Don't look down

Thanks for all the pictures!

One note on the Bt, Beuler and I did it last year and on the other side of bugger gully, the gully was full of very lose rock. This area can be somewhat precarious and if you do drop it will be a loooong drop. Our party decided to go down there one at a time, to reduce the change of anyone dislodging rocks onto anybody below him, as there is a lot of lose rocks in various sizes availble and you do not need to ba a clumsy Eland to dislodge them. I think another thing of the BT is that the exposure is more or less continious for a long while, so after the first ten minutes one adjust to it and get used to it.

Magnificent hike, dont be discouraged to walk it, but apply caution and you should be fine. For a novice it may be worthwhile to go with somebody who has done it before, even if it is just for the mental security. It was beuler's first trip in the berg and he did perfectly fine with his (at that time) firm Eland bulk and a heavy backpack.

That great, what a useful number of responses.

It certainly looks a lot worse in the image from the bottom looking up. From one of JH's images, which is the first one i saw of this cave, it seemed to me that there were only toe holds, but this looks actually quite safe. Although ther are one or two people that i still would not want to take along that path!

That section along the Bell's Traverse I have always found to be ok, and just a bit exciting. Although back in 91 on my first hiking trip, we almost had one of our party bale off that section. Which left us all a bit rattled.

Is that Cleft Peak in the background? I have never been on the northern berg escarpment, I have only seen escarpment photos in this area in books and on VE...

As ST says, that photo in Encounters with the Dragon makes it look much more dangerous than it seems to be, although admittedly its not high on my to do list!

I know this is slightly off topic, as Roland's cave is not the subject but seeing as it has featured heavily in this thread, I would like to make a little observation.

The photographs in this thread are dramatic and thanks to those who posted them! However…
How practical is Roland's cave? Where is the nearest water?
And sorry to be the party pooper but when it comes to the ablutions, what's the deal?
If it's just a couple of blokes, one can just hang it out over the edge. A number two?
The women, is there any privacy? Where do they go?
Scenario. A number two at night! (Admittedly this doesn't happen very often. Fortunately. )

If one is finding nooks and crannies for these necessary functions around the immediate cave area because of accessibility issues,it's going to be like Twins cave before long.

Could someone enlighten us?
Thanks again for the fantastic photos.

I was actually thinking the same thing earlier today. Moral of the story is don't rock climb up the face under Roland's cave at night!

On a different note, how does Ledgers cave compare to Rolands cave? Both look similar to a person who has never been to either...

It's interesting to read about different perspectives regarding exposure and the 'don't look down' factor. I am doing the Bell Traverse for the first time this weekend ( it's been on my 'to do' list for a long time) and I have to admit that I am a bit worried about the 'tricky' sections.Yet I have no problem with the approach to Ledgers Cave and have tackled Rolands Cave( albeit very cautiously) a couple of times. Time will reveal all - watch this space for my report back next week!

In think the Roland's approach is trickier and more exposed than any section of the BT traverse. As I recall the BT traverse has one airy step over section which is easily skirted if you drop down for a 15 min detour. There are of course some variations to the route that may throw in some excitement but it is a spectacular walk.