Inner Peek at the climbing history of Inner Tower

On the 25th of September, AndrewP and I summited the Inner Tower via the South East Arete, and down-climbed the standard route. This is definitely the most enjoyable way of climbing Inner Tower. Our initial search for a summit book in the cairn on top did not yield anything and we had the mutters of having climbed yet another peak without an active summit log. One last search yielded a small, rusted metal container - not like anything we has seen before and certainly much smaller and different to the modern day summit caches. On opening it, a very special moment dawned on us as we discovered notes from yesteryear with several well known names of the pioneers. The note of the party that opened the very route we had just done was also there.

The notes were on folded bits of paper. A coin from 1909 was also inside.



The earliest note was dated 1932, with some of that party returning again in 1933!

1932
FTO Deadle (?)
AH Park-Ross / Park Ross
Udo Zunckel
R Griffin
CP Hyde

The double Park-Ross reference presumably indicates that Dr Park-Ross' wife accompanied him on this occasion.

1933
AH Park-Ross
Dulde(?) Zunckel
Udo Zunckel(?)
? Griffin

The name Dulde does not match any of the Zunkel family names in Barrier of Spears, though it might be a nickname.

The note was written on the back of a Cadbury's sweet wrapper. In the container was also a blob of a sticky toffie-like substance, which perhaps used to be the sweet!

Inner Tower
Friday 20th July 1945

Left Mtn Club but 08.28 am
Inner Tower Gully neck 10.15 "
Took high traverse to the right
& ascended via narrow arete
on the south - a new route
12.30am
Stanley Rose
Hans Wong
Elizabeth Burton

This was the opening party of the route we had just done. No doubt the Sout East (SE) Arete became popular after that, judging by the other notes.


There were two pieces of paper torn from a newspaper, both from "The New Statesman and Nation". One dated 28 October 1944 and 12 March 1949. We did not notice any handwriting on them. What we did not notice in the excitement, was the faint writing on the silver wrapper - this note was only analysed after the fact and was difficult to read (see inset).

5(?) April
1949
Ascended South
Arete

CG Maw(?)
GP Eousis(?)

10/2/52
Inner Tower Base in the
cave near the Gorge in Tugela
Ascended the Inner Tower gully
which was in full spate making
some section difficult (+ wet + cold)
Climbed the Inner Tower via the South
Arete & then crossed over to the
middle & outer sections of the Inner Tower
Martin Winter (N.M.C.)
G. Bettle
G Harris

Martin and Gillian evidentally made frequent use of the Inner Tower gully (they also did the first ascent of South Ifidi Pinnacle this way). NMC presumably stands for Natal Mountaineering Club, which was later amalgamated into the MCSA. Not sure why there is a question mark by Gillian's name.

6/9/54
From Tunnel
Cave via SE
Arete (4 hrs)
N Fairral NMC
D Stumbles NMC
R W???

Neil Fairral seems to have been a contemporary of Martin Winter and Gillian Bettle since they climbed together on other occasions.

We do not know when last this container was opened. On many other peaks the old summit logs have been removed for safe-keeping. We did try and make a phone call from the summit to enquire whether we should bring the container down with us. Unfortunately we did not get any signal and thought it best in the end simply to hide it very well again in the cairn, where it will be safe for a later stage.

This was a very special experience and it felt like a privilege to see original, hand-written notes from people who we read about in the literature, and who we will always hold in high regard for what the mountaineering feats they accomplished in their time.

Amazing, I wonder how many others are still hidden near the bottom of summit cairns! The paper is still in great quality

BTW, Intrepid, is your date of 2 Oct right?

Smurfatefrog wrote: BTW, Intrepid, is your date of 2 Oct right?

no it isnt. It was September 25th. Where is my mind?

Highlands Fanatic wrote: Pictures, pictures, pictures...or it did not happen and I'll assume you were dropped off atop the Inner Tower by a helicopter.

Aw shucks, you got us. We did get dropped off!
We climbed several peaks, will probably only get around to posting more after the site upgrade.

So guys, what I'm reading from this is that Ghaz volunteering to put together, transport and install a mini time-capsule on every random peak in the berg.

Better get started bloke!