This is undoubtedly the most popular and heavily-used trail to the escarpment in the entire Drakensberg. The path is very well defined and usually quite crowded during weekends and holidays. The only obstacle on the way to the top is the chain ladder itself which ascends the final 30m of cliff face in two sections. The ladder should only pose a problem to those with a fear of heights.
Rating: * * (1/10) Difficulty of the pass is rated from 1-10 (10 being very difficult, only to be attempted by the fit and experienced). A subjective quality rating is indicated by the number of stars (1 being low, 5 being the highest). Factors such as scenic beauty and overall experience come into play here, which may differ from person to person.
Access: The Chain Ladder route is accessed via the Sentinel Car Park which is just up the road from the Witzieshoek Mountain Resort.
Details: The distance from the Sentinel Car Park to the top of the chain ladders is 3km with an altitude gain of 400m.
Route: The initial concrete path fortunately only lasts for the first 500m or so before the well-defined path zigzags up the northern slopes of the Sentinel. Most of the 400m gain in altitude is climbed in this section. After about 1km, there is an optional detour to a wonderful viewpoint over the Amphitheatre, Devil’s Tooth and the Inner Tower. This slight deviation off the path is highly recommended on a clear day. There are a number of paths which continue around the Sentinel to the right. Some of them are dead-ends but climbing a little higher up the slope usually gets you on the right track. From this point on, the path contours around the western side of the Sentinel and after passing Beacon Buttress Gully (see below), contours along the escarpment cliffs until the chain ladders are reached on the edge of a large gully. All that remains is to make your way up either of the ladders (the newer one is a lot more stable) and climb the short, steep slope to the 3 enormous cairns that mark the top of the pass.
Finding the pass from the top: Follow the clear path from the ranger’s hut along to the west of the Beacon Buttress where the 3 huge cairns marking the top of the chain ladders will be found.
Overnight Spots: There is a hiker’s hut at the Sentinel Car Park which sleeps 12 people. Sentinel cave is situated in one of the side gullies when contouring below the escarpment about 500m before the chain ladders. It is, however, not a very pleasant cave to sleep in. The escarpment, as always, has plenty of flat space for camping but robberies by Basothos are very frequent in the amphitheatre area. Rather hike across past Ifidi Pass before camping or alternatively, arrange a night-watch system. The hut near the top of the Tugela Falls is a ranger’s hut and may only be used in emergencies.
Water: There is water available at the Sentinel Car Park but from there, the next available water is the Tugela River on the escarpment.
I don't have that level of detail of knowledge that you are looking for, and all of the people I can think of from Witsieshoek who were involved at the time have moved on. You may find some useful information on the Afromontane Research Unit website, or in papers published by them that are available on the internet. The best person to contact and ask if you can't find anything on the internet is Prof Ralph Clark, his email address and contact number are available in papers he has authored and on the Afromontane Research Unit website respectively.
Does anyone know where I can find some information about the construction of the paved part of the chain ladder route from the car park? I'm just interested in the general history like when, why, by whom, how long it took, how it was accomplished, etc.
Most of the work of the paved route was done in 2018. The paving was planned by Witsieshoek and the Afromontane Research Unit of the University of the Free State, with major inputs by Ralph Clark of the Afromontane Research Unit. At about the same time, the new building at Sentinel Car Park was constructed.
The projects were funded by government departments, the path by the Department of Environmental Affairs, and the building by the Department of Tourism, if I remember this correctly. Unfortunately, as things go, the Departments responsible for the funding were also responsible for the planning, issue of tenders, award of contracts, and site supervision, project/contract management etc, so there were some major glitches in these projects, most notably the poor level of site supervision and standard of work, and the allocated money running out before the planned work was completed. As part of the paving of the path, the chain ladders were also supposed to be replaced, but this never happened. The chain ladders were ‘closed’ for months for replacement, at great inconvenience to hikers, but the money ran out and they were never replaced. Perhaps this was a good thing, as I don’t even want to imagine what unsuitable type of ladders might now be there if they had been replaced. Much of the fence constructed to prevent hikers taking shortcuts on the zig zags has also collapsed, largely because the fence poles were not planted deep enough, no doubt because of the difficulty of excavating into the rock and the contractor took short cuts on this, which weren’t noticed or corrected by the site supervision.
The building at Sentinel Car Park, which was intended as accommodation for hikers and guests, was also poorly constructed, and has never been brought into use. Part of the ceiling has already collapsed, and other building defects are easily visible. A major problem is that because the road to Sentinel Car Park is in such a poor condition, water cannot be transported to the building. With hindsight it would have been much better to upgrade the worst sections of the road, than construct the building, as the water problem is a major issue, as is the road access to the building for anyone who may want to use it.
I have close contact with Witsieshoek, having done repairs on the broken chain ladder, and improvements to the path, which is how I have gleaned this information. As a civil engineer with more than 35 years engineering and construction experience, I am well positioned to comment on the construction shortcomings, although I no longer work in engineering or construction. I am also interested and available to do further repairs to the chain ladders, which will be adequate to extend their useable life, without replacement being necessary, but funding for these repairs is not yet available. Improvements to the road are also planned, but can only be done when funding is allocated, which may not be soon.
More information on the paving of the path can be found in the Mt Aux Sources – Amphitheatre – Tugela thread from posts during 2018.
Excellent work on the improvements! Does anyone here know the history of the construction of the paved route from the parking area two the chain ladders?
Thanks Tony and crew, well done. Am happy about the signage being put up near the zigzags. If u don’t do this route regularly, u end up scratching your head about which path to choose, and then still not knowing if it is right. Always slows u down in those circumstances!
I am aware of the bypass path, and have used it a few times, it bypasses five of the places where we did improvements, but because most hikers use the path where the improvements were done, we decided to rather do the improvements than try to get everyone to use the other path.
Space constraints limited my photos in the earlier posts, but here are a few more photos of the place with the ledge as we did the work, and of a large group passing just after we installed the chain and first steps. They couldn’t use the steps because the epoxy was not set, and we had placed a notice written on a piece of wood on the steps not to use them, so they entered the ledge from the far left. It was noticeable how nervous some were on the left section of the ledge before they could use the chain, even with their guide standing below near the steps and directing them.
Great work Tony and Luca! The chain on this spot is a great addition - I've been using the alternative trail from the red ladder to just below Sentinel Standard Route since 2015 because of that. It's fine when its dry, but it feels very dangerous when wet.
The last two places are close together and quite similar, low sloping rock slabs which are often wet, and where questionable grass tufts and muddy ground are used as steps. At the one we installed two steps.
At the other one we installed three steps.
The other work we did was to install signage and arrows at relevant places on the zig zags of the path from the car park to the base of Sentinel Peak. Here it is observed that many hikers make or use short cuts, and there is a general confusion over which is the main, correct path to use. We installed signs at either end, requesting hikers to stay on the path, no entry signs at the shortcuts, and arrows to show the correct path. It is very noticeable that there are no notices or signs requesting hikers to stay on the main path, so maybe it’s not surprising that many make and use the short cuts. Hopefully these new signs will help, although no doubt there will be many who don’t even read them, and those who ignore them.
The sign at the car park end of the path, with the Witches and Sentinel Peak in the background.
The no entry signs at one of the short cuts, the returning tourists in the photo were very pleased and thought this was very helpful, and told us that they had struggled to find the right path on their way to the chain ladders earlier that day. We also painted white arrows near all the no entry signs to indicate the correct path to use.
White painted arrows at one of the zig zags.
The sign at the Sentinel end of the zig zags.
It was very satisfying to do this work, and we hope the improvements will benefit many hikers. The feedback we got from hikers passing along the path as we did the work was very positive, and we were quite surprised to see how many used the chain on the ledge with the drop off. It was also great to stay in the accommodation at Witsieshoek, and enjoy breakfast and dinner in the restaurant, and packed lunches while doing the work.
After doing the repair of the chain ladder anchor in August 2021, Neil Margetts and I had various discussions with Witsieshoek Lodge to do some improvements to the path to the chain ladders. The lodge felt some responsibility to implement some safety improvements after various feedback from day hikers and foreign tourists was received, but weren’t sure what to do or where the priorities were. Another company, specialising in access safety, did an inspection and risk assessment in wet weather using some experienced hikers, and the risk assessment identified six places to receive safety improvements, in addition to something more being necessary at the short fixed ladder already installed on the route. These places were used to define a scope of work for us, as well as some signage and arrow markings, and we were asked to provide a proposal, using a simple but functional solution, and costing to implement the proposal. In June 2022 we did an assessment of these places, taking measurements for chains and steps to be installed, and shortly thereafter submitted our proposal.
It took a while for Witsieshoek to secure funding to do the work, having accepted our proposal, and in mid 2023 we had further discussions to implement the proposals which were unfortunately delayed by my fall and injuries in August. By October I was recovered well enough to estimate that by the end of November I would be strong enough to do the work, and so the path improvements were scheduled to be done during the last week of November, which also gave us enough time to get all the materials we needed ready.
Luca Brice, a hiking friend, joined me to do the work at the end of November, and we estimated it would take 3 or 4 days, although to be sure and to allow for weather delays we had planned with Witsieshoek to be there for up to 5 days. We were able to do all the work in three days, but had to return on the fourth day to remove notices we had put on the steps we epoxied in on the third day, requesting people not to use them as the epoxy was still drying. Luca has not done much hiking in the Drakensberg, so we used the opportunity to go to the top of the Tugela Falls on the fourth day, so that he could experience being there and using the chain ladders.
The photos show the improvements we did, as per the request from Witsieshoek in line with their risk assessment.
At the first place we installed a chain to hold onto, where some concrete lintols had been added to the path and there is quite a drop off below the lintols.
Another view from the other side, after Luca had cut off the excess length of chain with the angle grinder, and yes, he does do most of his hiking in those slops.
At the next place we put in some steps and handles to assist hikers to get up or down an awkward rock step, and painted arrows to indicate this is the way. Most hikers go past on the right of this, as shown at the bottom right in the photo below, but this way leads to a side sloping slab of rock which is dangerous in wet weather.
The third place was the short ladder, where we added two steps below the ladder to make it safer to get to the ladder from the paved path below. Over the years the soil on the rock has eroded away, and the bottom of the ladder is much higher above the path now than when it was originally installed.
The next place is a slanting rock slab, where we installed a chain to hold onto, for people who are worried about slipping when the rock is wet, although the rock surface has a good texture and several footholds.
The fifth place is an inclined rock slope, also where the path has eroded away over the years, and hikers walk on a narrow ledge above a significant drop off, where we installed steps to get up onto the ledge easily, and a chain to hold onto above the ledge. Some tourists used the steps and chain in the photos below. The short piece of chain linking the chain to the top step is so that the chain is never out of reach from the steps.
No problem, that is fine, it's just that these posts fit better into that topic.
Thanks, it was fun doing the repair, and great to do something to benefit the hiking community.
Neil and I were approached to quote to replace the Tugela Gorge chain ladder, and we put quite a lot of work into our quotation, but we have not had a response from EKZNW, the main issue being that the Officer in Charge at RNNP has changed and the new OIC is not the one who requested the quote.
For now the Tugela Gorge chain ladder is still okay to use at your own risk, it is not likely to fail or collapse suddenly, but take obvious precautions like only one person on the ladder at a time and gentle steps not rough handling on the ladder etc.
Thank you Tony - much appreciated!
Apologies for not posting under the correct topic - I sometimes find these old-style forums a bit difficult to navigate.
I had seen your posts about the fantastic work you did repairing the chain ladders and hoped that you would respond to my query
This image is hidden for guests.
..
Do you perhaps know anything about the repair of the Tugela Gorge chain ladder? It is officially closed but hikers are using it at own risk.
In August last year I was part of the team that repaired the anchors on the lower right (looking at the ladders from below) chain ladder, and I personally took detailed measurements of the four chain ladders, in case later on I become involved in other repairs, so I have all the necessary measurements. The details of these repairs are in the topic ‘The Chain Ladders’, and you can also see some photos of the ladders there.
You are correct, the left and right ladders are not exactly the same length, and are from different eras. For the bottom ladders the older one is on the left, and the newer one on the right, and for the top ladders the older one is on the right and the newer one on the left. The older ladders are made from 10 mm long link chain, with rung spacing of 320 mm, and the newer ladders are made from 13 mm standard chain with a rung spacing of 290 mm. The older and newer ladders also have different types of rungs, and different designs to space the rungs and chains away from the rock face. All four ladders also have excess chain at the bottom of the ladder, which is not climbed, and rests on horizontal rock, and I have not included this excess chain length in the measured lengths of the ladder heights.
The ladder individual lengths are:
Bottom left 23 m
Bottom right 24 m
Top left 14.0 m
Top right 14.4 m
If you need any more info or photos etc please just ask.
Mods, please move these posts to The Chain Ladders topic in due course.
Hello all, I am writing a post about the northern Drakensberg and would like to include some info re the chain ladders. Does anyone have definitive details re the height (elevation change) of the chain ladder sections / length of the chain ladders / number of rungs? I do understand that the left and right chain ladders may not be exactly the same. I have been researching this and am getting wildly different figures.
We were there shortly after the new ladders had been installed. The person who did the installation was there as it had just been completed and he was monitoring its use. That would have been the late 80's so it is not all that old.
Sounds about right. The first time I did the chain ladders in about '88 or early '89, there was only one ladder on each pitch (the ones WITHOUT the big loops). When I went back a couple years later the new ones WITH big loops had been installed.
We were there shortly after the new ladders had been installed. The person who did the installation was there as it had just been completed and he was monitoring its use. That would have been the late 80's so it is not all that old.
Once the chain with the broken anchor bolt was finished, we repeated the process on the chain on the other side. In the photo below I cut off the new chain with a bolt cutter at the correct length. We decided to carry the bolt cutter with us to the ladders so that each chain could be individually cut to length to suit the best bolting positions on the rock, rather than use pre cut fixed length chains. This also allowed us to space the expansion anchor bolts far enough apart that they would not interfere with each other in terms of being too close together and concentrating the load into a small area of rock.
The ladder suspended on the new anchors with the other chain ladder in background.
The photos below show the completed installation with the stainless steel components.
We spray painted the shiny silver stainless steel components with grey paint to make them blend in more with the chain ladder and rock.
The lower left chain ladder (the older one) had noticeable looseness in the one anchor bolt, so we used some spare components to strengthen this anchor as well.
The repairs were complete at about midday, and we headed off to the top of the Tugela Falls for lunch. Although it was misty and there wasn't much view, Wisdom had the opportunity to see and walk in and play with snow for the first time.
There have been some comments about worn chain links on the chain ladders, but this is only on the two older ladders with the smaller chain, and on the lower section of these ladders where the mass of the ladder to support is lowest. The newer chain ladders with the larger chain have very little wear on the chain links, and with the anchor repair to the lower newer chain ladder this ladder will be serviceable for many years. It should also be pointed out that the chains used on the chain ladders are much larger than required to support the combined mass of the chain and other ladder components, and people on the ladders, so the amount of wear on the chain links is not necessarily dangerous. It would be wise though for the relevant authorities to have someone perform an inspection of all the chain ladders, and to repair or replace components as necessary before another break occurs, which may have more serious consequences than when the anchor on the newer lower ladder broke. There are people (like Neil and I and others) in the mountaineering community who are competent and would be happy to do these sort of things with just having our costs covered, and would act in the best interest of safety and practicality without purely having a commercial or financial interest in the matter.
It was a privilege to be able to be part of the chain ladder repair, and to do this so that other hikers and mountain users can continue to enjoy using the chain ladders.
After being prematurely closed in April 2018 to be replaced, and that never happening, and the one anchor bolt of the newer lower ladder breaking in September 2019, the broken chain ladder anchor bolt has been repaired, and all four chain ladders are usable again.
Neil Margetts and I had looked at the broken anchor bolt on the newer lower ladder earlier this year when we had gone up the chain ladders for the abseil down the Tugela Falls that Neil and his team did, when I led their support team. We were quite horrified at the delay at the chain ladders with a lot of day hikers and only one ladder open. We thought it was quite straightforward to do a repair of the broken anchor bolt, and discussed repairing it. Neil also discussed repairing it with some other well known climbers, but we never got as far as getting the necessary permissions from the various involved parties/authorities to do the repair. Recently an interested party contacted Gavin Raubenheimer about repairing the broken anchor bolt, and Gavin referred them to Neil, and so finally the wheels were set in motion to do the repair. The interested party arranged all the necessary permissions for Neil and I to do the repair.
We were at Witsieshoek last Saturday morning, to do the repair, but we were unable to drive up to the Sentinel car park as the overnight snow was too thick on the road. We also assumed there would be more snow higher up which would make it more difficult and slower going to walk to the chain ladders, and when conditions on Sunday were pretty much the same, we left and decided to come back later in the week once the snow had melted to do the repair.
The photos below show the broken off anchor bolt, and the newer lower chain ladder (this is the lower chain ladder on the right as one stands at the bottom looking up) hanging on just one anchor bolt with the no entry sign at the top of the ladder to warn hikers not to use this ladder.
We could determine from examination of the broken off anchor bolt, that corrosion of the mild steel had led to weakening of the bolt and the breaking of the bolt due to this weakening. We don't know exactly when this chain ladder was installed, but believe that it was in the late 1970's, so the ladders had worked for about forty years, and the breaking of the bolt was thus not unusual for the age and conditions in which it operated, and the design life that it would have been designed for. It would of course have been better if the relevant authority had been doing proper inspections and had identified the corrosion problem and replaced the anchor bolts before one broke. This also made it apparent to Neil and I that the repair we planned to do should allow for a greater degree of redundancy, and should not just be a single anchor bolt again that could result in the failure of the anchor and closure of the ladder if it broke again in the future. So I did a design incorporating four stainless steel expansion bolts and hangers (the type that Neil uses for bolting climbing routes), and chains attached to the main chain, so if one of these failed in future, there would still be three holding. At the same time as repairing the broken anchor bolt, we would place the same new anchor system on the unbroken anchor bolt on the other side, but also leave this anchor bolt in place as back up, so both chains of the ladder would be on new anchors. The interested party who requested us to do the repair was happy with this proposal, and also that as a Registered Civil Engineer I could perform the design and installation.
The photos below show the materials used in the repair, stainless steel chain, expansion bolts, hangers, D shackles and quick links. Stainless steel is significantly stronger than mild steel, and is also much more resistant to corrosion.
So last Friday we were again at Witsieshoek, and could drive up to the Sentinel car park, and walk to the chain ladders to do the repair. Neil and I had Wisdom Chilanga, one of Neil's employees who has worked with Neil on ladders and bolting, and who has also worked with me, with us, to help to carry the tools and equipment and do the work, and make his first visit to the Drakensberg and hopefully see and feel snow for the first time.
I secured the chain with the broken anchor with a chain block, and pulled it back up to the correct height, and Wisdom and I removed the old D shackle and broken piece of anchor bolt from the chain.
We then secured two new chains to the chain of the ladder with a D shackle, and marked out the holes for the expansion anchor bolts on the rock. In the photo below Neil drills the first hole while Wisdom holds the new chains with the hangers attached.
We used an epoxy to seal off the top of the anchor bolts at the rock face, and applied epoxy to all threaded fastenings to prevent loosening. In the photo below Wisdom applies epoxy to the threads of the four anchor bolts to prevent them from being loosened and removed.
Hi, I'm planning on doing the hike tomorrow (8 December 2020) with my 10 year old daughter. Hopefully the weather permits it! What is the safety like now camping at the top of the Tugela falls / by the ranger's hut? Or where would be best to pitch our tent that doesn't add too much distance to the hike? (We'll probably go up the ladders and possibly down the gully.)
