Following a much needed rest day we decided to take a walk over to the Plateau Boulders and give Minki a try. This is an area classic that everyone in the Cape Town crew has been raving about since we got off the plane. There are several nice things about Minki not the least of which is the flat approach. This combined with the flat landing the steep roof and the amazing features made this an obvious choice for an easy day problem.
Though it’s rated 7b, Minki looks like a problem anyone could flash. It has huge holds and what looks to be obvious beta with a finish jug that’s like grabbing the top of a door. As with all great problems however, there is a catch. The holds are all facing just the wrong direction, the texture is just a bit slicker that you want and the holds are just a bit to far apart to make things as easy as one would like. Of course we discovered this after deciding to warm up on it.
After trying the crux moves a few times apiece I decided we were barking up the wrong tree and began trying a bit of foot work rather than just trying to crush the problem into submission. This train of thought led me immediately to a toe hook that proved to be the key sequence for both Sean and I, though we finish out the problem differently.
As it turns out Minki is one of those problems that after you send you’ll be able to warm up on every time you go to that area. It is defiantly a gem.
Once we were sufficiently warmed up we wandered around to the other side of the boulder and did two very fun 6b’s that we probably should have gotten on first. These are great problems that will push intermediate climbers and should not be missed.
Tomorrow, if the rain holds off we will be heading up to the Roadside area again for another highball session and possibly to check out Pendragon. Should be interesting.
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