Devil's Tooth Gulley water

Has anyone been up Tooth Gulley recently (say in the last two weeks)? How close to the cave is the highest water? Thanks

Hi Hector-
I haven't been up the gully for a while, but last time we went up we followed the river and so were aware all the time how much flow there was. When the flow started running out, we filled up and that wasn't too far from the cave (it was in April though). The method I describe works well unless the stream goes underground only to reappear higher up. In the case of the Tooth gully I wouldn't worry too about that possibility because going up once loaded with water part of the way is better than going up all of it once without water and then some of again with water.

Thanks mnt_tiska. I'll be approaching from the top of the gulley so I wanted to get an idea of how far down I'd need to descend to get water. Oh well, will just have to wait and see.

Hector wrote: I'll be approaching from the top of the gulley so I wanted to get an idea of how far down I'd need to descend to get water. Oh well, will just have to wait and see.

In that case you wont go further down the gully than you need to! Are you abseiling off the escarpment or is there another way to reach the top of Tooth Gully?

I'm planning a climbing linkup in the area. I don't want to go into details until its done - it's an ambitious little project and its much better to try these things and fail quietly
But I'll be sure to post something if we pull it off. I'd still really appreciate any recent beta on the water up there.

We were up Devil's Tooth gully mid September. At that time there was water that would appear and then disappear under the boulder beds to appear higher up as trickles and sometimes little pools. We got as far as the bottom of the Tooth and had been hoping to get to Tooth Cave but ran out of time and had to turn around. At this point ( see photo) there was no water and as far as I recall the last available water had been half an hour further back. Depending on where you are entering the gully, you may have to go down a bit to obtain water - unless of course there is water in the gully just below Tooth Cave

Nice pic Elinda, now I remember why Tooth Cave is not on my to do list!

I imagine carrying water up that gully must be great fun...

Hector wrote: I'm planning a climbing linkup in the area. I don't want to go into details until its done - it's an ambitious little project and its much better to try these things and fail quietly
But I'll be sure to post something if we pull it off. I'd still really appreciate any recent beta on the water up there.

So it seems Hector has "pulled it off" with Andrew Porter - follow the link for the report on a seriously epic enchainment: www.climb.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?p=44688#p44501

For the lazy:

"Andrew Porter and I did a fun little enchainment in the 'berg this weekend. We parked at Tendele on Friday night and hiked up Lion Ridge in the dark. At first light on Saturday we climbed the northern pinnacle of Eastern Buttress via Lionheart, descended into the nek and climbed Eastern Buttress proper, then climbed Devils Tooth, the Tooth Pick, North Inner Tower and Central Inner Tower where The Dark caught up with us. We bivvied there and then the next morning ticked off the South Inner Tower and then up onto the escarpment. We hiked across the top of the Amphitheatre, tagged Beacon Buttress, went down the gulley then up the Standard Route on the Sentinel. Then it was the long jog all the way back to Tendele via Witsieshoek Hotel. The round trip of 53km and 2700m vertical gain took us 41.5 hours, 14.5 of which were spent sleeping. Highlights included what we think is the second ascent of Lionheart, a death pitch to get onto the Inner Towers, and a grass-tuft-island-hopping traverse to get into the nek between the Inner Towers and the escarpment (we completely cocked up the route finding). Most of the Eastern Buttress part of the mission was onsight (we had hiked up Lion Ridge once before, and I had previously climbed Eastern Buttress via Tooth Gulley). The rules we played by were to ching-chong-cha for the first lead and swing leads all the way, and to do the entire thing on foot. Fortunately there were no potential lifts to tempt us on the grind down the dirt road from Sentinel parking to Witsieshoek Hotel. It was a fun adventure."

Well done guys - really impressive!

Well hats off to Hector and Andrew for a great achievement and vision to match. Good on them.

This Amphitheatre circuit and Intrepid's Easter weekend 'Cathedral Spur' epic add up to two great and distinct Berg challenges.

Martin Winter in the late 1980s mentioned the challenge of the 'Cathedral Spur' in a day. Once familiar with the routes, that may well be possible? I wonder how much quicker the Amphitheatre circuit could be done? Then there's still Malcolm Moor's Three Triplets in Three days, as done in the 1950s, to add to the list.