The upcoming hikes thread

I could be keen; have already taken leave on that Monday.

I'm quite keen to explore the Southern Berg.

Anyone going to be in Monk's area this weekend?

Anyone going to the Cathedral peak area this long weekend?

My wife and I are planning to do the following:
Friday night: sleeping in Shermans cave. Boked it earlier today. Would be a shame to only have 2 people sleeping in a 12 sleeper cave.
Saturday: Bell traverse to Twins cave or possibly Easter cave
Sunday: North to Pins cave and back to Easter cave/Twins cave. Should be a pretty long day. Might shorten it if it is too long, negotiable on this one.
Monday: South to Ndumeni dome area. Will sleep over here somewhere 9either Rolands or Ndumeni caves or testing out my tarp on top of Organ Pipes pass. Plan to go up Cleft peak, then Ndumen dome and then onwards towards Didima dome. Wnat to check out this area as we will be passing through here on our April GT.
Tuesday: Down the Camel or possibly Tseketseke and down to the hotel.

We are not super fit by any means but want to sort of try and simulate the conditions we will be facing on an 8 day GT. The nice thing with this route is that on the escarpment days we walk out and then basically retrace our steps, so if the distances are too far then anyone joining us they can turn around and we will see you later that day at the cave/campsite.

PM me if you are interested in joining.

I joining an MCSA beginners hike to Hidden Valley at Garden Castle next weekend (25/26th). The hike is a very basic walk from the car park up to Hanging Valley to camp there.

I'm wanting though to add on a training hike on the Saturday, starting and finishing back at the Hidden Valley base camp, after ditching our packs and possibly setting up camp (depending on time). Looking to do around a 30km loop, nothing too technical, so probably looking for the two best passes to go up and down. Having not done a single pass in the Southern Berg I am completely open to suggestions...anyone got any ideas?

There are a lot of passes that you can do from there - one of the few valleys where I have done all the documented passes (that I know of, anyway - I see little potential for additional passes).

My favourite from here is Walkers Ridge Pass - you follow the Hidden Valley trail till you hit Curtain Cave, you then follow the gully between Curtain Cave and Wave Cave till you hit the top of the Small Berg ridge (incidentally the peak away from the escarpment, 2634m iirc, is quite possibly the highest sandstone peak in SA). You then follow a relatively obvious line on the top of the ridge till you hit Corn Cob Cave, and then walk up and over the ridge till you hit the escarpment. It is a very scenic line, with only a bit of minor scrambling. Mzimude Pass is the easiest way back down (south pass, south gully is the easiest). North Mzimude Pass (the one north of the 3 main gullies, the fissure route, unmarked on the map) is quite an epic - probably the hardest pass in the area - and is also quite a nice route, but not recommended for descent as it is very steep (stay out of the fissure for the entire route - we stayed in it for too long and had a very steep exit from the gully).

I have done the Walkers Ridge and South Mzimude loop in a day from Swiman Hut, and it included spending an hour building snowmen! The writeup is somewhere in the Epic Day Hikes thread, called "Do you want to build a snowman". A good day out indeed - some great views. A walk up Walkers or Thamathu Peak is worth it. Andre's Knob also comes with good views, provided you take the right line to get up it.

We will be rambling around the Giants Castle this weekend - It been almost 30 Years since I was last there. So looking forward to it - I can't sleep...

I am planning a mini traverse from the Sentinel Car Park to Cathedral Peak over the Easter weekend. Starting on Thursday morning 13 April, and finishing on Monday, 17 April, so 5 days of hiking.

Anyone keen to join?

MTHiker and I are doing a Bushman's Nek loop, Tarn Cave, Knuckles traverse, Lammergeier Cave on 19 to 21 May.
Possibility that SingleSpeed may join us. If anyone is keen, let me know. Friday morning to Sunday.

Good day hikers. We are going to hike from sentinal 27/05/17 to the Amphitheater, if there nipis anybody that going to be there, let me know. Its only good to party up, for safety reasons. We are returning the sunday. Thanx
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