Snakes not in hibernation

Thats pretty cool, it looks so snake-ish! Now that you say that I can see 3 legs clearly, what an odd looking lizard!

On the 9th August we came across a Berg Adder near the top of Sterkhorn - that would have been about the 2900 metre level.

@Sterkhorn: was Curran in your group? He's a friend of mine who told me he was climbing Sterkhorn on 9 Aug. Otherwise did you bump into a group of people from PMB?

Could you post some pics of the route - significant/tricky spots or places where the path is tough to follow, or even better, do you have the GPS co-ords by any chance? I hope to do Sterkhorn in Oct/Nov/Dec this year and will probably be doing it with friends who don't know the Berg well. I'm usually up for figuring out where a route is as I go along, but its always nice to know what the important parts look like in advance...

@Ghaznavid
Yes that was our group.
Unfortunately I have no GPS co-ords, but can give you some pointers and pictures.
Just give me a few days to access some pictures i.r.o. the route - this trip I only took a few scenic shots, so need to go back to previous trips to find some of the route.

You should not have a problem on Sterkhorn - the path is reasonably well defined. The only part I battled with was going through the "chimney" near the top. A few years back we came across a Berg Adder just before the chimney and we had to wait a while for it to move off. I can tell you my heart was beating pretty quickly climbing up through the gap, at any moment expecting to see another one at head height, but luckily, that one was all we came across.

Seems like the Cathedral & downwards sectins has got more snakes than the northern parts...

I've come across 3 berg adders on my last trip to Giant's Castle & also pretty high up. (though it was still summer)

Also saw a berg adder in 1 of the foot paths in lesotho when we traversed this year -took a "shortcut" a bit deeper into lesotho (+-10km south of Rolands cave)

I agree, the only area I've ever seen snakes in the Berg is at Giant's Castle. Saw 5 berg adders there this year so far

@Ghaznavid See new thread "Sterkhorn" for route description.

Going through some previous photos and speaking to my daughters, I have discovered that we have come across Berg Adders in this same area up Sterkhorn at least twice before this latest trip. It seems that we have a very successful Berg Adder family unit in this rock band before the chimney.