Poi, Kenya, Gas Hole Face

"True at First Light" - black line, "Story about Dancing Dogs" - white line with French grades.

So the 20th century has come to an end and its old fashioned ideas go with it. Thus in December 1999 Steve Betchel, Scott Milton, Paul Piana and Todd Skinner, together with a four-person film crew, 42 porters in daily support, weekly resupplies of food by air, a solar powered drill and thousands of feet of rope climbed the 21-pitch True at First Light on the Gas Hole Face. Throwing traditions aside they decided to start the climb from the top and gradually they worked their way down the cliff. Once their line of bolts was in place they tackled the face (climbing upwards) and finally completed the ascent in January 2000.

The resulting 21-pitch line of superb and varied face climbing was mainly 5.11, with four or five pitches of 5.12 and the 5.13b cruxes on pitches 6 and 20. The rock was generally excellent, quite compact and well-endowed with small sharp finger holds. Due to a long traverse low down, the route has a length of almost 700m.

Their ascent of course has caused a great deal of controversy - the traditionalists say that the face should have been left to those who can climb it starting at the bottom. But clearly with adequate funding and ironmongery anything can be climbed and this ascent opens up an area of magnificent rock that had so far eluded all other attempts.

So it is not surprising when "Five Slovenian guys" - Luka Fonda, Stanko Gruden, Matja Jeran, Rok Šisernik, Goran Koren popped into Ngurunit with 425kg of equipment sent from Slovenia - climbing equipement, food, tents, sleeping bags, gas cooker, generator, power driller, 400 stretching anchors, 1 km of rope and 4 transport bags.

They made a quick ascent of True at First Light and abseiled down the face placing bolts and then Jeran and Šisernik made a successul redpoint ascent of the line (1 - 6 January 2003, 5 nights on the wall). they called it Story about Dancing Dogs, (21 pitch 7c+). After the climb Koren paraglided from the top.

Both these routes must rate with the greatest climbs in the world - maybe not for style of ascent but for the area of rock they pass through and the very location of Poi itself.

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