Bollard Pass

Thanks for all the details Ghaz. Its rare to get such precision and transparency relating to events culminating in a rescue. Normally its a third-hand, garbled and abbreviated report written by someone who wasn't involved and has never been to the Berg. Its interesting how the irreversible decision can be pinpointed.

Viking wrote: Don't you bat at 9?

I do, but I'm in the team for my bowling, not my batting. Its easy to get me out, 110km/h yorkers, by about the 5th one I'll be out...

ghaznavid wrote:

Amazing how deceptive pictures can be. By all accounts this is clearly a tricky pass, but the pic above makes it look like a walk in the park!

Thanks for the detailed report.

mnt_tiska wrote: Thanks for all the details Ghaz. Its rare to get such precision and transparency relating to events culminating in a rescue. Normally its a third-hand, garbled and abbreviated report written by someone who wasn't involved and has never been to the Berg. Its interesting how the irreversible decision can be pinpointed.

Naturally when you get rescued off a mountain you will take quite a bit of criticism, but it has been interesting to see that the majority of the critics aren't hikers - and they all expect that you will never go back to the mountains after something like this. Admittedly while waiting for the rescue team I wasn't exactly planning my next hike, but I am most certainly not finished with the Dragon just yet. Although I may lay off the ultra-obscure routes for a while!

I can't blame bad weather for this one, I simply wasn't aware of what was required to get from Stealth Cave to the summit gully. I can't blame any person, berg.co.za or VE for this. It is simply a case of having had to make a judgement call, and my judgement call was to take a line that was less exposed and it didn't work this time - I have had to make similar calls on many occasions and the last time I went for a possibly easier but more exposed line, Hobbit took a nasty fall on North Hlubi Pass.

As I mentioned, I have run the scenarios through my head plenty of times - the only way I can see this hike having turned out in a more favourable way would have been if I hadn't gone with Bollard Pass. And considering my goal of all KZN High Berg passes south of Rhino, I inevitably would have tried this pass and it would have probably turned out equal or worse than it actually did.

My call on the pass is that I have no plans of doing it from the bottom again, but I would like to hike to the top, hike down the summit gully and stand at the point where I would have landed if I did try the jump. While this doesn't constitute bagging the pass, it will allow me to atleast have experienced the entire pass, and to get an idea of what might have happened if I jumped (my money is on 2 broken legs and a few bruises/cuts - but no cell signal to call for help).

Dillon wrote: Amazing how deceptive pictures can be. By all accounts this is clearly a tricky pass, but the pic above makes it look like a walk in the park!

I was thinking the same thing about 20 minutes ago

hi Guys
i must admit that sitting there sunday waiting for the rescue team i had the thought of never hiking in the berg again, but since then ive had a good nights sleep and realise that this happens to the best of us
Ghaz i agree that the biggest critics have come from people that have never hiked in the mountains before.
someone asked me why we just didnt down climb the open book section, so i calmly explained that wet rocks and a ledge that is exposed dont end well without ropes.
i dont profess to be the ultimate "Bear Grylls" but this pass was tough, steep and a major challenge, doing tsepeng pass was easier than this and Gypateus Pass.