Rachel Colenso

Friday and Saturday I am running various climbing courses for beginners at Cape Union Mart at Canal Walk. The courses are open to young and older. Check out the website http://www.capeunionmart.co.za/news/default.php?news_id=146 Once you have been bitten by the bug 'climbing' the world takes on a different shape. Suddenly places like Montagu, near Worcester become much more than a quaint Victorian village nestled around an oasis of palm trees and hotsprings. Last weekend we ventured out to this idylic location, camping at a favourite destination for climbers and cyclists, called De Bos. The campsite is situated along the banks of a river and enjoys shade from a variety of trees. Over almost 20 years the campsite has changed little, except decreasing in size due to a flood that washed 10m of river bank away. This time though, I noticed things that had previously been completely ignored... or rather Rosemary noticed them. First were the farmyard of animals, from Ostriches, to She...

Bouldering is a rathe r esoteric subgroup of climbing. The experts are instantly recognisable. They are either stick thin or built like Arnold Schwarzenegger, and all carry a large doubled over mattress on their back, (a bouldering pad for crash landing.) Their hands are whitened from resin chalk which is used to dry the perspiration from their fingertips so they can cling onto minuscule holds. Their rubber soled climbing boots help suction them to the rock, so they can clamber orangutan style, upside down through caves. Besides being a sport in its own right, climbers have for many years 'bouldered' as a form of training for technical rock climbing and mountaineering to develop the power and stamina to complete difficult routes. The sport generally involves following a sequence of technical climbing moves up a boulder which is low enough not to use a rope. The sequence is given a grade representing its difficulty and a name to distinguish it from other problems. Last weekend o...

Well done to Nicola Rowbotham who was selected as the 2009 fitness diarist for Shape magazine, and after months of training and preparation is about to set off on her demanding challenge of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Mount Kilimanjaro is 5895m high, and commands respect from mountaineers. Other than fitness, stamina, and enduring focus, climbing mountains also demands a high level of self discipline... and not just in the training. A significant number of people have had problems ascending Kilimanjaro, often due to altitude sickness. One of the main problems seems to be that fit and enthusiastic climbers ascend too quickly, not allowing their bodies to acclimatize to the increase in altitude properly. Whilst anyone can suffer from altitude sickness, not having the self restraint to take things at a steady pace definitely increases the chances of this occurring. When you climb at altitude your body has to work a great deal harder to pump the reduced levels of oxygen around the body. Ab...