Uklebe Pass

Ok - so I have been looking at pass lists again and came across a pass I had never heard of, called "Uklebe Pass". It seems to be between Mzimkhulu Pass and Sandleni Pass. Apparently it was featured in the 1985 MCSA journal.

Does anyone know anything about it, pics, RD's, difficulty, where exactly it is etc?

With a goal of doing all passes at Garden Castle (yes - even Minaret Pass), it is one I need to do in the future, always fun to do routes that aren't on the maps...

Not sure if anyone is interested in this one, but I finally found where and what Uklebe Pass is.

Just north of KaMasihlenga Pass, but before the Hawk there is a route.

"the route ascends by a prominent rib to the base of a large pinnacle, marked on the map as having a height of 2934m, skirts around the base and then up an obvious gully to the only break in the rock band" (MCSA journal 1985)

Apparently the name is Zulu for "Hawk".

I think this is the line:

Ok - so seeing as this pass seems to have had a grand total of 1 ascent in the last 28 years I think its due a repeat.

So my plan for the upcoming long weekend is to head up Uklebe Pass and down eNtubeni\Lotheni\Elandshoek Pass, hoping to go tentless and use some combo of Ash Cave, Lotheni Cave and Yellowwood Cave. Anyone keen to join is welcome to PM me, should be epic

Some questions:

The 3 caves I referred to, anyone have experience with them? How good are they, easy to find etc?

The map shoes eNtubeni pass as having a path, I somehow doubt this. Anyone have experience on this pass? Lotheni Pass looks great, any advice on it? David Bristow says in his book that both are iced up and therefore not usable in winter, but his facts are usually wrong, any thoughts?

I know very little about Elandshoek Pass - any info will help

Ps would this be a pass (maybe Eastern Gully or Elandshoek Pass)?


Photo taken from the top of Taylor's Pass

www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/55164-elandshoek-pass.html#55357

Yup, that's Elandshoek Pass. Eastern Gully is on the northern side of the Gables ridge.
I did Ntubeni Pass many years ago. It is a fairly easy pass but I just remember a large waterfall lower down the valley which we had to do some scrambling up steep grassy banks to get past. It is probably your best bet but there is no path.
Loteni Pass has a main gully and a side chute around on the south side, which is the best way to go. I haven't done it myself but stood bone idle at the top and watched John Pickup descend it looking for a cave down there. He said it was easy all the way. Not too sure about the main gully but it looks Ok from the top.
I doubt if these passes are iced up. Judging by the number of errors in in his books I think David Bristow smokes something and the resultant little genie writes the books.
Elandshoek Pass is fairly obscure and finding the top can be difficult as colleagues have discovered in the past. There is no obvious big gully to look for from the top. I can dig up some gps coordinates if you are desperate to do it. The next question is where do you go once you have descended the main pass. I have bundu-bashed down the Elandshoek River valley which eventually comes out near the Loteni River in the vicinity of Simes Cottage. There is a path off to the left at the base of the main pass but finding the takeoff point without my gps coordinates would be a challenge. You then have 5km of smuggler's contour path along the south side of the Gables until the top of Taylor's Pass. From there it is straightforward.

ps. Intrepid. This site does not like Firefox 19 and won't allow me to reply to anything. I'm doing this in Chrome.

Thanks, that info is a great help

BobbyStanton wrote: I did Ntubeni Pass many years ago. It is a fairly easy pass but I just remember a large waterfall lower down the valley which we had to do some scrambling up steep grassy banks to get past. It is probably your best bet but there is no path.
Loteni Pass has a main gully and a side chute around on the south side, which is the best way to go. I haven't done it myself but stood bone idle at the top and watched John Pickup descend it looking for a cave down there. He said it was easy all the way. Not too sure about the main gully but it looks Ok from the top.

Awesome. Based on the map it looks like the 2 top out and bottom out right next to each other. 1st prize is Lotheni Pass because I want to use Lotheni cave, but if the pass looks iffy I can always switch seeing as the cave is almost at escarpment level. I'll look for the south chute.

BobbyStanton wrote: Elandshoek Pass is fairly obscure and finding the top can be difficult as colleagues have discovered in the past. There is no obvious big gully to look for from the top. I can dig up some gps coordinates if you are desperate to do it. The next question is where do you go once you have descended the main pass. I have bundu-bashed down the Elandshoek River valley which eventually comes out near the Loteni River in the vicinity of Simes Cottage. There is a path off to the left at the base of the main pass but finding the takeoff point without my gps coordinates would be a challenge. You then have 5km of smuggler's contour path along the south side of the Gables until the top of Taylor's Pass. From there it is straightforward.

I was thinking of this as an option if the other 2 passes might be iced up, but I think this route is more likely to have ice issues than the other 2. If you have GPS co-ords it would be great for when I get around to doing this pass, but don't go out of your way to look for them.

Definitely one for the future, but maybe more a route to go up if the top is hard to find.

Re: Best Walks of the Drakensberg

I emailed the publishers of the book a while back with a long list of errors I have found (including RNNP to Tugela Falls summit being a 24km return trip, the walk to Ash Cave being rated as being as hard as Gray's Pass, Langies Pass being rated as harder than most Berg passes etc) and they replied that they would send my comments to the author and sent me a free copy of his book "Been There, Done That". Well past being in double digits on errors found in the latter book