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Hi Edward

The one time I did Leslie's I couldn't find the path from Marble Baths Cave to the base of Leslies so I did that section by literally staying in the river.  It took me about two and a half hours to cover the 4km.  I found the route to be okay.  Unfortunately I cannot compare it with the bushwacking section as I have never done that route before.   If you can find a gps track with that section you can maybe compare the time it took to cover the 4km and compare it to the 2.5hours it took me by keeping in the river.

Regards
Rudi 

 

@Edward, I have merged your posts and the replies with the main, official thread on Leslie's Pass. Go through the older posts on this thread for more info.

LOL! I can add a few highlights of Riaan's comments! He's pretty spot on but I think I have made a few errors on Leslie's that made it harder than it should be..

The bushwacking is looong and is a real sweaty 'B' that never ends! Then the ridge starts inoccently enough but you will get to a section of Very steep path that goes straight up without contouring and is quite slippery to add to your pain (coming down is worse and If you pick up speed you are likely to end up on you ass. It seems Leslie didn't believe in contouring so make sure you have 2 trekking poles is my advice.

The 3rd dodgy aspect is that it's quite difficult to see that path when you get into the pass proper and I must stress that you should not be tempted to stick with the direct option going up the boulders. It's really physical and you end up using your hands to partially climb up the steep sections making it sooo much harder! So keep more to the left and make sure you track the path, it's quite loose in areas but still beats the semi climb up the 'direct' route. At Riaan's pt.2, it's that 2nd crossing of the river to move to the left side.

I took my running club on a 3 day loop of up Around the Corner down Leslies in May. Incidentally Leslies Pass is now considered a swearword in my running club

The pass is fine, but the steep section above the river crossing halfway up can be very slippery, and the pass is long and steep.

Story with some pictures here:
jonathantheghaznavid.wordpress.com/2022/09/16/mafadi/

Riaan has given plenty of info, so I don't have much to add.

Hi Edward,

Welcome to VE!

There are lots of info on VE relating to Leslies pass, both in trip reports but you can also find gps tracks in the downloads section. There's even a writeup on th epas itself under the Drakensberg passes section.

But, let me give you my view of it briefly.

Leslies pass is often used in conjunction with Corner or Judges pass to do a 3 day loop which includes Mafadi. People often stay over near the base of the pass at Marble Baths caves (there are 2 of them). Nice spot near the river. If you go up with Corner pass you can sleep over in Upper Injasuthi cave overlooking the Eastern Buttress immediately below you. Impressive views from this cave. Corner has 3 scrambling sections that, depending on the weather conditions, can be a bit challenging, especially in the snow, however, it's not technically difficult. The Trojan wall can be a bit of a bugger when you go up from the camp to UIC cave in a day, as it's near 400m vertical ascent stands between you and the overnight cave.

When I do Leslies pass I typically break it up into the following sections:
1). The bushwacking section: This part lies between Marble Bath Caves and the foot of the pass itself. The path (if you can find it) winds in and out of the river, but mostly stays on the right hand side of the river as you ascend. Often very overgrown with lush vegetation, and up and down rocky sections, this part can be a bit tiring towards the end of summer.

2). The ridge part: At some point (about 2.5km from the caves) you will exit the riverbed and climb on the ridge to the right of the river. It's fairly steep initially and gains height quickly. Once on top, it vectors gradually back into the riverbed, but higher up. A brief downhill section brings you to the river, which yu will now cross to be on the left of the river again.

3). Africa. This bushy section kinda has the shape of the African continent. The start is very steep and lover very loose, rocky ground. Definitely easier going up than coming down. Nice green bushy plants to pull you up and through this section. As you get to the top of Africa, you are approaching the next section.

4). The cliff face: As you exit Africa, you will be walking through loose rocks strewn all over the mountain. By now you've made good upward progress and the sun would be high in the sky, and it is becoming hot. No shade anywhere on this pass unfortunately. As you get to the cliff face itself, towering majestically above you, you will turn right and follow the path that leads to the top.

5). The top: The end is in sight. This last section is not too steep and the breeze from the top of the pass is refreshing. Once at the top its not too far down to the river below you where you can rest and top up with water.

Overall I normally enjoy this pass. It's steep and a bit rough, but has so much variaty that it never bores me. I'm sure you'll enjoy it a lot.

Enjoy the Berg!!!

Hi Edward. I think there is a forum on Leslie's here already and quite a nice overview too. But anyway, I did the pass 2 weekends ago and I honestly found the 3km of bush between marble baths and the base of the pass to be the hardest part. Definitely add in an extra hour for this section! The pass itself is fairly straight forward and there's a path the whole way up. You start off by climbing steeply up a ridge on the right side of the river(the true left). At about 1/3 of the way up you leave the ridge and cross the river. The section just after the river crossing is quite badly eroded and full of loose rock, so just watch your footing (nothing incredibly dangerous though).

(Looking up the pass before crossing the river)
After the eroded section it's a simple slog to the top!!

Good day all,

I am planning a trip to the Berg somewhere around new year's and was planning on including Leslie's pass as one of the passes to do. Does anyone have some recent info on the pass? I can't seem to find any, let me know if I am missing something. 

Thank you in advance.
 

There is the Drakensberg Trail Project , which is still in the proposal stage with EKZNW. The focus at this stage seems to be contour paths more than passes.

Several nests of litter along the pass at the mo (tins, bones, foil, etc.) - I'm guessing due to Basotho heading home for xmas? We collected what we could, anyone inclined should probably go armed with a black bag or two.

To my eye the eroded bits are looking a fair bit worse than around a year ago, too - are there any private initiates doing path maintenance in the Berg?

See this thread for options on the loop www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/8-drakensberg-hiking/53639-corner-pass-judge-pass,-mafadi,-leslie-s-pass-loop.html

Corner Pass with a big group will take ages due to hauling packs
Judge Pass is not a rock pass these days, it has an easy to follow trail without any major obstacles, you'd likely find it considerably easier than Leslies, although its a bit further out the way

Hi Kraig

I have not hiked from Injasuthi nor done any of the passes you mentioned, but Leslies Pass is often done in conjunction with Grays Pass (Monks Cowl) so look for hike reports and consider that as another option.

To manage your (very big) group safely and to minimise ecological impact I suggest you split into 3 clearly defined sub-groups with a spread of competencies within each group (i.e. don't put all the strong, experienced hikers in one group & all the rookies in a different group). Each sub-group should be self sufficient (maps, food, tents, etc) with an experienced leader so that if they get separated as a team they can look after themselves. Spread the sub-groups out a bit when you camp (but still within sight of each other if possible) and hike in your sub-groups, aiming to meet up all together for lunch etc. That way you will still be a group, have safety in numbers, but be more accountable to a smaller team and not put so much pressure on what is a very fragile ecosystem.

If your experience is anything like 'normal' you will probably have 30% of your hikers drop out before you even start, in which case you may want to hike as one group but break up into 2 groups with some space between them to camp.

Hope this helps.

I am under the impression that there is a size limit for groups in the berg and that limit is 12. Thus the group should be split up and the various groups travel independently to different destinations. Can anyone clarify this?

I have a group of approximately 20+ people, we plan to hike up to Mafadi from the EKZNW Injisuthi camp over the Easter weekend. My initial plan was to go up Leslie's pass and come down Judge or Corner pass or vice versa. I have done quite a few hikes a bit further north but haven't done any in this area. Furthermore there are a number of people for whom this will be their first hike. I saw now that Corner pass involves some scrambling so that plan won't work and Judge pass has Basotho traders and is labelled 'rock' so I don't think that's a good idea either. Do you think it is a feasible idea to take this many people up and down Leslie's in a 4 day hike and find sufficient space to camp? (it's not necessary for us all to camp close together)

There is already a lot of info on this pass on this thread, so I won't say too much [hey, stop laughing]

We followed the river for most of the stretch from Marble Baths at the base of the pass. Boulder hopping is often faster than fighting through overgrowth.

The trail up the pass is clear till you hit the gully, then you just have to figure out that it goes up the spur in the middle. It is very eroded and loose - some form of reinforcement such as erosion barriers would be helpful.

We lost the trail through the top section, but it is easy to wind up the steep grass banks to the top.

The pass is steeper than average. The pass also starts quite low and tops out high. It was harder than I was anticipating.

The pass is worth doing, even if just for the views. I am not in a huge rush to do it again, but if I end up doing something like Injisuthi Pass some day, I could imagine making a round trip down Leslies.

Here are some photos from the pass:

Stunning pic's Dave! I hope to do the pass in mid January 2016.

Here are some photos from a solo hike I did up and down Leslie's in September:





I found the riverbed far easier to navigate on the way down using the terrace route, the height advantage making the cairns easier to spot.





There is a steep bit in the path near the start of the bushy section (the darker mound on the left of the valley in the photo above) that is very eroded, so that you literally have to pull yourself up using the shrubbery on either side. This might get tricky if the erosion continues.

Yes, both top gullies are accessible, although I think it is more common nowadays to use the southern (left in the photo with green arrow) one. I think the southern one is probably a bit easier, but do know of people using the northern one when approaching the pass along the ridge from the north.

Thanks Tony! Are both of the two top gullies of leslies pass accessible? Which one is better to use or are both as good?

Hi John, yes that is correct. Leslies Pass has two top gullies, both are visible in the photo and the other one is just to the right of the green arrow top in the photo.

Hi guys. This is one of Tony's pictures from his writeup. So would the red arrow be the molar and the green be the top of leslies pass?

Mine too, love the place for a cool chill holiday. They must be from the early 80's i would say.

nice to see those old injisuthi pics, definatley my favorite of the KZN wildlife camps

Wow, those are fantastic!

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Check out this old post card the Parks Board is selling. The trees are still tiny...

Nice snow...