Photos
Help

Lekker Time Buttress

  • Grade context: SA
  • Ascents: 4
6

Seasonality

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D

Access issues inherited from Yellowwood

The Ravine, Amphitheatre and most of the climbable rock is on the farm Gevonden 733 and is privately owned by the Dave Richter family trust. There is tacit permission to climb at Yellowwood by the beneficiaries of the trust provided we do not engage in any eco-unfriendly practises.

Ethic inherited from Yellowwood

The prevailing ethic for Yellowwood is tread lightly.

"Tread lightly" means no bolting of belay stances unless all possible alternatives have been completely exhausted. No placing of bolts for running belays that are not absolutely essential. No use of pitons, unless necessary. No use of power drills is accepted!

Climbers are asked to respect the prevailing ethic which is intended to preserve the aesthetic appeal of Yellowwood as a world-class Trad climbing destination.

It is essential for first time visitors to do an ascent of one of the existing classic trad routes to appreciate the committing and adventurous nature of the climbing at Yellowwood. Older routes such as Armageddon Time (and the direct), Blood is Sweeter than Honey and Time Warp are all test pieces for their grade. And newer routes such as Prime Time (and the direct) and Fantastic Time as well as "routes in progress" of which there at least 3, are no less demanding at the grade. Most, if not all the trad routes on the main wall have at least one "R" (run-out) pitch but none are "X" rated. There is minimal fixed gear and very few fixed stance

A new route on Yellowwood, Fighting The Dark Side Of Gravity, has had all its bolts removed, except for two that are essential for the leader on Pitch 3. Two non-essential pitons have also been removed.

There has been much debate about Yellowwood and the most active Yellowwood climbers have talked extensively so as to settle the ethos of this high-value cliff.

In a recent meeting Adam Roff, Jeremy Samson and Hilton Davies distilled the following:

Yellowwood is a very special Trad climbing venue and there have been some mis-steps in route development at the crag. Newborn was bolted many years ago before locals had given much thought to bolting and ethics. It is a legacy that shall remain, but should not be seen as guidance for route development at Yellowwood. More recently four new routes have been established by visitors who have made extensive use of non-essential bolting. Whilst route development is encouraged, non-essential bolting is not; and these new routes are getting their non-essential bolts removed. They will remain as good adventurous routes.

2014: There have been no less than 10 new multi-pitch trad routes established at Yellowwood in the first 5 months of this year. Together they constitute no less than 60 pitches or, combined, more than 1500m of climbing. All the routes have been free-climbed with the vast majority of the pitches of being moderate grade and only 2 pitches of grade 22 and one of grade 24. The routes are all well protected and no fixed gear was necessary.

Tags

Routes

Add route(s) Add topo Reorder Bulk edit Convert grades
Grade Route
1 21 25m
2 16 45m
3 19 20m
4 16 40m
5 16 25m
6 20 50m
7 19 20m
8 23 15m
  1. 25m 21. Climb up the easy ramp. Crank onto the grey face and then head up the seam on the orange-red face to a thin rail below the overhang. Crank through toa juggy rail then crank strenuously out right on grey jugs to attain a balancy face. Move up and left to a ledge. Alternative Pitch 1: 25m 16 or 18. Climb the left facing corner on the left of the standard start. Make it more interesting by moving right after into the steep left facing corner after 7 or 8m.

  2. 45m 16. Continue up the faces and flakes heading onto the arête on perfect rock to a ledge below the large overhangs. (Stance shared with “Lekker Time”.

  3. 20m 19. Head up past the fixed cam to the roof rail with lay-backs and or hand jambs Rail right to the lip and continue up the face to the left of Fun Time’s crack to belay on top of the large gendarme on the left. (Small cairn). Alternative 3. 20m 17. Climb up the gulley on the left to the large obvious rail on the right wall. Traverse out to the arete and then climb airily up it to a stance. (This pitch can be combined with pitch 4.

  4. 40m 16. Step across the gap and move left and follow corners and cracks upwards to belay on a ledge below and slightly down from a distinctive square orange rock scar.

  5. 25m 16. Climb past the rock scar 2-3m to the right and continue diagonally left on excellent rock and good holds to stance on a large ledge shared with Lekker Time.

  6. 50m 20. Climb carefully up the mottled black recess on dodgy looking flakes but excellent pro just left of Lekker Time. Once the angle eases step left 3m and climb the grey panels of rock parallel to Lekker Time.

  7. 20m 19. Pull up onto the slab and head towards a slot in the overlap, just to the left of Lekker Time’s crux. Pull up into the slot and then up to the next slot. Then head up to the roof to the semi hanging stance under the overhang where shade on a hot day may be welcome.

  8. 15m. 23. Crank strenuously through the overhang on good pro and then easily up to the stance. (You can also easily escape to the right if the crack through the roof seems a little daunting.

Descent: Walk along the ledge system in a south-westerly direction for about 100m to the Timerity Abseil.

FA: Teodor Iliev, Charles Edelstein & Brent Russell, Sep 2017

1 15 40m
2 17 20m
3 17 25m
4 16 25m
5 17 40m
6 17 45m
7 16 30m
  1. 40m (15) Climb up a shallow left facing corner to a ledge. Walk right a few metres and climb steep, juggy rock tending slightly left. Belay on a small ledge below a short steep orange face. (Or start straight up and pull through the overhang (16))

  2. 20m (17) Climb the short face and find your way more or less straight up to a left facing recess. A small nut protects the next move. Climb up under the small overhang and search for a small but good hold that you use with your left hand to step round right onto the arete. Continue to a ledge with blocks under a large overhang. (The "small hold" move can be avoided by fighting your way past a yellow wood tree on the left.)

  3. 25 (17) Climb up and head right to the arete. Climb till you are level with the overhang. If you can't or won't fist jamb you are going to find the next move hard. Then continue more easily to a large ledge and belay at the base of a massive block. You are now on top of the pillar.

  4. 25m (16) Move your belay by walking around to the back of the block on its right. Climb up and head diagonally left first on cleanish grey rock but heading for the darker lichen covered rock. Find somewhere to stance after about 25m as pitch 4 and 5 combined is 70m.

  5. 40m (17) Climb carefully on gnarly lichen covered rock (but positive holds) heading left! Do not be tempted to go straight up as it is chossy. Stance at the obvious ledge below a right facing corner system.

  6. 45m (17) Climb 3m or so carefully on juggy holds but swing left 2 metres or so before the overlap above. Going straight up is harder but there is a medium size cam placement above you that you may want to use before stepping left. Once you place the cam reverse a move or two and then swing left. Continue up clean steep juggy cracks to belay before the final overhangs on a large block.

  7. 30m (16) Climb up and right to the notch. Crank up and then move left to a point where the overhang is at its smallest. Be careful about using extenders on your pro so as to not incur drag. Climb up and then diagonalright to the skyline on slabby rock. Continue up the crack and find your way to a grassy ledge.

Descent is an elegant and safe 3 abseils.

Walk horizontally right and a bit down for about 100m along a ledge system capped by an overhang. Where the overhang ends look down to see a grey square shaped flat block where there is a bolted abseil point.

  1. Abseil 45m to a bolted stance

  2. Abseil 35m to the next bolted stance.

  3. Abseil the way with sixties. You can abseil to a ledge system with fifty metre ropes and walk off left (west) along a ledge system and to an easy scramble down/

This is a 4 or 5 pitch route depending on your appetite for long pitches and rope drag. It is a short walk up from the water drip at the start of Divine Time and starts about 20m left of Adventure Time.

There is only one tricky move on the first pitch at around 6m past a bomber nut placement.

It exits easily and spetacularly round the the left of the top overhangs.

It is shady all morning and quick allowing for the option of doing another route on the day

FA: Charles Edelstein & Willem le Roux, 10 Jun 2021

1 17 25m
2 21 30m
3 19 45m
4 19 35m
5 20

FA: James barclay & Charles Edelstein, 26 Apr 2017

1 15 45m
2 15 25m
3 18 35m
4 20 25m
5 21 60m
6 21 25m
7 17 25m

Pitch 6 : A0 or massive reach move

FFA: Willem le Roux

FA: Bruce Daniel, Deon van Zyl & Charles Edelstein, 2014

FA: Tony Dick & Charles Edelstein, 7 Jan 2015

1 12 55m
2 17 25m
3 20 20m
4 18 50m
5 18 22m
6 25 23m
7 40m

Start: Take off from the Snotter Camp up the easy ramp just left of the water drums.

  1. 12 (30m). Find your way to a wide ledge which is shared with Timerity and Another Fck’n Time.

  2. 17 (25m). Start up the recess. After 5m, traverse left 5m to round the awkward bulge. Do not stray into the cClimb the clean face above by staying left of the corner, to a rising traverse eft on the best holds before the angle increases. Stance around the corner in the obvious deep recess.

  3. 20 (20m). Climb up the right wall of the recess and crank on to the arete. Continue to the overhang above and move left to climb more easily to a ledge with bolted anchors on the last Timerity Abseil.

  4. 18 (35m). Climb directly up above the bolts to the overlap and crank through on the right to a large ledge. Climb the grey-black arete on the right side (in common with Timerity) to below the bushy gulley. Move left and climb the left leaning ramp to a ledge. Belay at the abseil bolts on Timerity.

  5. 18 (20m). Climb the left leaning ramp past the overhang and then step right to attain a left leaning crack. Climb this for a metre or two and then leave the crack to climb up the face to a small standing ledge.

  6. 25(20m). Climb up the slightly left leaning grey break to where the rock becomes yellow and orange to an obvious under-cling. Do tricky move up and right to the overhang. Place small good cams and move left two metres. Crank the crux on thin holds and continue to a good rail. (Small cams). Finish easily to stance in the shady walk-off cave on blocks.

  7. ???26 (40) WORK in progress. The Brotality Roof. Walk left about 40m and stance at the same place as Timerity 6th pitch. Find your way to the roof and fight your way through it with or without aid moves.

FA: Jimbo Smith, Garreth Bird, Luke Eberhardt & Charles Edelstein, Sep 2017

This cliff is unlocated

If you know where this cliff is then please take a minute to locate it for the climbing community. contact us if you have any issues.

Accommodations nearby more Hide

Share this

Tue 25 Apr
Check out what is happening in Lekker Time Buttress.

Get a detailed insight with a timeline showing

  • Ticks by climbers like you
  • Discussions of the community
  • Updates to the index by our users
  • and many more things.

Login to see the timeline!

Deutsch English Español Français Italiano 한국어 Português 中文