Mponjwane Pass

Wow! That sounds like a proper adventure. As ghaz said, we all were dodging rocks in that gully and we had a few near misses at the top of the wormhole. Papa Dragon's rock retaining skills are now ledgendary!

That climb up to Rockeries Tower is pretty steep, but similar to the ascent across the nek, so it is easily mistaken in the mist. We were lucky to have clear weather when we went up.

One other mishap with a rock was when I was attempting to find the route after the descent from the wormhole and went up the incorrect gully. As i tried to climb a blockage in the gully about 3m high, I disloged a rock about the size of a dining room chair, which tumbled past me and down the gully. End of route finding! Ghaz, Dom and Tony only heard it, but my adrenal system was working overtime after that.

This hike is challenging and it really is amazing how long it takes to get all the way up to the top. Well done to you guys for pulling it off safely. Definitely one of thoae tales for the campfire!

Biomech and I used this spot to get shelter against falling rocks at the wormhole:

The pass definitely requires an experienced team, and shouldn't be taken lightly - the fact that a team as experienced as yours found the pass this difficult really shows this.

I rate it is definitely a Rock pass (i.e. as opposed to "rock" or "ROCK") - hauling of packs is necessary, but none of it is properly technical.

And heres another video from Farouk showing the wormhole and gully from the viewpoint of Rockeries Tower

Looking at the picture where one is taking shelter it seems an option to scramble up directly in front of where he is standing and haul up the packs from above if necessary.

Early in February Christinejvr and tonymarshall descended the Nceda/Mnweni River side of Mnweni Needles Pass, and had views up the Nceda River to Mponjwane Pass.

The approach up the top section of the Nceda River is almost a straight line route, and the large waterfall is at the downstream end of the straight section of the river.



In the photo below the Nceda River is obscured by the ridge, but the upper steep section into the pass is visible. Mponjwane peak, to the left of the pass, is partially obscured by clouds.



Two views of the upper section of the river to the pass.




When I did Mponjwane Pass in 2016, it was misty for most of the morning, and we only had views later in the day when the mist cleared and we could see to the pass from after we were upstream of the large waterfall. It was good to have these perspective views of Mponjwane Pass in 2021, in a seldom visited area.