Mzimude Pass North

In mid May, after ascending Bushman's Pass (Ngwangwane Pass) on the first day and summitting khulus and doing some exploration on the second day, I descended Mzimude Pass North and walked out back to Bushman's Nek on the third day of my hike. 

There was very little information available on the North Pass, an unmarked pass on the hiking map, and I didn't know what to expect, so the afternoon before my descent I went to have a look down the pass just to be sure that it was doable and to prepare myself for the next day's descent. Just below the top section there was a steep section that I couldn't see from the top, so I went a short way down to be able to see this, and was then satisfied that the pass was indeed doable.

A shepherd has built a hut right at the top of Mzimude Pass North, and all around the top of the pass there are signs of sheep sleeping near this hut.  

 

The view down the top of the pass, showing the short section of grass slope at the top leading quickly into the boulder bed, and lower down the steeper section that cannot be seen from the top.  

 

A view back up the short section of grass slope at the top of Mzimude Pass North.  

 

Just below the upper boulder bed section there is a fairly recent rockfall/landslide in the steep section of the pass.  

 

Looking at this rockfall and the scree associated with it, it was fairly stable and I decided to continue down in the boulder bed of the pass, although it would also have been possible to exit on either the left or right grass slopes and descend these. However, the sides of the gully were steep below the rockfall, meaning once committed to the gully you can't just get out onto the grass slopes lower down, or if on the grass slopes would have to descend a lot before finding somewhere to get back into the gully.  

 

The debris from the rockfall was deposited lower down in the gully, but was stable and quite safe to walk on.  

A view back up the fissure line of Mzimude Pass North, showing the rockfall/landslide area high up, and the short grass and boulder bed sections at the top.  

 

Since I was heading back to Bushman's Nek, I needed to exit the pass to the south (true right) which I did near the area at the centre of the photo below before contouring around on the grass slope on the right, clockwise to the right.  

 

If I had been going to Garden Castle, I would have continued down the stream of the pass, until reaching the Hidden Valley Path. 

A view back up Mzimude Pass North from the grass slope at about 2450 m that I used to exit from the pass.  

 

It was also necessary to cross the stream of Mzimude Pass South to continue on my planned route back to Bushman's Nek, and I had this view back up the Mzimude Passes soon after crossing the south pass stream.  

 

It was then quite a tedious walk along the ridge, passing by the source of the stream flowing down to Wave Cave and Curtain Cave and later descending into the stream flowing past Painters Cave, before eventually joining the Giant's Cup trail path and returning to Bushman's Nek.

Thanks for the write up and photos Tony.  That fissure is amazing!  Another pass  on my ‘to do’ list....

Amazing how straight that gully is, almost as if a giant laser scribed it, perhaps an underlying fault line or something. 

If you go onto Google Earth and draw a straight line from Giants Pass to Isicutula Pass - there is an almost perfectly straight fissure line that goes for about 60km. So many of these in the range once you start looking for them - Christmas Pass and Buggers Gully is another one. I find it crazy that these would be so straight, no clue why that would be the case.

I seem to recall the Mzimude one lining up perfectly with a sandstone cliff gap as well - which is odd, seeing as a fissure is a volcanic feature. Perhaps the basalt that used to be above it eroded first, resulting in the sandstone below eroding first where the gap was. Or perhaps a fault line as ST suggests.

 This is a continuation of my write up – see here for the section from Garden Castle to Mzimude Cave via Walkers Ridge Pass: www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/drakenberg-passes-garden-castle/56632-walker-s-pass-ridge-route.html    An icy wind was still gusting heavily in the morning  once we had left the cave and were making our way across the short distance to the top of Mzimude North Pass.  There is a short grassy section at the top before you reach a boulder field which is easily passed on the sides.  There is a huge eroded area at the top of the fissure and it is evident that  this is being further eroded as time goes by.  We chose to descend on the left hand side looking down.  This was not as easy as we had first thought as once we descended to this level, there was a lot of loose scree about and the rock was very wet, making climbing down into the gully very difficult. We did not have a rope and Thora decided to ‘drop’ her pack down on to the bed of the gully below.  We all watched in horrified fascination as it bounded away down the gully, and only came to a stop some 80 metres further down.  Most fortunately nothing was damaged ( good advert for an Osprey pack!) The going was very slow as the boulders were not stable and we had to exercise caution.  Despite this a boulder was dislodged which caused Thora to take a fall and for the boulder to fall on Rogers foot.  Osprey to the rescue again as she landed on her pack but sustained a nasty graze to her arm. Rogers foot took the brunt and at the time of writing is very swollen and sore, but we don’t think anything was broken.  A biggish waterfall had to be negotiated by walking on the loose scree on the sides, an exercise in concentration and fancy footwork! We were all quite relieved once we reached the base of the pass and were able to climb out onto the grassy section alongside.  It had taken us far longer than we had thought to get down the pass, testimony to how difficult it was to negotiate.  From here it was straight down the valley to where it joins in with Hidden Valley and then back to Garden Castle via the shortcut over Sondomzima Ridge.  The latter was a big ask as we were all on very tired legs.  We got back to the carpark just after 3.00pm.  It had been a long day.This is a pass that is not recommended for inexperienced hikers and definitely not in the wet Summer months.  I think Tony Marshall did this in early June which would have been drier and easier to negotiate.  Tony is also a bit of a machine!  We were very fortunate to get away with what we did, and  a sobering reminder to again take these unmarked passes very seriously!

Thanks to Roger for the use of his images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the writeups!

Looks like you took a much harder line than what I used with Hobbit back in 2015. We went up the pass, following the gully till it started becoming rocky, when we exited to the left (south) and followed the grass slopes to the top. Not the easiest pass around, but you have to love how straight that line is!

Yes, it would have been easier to climb down on the grass slopes, but as you say, I was fascinated with that straight line and really wanted to experience walking in the gully.  It was also so interesting to see the line continue up past Robs Cave in the distance.  Amazing!

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It was also so interesting to see the line continue up past Robs Cave in the distance.  Amazing!
 

And it isn't just kind-of-sort-of, if you've had enough drinks - it is so obviously a perfectly straight line! Even on Google Earth.
 

But that's only half the story. There is another straight line like this which lines up Isicutula Pass, Walkers Gully Pass and some gaps on the slope below. And these two lines are actually perpendicular!
 

Tons of these in the Drakensberg, but I have never seen another two that intersect each other at a right angle like that!