线路 in 乌干达

Follow the somewhat off-width crack up, trending left towards a comfortable ledge with a large three easily slung for a rap off. We used large and small cams on this pitch. The crack demanded cams rather than nuts.

We explored to the left and right of this ledge, but found the way up to the summit of Wati too difficult. It was wet/slimy/mossy in July, so we gave up. Climbing this in dry season, for example December or January, might be much easier.

We estimated the full climb to the summit of Mt. Wati might be 2-4 pitches.

Take all your big cams for this one.

1. North face: (30m 18) Follow the left hand side of the partially attached broken pillar, which is actually a large flake. Make about three moves up to a chair-sized ledge with a tree that can be slung for your first piece of pro. Climb the crack, or just left of the crack to a small roof. There are excellent feet on this face and it is nice climbing, but there is no pro on the face itself, so stay close enough to the crack to get a few cams in on your right. When you reach the small roof, delicately traverse a couple meters left, around the large block and then above it for a comfortable belay. We placed four huge cams on this pitch (Black Diamond 4,5,6 and a large trango similar to a BD 5)

2. North face: (15m 14) Could easily be combined with the first pitch and is barely more than a scramble. Follow an obvious system of boulders and pillars up to an enormous ledge. There are plenty of places for pro along the way. Rope drag is the only good reason to do this pitch on it’s own. The top of pitch two is a great place to explore around the rock and search for possible lines to the top. We saw several lines, but chose to move around to the west face on our way to the top.

3. West face: (20m scramble) Scramble up and move around to the west face, anti-clockwise. We did this un-roped.

4. West face: (25m 15) Belay from the lower shaded boulders for a comfortable stance. We setup a directional about 2m above the belay and then traversed right to the crack, up the crack and on top of a broken pillar. We managed to get in a couple pieces of pro during the traverse and a couple more in the crack. From the top of the broken pillar, there is no pro, but the climb is fairly easy at that point. There were good feet placements, so we just went for the top. Congrats! Enjoy the view. The aerial view into the manyatta is extraordinary.

Rappelling off: (one pitch) There is very old bush with a large trunk near the east face. We left a piece of tack behind and rapped of there. About a 25m rappel gets you to the enormous platform on the side of the manyatta, from which you can hike/scramble down. We moved about ten large flakes that could have fallen during the rappel as they sat near or under the rope, so be very careful with these. You should see the path we cleared. We saw a 1m coppery brown snake and some lizards up there. Several large owls make their home on this rock as well. There is lots to see from this summit. Check out the manyatta. The view inside is incredible. Also, you can see all the other plutons in Naita's row. There is much potential climbing in this "rim".

Hike down: You’ll see a narrow chimney from which we could squeeze down, but you could also rap down to the ground. From there, the path moves right along the edge of the main rock. Finally, scramble down a couple of ledges until you reach solid ground. Well done, you have made it back.

This is the hardest route at the crag. Still no free ascent. Climbers have done this via TR or not at all.

Must rap into this one, like most routes at this crat. Mostly blocky crack climbing. Well protected most of the way. Good trad gear placement practice. Only the anchor itself is bolted.

In the northwest corner there is a severe trad climb called “Thanks to Amanda”. You’ll start by scrambling up 2m to a small ledge. Then put in your first pro, shortly followed by two more pieces. Careful of the boulder on your left. It could be loose. After the boulder, the climb is straightforward and you’ll get a couple more pieces of pro in. The last 12m of the climb follows a positive incline with many excellent footholds, but scant chances to put in pro, so falls near the end could be very dangerous. You can abseil down off boulders at the top. This climb is about 22m.

A unique combination of slab, open book, off width and crack climbing that requires a variety of skills and techniques.

Have a local show you to the first pitch. In total, this climb is four pitches, though you could stretch it into three. There are plenty of bushes and trees along the way to protect your descent without needed to lose much tack.

Follow the broken pillars and cracks up the northeast butress. Careful to rap down exactly as you ascended or you might find yourself in a sticky position.

While you could do this in boots/shoes, climbing shoes make it much more enjoyable. We've left our boots waiting for us at the start of the first pitch on pasts climbs. Locals will look after them for you and haven't bothered our stuff in the past.

Description by L. Hodgkinson

Pitch 1 45m (15) Start at the centre of the buttress beneath a tree growing ~4m up the rock. Move easily up a broken wall to the tree and then trend left up runnels and shallow cracks to the large break under an overhanging boulder. Watch out for bees whilst traversing the ledge to the right, then thrutch up the flared chimney onto a large landing followed by a short scramble up a vegetated gulley to a large tree belay.

Pitch 2 50m (10) Move left out onto the edge of the ridge and take a direct, airy scramble up and over the knife-edge until it flattens out just before the summit. Take a seated or standing belay some point back from the ridge, unless your rope is longer than 50m in which case you might make it to the boulders. You can un-rope and scramble to the very top from here.

Descent is a 15-minute walk down along the foot of the west face of the buttress.

Deep in the village 20 (Descrition by M Battani and U Pitsch) (approximately N3.11206° E33.40837°) Get up early for this one as it is a full day with the drive from Kalongo, parking, hiking, rapping, and getting home. We left our guest house in Kalongo at 6:15am. You may want to carry your boots/shoes on the climb because the descent is on the opposite side of the climb. We hiked barefoot back to our gear at the base of the first pitch. It hurt.

The route starts on the north east side of Kilibi Rock. You can see a big ramp leading up Kilibi. The first pitch starts up this ramp. Aim for the large flake about 60m up for your first stance.

1. 14, 60 m Largely a walk up. Graded 14, maybe easier. Start up a ramp 5m or so before your first pro under a flake. This pitch required lots of very small cams and a couple nuts. Pretty well protected. Some flakes sound a bit hollow. There is a bomber place to build an anchor under a strong flake just before a steepening. This pitch trends slightly right near the end and could be broken up into a 40 m and a 20 m pitch.

2. 12, 60 m Follow up the ramp to a stance in a good crack and pocket just below the butress. Build your anchor here. Not a very well protected pitch, but an easy climb.

3. 18X, 60 m The face above is difficult and poorly protected. Follow up the arête, over a black face bearing right, then further up the arête to a stance on a small but comfortable ledge. Very sparse protection, but good holds!

4. 20, 40 m (Crux) Pro here is much better than the last pitch. P4 pitch trends right, following a crack, and goes over a little tree to a great anchor/stance at some trees above. From the stance climb up to a bench. From the bench, climb up to gain a fist wide crack on the right. It is an excellent but strenuous layback crack with very good protection (Black Diamond cams 1 to 5 fit in this flaring crack). After the crack, continue easily up the ramp to a stance somewhere after the first few bushes. There are some solid trees to build a great anchor.

5. 15, 30 m Leave the trees, follow the crack across a black face to a huge ledge. Mostly a scrample.

6. 8, 25m, summit scramble, from the belay scramble up to the right through some boulders. Congrats! Enjoy the photos. You can see Mt. Oret and Amiel really clearly from here completing the “Agago Triangle”. Descent notes: scramble and descend down the west (nearly opposite side of “Deep”) via the Normal Route. Deep in the Village lacks sufficient rappelling points, so to save your pro/tack, go down via the Normal Route which has the trees/bushes necessary to enable a cheaper descent. The downclimb to the first abseil is bold. Go down a 4m chimney, then downclimb over some slab to boulders and then to a bush. From that bush, begin your rap down. Go right down the spine of the rock past a bushy crack and some tufts of grass towards some boulders. It is a one pitch (50m) abseil as you can scramble down from the pile of boulders below. It is a long rap, so careful not to go off the end of your ropes. Scrambling the entire descent is possible as well. From the foot of Kilibi, hike around to reach the trail out to your car. Hiking either way around Kilibi works, but we found the south side to be easier than the north. Once reaching the first pitch, you’ll hike east back to Joseph’s house to reach your car.

Description by Uwe Pitsch The route starts on the west side of Kilibi Rock.

1. 14, 50 m Climb the spine of the rock to a bush with a rope slung around it for abseiling

2. 10, ? m Continue up over boulders and short faces, if in doubt stay left.

3. Scramble / walk to the summit through a narrow gap between 2 huge boulders, chimney up at the end of the gap.

Description by E Freudenthal 2015 Update by M Battani Sept ‘17

The route climbs the northeast face of Mt. Oret/Kalongo, starting in the largest gully, then mostly straight up following cracks systems and easier but run out slabs to the top. Overall, it has really good and fairly sustained climbing, the rock is solid and only a few passages require you to battle with vegetation. We took about 8h for the climb and 1h for the descent.

Be warned that the top slabs will be impassable if they are wet and backing off from them will be tricky/expensive. This rock can take days to dry out after heavy rains and this route follows a gulley which is one of the last places to dry. This is the description to the best of our recollection; there might some mistakes and better variations.

From the path in the village behind the hospital fence, spot the large gully with a very tall, straight tree with white bark sticking out of it. Simply thrash your way through the high grass and boulders until you reach the bottom of the gully. The start of the route is about 30m left of the right hand wall of the gully, where a narrow black slab widens out into some bushes.

1. (10m 13): Climb the delicate slab to the undercut block slightly left, with a short crack splitting it, into a bushy belay stance below a blank wall.

2. (30m 14): Follow the base of the wall to the right through the brambles until you reach a leaning pillar connecting to the right edge of the gully. Climb the pillar delicately until it joins the right hand wall and follow the crack to some awkward blocks, made more awkward by trees. Round the final boulder onto a small ledge with a slingable boulder for a solid belay and a large tree coming out of the rock behind.

3. (20m 10): Climb up the tree behind the belay directly upwards and follow the ramp up to the left under some light vegetation. Traverse some small boulders until you reach a large clearing at the bottom of a blank black wall and the base of the white bark, tall, straight tree you can see from the town. Look out for snakes! (Variation pitch: climb to the left of the ledge then up the pillar to the next ledge)

4. (30m 14): Take the mossy chimney at the very back of the ledge and on the left side of the wall. Round the chockstone, then further up the gully climb the easy slab to a tree belay.

5. (40m 15): Climb the groove to the right of the tree until you reach the precariously broken top of the pillar. Take a committing step left and traverse across the slab and into the gully. Follow the gully until the wall steepens and the route breaks to the right into a narrow passage enclosed by a flake. Traverse to the moss filled flake and climb up and over the bush to your left into a comfortable ledge with two trees for a belay.

6. (25m 17): Follow the undercut cracks up to the large tree above, then traverse to the right under the overhang to a sloping ledge with a large groove cut into it. Down-climb 1-2 meters until your feet reach the small edges below and shuffle rightwards until the edges disappear. Then reach a good crack on the right of the slab. Move easily straight up into a small groove with a belay about 6 metres below the dark, vegetated gully above.

7. (40m 14): Climb the grassy black rocks to the bottom of the gully, and bridge boldly upwards to the first tree. Thrutch and squirm your way between the trees until the gulley splits with a tree and an overhanging block ending the natural passage to the left. From above the tree, rock over to the right onto an exposed grey slab with a deep crack to the right. Either thrutch up the crack or enjoy the face climbing. The large tree at the top makes for a stunning hanging belay. Enjoy the view! Note: this tree was pretty dead when we summited this in June 2017. You will probably need to clean the crack under this tree and set some cams to build and anchor.

8. (45m 18): Climb above the tree into a large groove with an undercut crack following the left wall. Follow this crack, then climb straight up and right into a crux section with poor holds and worse gear. Grasp for the grass in the groove to your right and breath a sigh of relief. A few metres above, follow the seam to your right (not the crack on your left) and continue up until you reach a fridge-size stuck block on your left that can be slung for a belay.

9. (35m 14): Follow the crack straight above the belay upwards until it disappears. Then, pad up with no gear for a further 25 metres until you find a large grass tuft with a solid flake above it with space for a couple of cams and a disheartening belay.

10. (45m 13): Further unprotected climbing on rounded black rock and grass tufts ends with a secure belay point in a deep crack above grass tufts.

11. (20m 17): Continue up from the crack with good gear until you are faced with a steep black wall with a shallow crack and a small tree above it. There is gear at the bottom right under the flake. Boldly climb the crack and face edges (no gear) before slinging the tree for a welcome belay.

12. (50m 13): Further easy but poorly protected climbing continues zigzagging and trending leftwards up the slabs with some shallow cracks and grass tufts, to a big block on the left side of a steepening. You should belay here to make the pitch under 50m (there are no good belays above so learn from our experience!).

13. (100m 9): Climb over the large block to a gentle slope where you can belay on one of the trees or boulders. Then, scramble up through the steep grass and trees until you reach the radio tower. Congrats. You’ve made it!

Descent: Head northwest across the summit to find the road down. You’ll probably meet Bosco, the military man stationed at the summit. Say hi from us and sign his book. He might give you citrus fruit. The descent takes ~1hr.

Be warned, the top slabs will be impassable if they are wet and backing off from them will be tricky/expensive. This rock can take days to dry out after heavy rains.

6-8 hours (the last three pitches are shared with Corporate Night) Take a normal rack plus large cams. We used Black Diamond #5 once and regularly used BD sizes 2-4. Some trees can be slung, so take plenty of slings. Take lots of alpine draws. We left micro nuts/cams behind and didn't need them. Take light walking shoes or sandals with you as the hike out takes about an hour.

Hike up to the right of the huge and very prominent detached spire and between two trees towards a rib like feature. We started the climb between the trees going up the rib and over a hump. This entire climb is pretty sun exposed. Corporate night, which is 50-60m right of Zigzag, is a bit more shaded because there are more trees along that route.

1. NE Face of Oret 45m 14 Start 20-30 meters left of Corporate Night and just right of the prominent spire. Begin between the two trees. Climb straight up and go up the ramp. After mid-pitch, it is a bit sparse on pro with one dodgy nut placement; otherwise the pitch is reasonably well protected. Some rocks are loose, especially at the bottom of the pitch. Rock quality seemed to improve towards the top of the pitch. A comfortable belay is below a medium sized tree on top of some blocks.

2. 45m 16 The leader should take large cams on this pitch, like the Black Diamond #4 and maybe the #5. Start the pitch going directly over the belay. For nearly the entire pitch, follow the crack trending right, which has good face climbing on its right. The crack is somewhat crystalized and flaring out, so place the cams very carefully and nuts are not useful in this crack. These placements will be on your left as you climb the face. Belay in a small bush, which wasn’t super strong so place cams in the crack near the bush as well as slinging the bush itself.

3. 45m (17) Follow the flaring crack continuing right then trend left. Get a couple pieces of pro in the crack before it runs out to a sparsely protected section. Then go up an unprotected ramp. Go past a bush and belay from the second tree in a vegetated seem.

4. 25m 18 There are some bushes and grass on this pitch, which increase the difficulty of the grade. Watch out for the painful cacti on your left. Good cracks are full of dirt. The pitch trends right. Aim for the comfortable belay ledge above a small, old, knotty, thick-trunked tree for a somewhat spacious belay.

5. crux 50m 18 With no protection, start up from the belay trending slightly right towards a crack on the right suitable for large cams #4 and #5. You’ll see a giant, overhanging, black block on your right. Then, follow the crack up as it trends left and go over the top of the crack and turn right into an open book seam with a few opportunities for pro. Follow that seam. You’ll belay from a grassy tuft, which has room to sit and a couple bushes. The belay has a nice crack suitable for small cam (BD .3/.5) and nut placement.

6. 30m 12 This pitch trends right going up an open book. Watch out for loose flakes. There are good hand and footholds all the way up but some of the pitch lacks protection. Make your way to a well-protected, grassy ledge with a cactus and setup the belay.

7. 45m 15 Start up the ramp trending right on the black streak/wall and aim for the large trees above. The end of the pitch requires a traverse and squeeze behind some cacti. There are lots of opportunities to place pro, but the rock is less than bomber. Sit on the grassy ledge to belay. The end of this pitch joins the Corporate Night route, so the descriptions below are copied from E. Freudenthal, L. Hodgkinson (Nov 2016). Note: I adjusted the pitch numbers and added South African grades for uniformity. The route now joins the final three pitches (11-13) of Corporate Night.

8. 20m 17 Continue up from the crack with good gear until you are faced with a steep black wall with a shallow crack and a small tree above it. There is gear at the bottom right under the flake. Boldly climb the crack and face edges (no gear) before slinging the tree for a welcome belay.

9. 50m 13 Further easy but poorly protected climbing continues zigzagging and trending leftwards up the slabs with some shallow cracks and grass tufts, to a big block on the left side of a steepening. You should belay here to make the pitch under 50m (there are no good belays above so learn from our experience!).

10. 100m 9 Climb over the large block to a gentle slope where you can belay on one of the trees or boulders. Then, scramble up through the steep grass and trees until you reach the radio tower. Congrats. You’ve made it!

Descent: Head across to the summit to find the road down. You’ll probably meet UPDF troops at the top. Say hi from us and sign the book. Those solders rotate out frequently and therefore have been surprised each time it has been climbed. They once threatened arrest. Smile and try to relax. Once they knew we were just climbers, they warmed and let us go. The descent takes ~1hr.

Walk up through the gully between Mt. Oret and the detached spire on the east side of Mt. Oret. This route is probably 100m west/left of Zigzag.

Move up through the gully as far as you can scramble up to the first pitch. From there, you'll find protected climbing up two short pitches within 5m or so of the top of the spire.

Note, this route is mostly on the southwest side of the spire itself, has good shade and is nearly in between the spire and Mt. Oret.

We turned back about 5m from the summit. The climbing at the top was not very difficult, but would have been unprotected with serious consequences. So, the spire remains unclimbed. We asked people in Kalongo, checked online and went through the MCU archives. No recorded summit of this spire has yet taken place, so go and get this FA if you dare!

We would have added a bolt or two to protect this climb, but unfortunately were without our bolting equipment on this trip. Next time!

The grade and description above only rates how far we went and does not count the summit or lack of protection. The grade would have to go up and include an X for a full climb of this spire.

This route shares the chain belay with Normal Route. It is a long and very challenging route that should be developed for sport climbing at some point.

From the prayer crack, there are a variety of chimney routes to the top. The crack is quite wide, but narrow enough to chimney in a few places. Protection is either poor or non-existent, so set a top rope and enjoy! Nothing in the prayer crack has been bolted as of Feb 2018.

Go up the chimney. Rock over onto the main wall. Straight up to the chain. Bolted for top rope only.

Using the crack at the top of the rock, you can setup an anchor with large cams Black Diamond sizes 2-6 work. This is a bit left of the crack and about 2m left of the normal route.

Abseil down from the anchor. From the bottom, move right and on top of the two boulders. There seems to be no move from here, so sit and swing on the rope around to the right. This is the NW corner of the rock. Get established on the rock and from there and make your way up. After this tricky start, it is a nice route.

This nice slab climb starts directly below the crack. You won't need a directional for this route. After building the anchor, abseil down and follow the rope back up to the top.

Go straight up the slabs avoid using the seems on the left.

After an assisted start with a bamboo ladder, follow the easy arete to the chain.

You must build and anchor above the cliff, rap over the side and swing in to access this chain to set the top rope for Friends Remain Friends.

Tooth Less Variante

Rap down to the start as there is no trail to the base of this crag. This goes for all routes at Kilembe.

Rasta Popoulos variante

Oreochromis Niloticus is a few meters to the left. The two routes join part way up. Crux is near the bottom of this one.

Crux near the bottom.

The lowest section of the crag and farthest left when facing the rock.

Follow the clips along the far end of the face and avoid the gulley.

This route was graded without the use of the tree. Top rope access is only possible by scrambling up the end of this large boulder.

Can use gear and bolts on the way up.

A good beginner/learner route for lead climbing. Sling the tree for extra pro if needed.

A good warm up route.

This is the farthest left route and does not connect to the hand line that connects the top out of most routes at this crag.