Fools & foreigners predict the weather in the berg

On Thursday evening 27-06-2013 Chris Sommer AKA- INTREPID and myself Greg Thompson AKA - DoctorG met in Harrismith to start our little climbing adventure which we had being planning for the last few weeks.
Our mission was to leave from Sentinel car park at 4am on the Friday morning hike over to Inner tower gully, stash our packs and climb the 3 inner towers on the Friday. Bivy somewhere close by and the following morning descend the inner tower gully and climb up one of the variations of the Amphitheatre frontal, that night we would have slept in the hut. And finally on Sunday we would climb Sentinel and make our way home.







Our story goes. Late on Thursday night we arrived at the car park and sorted gear, settled in to the dormitory with a bunch of fast asleep and snoring drunks there to feel what it’s like to get intoxicated at altitude. At 3am Chris yelled to me that it was snowing and there we stood like two little boys who have lost their ball, and only left the car park at 7am. We had the thoughts in our head that the sun would appear and burn off all the snow. That did not happen and we arrived in the inner tower valley, set up our bivy spot under a small over hang over looking the eastern buttress.
That cold evening while asleep General Chris Sommer decided to start a war with a field mouse that was looking for a snack. The mouse escaped unharmed and possibly won the dog fight. Leaving Intrepid flustered while falling asleep.
That next morning we set off with the mission to give the Inner tower a bash and on the descent gully we had to resort to rapping as the rock was very slippery, now at the bottom between the neck of Amphitheatre and Inner tower we attempted to start the scramble up to the start of the route. Kicking holds into snow and grass with our boots and then using our gloves to remove snow on hand holds before removing your glove to stick the move turned out to be plain stupid, I turned to Chris and told him let’s call it a day this mountain does not want us here. Then to try down climb what we just went up was even harder and when we got back down to the neck it was high fives all round. We then had to climb back up the gully we just rapped down, Chris went first and Got stuck in this very awkward off width chimney which he would have had to free climb at about a grade of F1 ( 15 ) with his hands freezing and every hold being snow covered left him with the choice to down climb. However I found another way up and was able to climb above Chris and top rope him up.




After having climbing back up onto the Amphitheatre we were rather upset that we had failed, for Chris it’s his 3rd attempt at this peak. However we did reassure ourselves that we failed due to poor conditions and not human error. On our disappointing hike back to the hut we had a look at ethereal tower and the Castle which both look very intimidating. We then found ourselves climbing a small tower just north of castle graded at about E. After climbing this we headed to the hut which turned out to be clean and very cosy to spend the night.
Following morning bright and early and ready to climb at least something. We climbed down the chain ladders and starred at the free standing peak opposite the ladders, Chris hinted, I groaned and moaned, he identified a possible route and next thing I was tied into the shard end leading my way up the route. After lots of shouting and swearing with only 3 cam placements below and only one looked solid I topped out, grading it at a F1. Chris came up 2nd confirming the grade and happy to bag the summit. There is a cairn on the summit however no info on the route that was taken to climb it so we named our route WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS. After rapping off we headed over to Sentinel we free climbed the first pitch and headed over to the McLeod variation where Chris showed me how a pro climbs a chimney. I came up 2nd in a scream, swear and moan however with a big high five on the summit that we climbed something even in the poor circumstances.
After rapping off the summit and making out way back to the parking lot the final verdict was made. I didn’t believe it before but FOOLS AND FOREIGNERS predict the weather in the berg. In that upcoming week we studied 3 different weather sites and only saw cloudy conditions on the Friday but clearing. We were total unprepared for snow and in some ways could have found ourselves in trouble.
We took it for granted that the Inner tower would be there with wide open arms, so for now we will accept the failure and look forward to returning as we who all love the exploring of the Drakensberg always do.


What a fantastic trip, thanks Chris AKA Intrepid or to me better known as MOUSIE.......


Written by – Greg Thompson

Thanks for the writeup

DoctorG wrote:

Is that looking up McLeod's variation? I'm hoping to climb it later this year, and have come to accept that I will have to climb on lead...

is to, its a great variation and really well protected. you could get away with a rack of nuts to protect it, and there is a well placed piton.

Thanks for sharing. I've been trying to get better perspective of what Berg climbing is like. That helps a lot.

Other than maybe one move about 2 thirds of the way up "When All Else Fails" I think I could easily do all those moves. McLeod's variation looks easier than I thought. I really just need to book a weekend when some guys are keen to join and go and climb Sentinel.

I'm going to Monteseel tomorrow for some trad leading - shooting to up my hardest lead to a 12 (Adam's Apoplexy - it was my first ever proper rock climb, should be good to repeat it), maybe try to up my hardest real rock climb to a 14 or 15 (my current best is 14 on plastic, 13 on sport).

Nice report guys. Looks epic, scary and exciting all at the same time. Chris, I see you got your GoPro.