Thumb Peak and Langies Ridge

I have been looking for route listings on the Thumb. From the north side it looks like you can access the top with only about 5m of properly climbing, although it is very exposed - with at least a 200m drop if you fall - and looks difficult and badly protected. MCSA doesn't have a RD for any route on the Thumb - anyone out there done it? There is no way that such a prominent peak has not been climbed yet (@Intrepid: I know you took a shot at it a few years back, did you get up?)

I'm also interested in Langalibalele's Arete (name given by me) - the route being the ridge just north of Langalibalele Pass. By sight it looks like 3 pitches (1 massive 1, maybe needing a stance in the middle, and 2 average length ones), looks well protected and relatively easy. Anyone know if this arete has ever been climbed?

Thanks Intrepid

I posted the same question on ClimbZA and haven't heard back. But I rarely get replies about the Berg on that site.

The route I am referring to is that narrow bit where the grassy ledge and the approach traverse is narrowest. Doesn't look easy to climb to me! (I would post a pic with the bit circled, but Firefox won't let me upload photos)


I would traverse along the grass and head up just before it becomes an overhang.

Ok - that gap is now apparent to me in my photo.

Sounds like a fun route. So you would need 2 days for the route, maybe overnighting on the escarpment near Thumb Spur Peak?

I'm still hoping to get Thumb Pass in this winter, so hopefully I can go and check this out then.

Looking at my photos from Thumb Spur I don't see any clear cairn on the summit. But I can't see how such a prominent peak could be short a first ascent.

So yesterday Hobbit and I had a go at Thumb. With no topo or details of any ascents, we figured it could be a first ascent. Long-story-short, it wasn't - but with no tat or other signs of prior ascents, we rate the ascent must have been a few decades ago. Nonetheless, doing a peak with no topo and a FA don't fundamentally differ.

I don't have sufficient experience to grade the route, I rate the crux as F1, but if you exclude the bottom 4m on the lower pitch, and the bottom 4m on the upper pitch, it would go at B/C. It is almost entirely slab climbing, rock was incredibly solid and gear was adequate. Mostly cams, with 2 nuts.

RD:
Use Thumb Pass summit gully to drop down to a grass ledge. Traverse to the gully up to the nek between Thumb and the unnamed peak attached to the escarpment.

First pitch. Take the obvious line up from the saddle. 15m, crux sequence is F1, rest is B/C. A few good cams and one medium nut.

From the top of the first pitch, walk left around the top cliff. 5m before the ledge comes to an end, there is a line of weakness (protected by only 1 nut) which goes up 5m before it hits an easy ledge. On the ledge, walk left till you hit the grassy gully. Walk to summit from here. A few cams will go in on the traverse. Crux is F1, traverse is B/C.

Descent: walk back along the ledge used to access the summit and abseil back down the crux via a large block. Ab the lower pitch off one of the large boulders above the first pitch. Check that the boulders are stable as most aren't - and try to avoid abseiling over the massive drop just north of the nek (a 50m rope will only just reach the nek when doubled if you extend the ab point on top to ensure the rope is retrievable - our rope only just reached the nek, consider taking 2 ropes).

Yellow - our planned line, white - the line tried to climb, but it died before the top, red - actual line used.

In July, and thus shortly after Ghaz's trip, I climbed The Thumb.

Undisclosed in his writeup but known to me is that a 50m rope was craftly stashed in the hills. This meant I did not need to carry a rope up, but would awkwardly carry a heavier load down than up.

Approach by descending off the escarpment via a gully a little south of The Thumb itself. This is the top of Thumb Pass. You have to drop further down off the escarpment than you would like, probably dropping about 70m vertical before being able to walk across along grass slopes. And then grind your way back up to the saddle between Thumb and the escarpment.

I used the magic purple rope for a top rope belay via a complicated self belay mechanism using a munter hitch and a sling for a harness. The amount of slack at anytime did not bother me much as the amount of rope stretch would have seen a ground fall anyway. The first pitch goes at about grade C/D with no gear to speak of for the hard moves. This is not as bad as it sounds as you are still close to the ground here. I know I took the same line as Hobbit because I saw a cleared out crack on route.

I may or may not have used the same route for pitch 2. Regardless, I will not fall off a grade 13 stemming sequence up a corner on perfect rock. The number of knots I saw tied into the blue tat above suggests a different story for Ghaz.

I climbed up about 5m then traversed left 5m and ran up the final few meters to the summit. And then across the ridge to another cairn to make sure. And promptly missed the sweets in the summit books box. Hint, go get them

I down climbed the top pitch easily and recovered the blue tat. And then at the point the abseil for pitch one should be set from, found some old tat. Probably 5-10 years old. I took the old tat, moved the fresh yellow cord and then down climbed with rope backup to the neck. I now had plently of rope to spare and could walk back to give an easy tug to recover 3kg of deadweight to carry down.

My GPS records the summit at 3043m with a prominemce of 40m.

Oh, so another possible khulu at Giant's Castle area, and another inaccurate height on the maps.

Just when I thought I had done all the Giant's Castle khulus.......

If anyone follows Hobbit on Instagram, he posted a video at the Nek of us discussing the rope that was left behind. Thanks @Andrew for retrieving it for us!

@Tony: it only has about 45m prominence, so it probably won't make the cut. That being said, I didn't bag the top pitch, so I'll let you know when we go back.