L'Arch 8A+/B

L'Arch, more fully recorded as L'Arche or The Arch, is a boulder problem in the Campground sector of Rocklands, South Africa, on the area's orange sandstone. It climbs a sit start on slopers into a low, technical roof before finishing up and left on more slopers. Current route databases grade it 8A+/B (roughly V13/14), a grade not previously recorded on climbingmovies.com for this line.

History

The problem was originally graded 8a before a couple of key holds broke off inside the roof. Christian Core reopened and effectively re-established the harder version of the line in 2005, and it has carried its current, stiffer grade since. As with much of Rocklands, exact first-ascent credit for the original, easier version of the problem was not confirmed in available sources, so none is stated here.

On film

L'Arch appears in A Month In Rocklands with Kyra Condie (2025), Kyra Condie's fourth season filming in the boulder field, shot and directed by Carlos Mason. The problem is one of the lines she works through the season as she looks for a single project worth committing to, shown in the context of her broader time bouldering across Rocklands' sandstone rather than as an isolated send.