Lammergeyer Pass

If you head up into the Namahadi cutback, an obvious pass breaks out to the right (looking up) at the back of the cutback. The pass as seen from the top of Namahadi Pass.


At the very top of the pass you have to scramble down a 2m man made wall that has obviously been built to stop cattle theft. You will also see a small cave at the top of the pass, but this has been used for sheep, so will not be a pleasant spot to stop.

A steep grass slope now takes you down the gully. This was a lot longer and steeper than I had expected. At the time I put it down to fatigue, but Ghaz has done the pass subsequently and also felt it long and steep.

Eventually it starts flattening out, in time to reach steep slopes to traverse along with plenty of side gullies. I used both sides of the river, boulder hopped a bit in between and kept thinking to myself how dark it was about to get rather soon. There are no really challenges though


Once I reached the base of the ridge used by Fallen Boot Pass (this ridge leads up to the prominent peak called Tonque), I got onto the true right of the valley and a short while later was able to join the highway for Namahadi Pass.

In late November 2017, Hobbit and I also did Lammergeyer Pass. We came down Namahadi Corner Pass and went back up via Lammergeyer Pass. We traversed south over the ridge coming off the ridge between Mom and Namahadi Corner - so we didn't do the walk in, but started the pass at its logical bottom, around 2000m.

We stayed left (true right), and only hit the riverbed when the gullies split on either side of the non-khulu that Andrew and I call "Boy".

The route is pretty obvious, we occasionally had to scramble through cliff bands, but they were standard steep grass bank style bands, as opposed to actual scrambles (i.e. very easy). It is incredibly steep and sustained, you cover 800m of vertical in 2km of horizontal, making it one of the steepest passes I have ever done.

There is a really nice cave just north of the pass, I'll post a topo of how to find it in my photos. A bit of an exposed approach, but it should sleep 4 people and has a great view towards Sentinel.

Don't underestimate the route - it might not be as big as Ships Prow or Pins, but it isn't a doddle either.

Ps. the name of the pass and the cave are both given by Derek Odendaal. Neither is marked on the map.

Thanks for the write-ups guys - definitely need to explore that area sometime!

Before we anglicise everything, let's not call it "Beengrot Cave" please! Either just Beengrot or Bone Cave, I presume?

Stijn wrote: Before we anglicise everything, let's not call it "Beengrot Cave" please! Either just Beengrot or Bone Cave, I presume?

One could make the same arguement about the "Drakensberg Mountains". Nonetheless, I don't think the cave will ever get enough attention for that to really matter, and one could question whether the name was given to this exact cave, or the one Andrew mentioned on the other side of the gully, anyway.