Jarateng Pass South

I'll do a proper writeup on South Jarding Pass a bit later, but in the interim:

Myself and 2 Michaels (Firephish and Hobbit) came down South Jarding Pass yesterday. When you stand at the top of the pass you see about 5m of grass gully and then the abyss. Its a bit disconcerting until you walk 1m forward and see an easy grass bank...

The pass is very narrow for the first bit (I wasn't worried about rock falls as there was practically no rock below the cliffs), it tops out between Kambule and Carbineers' Point (the central pass is between Kambule and Mount Durnford - a few hundred metres north of the south pass, just around the rocky outcrop that is Kambule).

The walk from the Jarateng river in Lesotho to the top of the pass is stiff - about 1km with 200m of altitude gain. The top of the pass is a bit overgrown with nasty thorns everywhere. There are slightly loose bits and marginally rocky bits - but if you stay to the south slope and traverse the grassy banks away from the gully around 2700m (on the way down) it never really gets that steep, loose, rocky etc.

We finished the pass by coming out on the contour path south of the river crossing. The contour path there is very faint and the riverbed below the pass is - what's a nice word for absolutely horrible...

If going up it I would go from the south side of the river, this comes with a few additional stream crossings but is more solid and less overgrown than the riverbed (which we used to approach Central Jarding a few months back). When you get to the large ridge at the base of the pass, just climb and traverse it in order to stay away from the riverbed - you have to gain this altitude anyway. Keep true right/south and you'll be fine.

My rating of the south pass would be 4/10***
For easy of reference - I rated the central pass as a 4/10**

There is also a large cave on the south slopes at around 2700m (same rockband as the 2 caves on the central pass) - however I did not feel like slogging 50 vertical m back up the slope to check it out, so I don't know if it is any good. There are also a few emergency cubby-hole style shelters right at the top of the pass (and some in the middle of the pass too). The one that looked best would have easily been accessible via an exposed traverse, but it was wet so I didn't get a chance to look at it.

So in summary - slightly harder than the middle pass, and with a marginally better view and similar quality of route. No trail, a tiny summit cairn and to the best of my knowledge it hasn't been done by the most determined pass baggers I know.

Now I just have the north pass to do and I will have done all three Jarding Passes...

Photos as promised:

This is what the pass looks like when you stand at the top


The view from the river below. The Arrow shows the location of the south pass
























Notice how overgrown the riverbed is

Smurfatefrog wrote: I reckon you need to explore that gully south of the south pass

Funny you should say that

This would be the gully you are talking about? I call it False Jarding Pass:


Not clear in this photo - but that top bit is about a 30m high rock face. I thought there may be possible side gullies to avoid it.

I will probably do a proper writeup some time, but in summary - myself and Hobbit went khulu bagging between the 2 hail storms on Friday afternoon. We did Carbineer Point and Katana. I have had my eye on a possible line south of Katana, but with lightning nearby we ended up rushing from Katana back to the tents (we were about 2km away). I did get a good look at the top of the gully north of the peak from the escarpment though - there is a top gully which becomes very exposed after about 50m and then becomes a vertical drop. There is no grass bank to connect the 2. With a bit of climbing it could be done, but it is definitely technical and very exposed - too technical to be called a pass.



That peak is Katana - there is a rock band the entire way around the summit with a very steep narrow grass/rock hybrid bit to access the summit on the south side. The view from the top is awesome - highly recomended.

intrepid wrote: Have seen that gully before too, and agree that there is no apparent way that it could be a pass. Have thought about abseiling down it maybe sometime.

Perhaps there is a trad line up that large crack on the left of the khulu itself. With no loose rock below its probably relatively solid. The MCSA website doesn't have any RD's on Katana.

I see there is an arete route on Kambule - I had a look at it on the way down, looks incredibly exposed.

After ascending Katana Pass and overnighting in Katana Cave, The Real Dave and tonymarshall descended Jarateng South Pass on the second day of our four pass hike at Giant’s Castle in mid December last year. 

The view down from the top of Jarateng South Pass doesn’t show the entire pass as there is a short section at the top that is a flatter gradient than the steeper section lower down, and this steeper section isn’t visible from the top.  

 

A short way down, the entire pass is visible.  

 

A view back up the flatter section to the top of the pass.  

 

Another view down Jarateng South Pass, which shows the pass is mainly a grassy gully upper section, with some scree lower down, which continues in the gully downstream as a boulder bed. We stayed in the gully at the top, and then avoided much of the scree by staying on the true right lower down, and continued on the true right out of the gully on the lowest section.  

 

A view back up the pass, showing us going around the left (true right) of the scree section.  

 

We continued downwards on the true right, and came to the rock band level with cliffs on either side of the gully. Lower down where the right side of the valley flattened out, we would avoid the curve of the gully, taking a straighter route on the right side slopes.  

 

As we passed to the left of the cliffs on the true right, there were significant drips of water coming down the cliffs and we took the opportunity with easy access to this water to take a sit down morning break, as there hadn’t yet been flowing water in the gully.  

As we descended further I got a bit ahead, but we both saw the cave mentioned by ghaznavid further to the true right in the rock band. We were also significantly below the height of the cave when it became visible, and not very inclined to go and look closer, as it didn’t look promising, from the amount of water on the rock band directly below the cave which was likely coming out of the cave. The photo below shows the view back up the pass, and the cave is out of the photo on the left.  

 

A view from the right side slope down to the stream below. Routes to and from the Jarateng and Jarateng North Passes would follow the true right of the stream.  

 

Another view back up Jarateng South Pass.  

 

The classic view up the three Jarateng Passes; Jarateng South Pass on the left, Jarateng Pass, and Jarateng Pass North on the right in the photo below.  

 

A view downstream to the bottom of the Jarateng Passes, where the routes join the contour path. The contour path can be seen in the photo below, exiting the stream on the left just in front of the major patches of bush on the left slope. The route follows the terrace close to the stream on the true right, and the topography as the contour path is approached forces you into the stream, which is most easily crossed just upstream of the contour path.  

 

From below, a view to the gully of Katana Pass on the left and Jarateng South Pass on the right.  

 

A view back from the terrace just upstream of the contour path, with the three Jarateng Passes in the background.  

 

After a short break at the contour path stream crossing, we headed north along the contour path, having lunch at the stream near the bottom of Hlubi Pass North, and then that afternoon we ascended Hlubi Pass North and overnighted in Bannerman Cave.