Climbing Vingerklip

In the 60s and 70s Namibia’s rock formations drew climbers from all over the world. They wanted to be the first to climb mountains and rock pinnacles like Spitzkoppe, Spiegelberg, Mukorob and Vingerklip.

I recently found an article in an old Scope magazine from October 1970, written by Val and Ann King, about the first ascent of Vingerklip (Finger Rock) by American zoologist Tom Choate 54 years ago. Many people had looked up at the pillar, formed over the aeons by deposits of carbonated sandstones and conglomerates, and deemed the climb impossible. As had owner of the farm, Mr Van Vuuren, who - as a joke - told tourists to “Climb it while you are there,” never thinking that someone ever would. But he hadn’t counted on meeting Tom Choate.

Tom had gazed up at the ‘rock finger’, reaching 35 metres into the sky, between Outjo and Khorixas, and decided to take the joke seriously. By then, at 36 years old, he had already climbed Denali, (Mount MicKinley) the highest mountain peak in North America, Ruwenzori, Mount Kenya and several notable peaks in New Zealand.

The next morning at sunrise, although having sprained his left arm three days earlier, he was ready - with steel wedge-shaped pitons, rope slings and expansion bolts - to give this interesting rock a try. He wore a helmet to protect his head from falling rocks and trailed a belay rope behind him.

Initially, using hands and feet, he clipped the rope into steel snap-links (runners) attached by slings to the rock, testing them to see if they would take his weight. Mud and rock showered down as he hammered at the rock and looked for some solid rock to balance on. It was only at 15 metres above ground that he was able to find a crack in rock hard enough to hammer a piton in and place his first safe runner.

From there, he looked up at the overhang above him and began chiselling a hole in the hardest rock he could find. Ten minutes later he had his first bolt and dangled in mid-air, his feet in slings, hammering in the next. An hour and three bolts later, he had made it to 24 metres. The sun beat down as he worked his way up the last bit. Six hours after his start, without any food or water, he was finally standing on the top.

Mr van Vuuren and his wife were watching from the farmhouse and couldn’t believe their eyes. It was the first time they had ever seen anyone on the top of Vingerklip. They drove over to watch him abseil down.

Tom’s climbing challenges didn’t end there. He continued climbing, summitting Denali multiple times, the last when he was 78 years old, becoming the oldest person to summit the peak. His life journey took him from Denali National Park (Mount McKinley National Park), where he was the first ranger naturalist, to New Zealand to research Antarctica’s penguins and predators. The family moved to South Africa in the late 60s, from where Tom organised climbs to Kilimanjaro and other outdoor activities, before moving to Alaska in the late 70s. Here, Tom was a biology professor at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. He is now 90 years old and still climbing.

Although his ascent up Vingerklip is in the past, Finger Rock still stands strongly above the Ugab terraces, impervious to the man who looked up, listened to a farmer’s words and decided that it was indeed a good idea to climb to the top.