Imagine an Olympic gymnast performing a full routine — on the high bar, vault, parallel bars, pommel horse and floor — not once in 12 hours, but dozens of times. Two top SA climbers, Chris Cosser and Mel Janse van Rensburg, defied gravity last weekend to achieve a feat of similar magnitude by climbing one of SA’s hardest rock routes to raise funds for the Emgwenya Climbing Club in Mpumalanga.
Cosser, 21, represented SA at the Tokyo Olympics last year and set a new speed record for SA, while Janse van Rensburg, 20, won the lead and boulder disciplines at the 2021 African Continental Championships in December.
Their latest achievement was climbing a legendary route known as Snapdragon, 25 and 32 times respectively, raising more than R112,000 with their superhuman efforts.
World-famous solo climber Alex Honnold, the star of Oscar-winning film Free Solo, once showed off his talent roped up on Snapdragon 29. The number denotes the climb’s grade, with this one being for elite athletes.
For the past 20 years this test piece has drawn international climbers to the cliffs of Emgwenya (formerly Waterval Boven) for its fine lines and the endurance it takes to get to the top.
“It was both harder and easier than I expected. It felt longer and more tiring overall, but the route didn’t feel harder each time,” said Janse van Rensburg, one of only five people to have led SA’s hardest route (grade 35) in Montagu, Western Cape, and the youngest to do so.
The enthusiasm of the local climbing club motivated the pair to do the “Snapdragon Showdown” from 10am to 10pm on Saturday, and to keep going when extreme fatigue and falls threatened their performance.
Janse van Rensburg was on lap 15 and had just succeeded in clipping the chains at the top when the rain came down hard, wetting the rock and making holds the size of credit card edges slippery, but once it stopped the route dried, allowing them to climb on.
“We wanted to raise funds and we thought it would be fun to do something like this before Chris and I leave for overseas to train,” he said this week, while Cosser was on a flight to Salt Lake City in the US.
They raised money in two ways — people pledged an amount to per combined number of laps or they bet on how many routes each athlete would do, with the closest bet earning a prize.
“We will not forget Mel and Chris!” said Morris Nkosi, 43, from the Emgwenya Climbers Club. “The Snapdragon fundraising effort was amazing and is going to help the local climbing club to progress a lot in future, to attend climbing competitions and events.”
In 1999 Janse van Rensburg’s parents, Gustav and Alex, started Roc ’n Rope Adventures in Emgwenya, about 45km west of Mbombela. An accomplished climber, Gustav has climbed Snapdragon once, with “mega effort”.
Mel grew up in this global climbing destination, but got excited about the sport only at 13.
Alex said of the pair’s record ascents on Snapdragon: “It was mind-blowing watching them. Every time they untied and tied in again I would think: ‘This time they are going to fall’, but they did not.”
Members of Emgwenya Climbing Club, who do freelancing guiding for Roc ’n Rope and bolt and open new routes at the crags, were there on Saturday, cheering on the climbers in between their own climbs.
Club captain Alwanda Malidba impressed spectators by climbing Snapdragon on a top rope when the competitors were taking a break to fuel up, but found the holds of the crux too tiny. He plans to train and come back.
The 10-year-old club does not have the sponsors it needs “to make the local climbing club the best in the world”, said Nkosi, thanking the Mountain Club of SA (Johannesburg), Black Diamond, Roc ’n Rope, North Face and others who have backed it until now.
He started climbing in 1998 with the environment conservation club at Imemeza High School, which intends to construct a climbing wall for its members to train on and gear up for the competition circuit.
In July Cosser and Janse van Rensburg will take part in the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, but on that occasion they will test their skills in different disciplines, not head to head on the wall.
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