Corner Pass

Here is a pic taken August 2009. Could you indicate the path on it?

Sorry Gollam i am not much of a computer guy so i have no idea how to make an indication on your picture,but the path starts where the snow starts and moves of to the left just below the rock band, hope that helps.

Great photo of the pass Gollum. Apologies if you've written about this elsewhere, but did you do the pass the same day the photo was taken? If so, how easy was the descent with all that snow? The first time we did Corner Pass was after having gone up Injasuthi Pass in June. The top of the escarpment was thick with hard snow and Upper Inj Cave was completely full of snow. Corner Pass was so choked with snow & ice that we couldn't descend the top section (near where that little stem move is up the pillar, right near the top). We ended up rapping into the pass. It was dark and cold in there, one of those days when rapping into the gloom on a thin 9mm gives you the creeps. So, to help with the bottle, I put two slings round a boulder rather than one and rapped in. My hiking partner must have taken one of them with him before he rapped (he never mentioned this!) because years later I had a look and only one sling was there. Its still there, on the south side, overlooking the pass. The outside of the sling (it was a bit of 9mm rope) is worn out and the sling consists of many individual strands now. We were both wearing running shoes on that trip. At the second more technical bit on the way down (still top 1/3 of the pass), we were about to rapp down this too, but decided to downclimb as much as we could. It was too icy to do so and we ended up jumping into the deep snow instead. I remember our running shoes getting completely jammed in the compacted snow holes that we made when we landed and the shoes coming off when we pulled our legs out of the holes. We had to dig for quite a while to get the shoes back....

Thanks anthony. Yup, that's clear enough.

@mnt_tiska: Yes, we ascended on that particular day. It was quite slow and strenuous, with the snow not powdery, but not ice hard either. Most of the time you'd sink up to your shin or knee into the snow, but as you move the other leg forward and place all your weight on the first, the snow collapses and your up to your thigh or waist in snow!

It was, however, great fun and my best berg trip so far.

I did write about it somewhere (I think the thread "Corner pass in winter"), and here are some of our pics in the 2009 snowfall thread: www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/14-drakensberg-general/445-first-snowfall-for-2009-season.html?limit=6&start=17

There were three sections of the pass I found difficult. The first one was the chockstone (was this where you jumped? That's just crazy, haha! The way the snow was when we went up there, you would have broken your legs or ankles for sure on the rocks beneath the snow!).

The second was a very steep section where we had to climb on snow only, just now and then being able to dig through and grab a bush for a handhold.

And the last was right at the end, however there was very little snow, although the bushes were wet, making it quite interesting as well!

Some more pics:

I'd love to give corner pass a go. Is there a well defined path leading from the contour path?
Is Injusuthi pass do-able with a pack going down?

Looks pretty sweet! But a bit wet too!

Hi Trev not much of a path leading up from the contour path,at least the grass is not to long.

Half way between corner pass and the judge is a scoop in the high cliffline, defined by a diagonal grass ramp running bottom right to top left [not in this photo]. a distinct gully runs down from this scoop, but the ridge to the north of this has a possible way to the top that Basutho smugglers may be using to access the top without having to lug over chockstones etc. The cliffline running off left bisects this ridge at a break in the same cliffline. This may be a 'Grays pass' type of scenario where the pass is not so much gully as it is cliff-face. Worth exploring !?