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Hi Everyone - new to this forum, but have spent many a time in the Berg.

Has anyone found, or tried to find Trechers Cave on Cathedral? I've always headed on to Bell but given the changes in Berg security over the last few years, Trenchers might be a good bet. It seems pretty obscure and is therefore likely to be safe.

If anyone has found it, could you give a brief description of where it is? And if you've looked for it and haven't found it, could you say where you've tried looking.

The only clue I have is that one has to get through the rock bands on the way to the CP summit to get there.
thanks!

Glad you bring it up. Trencher's Cave has intrigued me for some time. It's one of those caves that took me several trips to find - except that I still haven't found it yet!

I have made 2 concerted efforts together with domsmooth on different trips to find it, with no luck. We have narrowed it down now, and I'm pretty sure we'll get it the next time we try.

We have explored the Northern face of Cathedral Peak pretty thoroughly, approaching from the neck at The Bell, as well as from the base of the cliffs approaching via Bugger Gully. On the 2nd attempt I had calculated the waypoint from the hiking maps and punched it into my GPS. It took me to the edge of a small rock band below the strip of steep, grassy slopes directly under the towering cliffs of the North Face. No luck. Did find a small 2-man cave in the face though, kind of a mini Roland's Cave. It was full of Dassie droppings, and required a precarious climb to get to it.

What I would do on the next attempt is to approach via Bugger Gully, get as far North as possible (Right, if you are looking at the peak from there) and scramble up towards the summit, looking for hidden grassy ledges, where I suspect it lies. This is actually what is suggested by the map, but somehow it's not that obvious when you are actually out there. If it's not there then it lies much lower down than indicated on the map.

So far the only people I have spoken to that have been there were the local rangers. They described it as a basic overhang.

Good luck, and if you manage to find it, please take pictures and let us know!

@ Intrepid. Look forward to our next trip to try and find it!

intrepid wrote:

We have explored the Northern face of Cathedral Peak pretty thoroughly, approaching from the neck at The Bell, as well as from the base of the cliffs approaching via Bugger Gully. On the 2nd attempt I had calculated the waypoint from the hiking maps and punched it into my GPS. It took me to the edge of a small rock band below the strip of steep, grassy slopes directly under the towering cliffs of the North Face.

Could I ask what altitude you looked at? e.g. The altitude of the Bell-CP neck +- 100m?

many thanks!

Yep, we searched between 2700-2800m. The red shading in the pic below shows where we have explored. The 2 arrows indicate where it very possibly lies. We have also looked where the lower arrow is, but as mentioned before, it's not that obvious when you're up there. That's where I'm headed when we get up there again and have time to look for it. Might be on some obscure grass ledge or something like that.
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many thanks for posting the photograph. All in all you've done a pretty thorough search.

Do you know if Trencher's is marked on the earlier/old maps of the Berg - perhaps the plane table survey that Reg Pearce did? If so, I expect that the cave is more accurately sited on these old maps as the map makers themselves had first hand experience and weren't making the maps in a lab from aerial photographs and the like.

I agree that the next best place to look would be the top arrow in the photograph. If its up there, then it will be quite a haul to reach with bags and water, but the view would be great and the chances of any hassle out of the question.

Another possibility would be to look in the MCSA journals, but that would take a lot of reading (if you have access to them).