Ascensiones en Ololokwe main face teniendo Beta

Some serious unprotected sections, otherwise a very fun day out.

Epic climb! (especially if you like cacti)

Guiding a client.

We spent the night on the summit with Peter Lemayan and the client. At the break of dawn, we abseiled into the wall to the start of pitch one and climbed up from there. Quite an experience doing it that way.

The plan was to rehearse the moves and do more cleaning on this day, but dark clouds indicated the arrival of the rains, so the final decision was for me to run up the route rope less on that day. On pitch 6, the rain begun to pour and by the time I summited, the sky completely let loose. It was a powerful moment. Bottom to top was about 40 minutes with a few long stops on the route as I had to wait for the drone batteries to be changed and for the drone to locate me on the large wall. All in all, a very significant ascent for me personally and the growing community of Kenyan born climbers.

Documentary filming with Gabriel and Ian. We worked and cleaned the route, dropping huge loose flakes while at it.

Documentary filming with Gabriel and Ian. We worked and cleaned the route, dropping huge loose flakes while at it.

Documentary filming with Gabriel and Ian. We worked and cleaned the route, dropping huge loose flakes while at it.

First guided ascent of the route with one client and Ian Lekiluai.

We started the climb too far off to the right and had to negotiate a horrendous blank slab with no gear before rejoining the main route. I broke off most of the crux holds on pitch 4 and had to find a new way around the section of crumbling rock. After a number of scary leads, and Ian dislodging a massive loose flake. We finished the climb and hiked off the back with the Client's family. The route wasn't as kind to us as it had been on the first trip up.

A great route. a total of 3 hours from base to top. This was the 3rd ascent and saw the party add their own finish to the climb by climbing directly up the tree roots to the roof on the last pitch. All in all, the route is insanely run out between bolts and one can easily climb past the odd bit of gear if not very keen. Traditional placements are scarce. As far as difficulty is concerned, I'd place the most technical cruxes somewhere in the 5.9 YDS range. Route could benefit from one extra bolt per pitch, but perhaps more so one rap ring or bolt directly above the route at the finish, to simplify access from above. Still, I personally had a blast leading this one.

Super cool route. We did a direct variation avoiding the first two pitches (about 5.8x). On the middle 5.6 pitches, it's easy to get lost on the wide, unprotected face, so be sure you look around for a good anchor. Make sure you're comfortable with very run-out 5.6 and sketchy anchors. The last pitch, although jungle-y, is some of the best climbing! A single rack is sufficient (and there are pitches where your unusable cams seem to laugh at you), but I remember wishing I had another couple mid-size cams (.75, 1, 2) on the long 2nd/3rd pitch with the awesome hand crack, the only pitch that consistently takes gear.