VE climbing Honours Roll

I'm in favour of any system where Andrew doesn't yet fully qualify.

Talking of the "fear factor", Bell should ideally be bumped into the second column. Wong's Route is E, yes, but it is seldom climbed because it is arguably the "Wong Woute / wRong route", which apparently is very poorly protected on the first 2 pitches and involves negotiating a lot of vegetation rather than rock. It was on this route that two climbers died as the leader fell, pulling out pegs, and then pulling his belayer off with him. A young John Hone was in Bell Cave when the accident happened. Most people go for Hooper's Route, which is a better rock climb, though harder grade-wise. It has some classic exposure, not bad, but enough to add a thrill. Bell seems to fit the second column more too, as I simply don't have it in the same league as, say, Sentinel and Sterkhorn South, in my mind. Cathkin could take its place in that column.

Considering the above, if you want to keep the numbers balanced in the column, then you could put Pyramid into the first column, in spite of it's grade. It just strikes me as non-scary, well-protected and suited for beginners (not meaning at all that it isn't a worthy peak, because it definitely is!).

North Ifidi isn't quite in the league of the others in that column in terms of the length of the climb and how sustained it is, however it has definite merit in "fear factor". Of the three pitches, the F1 is probably the scariest, followed by the F2, and the F3 pitch, though hard, is not overly scary (we won't mention names here, but should you choose to climb Martin Winter's sandbagged "E" variation of the final pitch, you may find that to be the worst pitch of the climb!). North Ifidi also has a somewhat awkward access which adds to this. It also looks intimidating, viewed form the escarpment.

My thoughts on the Icidi Pencil is that there are probably several other gendarmes and small pinnacles in its class that are as good or even better. I have yet to climb it. It just happens to have received attention, and when when viewed from one side it has that classic thin appearance, which is why it was climbed in the first place (its actually more like a shark's fin). South Ifidi Gendarme, Amery Fang and Ntonjelana Needle are really good climbs, as a comparison, and there are many pinnacles in the Mnweni Cutback, for example, which look "cooler" in my opinion. And what about the Umkulunkhulu? Much more impressive in my mind than the Pencil.

Pity the Southern Berg lacks impressive free-standers, but yes we could include some.

ghaznavid wrote: Is it possible to have a badge section on people's VE profiles? Not sure if anyone on the site is on Sporcle (a highly addictive online quiz site), but I am thinking something like that. Perhaps also not only recognition for climbing - e.g. 50 passes, 100 khulus, completed GTs in both directions etc.

The badges are something to consider, but would need to be driven by demand (ie if there is going to be enough support and interest). The actual goals or objectives may need to appeal and cater to a wider hiking community though. Something like a hit list of classic passes might stick better. Maybe its just my hiking crowd, but I get the impression there is definite interest in doing different passes, then perhaps in sleeping in certain caves comes the next in level of interest. My feeling is that interest in hitting a long list summits is not terribly broad (beyond the likes of Mafadi, TN, Cleft Peak etc) - even among some of my own friends who are very passionate about the Berg. The Berg hiking community is much larger than the small group of people that climb in the Berg, and so goals that only say about 10-20 people will bother going for might be less meaningful than giving people a little badge for knocking off a list of 30 classic passes and for completing a GT, as an example. I could be wrong but those are my thoughts for now, and yes you could argue the climbing thing is for a small group of people, and so why not have other objectives for a small group of people. I'm happy for initiatives that will eventually become self-sustaining and start carrying their own weight. Perhaps this climbing thing will never be more than simply a list of names stored in cyber space, which doesn't cost much, and it could be the same for other similar ideas. If there is sufficient interest and support then certainly we can invest more into it like cyber-badges, or real "rusty pitons" and that kind of thing.

Just bumping this up in the hope that tiska might contribute to the discussion with his wealth of berg climbing knowledge.