Organ Pipes Pass

Thanks Spykid, those photos with the old forestry roads put the position of the truck nicely into perspective. There is some information and photos on the history of the area on the "The Pine Tree Project" thread.

Briefly that whole area below the hut was afforested with pine trees as part of a research project into the effect of afforestation on rainfall runoff, and the vintage of that truck would be about right to have been used to transport things on the afforestation project in the 50's and 60's. Mike's Pass and the forestry roads were constructed to a very high standard, and it would have been easy then for a truck like that to get up there. It is just through neglect and lack of maintenance that Mike's Pass is in it's present poor condition; in the late 80's it was mostly still a two vehicle wide road, and it was commonplace to drive to the top with normal cars.

tonymarshall wrote: The spring is at S 29 00.488 E 29 12.581, 2551m, my gps co ordinates, and would be quite easy to miss by walking right past if you didn't know about it, as it's not visible from the path, being set slightly down on the opposite side of the ridge as the path. The photo is taken from the ridge above the path looking down at the hikers (ghaznavid is the guy wearing black) filling up their water with the path just behind me.

Hi, after struggling to find water on organ pipes it would be great if people in the know could clarify a few points. Wish i'd seen this post before the hike

The GPS track in the downloads section for organ pipes gives a location for water as -29.005775414407253" 29.216209715232253 (marked 1 below, drains down to the right side of the ridge), i see Tony indicates water can be found at S 29 00.488 E 29 12.581 (marked 2 below, seems to drain down to the left of the ridge?).

We found a trickle of water at 1, but had to descend quite far 150m? down the gully to get a usable amount ... almost killed me after Thuthumi Ridge
And walked right past 2 without being aware of it

So what is the consensus as to:

1. which of these points is most reliable?
2. can you confirm 2 is on the left side of the ridge (looking up towards organ pipes)

I have found 2 to be pretty reliable and only after prolonged dry periods are you unlikely to find enough water there to collect with a cup or bottle. I haven't ever used other points for water on Organ Pipes Pass, and don't specifically know your 1, but in the rainy season or after snow most of the gullies your photomap shows would have water somewhere close to the ridge, this is also mentioned in my earlier post, it's just a case of how far off the route you need to go to find it, as you discovered.

Yes, 2 is on the left side of the ridge looking up, and drains into the Thuthumi valley, whilst the (direct) path is on the right of the ridge, exactly as shown on your photomap. There is a bypass path that briefly crosses over to the left of the ridge and goes past the spring, before climbing steeply up and over the ridge to join the other path, but it is conventional to look for the spring (assuming you know to look for it) as you approach on the direct path, leave packs etc on the ridge and head down the 10 m or so to the spring only carrying your water containers to fill up.

great, thanks tony

Hi guys

First of all I have to say thanks for the fantastic website. It has assisted me a great deal in planning many of my Berg trips over the last year and a half. This is my first official post which is long overdue I thought I would share this epic pic I took of my friend when we were at the Old Fire Lookout in November 2014.

We are planning another trip Up Organ Pipes and down the Camel over the weekend of the 24th of Jan 2015.

We intend on spending a night at Roland's Cave but I am a bit concerned that if the weather is inclement and we can't navigate the ledge towards the cave that we'll need to pitch tents at the top of Organs as a back-up option.

I understand that security can be a bit of an issue at this point and was hoping that someone could give me advice on a "relatively" safe spot to pitch tents which would be out of sight. Any assistance will be highly appreciated