Judge Pass

I enjoyed the pass, although it was freezing cold, and can see it is a scenic pass. Unfortunately my photos were taken in winter, and make things look a bit drab, especially with the area of burnt grass at the bottom.

On the Rock Pass thing, I suspect early hikers and climbers tried to use the stream beds, and were thwarted by waterfalls in narrow cliff bands, which they climbed up with gear rather than just looking for a way through on the grass slopes without obstacles.

I often take the term "rock pass" to mean a pass without a trail. No one calls Greys Pass a rock pass, but when that scramble is wet, it isn't a doddle, and the top is definitely rocky. Mohlesi Pass, by contrast, is grass the entire way, yet it is classified as a rock pass (Best Walks of the Drakensberg goes further and refers to it as technical).

On a different side note - I wonder if the term "technical grass" might be necessary to describe some of the routes in the Berg. For someone not used to it, even a slope like the one between Stealth Cave and the top of Bollard Pass might be very difficult, and some slopes become practically impassable when burned.

Nonetheless, nothing technical about Judge Pass.

Planning an easy trip from Injisuthi up Judge's Pass. Centenary Hut does not look appealing. Are there any suitable camping sites along the contour path just before or on the way up Judge's? 

Tenting on the flat grass area close to Centenary Hut would be the best place. From the hut to the bottom of Judges is steep and rough, although you may find a spot here and there. We camped on the south side of the start of Judges Pass. In other words you are guaranteed a nice place to tent at the hut, after that its called wild camping

We camped in the vicinity of Centenary hut on our recent trip up Corner pass a couple weeks back. The grass is burnt though, but there is a couple of nice flat spots. Also if you're standing in front of the hut looking towards the peaks there is a path leading of to you're left (well below the contour path) which leads you to a small trickle of water.  

if you drop down into the valley below the contour path from Centenary hut to Judges pass you will find suitable tenting spots, but do you really want to do all that much extra climbing? Best flat spots are around Centenary hut. Now that I think about it, I have seen guys camp just south of Judges pass on the contour path, towards Bannermans hut. There is an eroded spot and they pitched in the eroded path, not very wide though, probably about 1km south of Judges, but the flat spot at Centenary hut is the best choice in my opinion.

Does anybody know the current state of the contour path between Bannermans Hut and Judges?

I ran it on 25 September and the path is there but it is pretty vague in places. The toughest section to find was probably immediately after Bannermans and a cut back just before Judges. That said I did have the track (Andrew Porters map) on a GPS with me which kept the bundu bashing to a minimum.

supertramp wrote: Have done that section twice during the last year or so. Fully agree with Ghaz's comments - quite easy to follow. The contour path at that section does climb a bit more than usual as it goes up to about 2400m.

Let me know if you would like the GPS track.

Cheers

Hello! Can you possibly send me this GPS track? I plan to do Judges from Giants Castle. Much appreciated!

Hello.
Can you please send me that GPS track?
Much appreciated!