Giants Castle Pass and Peak hike

Thanks guys, will think twice then...
I don't want my tent in shreds after this hike.

Another problem with camping on top of a ridge (especially one with a great view) is that as soon as you put your headlamp on, everyone within 10km knows you are there. But if you camp close enough to the top, you can always get up nice and early to watch the sun rise from the top of Long Wall

Took us 10 minutes from our spot to the summit of the ridge, seeing as the top is at 3200m and we camped at 3130m.

Ok, guys. Thank you for all the advice. I'm beginning to understand that conquering Giant's Castle isn't all it seems...but that wont stop me!

So here is a route that i think might work best for the following reasons:

1. I would like to avoid the smuggling route at Makaza. Maybe not too safe...
2. No camping on top of Giant's Castle to avoid tent-destroying winds.
3. There will be water further North on at Jarateng.





Will this route work?

The 'Start' is obviously at the Giant's Castle Lodge.

Day 1 (Purple):
8.8km, via Giant's Ridge.

Day 2 (Dark Red):
7.5km, up Giant's Castle pass, and the North along escarpment to the Jarateng river.

Day 3 (Green):
9.8km, along escarpment and down Langalibalele pass.

Day 4:
7km, back to start.

Camp 1 and 3 will be finding a flat piece of ground around the contour path that is also close to water. Camp 2 will be at the Jarateng river out of the wind and close to the water.

I read up on a note that Intrepid posted about the safety issues in 2007. He specifically had an issue with Langalibalele pass. Are there security incidents at the moment?

The escarpment section has no routes that are mapped and so it is a guess if we can hike like that. But the terrain and vegetation is normally quite easy to cross. Right?

The last day also needs to be a short hike seeing as we will be driving straight back to Pta that same day. (and work the next day )

Let me know what your thoughts are. All the advice has been very helpful! Thanks!

You should easily find somewhere to camp near the base of Giant's Pass, the camping spot in the Jarateng Valley should be good - but I'd camp higher up the Long Wall Valley, just because there are plenty of locals living in that valley. When myself, Firephish and Hobbit camped in that valley we had plenty of locals visiting our supposedly well concealed tents!

Just a note of Mount Durnford - the ridge is a monster, and there is a large cliff on the north side. You need to find Durnford Gap to get through. From the south you will see the main ridge and a few cairns on the high ridge near the escarpment edge. There is a cairn in a low point, walk through at this cairn and you will find yourself above a cliff. Walk to the left and find some easy gaps in the top cliffs. It shouldn't be hard to find if there isn't mist.

Personally I'd camp on the escarpment above Langies Pass (Langalibalele Pass), this will give you more time to enjoy the views as you head along. Myself and Hobbit (who is 13 by the way) came down Langies Pass in 23 minutes earlier this year (summit cairn to waterfall). That was with day packs, but my point is, even if you go slowly you can get down that pass in an hour without much difficulty. There is a good trail the entire way and it is never steep.

There is a flat spot to camp where you have marked, but it is far from water.

As far as I know, nothing has happened on or near Langies Pass for a while now, and I have done that pass 10 times between Feb 2011 and today - and 3 of them were this year!

No terrain issues on this route - check my writeup on my recent Giant's Traverse, we were going the other way round, but there are plenty of photos. You are firmly in Ghaznavid territory on this one - so I have tons of photos and info on the route! My GT writeup from 2012 also has info - it was day 5 of the trip.

There is a blog about Langies Pass that I did (under the passes section) and Stijn did a blog about Giant's Pass. This in addition to the tons of writeups between Tony, Smurf, Gordie, myself and others - regarding the different parts of the route.

It is a really awesome part of the escarpment

@Viking - you beat me to this one!

Viking wrote: Also I noticed some incorrect markings of peaks on your Google earth pics.

Giant's Castle top is in the wrong place, its right on the edge of that spur by the green GE marker.

The summit on Long Wall is obvious and very hard to miss - its just kind of the highest spot on a large buttress (@Viking: can't remember and forgot to get a summit photo there, did we build a cairn on the top - I know there wasn't one when we got there)

Potterill is one top south of where you marked it - that peak is actually Bond. What is marked as Bond is actually Erskine. Don't worry - the Geomaps are incorrectly labeled. These peaks were named by Bill Barnes, and he describes which is which in his book.

You guys crack me up! Here's to not remembering!!

I really appreciate all your help in getting my route plotted.

Ghaz...i might want to do a teamviewer session with you and me and google earth so that i can see where more or less is that gap to pass over Mount Durnford.

Schweet!

Viking wrote: I remember not remembering to take a pic but don't remember building a cairn, although I'm sure that you remembered to build one despite not remembering to take a picture. But I can't really remember.

Feels like I'm reading an economics textbook...