Khulus

The peak that must be the most awesome to stand on the top of has to be the Trojan Wall, if I am correct it is the highest point on the escarpment edge, I look forward to conquering it some time.

My long-term plan is to conquer 100 khulus, and considering that I have no real plans to try the 2 Eastern Cape Peaks (maybe I'll do Ben McD some time, the pics of it always look cool), and I don't plan on doing many Free State Peaks (probably only the Namahadi Ridge area, but its also not high on my priority list), I pretty much plan to cover all Khulu's between Beacon Buttress and Knuckles. 172 peaks less 22 not in KZN less 22 rock climbing peaks leaves me with 128 to choose from. I plan to do all peaks in SA that are over 3300m and may also try the 3400m peaks in Lesotho (Thaba Ntlenyana and Makheka are high on my list)...

I have been checking over the Didima khulus after Tony Marshal and I had difficulty finding Mahout on the recent GT. My analysis of the area has found the following:

Khulus that I can't find and am therefore removing from the list

- Mahout 3109m
- Leopard 3109m (possibly the peak that is at the top of Xeni Pass, but I am imagining that this is Xeni Peak)

Khulus that are not on Mulsh's list

- 3286m peak east of Pampiring, by convention it should be called Eastmans Peak as that would come from the name of the nearest river, but considering that peak has nothing to do with the Eastman's ridge this would be a misleading name. Maybe Pampiring II is suitable
- 3001m Organ Pipes Peak, it meets the special inclusion of peaks named on a map
- 3167m peak between Tseketseke Peak and Cleft Peak, the nearest river is Tseke, so maybe Molareng works for this one as that is its Lesotho river.

I plan to put up a new updated khulu list soon...

intrepid wrote: I think "Mahout" is the high dome behind The Elephant which is now shown as a 3209m spot height. Leopard is the prominent peak right by Xeni Pass. Xeni Peak is actually a large free-standing pinnacle which only becomes apparent if you hug the escarpment from Xeni Pass towards The Elephant.

Ok, then Tony and I climbed Mahout when we tried to climb it - we couldn't find a 3209m peak on the khulu list and the peak was clearly a khulu, so we named it "Cheetah" to be topical... I had a suspicion that Leopard was that peak above Xeni, I will add 3080 Xeni Peak back onto my khulu list.

intrepid wrote: That 3167m spot height near Cleft was probably too close and too easy from Cleft for Murch to include it...will have a look more closely.

I looked at it from Tseke Peak (it is within 1km of Tseke peak, but not Cleft, and thus it would disqualify Tseke if Tseke wasn't on a different ridge). Sadly I didn't get a photo of the peak itself, but it does meet the definition of a khulu by map.

intrepid wrote: I think several of the Organ Pipes may actually be Khulus in their own right...something to think about.

If you have heights of any 3000m+ pipes, please let me know The old Inner/Outer Horn story comes to mind, a free standing peak with more than 30m of rock climbing over 3000m is always a khulu.

I have now "surveyed" the entire Berg south of Didima (I will get to Mnweni and RNNP some day), the following was found:

Monks Cowl

2 khulus at Monks Cowl are not on the map. I know Mhlwazini, but Sombrero I dont know (3228m).

Giants Castle

The 3156m peak between Bond and Porterhill is usually disqualified on distance from the 2 nearest peaks. However, the 2 nearest peaks (which should be disqualified by this distance factor, but Bond and Porterhill both get the special inclusion for historical relevance) are lower and a peak is not a khulu if "there is a higher khulu within its effort shadow". Thus this peak should be a khulu. A fitting name for it would be "Chief Langalibalele".

Vergelegen

4 khulus missing from the list:
- A peak near KaNtuba at 3044m
- Ntshintshini 3164m
- Mangaung 3106m
- Mkomazi 3279m

Thoughts?

Ok, so then my question becomes where on earth is Shepherds Ridge Peak? Thought that was it. I agree, the name doesn't suite the Berg. Its name isn't "official", so we can always change it to Murch's Peak, has a better ring to it...