Cathedral Peak

Hi Guys,

Thinking of doing Cathedral Peak but over 2 days. The plan is:

Day 1 - Hotel to base of CP via Orange Peel Gap. Tent over at base here:


Day 2 - Summit CP and return to Hotel.

Idea is to take it easy and just enjoy the views.

Questions:
1. Is the route easy to navigate from hotel to tent spot? (Can't find GPS route in the downloads, only have map no.2)
2. Is there any water on the route during October/November?
3. The tent spot near the base - is there a lot of traffic?
4. Will we be able to pitch more than one tent there?
5. Is the scramble up to the summit tough, would we need a guide for navigation? Do we need ropes etc?

(For reference, thhis would be our 4th hike in the Berg having done Amphitheatre, Organ Pipes Pass, & Gorge Hike)

The route is easy with only one real place you could go wrong.

GPS track to top of Cathedral peak here...
www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=3024949

last water stop is breakfast stream just below contour path / little berg.

Should be space for 3 tents. (Nice spot if there is no wind ! other wise.... Long night!)
Its slightly off the main path to the summit but clearly visible on the top of buggers gulch gully.

The climb to the summit is grade C - you don't need ropes if you are all competent on rock and comfortable with heights.
The route is used so often that you can see where to go fairly well.

Quite honestly, with the lack of water, you have to camp so close to the start that it is significantly easier to ditch the weight and do it in a day.

There is a water collection spot between Orange Peel and Buggers Gully, but it is not always reliable and you have to know where to look. There is a gps co-ord somewhere on this thread.

The scrambles may or may not require rope depending on your group's ability/experience and the weather. This is mentioned a few times earlier in this thread. If it is wet, it may be advisable to take rope with as some of the scrambles will be quite slippery, particularly if any of your group are nervous/inexperienced.

[Photos by Tony Marshall]

On Friday, at around 11 AM, a team made up of Neil M, Tony M, Lorinda, Hobbit and I set off from Cathedral Peak Hotel with some climbing gear and some khulus in mind. The goal was simple - Friday we bag Cathedral, Saturday we bag both Horns and the Mitre, Sunday we bag Xeni. Easy, right

The river at the start was quite high:


It was boiling hot as we plodded along, our pace was slowed by the extra weight of climbing gear. But eventually we found ourselves at the bottom of a wet Cathedral Peak.



Hobbit and Neil scrambled up the wet lowest cliff, and set up a rope off the anchors. I will neither confirm nor deny that I was pulled up this section - the anchors are placed to the side as there is no rock immediately above the anchor - so one must decide on easy scrambling with a possible swing to the side (which renders the rope redundant) or a very difficult scramble up a slightly overhanging route.



A rope was also set up for the traverse pitch - which, like the first time I did Cathedral, I gave up on and just took the supposedly harder (but, IMO, much easier) vertical climb.



We made it up the third scramble (the crux) easily enough, although it was a bit like climbing a river.

We stood on the summit at 6PM, with the sound of a thunderstorm approaching. The summit was covered in mist and it was getting late - so we motored it down the peak. We ab-ed the 3 lowest scrambles and reached Bell Cave around 8PM.

We all disagreed on which part was best to sleep in, so Hobbit and I took the dry, but less sheltered cave, while the others took the cave with more drips. In the morning Hobbit and I smiled as we had clearly made the better call - although we would have had a horrible night if it had rained!

How far is the tent spot at the base of Cathedral peak from Orange Peel gap?

Approx 3km with 400m elevation.
It can get a bit windy

Hi guys,

My wife and I are going to hike Cathedral peak. Is it necessary to have climbing gear to reach the summit. We have done hikes in the Drakensberg without any climbing gear (Mafadi, Champagne Castle etc....)

Thanks

Hi
If you and your wife have done a lot of scrambling you should be able to get up there without ropes. I know somebody who has climbed up Cathedral Peak with a full overnight backpack and a tent. I have also had 2 people with me who could only get up one of the pitches without a rope.

I was able to find quite a few photos of the pitches from hiking club websites before I first went up there. The photos do however not show you a clear picture if you have not scrambled before and can interpret them.

This photo of one of the pitches was taken at an exaggerated angle to make it look more vertical but you can see the kind of surface that you will need to get up.

The views from the top of the Peak are spectacular. You will enjoy them.

Good luck.

Thank you for the feedback, it helped a lot. More people might join me on this hike so I decided to take a rope just in case it start to rain and get slippery. I am looking forward to the hike, I'm sure the views will be spectacular!!

All the best