The upcoming hikes thread

mnt_tiska wrote: it had not occurred to me to approach Mafadi from Giants in one day.

When I was shooting for the 9 summits speed record (which I never got around to doing) I was going to do that.

When myself, Splatacat and a non-VE member tried to do a trial run on Mafadi in a 17 hours from Giants, we got up to the top of Judge Pass from Giant's with semi-light packs by 5PM with a 9AM start. It went pairshaped from there, but we could have hit UI Cave by 10PM, but instead we slowly headed back down and reached Bannerman Hut by 1AM.

@ASL: Just for completeness in case you are considering more alternatives, Judge is quicker and has a great trail, Corner is easier. Both are equally scenic, but have a very different reason for me stating that they are scenic.

Enjoy

thanks for all the tips and advice everyone...

I am starting to like the idea of the high approach to Corner Pass. My other thought is to take a light tent with us so we can camp somewhere before Summit Cave is need be. The easy option would be to camp at the bottom of Corner pass and head up in the morning.

It also depends on the weather.. I like to play in the snow, so here's hoping!

PS. Does anyone know if there is water up Corner pass? I seem to remember water at the bottom but haven't been up it yet..

And my plan for the weekend was to take a jog to Mafadi and back via Ntonjelane Pass

There might be a few drips depending on the weather




Best to fill up at the contour path...

Hi ASL, if you do the Northern High Approach I doubt there will be any water in the pass once you drop down in to it. We did this in December last year, and although the rocks were wet and slippery in places, there was no running water.

The high approach joins the gully high above where the river was dry when we did the gully route a few months ago.

We ran out of water, but near the first chockstone we found a little trickle - we shoved a plastic bag into a crack below it and used it to fill our bottles. This will probably be dry or ice at this time of year.

There is water above the pass though. Just drop over the watershed and you'll find a stream. If you follow the Corner ridge (which is incredible by the way), you won't find any water until you hit that river that comes down the south slope of Mafadi (if you go that far around).

Hi to all VE members,just a quick question for my interest..will be doing ifidi to fangs this coming weekend (solo hike) was wandering who else might be doing the same route the same time?Helps to know who might be around when hiking solo!

Who went where this past long weekend?

Sadly, I missed out on any hiking due to being in the middle of house renovations.

So it looks like I am finally heading to Cobham next weekend, with a Friday headstart to Lakes/Pholela Cave. Still really shocking that I have never been to Cobham before. Planning to do Amakehla Pass and return via Masubasuba Pass.

Anything I should know about this route/cave preferences etc?