Mbundini Fangs and Molar

South Face route on the Mbundini Molar
The Molar was first climbed in 1961. At the time, it was felt that the peak could not be climbed from the escarpment so they climbed a whole lot of chimney pitches to gain the summit from below.

Times have moved on so in Feb 2022, I had a serious look at the peak from the escarpment.  I came to the conclusion this was the better way to climb the peak.  

In April 2022, Chris, Neil and I had a proper go at it.  I got to with 2m of a ledge that would have given us access to the summit.  By then, I was very cold (it was about 5 deg plus a wind chill of whatever a gale force wind provides.  And in the shade).  To be honest, the balancy move I did not do felt harder than it should have due to a lack of climbing in recent times.  Neil went up while I was hiding out of the wind, and was soon down again with some complaint about a stuck rope.  Chris was muttering about Covid so all he did was to recover the gear.  Neil and I in turn caught Covid as well (by sharing Fangs Cave with Chris - yes, really)

In Aug 2022, I was back, this time with Tony and Jonathan.  Howling winds stopped us from even entering the descent gully.  By now, it was obvious that the gully between Molar and Escarpment is a wind funnel.

In October 2024, I was back, yet again.  Chris, Geoff and I took a lazy 2 days to get to Fangs Cave (Chris was not feeling too well again, but this time was at least on the mend).  This time around, I traversed a little further at the start of the pitch onto easy ground leading up towards an obvious cubbyhole at a similar height to my previous highpoint, but 5-10m left.  Here, I gained access to a steep finger crack in a corner (solid F3).  I hung briefly on 1 cam, and was soon on the ledge. Rope drag stopped me here and I brought Chris and Geoff up.  Geoff led the final pitch to summit (F1).

South Face Route
On the escarpment, make your way to the narrowest point between Molar and Escarpment. A student will probably just jump the gap.  We did not.  An obvious gully leads down to the neck below. Take this and set up a belay a few meter down from where you enter the main gully.
1. 20m F3 Traverse leftwards, initially over an awkward but easy flake. An overhanging corner crack will now make its appearance - this was the initial attempt.  Continue past this, tending a little downwards until easy ground leads upwards.  Aim for a point a little right of the cubbyhole. A short, small left facing corner breaks through the roof - climb this (first ascensionist briefly hung on a cam) and gain a decent ledge.
2. 10m F1 Traverse right into the obvious left facing corner.  Climb this to summit.
Note: Can be very cold in winter or on windy days
First ascent: 26 October 2024 Andrew Porter, Geoff Moore and Chris Sommer.

Tweaks to the existing route up the Fangs
From the Molar, we (Geoff, Chris and myself) did a 55m abseil down into the mist.  It turned out we were about 5m left of the neck itself (looking outwards), but I reached a narrow ledge level with the neck.  A tricky, roped traverse took us to the neck and a60m abseil took us down to the point at which the original route exits the gully. Here, the original line climbs up to the ridge and abseils down onto another ledge, from which you can gain the final chimney leading up to saddle between the Inner and Outer Fangs. 

We scrambled down the gully to a broad ledge and then walked and scrambled our way into the base of a gully providing access to same ledge as reached by original abseil.  An old school E chimney (or a slab to the right of it, both with no gear) gain easier ground.  Continue up the gully until a second chimney forces you onto the right hand slabs yet again.

From here, continue up existing route to the summit.

We had too little time to do both summits, so settled for the Outer Fang.  The rock on the last pitch is better than the guide suggests.  All in all, the route and grading are old school.

We did a 60m abseil off a small block from the summit back down to the base of the final chimney systems.  We scrambled down to the ledge above the 2 chimneys and promptly spent a lot of time searching for an abseil.  For a grassy ledge, the grass it useless, the rock above it holds no obvious cracks for a peg. We finally found a small chockstone in a crack system directly above the chimneys but at very back of ledge. We moved the knot a lot to get it past most of the Erika bushes and just made it to the base of the bottom chimney.

From here, we reversed the traverses of the original route, below the gully between Molar and Inner Fang and beyond.  We saw a really obvious abseil block(at the end of the pitch 3 C grade traverse), but were convinced it was too high above the gully below for our 60m ropes.  We thus continued traversing but found no suitable points for an abseil.  We thus (much later) returned to the original block, and after clearing some muck behind it had a solid abseil point.  Chris went first, and Geoff and I were both very pleased to hear he had made the ground with a few m to spare. By now, the sun had long set, so we were forced to turn on headlamps soon into the walk down the gully.  This made finding the traverse across the grassy slopes back to cave harder than it needed to be, so we only got back to cave a little before 9 that night.  Considering we were on summit of Molar before 8am, that is a long time for a handful of pitches and abseils.

 
Red is the original route (first 3 pitches out of sight).  Blue is our variation