Cowl Cave
19 Nov 2024 14:16 #79343
by Riaang
Just a quick update on this topic.
Myself, the wife, ASL-Bivak# and another hiking buddy decided to attempt the route as suggested by Andrew Porter. Doing the loop anti-clockwise was definitely the right way to go, thanks for the advice Andrew. Thanks for the picture of the crux Smurfatefrog. Those rocks you went up was quite wet, so we went up on the side, to the right as you ascend. You can sort of see the chimney on ASL's pic above.
I'll do a write-up with pics soon, just came back from a 2 week break after this hike and holiday, and will post some pics in the not too distant future. In short, the route goes, and if you are ok with scrambling it's relatively easy. We didn't go across via the ledge right at the top which people typically use from the Cathkin side, as there are multiple ledges on the Champaign Castle side - the main question is which one to choose. I took the highest one initially and unless you are a climber it's a simple No-No. However, from the top I could see the bottom of Cathkin's top section where it meets up with the gully between it and Moncs. We therefore dropped down about 150m ASL from the top of the col between Champagne and Moncs and could hop over to the south side (Cowl valley side) of the pass between Moncs and Cathkin. It was quite a bit of a slog to get back up to the col (don't you just hate dropping altitude just to get around an obstacle!) and it was hot, but we got to the top, rested for 10min and then dropped down the Northern side towards KBC.
All in all a nice loop that takes you nowhere, but it was there so we had to explore it
Very pretty and the first 2km's or so up the valley between Moncs and Champaigne was spectacular, but slow going.
Now I need to do the face of Champagne from this side. The section where you climb out of the river onto the face looks a bit dodgy (if I have indeed ID'd the correct spot), but it looks like the opposite gash in the mountain (basically just to the left of Grays) could be used as an alternative entry point. Anyone done this before?
Myself, the wife, ASL-Bivak# and another hiking buddy decided to attempt the route as suggested by Andrew Porter. Doing the loop anti-clockwise was definitely the right way to go, thanks for the advice Andrew. Thanks for the picture of the crux Smurfatefrog. Those rocks you went up was quite wet, so we went up on the side, to the right as you ascend. You can sort of see the chimney on ASL's pic above.
I'll do a write-up with pics soon, just came back from a 2 week break after this hike and holiday, and will post some pics in the not too distant future. In short, the route goes, and if you are ok with scrambling it's relatively easy. We didn't go across via the ledge right at the top which people typically use from the Cathkin side, as there are multiple ledges on the Champaign Castle side - the main question is which one to choose. I took the highest one initially and unless you are a climber it's a simple No-No. However, from the top I could see the bottom of Cathkin's top section where it meets up with the gully between it and Moncs. We therefore dropped down about 150m ASL from the top of the col between Champagne and Moncs and could hop over to the south side (Cowl valley side) of the pass between Moncs and Cathkin. It was quite a bit of a slog to get back up to the col (don't you just hate dropping altitude just to get around an obstacle!) and it was hot, but we got to the top, rested for 10min and then dropped down the Northern side towards KBC.
All in all a nice loop that takes you nowhere, but it was there so we had to explore it
Very pretty and the first 2km's or so up the valley between Moncs and Champaigne was spectacular, but slow going.Now I need to do the face of Champagne from this side. The section where you climb out of the river onto the face looks a bit dodgy (if I have indeed ID'd the correct spot), but it looks like the opposite gash in the mountain (basically just to the left of Grays) could be used as an alternative entry point. Anyone done this before?
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