Angus-Leppan

So, we're planning on doing our first berg trad route on Friday 9 July and then continuing along the escarpment to Cathedral Peak for 5 days thereafter.

I'm a bolt-clipping weenie but my buddy has a few months experience on trad up to about grade 20. The route we've chosen is the Angus Leppan route on the Sentinel which apparently has pretty decent quality rock in comparison with the rest of the berg. We have the RD from the MCSA site and have found some photo topos online to help with route-finding.

Any additional advice on this route? Also, what do you guys think of the plan of abbing down the 6 pitches of Paradigm Shift (the bolted sport route up the North Face of the Sentinel) as opposed to descending the standard route? I imagine the top anchors may take a little while to find but if we can locate them, surely this is a much safer descent than the standard route scramble (particularly as we won't know that route having ascended Angus Leppan)?

Oh, and some more epic tales from mnt_tiska are also welcome

Great stuff!

I'm planning on tackling it in May or June. Last December we sat on the neck between the peak and the gendarme but had to turn back, slipping on our own drool...

All I can do in the line of advice is on the blockage in the gully up to the route. Rather climb the blockage than circumvent it - there is a very good nut placement protecting the tricky part. The "easy but unprotected" bypass is psycho - see picture with klipspringer on it. Yep, easy, but never confuse "easy" and "safe"!

Personally I think descending the standard route is safer than an abseil - I don't know how you can trust bolts in basalt (what did they use - 90mm?). You hear too many stories of people pulling out soccerball-sized and larger blocks - what if that block contained your abseil chains?

The standard route is like climbing the Cathedral Peak standard route - except for the D pitch where you abseil from an old (like 20 years+) peg (so much for my argument against abseiling !). I've climbed half of the standard route before ALSO turning back.

So your choice of descent will probably be based on personal preference. I spoke to a guy who climbed Angus-Leppan and rapped off Paradigm Shift (he said you need 2x60m ropes for that), and he said the abseil was quite spectacular.

Would you mind sharing the photo topos you found? I've got one from Gavin Raubenheimer showing the route in red, but some more close-ups would be cool!

But this is just a noob rambling. I'm also waiting for mnt_tiska's post, hehe!

Cool - thanks for the info. So you can be the guinea pig and post your experiences on this thread afterwards

The photo topo I have is the same one you have from GR's guiding page.

I'd like to climb Paradigm Shift as well at some point, but right now 5m lead outs on berg rock at the limit of my ability for 6 pitches in a row seems a tad daunting. I'd rather wait until I can climb 24/25 comfortably, hehe

More questions: How long should it take on average to get three of us up there? and gear-wise, is a rack of 9 cams, 9 nuts and 5 hexes sufficient or is that a bit on the shy side?

Please give some more info on this blockage in the gulley - is it just a short climb over some boulders, or is it a wall?

And then clothes-wise, what is the minimum to take in Mid-July on such a route?

thanks!

ray

@ray: The blockage is an overhanging wall about 5m high. On the right hand side (the Sentinel side), it is not so overhanging and climbable (at least when dry). But most importantly it's protected! After that it's a simple scramble up to the neck.

The following I quote from a mail Gavin Raubenheimer sent me:
"On the AngusLeppan you would need 1x 50 Single rope or 2 half ropes. 8 cams, 5 wires and say 6 quick-draws and 3 long slings. That should be enough."

Very critical is a size 3.5 cam (Wild Country friend?) on pitch 4, which is apparently your only pro on an airy traverse with nasty consequences for a fall. I'm assuming it's a friend, in which case a BD Camalot #3 would also work (while doing a course under Gavin, I asked him whether my Camalot #3 will work, and he said yes).

Another guy I spoke with said he took way too much gear. On some pitches he only placed two runners. He did, however, also stated the importance of the 3.5 cam (I didn't ask him about the brand).

Okey dokey

The plan for me and my climbing partner is to climb the route on Saturday May 29. According to the weather report this could turn out quite interesting. We also plan to camp on top of the Sentinel (so long, boot thief suckers!!!) if time & conditions permit.

However, I'd like to keep Sentinel Cave in mind in case of emergency. Has anyone ever used it? Does it provide any shelter? How far from the chain ladder path is it?

Hi Gollum

If I can remember correctly its quite a good cave for shelter, its just a few meteres off the path in between the ladders and the gulley. Here is a pic for you to look at.
www.vertical-endeavour.com/gallery/drakensberg/caves/153-sentinel-cave--left.html
There is a "tap" that a guy once showed me in the cave, basically a rock formation where water runs or drips out that he said he has used to fill his bottle a few times, I cant really remember to be honest but it might take a while to get a descent sip

\m/ WHOOOO HOOOOO ! ! ! \m/

It turned out to be my best mountaineering experience ever! Highly highly highly highly recommended.

It also turned into a mini adventure, as we took very long due to inexperience (try to build a bomber anchor in rotten basalt, bleh!). The sun set just as my mate topped out pitch 6, so we got benighted on the peak without tent, stove or sleeping bags (the plan was to descend after summitting, then top-rope our friends up the standard route with proper camping equipment. We did have a "survival kit" with us). In the end we descended the standard route at 00h30 after realizing surviving the night in such cold was going to be tough, and the danger of descending in the night was a good tradeoff. Luckily it was a clear night with full moon, and once we were on the western slopes, we were sheltered from the wind and the temperature picked up pleasantly. By 03h00 we were back at our pack with tent and sleeping bags at the base of the approach gully, where we had the most pleasant bivvy ever!

If anyone is interested I'll write a quick report. I'll upload some pics later.

Some hints and info for those of you awaiting awesomeness :

1. Route finding is extremely easy (but we had good weather).
2. The rock quality is dubious throughout the climb and rotten on pitches 2 and 3.
3. 1 out of 3 placements are bomber, don't fall!
4. The belay stations at the start of pitches 3 and 4 are bolted
5. The "good peg" in the cubbyhole on pitch 6 is no longer there, but there is a good cam placement.
6. Our rack was 1 set of nuts (BD #4 - #13), one set of hexes (BD #1 - #11), and 4 cams (BD Camalot #0.75 - #3), and it was more than sufficient, although we could have used more and smaller cams.