Route development and further potential in Angola

Serra da Leba is a sandstone quartz mountain range located in the southern part of Angola, around 50 km west of Lubango. The cliff height ranges from 200 to 600m above a river cascading down the canyon in a series of waterfalls. Nathan Cahill, who lives in Luanda and was inspired by an article from 2016 on Vertical-Life [8a], and has carried out the first two exploratory trips and together with some friends they have thus far put up 18 routes.

"We are going for another hundred or so during the climbing festival here in August. If properly developed, I could see it becoming a premier climbing destination in southern Africa, right up there with Rocklands and Waterval Boven. There's easy potential for a thousand routes. The cliff band here is about 5 km of unbroken walls. Most of the rock is around 6 pitches tall. The character of the rock is all face climbing, there are a few walls that overhang 15-20 degrees with potential for some quite hard routes.

Further preparations were made for the first-ever Angola Climbing Festival happening there on August 16-25th. We opened over three kilometres of new trails and four new cliff sectors: Yuba City, Jungle Run, The Cave and Corner Pocket. A mix of sport, trad and multi-pitch lines ranges from 4c to 7c, with a lifetime of potential for more routes. Festival registration is open at climbangola.com"

Leigh Dearle who was part of the first exploring team says: “Serra da Leba has some of the most beautiful climbing we've seen in all our years of travel in an absolutely epic location. To be a part of the recent route development team was an incredible experience. Without a doubt an up-and-coming international climbing destination. Sport, trad and big wall, this place has it all.”