Unclimbed Berg routes
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
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An unfinished route to the left of Sentinel cave, and two minutes off the path! Route tops out on a ledge halfway up the buttress, until someone can finish it to the top, it’s just an alternate route to the top of the escarpment, albeit much more fun than the chain ladder or the gully!
First pitch goes at an easy c grade scramble, but enjoyable. Rest of the climb essentially goes straight up the buttress, starting in a shallow recess off the grass ledge after the first pitch. Go up, coming to a loose block which you stand on to gain height, go slightly right and belay underneath a corner crack.
Go up the crack, into a recess which you exit to the right on these funny scoops that serve as holds(friction), and up to underneath the orange overhangs above. From here you scoot out onto a dogdy flake/plate on your left and go around the corner to belay underneath the last pitch.
The last pitch goes up a broken recess, which is clearly obvious as the easiest way up.
A simple walk rightwards along the grass ledge and up the gully at the back will bring you to the top of the escarpment. Climbing doesn’t exceed F2, and some knifeblade pitons are usefull.
R. Dugtig and J. Nixon (April 2010)
Anybody tried this route? Anyone know if it was ever finished?
And climbing the rock behind the chainladders - the top one looks no harder than a C grade, maybe D. Anyone tried this? I'm sure it has been done at some point.
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If you are meaning the gendarme directly opposite the Chain Ladders, we climbed it in June, see the 'Fools and Foreigners predict the weather in the Berg" trip report. We did a route directly up from where you approach it at the ladders, which we thought to be F1 (crux is the chimney at the top). Protection is classically poor. We suggest naming this particular route "When all else fails" unless someone else has done it. You can traverse right before the chimney at, what appears to be an easier grade, then getting onto a short arete to the top, but protection on that traverse is terrible and you would probably crater if you fell off it. While abseiling off the gendarme, I did pendulum swing onto this traverse a bit to check it out. The gendarme has definitely been climbed before - there is a cairn on top.ghaznavid wrote: And climbing the rock behind the chainladders - the top one looks no harder than a C grade, maybe D. Anyone tried this? I'm sure it has been done at some point.
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
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I remember your climb up When All Else Fails - I have eyed that peak as a possible khulu under the Outer/Inner Horn rule, but not sure if its over 3000m though (based on the top of the ladders being about 3000m, it probably just misses the mark).
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I measured the gendarme's height to be 2990m on my GPS. Thank goodness cause I think these small gendarme's create a tedious complexity in the whole Khulu list thing in my opinion.
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
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I guess Lionheart and Toothpick are both possible khulus by the Horns rule - also Inner Tower's 2 lower peaks. Some time we need to discuss the intro of a khulu top rule. Perhaps any peak within 1km of a higher peak that qualifies as a khulu should get automatically downgraded to prevent clutter, unless the nek between the 2 peaks in question is more than 250m below the height of the lower peak.
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