Hell's Gate, Kenya - Main Wall
The Main Wall of Hell's Gate is almost 150m vertically high. The lower three quarters is composed of solid columnar basalts, the rock of the upper band has been variously described but vertical cornflakes seems as accurate a description as is possible especially when you are on it. The climbing is often of a very high quality involving long crack systems marred only by populations of swifts and bats. To the left and to the right of the main section the height is not so great and the rotten band less prominent. Six routes tackle the main wall at its heighest: Olympian finds a way through the upper rotten band where it is split by a chimney, next Andromeda has an awesome reputation on account of the way it tackles the rotten steep wall direct. A devious route, Heart of Gold ends up, crossing Andromeda to traverse left to share the Olympian finish. Milky Way finds a slightly more amenable and independant way up the wall, to the right Zeus takes the dramatic overhanging prow relying on some hard aid climbing in the middle section. The Rocky Horror Show tackles the walls right of Zeus and passes through some very unstable rock in the middle sections of the route. |
