Minaret Pass

Excuse the poor quality - this is heavily zoomed in from far below, but here's the sand crux:


It looks tame in the photo due to the angle (I seem to recall covering about 170m for the last 100m vertical, so about average steepness for the top of any Berg pass. The big brown patch on the left is the bit that Hobbit decimated while trying to climb it (photo obviously taken before that happened). Andrew and myself walked up the ice in the middle and had to reach around the crumbly grass top to pull through.

To get a better idea of height (although, once again, very misleading) - here is immediately above the crux looking down:

To be clear - the danger of this pass has nothing to do with steepness. It is as standard a gradient on a Berg Pass as one will find. The crux, while made harder in ice and snow, was not very hard (in clear conditions, one would have grass to pull on, and the ground wouldn't be slippery). The danger of the pass is the poor quality crumbling rock and loose scree - a fact made easier, not harder, by the snow. I rate this pass is doable in the conditions we did it in, provided you have suitable gear for it (bearing in mind that Hobbit used an ice axe on the crux, and I pulled on a rope - Andrew only used the rope as a backup in case he slipped). Mike and I used proper hiking boots for this trip, mostly to help with kicking steps into the snow, while Andrew used his ice axe when his trail shoes weren't coping.

Ps. Looking forward to being back in trail shoes after wearing those clumsy boots again (La Sportiva Tibets).

I dont recall such a pronounced gully, so perhaps it has gotten worse. Did you find the straw stuffed man in day glow orange that the air-force used for training?

Serious tribe wrote: Did you find the straw stuffed man in day glow orange that the air-force used for training?

We didn't, probably washed away in the years between our summits (or buried in the snow).

I rate it only takes one good storm to wash away a big section of a pass. Mashai Pass, for example, was quite different when I first did it in 2009 to what it is like today. Specifically the bit near the top where you cross the river. This erosion on Minaret Pass could have been very gradual or could have happened overnight - with how little this pass gets used, I would say we are unlikely to learn any time soon.

I fear that Thumb Pass might have gone the same way since Hobbit and I repeated it a few years back - there was a bad wash-away on that with only a narrow grassy side to use as a bypass. That grassy side bit could have easily washed away by now.

Flipping AWESOME pass !

Good day all.

I'm planing a 50km training run and I want to include Minaret Pass (yes I know the dangers been hiking in the berg for the last 13 years) if at all possible for the GPX file.
thanks 
attached is the route I made on google earth with bailout options in GPX format

We did Minaret Pass today and didn't find it too bad. It was rather misty so nav was a bit tricky. Here are a few notes that may help others in future:
1. Shortly after leaving the split from Lakes Cave, there appeared to be two paths - one that walked alongside the river, and the other the ridge path. There was a deceptively clear path that looked to lead up to the ridge. It fades away quickly. It would be much better to use the lower path and then ascend straight up the bank to meet the contouring line into the pass. 
2. When contouring into the pass stay at approximately 2450m asl. We went up to 2500m/2550m asl and it looked like it would go but 2450m gives you the most direct line and saves lots of time.
3. There seems to be a path developing in areas - these were helpful for missing a few loose sections.
4. There is a line that bypasses the sand crux on the right (ascending the pass). It necessitates one dodgy step but avoids the scree. I'm not sure how much longer it will last though.

Very cool pass. Which we could have seen a bit more