Tseketseke Pass

I nearly made this mistake last December. The false pass looks much more believable as the summit of a pass than the actual summit and you could easily convince yourself that you don’t need to check the map. Fortunately, I checked my GPS and realized that we were heading in the wrong direction.

Here is a report by the concerned party:

Gomag

Like several others, I've also spent some time at the top near Tseke Tseke trying to find the right gully. Seem to remember the important thing is to take the gully which is south of the column. In the mist it is hard to tell though.

Just read the report from the hikers. They seem to have been very composed - wasn't the epic I was expecting to read about.

Rating:* * * (6/10)Difficulty of the pass...

Read more...

We did the pass this last weekend and although we all survived it was a long hard day with almost everyone taking a tumble or two. If bad weather had set in, it would have been another matter.
I am not sure exactly when the bad water came down Tseketseke, but about 4 years back it was a completely different pass. I remember taking up a bunch of “First Timers” and although it was a long day, it was certainly not dangerous, which, in my opinion, it now is.
Floods, ( I can only assume floods) in the past few years have scoured the river down by up to 10m in places, leaving very exposed banks which are very unstable. Unfortunately the river has also widened, eating away at the path leaving one to look for alternate routes, usually clinging on to steep slopes or boulder hopping. The boulder hopping is OK, but it tires one out and there are places where it’s just too steep and “Slope Clinging” becomes the order of the day. The thing is, you can’t just climb out of the river, and the banks are just too deep, steep and very unstable in most places.
There is a lot of collective experience in our little group of 8, and the feeling is that the pass is now still doable, but dangerous and certainly not for the inexperienced and not for large groups.
The VE track was spot on, but now academic in most places. In the past one could walk from the camp to the Hut in less than 5 minutes, it’s now a 10 minute rock hop. You can, however, still get to water from the camp without having to abseil, just.
We also noted the condition of the contour path in this area. Disgusting is a good description, and we were happy not to be walking towards Cockade along it. Just what are we getting for our R50/day, one asks oneself. Just a wee bit of erosion control and a good weed whacking once a year.
Anyway rant over, be warned, PM me for more info if required, looking forward to the next one.
G.

you are spot on on this 1!

I haven't heard of Tseketseke being a hard pass, but when a friend & I descended it last year we were like what? It has been eroded quite bad a you've mentioned & dangerous for sure. We also took a few tumbles. I bent my 1 trekking polea bit, bt it was fixable.

We were very tired & happy when we reached the hut (came from twins that morning)

Its sad - Tseke was on my to-do list until I read up about the damage in the floods a few years ago.

Please post some pics

I also broke my stick on the pass, If you are a rock rabbit you can do the pass . I would not like to do it going up but down is doable,It was a adventure .I have only one photo as we where going up as i packed my camera away when we reached the wash away. Geordie has a good shot of it.

Here are a few pics. As you can see it starts out great, but once you are forced into the river bed there are a lot of very unstable rocks and scree to manouvre. A great adventure for me, but several of our group came away with another 'berg tattoo' or 2!