nose" referred to in the RD. We did notice pegs on the higher variation that we did not use. Neil led that pitch and going round under the nose, he was run out between 10-15 meters, and this over the crux of the pitch! This is his third time up the Tooth and he was debating whether some of the pegs have fallen out on that section, or if pieces of rock have fallen off - he could not remember clearly, but the lead this time was a very bold one! Even on second, if you come off on that traverse you could get close to hitting the ground on such a run out.

This shot shows Neil on the traverse, under "the nose" (the pointy beak above him). Once you go around the corner the holds get increasingly thin!


Where we did encounter a very loose flake was on Pitch 3, in the dihedral. Ken led this pitch and yelled down at us to be careful of it. When I went up, I was so busy focusing on climbing that I forgot about it. I did an undercling on the flake and remember thinking, "Wow this thing is sharp on my hands". It was fine on that move, but as soon as I did the next move on it, it moved, and I remembered! Neil came up last, and once he had passed it, easily tipped it with his hand and it went crashing down into the gullies below.

This was my view looking up on Pitch 3, entering the dihedral. The flake is distinct wedge-shaped rock, roughly in the centre of the shot between the two ropes: