Waypoint Namibia: Big Walls, Desert Mirages, and Perseverance in the Darmaland and Beyond. *

On June 1st, Peter Doucette, Kate Rutherford and I completed Southern Crossing: a 1300-foot 5.11+, grade 5 rock climbing first ascent on the Brandberg, Namibia’s highest peak. But that’s only part of the story. There’s also a 2,000+ year-old painted giraffe, 108-degree temperatures, eight days at 15km/hour over washboard roads, scorpions, laser sharp granite cracks, crumbling granite faces, and 1.7 … Read More

Namibia Video 1

What it Takes to Want a First Ascent [vimeo 5076356] Namibia Movie 1 from Majka Burhardt on Vimeo.

First Ascents, Returns, and Expectations. Namibia 7

“Was Namibia everything you expected it to be?” my friend Kyle asked me this morning. I’d been home for eighteen hours and had almost driven the wrong way on the road, twice. I hadn’t yet seen the poodle. A scab on my shoulder had started to bleed again. “More,” I replied. “Better.” On June 1, Peter Doucette, Kate Rutherford, and … Read More

Rick Dees’ Top 40, All The Way To The Granite. Namibia 4.

I’ve been in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, for 48 hours—just now longer than it took to get here.  Departing Johannesburg, I had the chance to go to Gaborone, Antananarivo, Noola, Luanda. Bulawayo, Lusaka, Doha… I came here—at least here I know there’s granite. I arrived and got my rental car, and immediately got inside, on the wrong side (my right side) … Read More