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gollum wrote:
@intrepid: OK, I'll snap the suspected section. You're not perhaps doing the traverse on Easter weekend? Yep, I might, or sometime around then at least. Will be starting and ending from the Mweni side though. So might see you out there then .

gollum wrote:
The following is from the MCSA RD for the Cathedral Peak Standard Route:
"Apparently a recent, severe wash-away in Bugger Gully has made the approach described above quite tricky. An alternative approach is to start about 150 m below the top of the gully at a flat, grassy section situated just before the last, loose slope up to the top of the gully. Walk out along the grass ledge to the right and then take the line of least resistance up a series of slabs and rock bands until you locate the path described above. On either approach, some of the scrambling is fairly exposed and a head for heights is required. If you are in any doubt it may be wise to hire one of the local guides from the hotel or from the KZN Wildlife offices."
Is route finding a problem on Cathedral Peak?Oh, is that where you heard about the washed away section? In that case, I'm not sure how current that info is. I was referring to the second option in this RD. As said already, it always was a bit slippery and eroded. You should spot the route as you approach the peak from Orange Peel Gap.

mnt_tiska :Last time I was there, a log or maybe even a bench was on the ground with some vege free surface nearby. This is probably the best spot to camp up.Yep thats the spot, those logs are probably still there.

What an AWESOME trip!

We did the Bell Traverse from the hotel side and climbed Cathedral Peak, hiked along the escarpment to Mlambonja Buttress, descended Cockade Pass and went back to the hotel along the Mlambonja river.

I have a photo of the washed-away start of the Cathedral Peak std route in Bugger Gully which I will upload soon. It's really not that bad, and when the peak is wet (as it was this Easter weekend) I'd prefer it to the new recommended start.

Water was in ridiculous abundance.

Here is a quick report of our weekend, for those who'd like to read:

We had a late start on Friday (about 13h30), and reached Orange Peel Gap at 17h30. There is a lovely camping spot on the top of the left hand (as viewed from the hotel side) head of the gap where we spent the night. Some thunderstorms played out over Cathkin, but our weather held good the whole day.

On Saturday we hiked up to Cathedral Peak, climbed it, had lunch in Bell Cave, and then reached Twins Cave right after sunset. At the Outer Horn we lost the path - there is a fork when you reach the horn, and knowing we must pass north of it, we took the right hand side (on my instruction - one of the many errors I cost us over the weekend ). Soon afterwards we crossed a tricky traverse and the path petered out. After some slopy traversing, my friend decided to climb right up to the rock bands to find the path, which he did directly below the rock bands. Other than that we had no problems on the traverse. There was another group in the cave who invited us to share it without hesitation - really nice. We didn't feel like looking for the annex cave in the dark so we took them up on the offer. We crossed many streams and trickles on the traverse.

On Sunday morning we topped out at Mlambonja Pass, and kept on the edge of escarpment to the tip of Mlambonja Buttress. Unfortunately the mist, which had been building up as we trekked along, enveloped everything ten minutes before we got to the tip, so we had no view. We then headed down to the river, and up behind Xeni peak. We had lunch at the top of Elephant Gulley, and spent half an hour on the south-eastern tip of the elephant hoping for the mist to clear. Predictably, it didn't!

Then my next major mistake came into play. I thought Elephant Gulley provided an alternative descent into Cockade Pass, and very happily we trudged down the steep slopes until we met the first waterfall. While we could have continued and found some way down, the weather was starting to look rather ominous, and I didn't fancy spending another night in a narrow gulley waiting for a flash flood. So we headed back up and camped near the top of Cockade Pass. That night some moderate thunderstorms passed close to us and it rained lightly until 9 in the morning.

Monday morning we descended Cockade Pass, but after joining the Xeni valley and heading west, the trail soon became very hard to find. My surveyor-general map wrongly indicated that the contour path climbed 200m once after crossing the Xeni river from the south side. So I suggested we traverse left out of the river at 2200. Then followed 2km of nasty sloping traversing - only to find the path well below us when we got there! However I didn't much like the riverbed. Then came the boring trudge to the hotel. Once down in the valley, the trail was a swamp, and viciously overgrown. Near the hotel they had maintained the path and the reeds had been cut, but before that it was a complete mess. Injasuthi's trails are much better maintained, even though they get a lot less traffic. Weird...

But all in all this was a spectacular trip, second only to our Corner Pass trip of last year.

Which is the true top of Cockade pass? We descended an extremely narrow gulley - one with a visible cairn at the top - for about 100m before it opened up into a larger gulley, while our tents were pitched at the top of a broader gulley, also with a cairn on a rocky outcrop and a cairn on the ground. However, from the top of the narrow gulley it was clear that there were no blockages in it, while the broad gulley wasn't in full view from the top. There were also a small patch of straw at the top of the broad gulley, as if someone put it there to use as a bed.

In any case, now I'll have to be content with photo's and memories until the next trip - I hate the post-mountain blues...

Thanks gollum, reports like this are always appreciated. The Bell Traverse is one of my favourites, was my first overnight hike in the Berg, and been back repeatedly since. We didn't land up doing it over Easter as originally planned. Changed our route on short notice (and again once on-route) and landed up going up Manxome and down Rockeries. I was studying Cathedral Peak as we were rolling into the Mweni on Saturday morning and figured you guys were on the summit then.

I may have mislead you with vague info about what I meant by Elephant Gully - my apologies if my description of it led you down the wrong gully. This thread refers:
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forums/8-drak...tseketseke-pass.html

In the pic below taken near Tseketseke Pass I have indicated the summit of "Elephant Gully" with the arrow, and the 2 alternate routes down to Cockade Pass(very roughly indicated for illustration). The right hand route down the grassy gully is the one I was referring to. Both routes have fairly clear trails.

Which is the true top of Cockade pass? We descended an extremely narrow gulley - one with a visible cairn at the top - for about 100m before it opened up into a larger gulley, while our tents were pitched at the top of a broader gulley, also with a cairn on a rocky outcrop and a cairn on the ground. However, from the top of the narrow gulley it was clear that there were no blockages in it, while the broad gulley wasn't in full view from the top. There were also a small patch of straw at the top of the broad gulley, as if someone put it there to use as a bed. Not entirely sure about exactly which cairns are in question...any pics? Check out the Cockade Pass download: www.vertical-endeavour.com/downloads/doc...e-pass-gps-data.html - this can be viewed in Google Earth if that helps. This is my understanding of where the summit of the pass lies.

Yes there is a confusing section between The Sisters and Outer Horn, and yes the grass is very long in the Mlambonja valley at this time of year (as it is in the Mweni too) .

I can relate to navigational challenges in new areas, its all part of the Berg experience, and so one learns. Relating the map to whats actually out there and finding your way along terrain where there is no trail at all, is all part of the fun.

@intrepid: No, your directions were spot-on. After descending into Elephant Gully, I simply assumed one can head down and join Cockade Pass lower down. In the end my friend and I decided that it would indeed be possible, albeit a bit tricky. However, we had some people new to this kind of hiking in our group, so we used the safe option of heading back up and using the real Cockade pass next morning. In any case I am glad we did so, because otherwise we would have been caught by dark halfway down the pass and would have had to bivouac in completely miserable weather!

O ja, the traverse from Bugger Gully onto Cathedral Peak. It's less than 5m, not exposed, and on really good (broad and flat) footholds. Unfortunately this photo is a little useless because it only has the traverse and nothing to use as reference!