Bollard Pass

@Boerkie: do a search for "the unnamed pass above sleeping beauty cave", it has the details, Btw it was named after a person.

Really cool to see that people are now using this route, and exploring this part of the Berg.

Awesome pass yea?

Really nice pics there. It really shows that this is on the technical side.

I have yet to contact Charl Brummer re this pass/valley, as he had a fairly long tenure here, and set up a number of orienteering runs throughout the area. If anyone knows, he will.

Stealth is a Good Man! He was first into it. Being that I have been unable to find ANY info on either the pass or cave, the name remains for the time being.

What a stunner outlook from this cave! You may not have been the first to spend the night ???, but I am sure you count amongst few.

Can you post a few more pics?

elinda.

re your approach. You say you "approached from the Cod's eye cave valley"..

Did you enter via the Cod's valley, up Wilson's and in, or via Sleeping Beauty valley and on up?

ie: Did you climb UP Bollard or Wilson's? If so, how was the UP, and are their pics of the 'interesting' bits?

We went up on Friday afternoon and overnighted in Cods Eye Valley. Then left the following morning and walked out/through the river gully at the top of the valley and up the ridge on the left and crossed over into Bollard Pass - we followed Eland tracks at this point. A bit of boulder hopping at the bottom and we then kept to the grassy banks on the right hand side for a while until the gully narrows and the snow begins. It was soft at first and then got more iced the further we got up. We did not have crampons and had to kick steps - not too many problems - just had to be careful on the slippery ice and it was very steep in places. We climbed out the gully below the cave and had to scramble up the steep grassy bank - care is needed here. Ditto for getting out the cave the following morning - we had to edge around the corner and then traverse down to the edge of the gully where we lowered our packs and had to descend on to the ice. From there it was bum sliding all the way down............

I'm having problems downloading more photos, but will keep trying!

Hi guys

I think this may be my first post.

Planning on heading to Drak Gardens tomorrow morning and maybe tackling Bollards pass. Is Bollards the pass following the northern tributary of the Mzimude river topping out just below Mashai peak?

@JustinBaker: No, its the pass up the Mashai River, you take the turnoff to sleeping beauty cave (about 100m from the car park, just after crossing the bridge), when you reach sleeping beauty cave, keep straight (ie don't enter the cave), continue up a steep rocky bank behind the cave (when I say rocky, I mean one huge rock), then continue up the ridge on the left (south) side of the river, get to the top of that ridge and stick to the ridge till you are going up the main Berg, follow the gulley to the top.

The pass you are thinking of is Mzimude Pass, it tops out quite far from Mashai Peak. Tsepeng Pass and Bollard pass top out near Mashai peak, I believe Tsepeng pass tops out closest to Mashai. Bollard Pass tops out right next to the Bollard.