Hilton Pass
17 Dec 2009 14:26 - 17 Dec 2009 14:29 #786
by gollum
Hilton Pass was created by gollum
I'm planning to climb Hilton's pass somewhere between Christmas and New Year's with a mostly experienced group. The only discussion I could find where it was involved in any way is here:
Rock passes vs ROCK passes
Has anyone ever climbed this pass? We will have technical gear at hand, since we're planning on climbing the Angus-Leppan route on the Sentinel en route to Injasuthi. I'd appreciate some advice or information (difficulties, route finding, camp sites etc) from someone who knows this pass.
From my map and Google Earth it seems possible that there might be some camping spots relatively close to the pass.
Can't wait...!
Rock passes vs ROCK passes
Has anyone ever climbed this pass? We will have technical gear at hand, since we're planning on climbing the Angus-Leppan route on the Sentinel en route to Injasuthi. I'd appreciate some advice or information (difficulties, route finding, camp sites etc) from someone who knows this pass.
From my map and Google Earth it seems possible that there might be some camping spots relatively close to the pass.
Can't wait...!
Last edit: 17 Dec 2009 14:29 by gollum.
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17 Dec 2009 17:54 #788
by intrepid
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
Replied by intrepid on topic Hilton Pass
My own aborted attempt awaits a second take. It will be great to hear from you once you've done it, as I'd be glad to know if I really need to lug some climbing gear along or not.
I have encountered few people that have done it. According to one source a descent would require 2 abseils. According another person who ascended it, no ropes are needed and it simply involves some scrambling. My guess is that this is probably correct.
My understanding is that camping is possible at the foot of the pass (which would give you a good start early in the day), but it's not comparable in comfort to Lower Injasuthi Cave.
Be careful for flash-floods in the pass! I'm considering tackling Lotheni or Ntubeni Passes after Christmas but will probably stay clear if the rains are heavy.
I have encountered few people that have done it. According to one source a descent would require 2 abseils. According another person who ascended it, no ropes are needed and it simply involves some scrambling. My guess is that this is probably correct.
My understanding is that camping is possible at the foot of the pass (which would give you a good start early in the day), but it's not comparable in comfort to Lower Injasuthi Cave.
Be careful for flash-floods in the pass! I'm considering tackling Lotheni or Ntubeni Passes after Christmas but will probably stay clear if the rains are heavy.
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
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18 Dec 2009 11:00 #791
by gollum
Replied by gollum on topic Hilton Pass
Thanks intrepid!
It definitely looks like the type of valley you'd rather not be in during heavy rain! If all goes well I'll return with a report.
Would a descent of Corner pass require an abseil at the chock-stone? Or are there any points where one could abseil down the escarpment cliffs in the area and scramble down?
It definitely looks like the type of valley you'd rather not be in during heavy rain! If all goes well I'll return with a report.
Would a descent of Corner pass require an abseil at the chock-stone? Or are there any points where one could abseil down the escarpment cliffs in the area and scramble down?
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21 Dec 2009 14:13 #796
by intrepid
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
Replied by intrepid on topic Hilton Pass
I've scrambled down the chock-stone in Corner Pass in wet conditions in order to haul up team-member's packs. Some mind find it better to have a rope to hold on to while coming down.
You could try coming Injasuthi Pass. Close to the top is a short chimney that you would ab down - a little difficult to find good anchor points though.
You could try coming Injasuthi Pass. Close to the top is a short chimney that you would ab down - a little difficult to find good anchor points though.
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
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04 Jan 2010 09:51 #814
by gollum
Replied by gollum on topic Hilton Pass
Well I'm back. And alive. And very gladly so!
Hilton's pass is a real monster. I'm very glad we climbed it, but once is quite enough for me! It is a very serious pass.
The approach from Lower Injasuthi Cave is very time consuming - it involves boulder hopping and bundu bashing. I've never seen such vegetation this high up in the Berg - we found a jungle at 2500m!
Enveloped in mist, we followed the wrong gully below the Red Wall, towards the Western Triplet. We then traversed the grass slopes beneath the Red Wall into Hilton's pass. Therefore I do not know the full approach to the pass, but it will be very vegetated.
The first two thirds of the pass is strewn with large boulders, but easy to climb. The last 300-400m of the pass I'm not sure. We followed the gully, but this involves three waterfalls requiring roped climbs on extremely rotten rock. My brother who lead the climb and is a very proficient climber, couldn't pass the third one, so we followed a nasty traverse and climb up steep, exposed grass slopes with plenty potential for fatal falls.
I recommend any other parties who wish to attempt this pass to keep to the left out of the gully and try getting onto the grass slopes, though I'm not sure this is entirely feasible.
We got caught in a thunderstorm while negotiating the second waterfall in a 3m wide gully with sheer faces to the sides - not very funny. We managed to get to the top of the chimney (using a pulley system) and scrambled up an extremely steep grass slope to the side and clung the storm out there. Luckily the storm wasn't fully developed and it only lasted half an hour. I'm not sure if we would have survived a flash flood in that position - in fact I'm quite sure we wouldn't have!
We benighted in the pass, not sleeping for fear of flash flood, and did the grassy traverse and climb the following morning.
Hilton's pass is a real monster. I'm very glad we climbed it, but once is quite enough for me! It is a very serious pass.
The approach from Lower Injasuthi Cave is very time consuming - it involves boulder hopping and bundu bashing. I've never seen such vegetation this high up in the Berg - we found a jungle at 2500m!
Enveloped in mist, we followed the wrong gully below the Red Wall, towards the Western Triplet. We then traversed the grass slopes beneath the Red Wall into Hilton's pass. Therefore I do not know the full approach to the pass, but it will be very vegetated.
The first two thirds of the pass is strewn with large boulders, but easy to climb. The last 300-400m of the pass I'm not sure. We followed the gully, but this involves three waterfalls requiring roped climbs on extremely rotten rock. My brother who lead the climb and is a very proficient climber, couldn't pass the third one, so we followed a nasty traverse and climb up steep, exposed grass slopes with plenty potential for fatal falls.
I recommend any other parties who wish to attempt this pass to keep to the left out of the gully and try getting onto the grass slopes, though I'm not sure this is entirely feasible.
We got caught in a thunderstorm while negotiating the second waterfall in a 3m wide gully with sheer faces to the sides - not very funny. We managed to get to the top of the chimney (using a pulley system) and scrambled up an extremely steep grass slope to the side and clung the storm out there. Luckily the storm wasn't fully developed and it only lasted half an hour. I'm not sure if we would have survived a flash flood in that position - in fact I'm quite sure we wouldn't have!
We benighted in the pass, not sleeping for fear of flash flood, and did the grassy traverse and climb the following morning.
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04 Jan 2010 10:08 #815
by intrepid
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
Replied by intrepid on topic Hilton Pass
Thanks for the feedback gollum - sounds like a real classic
! Good to hear you made it back safe and well done on the ascent. I'll most certainly take gear with when I make a go of it again. Will also attempt it in the autumn, thus avoiding the slippery wet (and flooding) of the summer and the icy obstacles of mid-winter (generally good advice for rock passes).
It's often overlooked how time consuming and laborious the approach to a pass can be due to boulders and bush, as you described. This is also the case with Ship's Prow, Ifidi, Icidi and others.

It's often overlooked how time consuming and laborious the approach to a pass can be due to boulders and bush, as you described. This is also the case with Ship's Prow, Ifidi, Icidi and others.
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
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04 Jan 2010 12:01 - 05 Jan 2010 12:20 #816
by Klipspringer
Replied by Klipspringer on topic Hilton Pass
Hello Everybody,
As a member of the party, gollum's brother, I would just like to add the following:
The difficulty of waterfalls/blockages encountered in the gully were substantially aggrevated by the presence of a trickling stream, not at all a strong flow, but it made the passage much more difficult than it would have been in dry conditions.
The pulley system is a block & tackle type, consisting of two dmm pulleys I aquired for crevassse rescues from my days in Europe. This sped up the progress, as we had heavy rucksacks for a four day (eventually five) hike in the berg and even on top rope it would be impossible to climb up with a heavy rucksack, but this way everyone could bring his sack. We used a 30m rope and that was just enough for doubling up on the pulleys.
At the final waterfall it would have been able to chimney it in dry conditions, even so the frail basalt flakes were shattering everywhere. There are also precariously lose big bulky flakes that I barely touched and it moved - a very real danger for anybody below as there is no space to dodge falling debris, and the gully is very steep at the top, debris (and homo sapiens taken with) wont just stop falling... And the possibility of big destructive debris is available all the time.
After abandoning this effort two meters from the top (retreating with grinding sounds from the crack where a dodgy placed cam was the only protection) I attemped the grass slopes in order to get back into the gully to rig a pulley system. I could get back into the gully only at the very top, and had to downclimb the last ± 200m of the gully. This was exceedingly scary, the gully is best described a death trap - BIG boulders moving on the slightest touch - I realised the safest, well, least dangerous option was to take everybody out via the grass slopes.
That said this gully is certainly climbable. A smaller group (we were six) can do it in 5-6 hours. However, in order to enjoy it your objective must be to have some technically challenging paranormal danger climb. Maybe it is not so bad, but the fact that I was leading a party of six up there and the responsibility associated with it made the realisation of the dangers more prevelant.
As a final note, this gully can certainly change with every rainfall/rockfall. there are so many lose big boulders that can move and cnage the setting. I noticed a abseil tat on the second waterfall, two meters from the top of the fall deep in the rocks & chockstones and wondered how on earth anybody fixed it there without 2m rubber arms - it was obviously put there when that was the top of the waterfall...
But what a feeling when you top out on level ground!
As a member of the party, gollum's brother, I would just like to add the following:
The difficulty of waterfalls/blockages encountered in the gully were substantially aggrevated by the presence of a trickling stream, not at all a strong flow, but it made the passage much more difficult than it would have been in dry conditions.
The pulley system is a block & tackle type, consisting of two dmm pulleys I aquired for crevassse rescues from my days in Europe. This sped up the progress, as we had heavy rucksacks for a four day (eventually five) hike in the berg and even on top rope it would be impossible to climb up with a heavy rucksack, but this way everyone could bring his sack. We used a 30m rope and that was just enough for doubling up on the pulleys.
At the final waterfall it would have been able to chimney it in dry conditions, even so the frail basalt flakes were shattering everywhere. There are also precariously lose big bulky flakes that I barely touched and it moved - a very real danger for anybody below as there is no space to dodge falling debris, and the gully is very steep at the top, debris (and homo sapiens taken with) wont just stop falling... And the possibility of big destructive debris is available all the time.
After abandoning this effort two meters from the top (retreating with grinding sounds from the crack where a dodgy placed cam was the only protection) I attemped the grass slopes in order to get back into the gully to rig a pulley system. I could get back into the gully only at the very top, and had to downclimb the last ± 200m of the gully. This was exceedingly scary, the gully is best described a death trap - BIG boulders moving on the slightest touch - I realised the safest, well, least dangerous option was to take everybody out via the grass slopes.
That said this gully is certainly climbable. A smaller group (we were six) can do it in 5-6 hours. However, in order to enjoy it your objective must be to have some technically challenging paranormal danger climb. Maybe it is not so bad, but the fact that I was leading a party of six up there and the responsibility associated with it made the realisation of the dangers more prevelant.
As a final note, this gully can certainly change with every rainfall/rockfall. there are so many lose big boulders that can move and cnage the setting. I noticed a abseil tat on the second waterfall, two meters from the top of the fall deep in the rocks & chockstones and wondered how on earth anybody fixed it there without 2m rubber arms - it was obviously put there when that was the top of the waterfall...
But what a feeling when you top out on level ground!
Last edit: 05 Jan 2010 12:20 by Klipspringer.
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04 Jan 2010 12:34 #817
by intrepid
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
Replied by intrepid on topic Hilton Pass
Welcome to the site Klipspringer, and thanks for the additional details which I have read with much interest. Certainly the slippery wet conditions make it more difficult (as does water ice/ frozen snow melt). Your account is also a fresh reminder of the inherent risks in the Berg.
Sounds like Hiltons is almost better suited for descending (abing) rather than ascending. Also, the fact that it is marked as a pass to me seems a reflection not of it's suitability as a pass, but rather that some early climbing pioneers ascended it and the account (probably in the MCSA journals) influenced the cartographers when the maps where drawn up. The are many other passes around which are much easier, but did not make it onto the maps, and thus don't have established names and are largely unknown.
Sounds like Hiltons is almost better suited for descending (abing) rather than ascending. Also, the fact that it is marked as a pass to me seems a reflection not of it's suitability as a pass, but rather that some early climbing pioneers ascended it and the account (probably in the MCSA journals) influenced the cartographers when the maps where drawn up. The are many other passes around which are much easier, but did not make it onto the maps, and thus don't have established names and are largely unknown.
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
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04 Jan 2010 12:41 #818
by gollum
Replied by gollum on topic Hilton Pass
Yup, that's more or less the full story.
I forgot to add - the views from the pass (and the approach) are stunning. I have not climbed another pass that can compare in this regard. That said, I have not visited the Mnweni area (YET), but my guess is that this pass is at the top of the list for scenery.
@intrepid: Yes, gear is a must. If you can somehow stay on the grass slopes to the left of the gully, it might not be necessary, but for a exploratory expedition it is crucial. Klipspringer can give more accurate info, but a small trad rack (large nuts and mid-sized cams), tape and loads of slings (we didn't have harnesses and used these to construct duffel seats) should do the trick. Do you have any specific info from the party that claimed the pass was only a scramble?
Photos will come soon.
I forgot to add - the views from the pass (and the approach) are stunning. I have not climbed another pass that can compare in this regard. That said, I have not visited the Mnweni area (YET), but my guess is that this pass is at the top of the list for scenery.
@intrepid: Yes, gear is a must. If you can somehow stay on the grass slopes to the left of the gully, it might not be necessary, but for a exploratory expedition it is crucial. Klipspringer can give more accurate info, but a small trad rack (large nuts and mid-sized cams), tape and loads of slings (we didn't have harnesses and used these to construct duffel seats) should do the trick. Do you have any specific info from the party that claimed the pass was only a scramble?
Photos will come soon.
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04 Jan 2010 17:31 - 22 Nov 2013 08:43 #823
by Klipspringer
Replied by Klipspringer on topic Hilton Pass
Some pictures:
otterjasie & gollum enjoying berg ** accommodation
The two britons from Carlisle Moutaineering Club UK, my better half and I enjoying *** berg accommodation
sunrise from our teeth-clattering vantage point
Does anybody know where the pass got it's name from? Barrier of spiers, Serpents spires etc reveals no clue...
otterjasie & gollum enjoying berg ** accommodation
The two britons from Carlisle Moutaineering Club UK, my better half and I enjoying *** berg accommodation
sunrise from our teeth-clattering vantage point
Does anybody know where the pass got it's name from? Barrier of spiers, Serpents spires etc reveals no clue...
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Last edit: 22 Nov 2013 08:43 by intrepid. Reason: Fixed broken image links
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