Redi Pass

I have been scouting out the map of Lotheni quite a bit recently. Shockingly I have still never been to the Lotheni car park. There is a fair amount of info on most passes in the area - the 2 Hlathimbas, Buttress Pass/The Passage, KaMasihlenga and its associated blizzard/frostbite stories, eNtubeni Pass, Lotheni Pass, Elandshoek Pass - and even the passes that people think belong to Giant's that actually top out at Lotheni - Eastern Gully, Giant's Pass and those 2 passes on either side of Giant's Pass that no one seems to ever really talk about. I even have a vague idea of what is going on with the mythical "Ukhlebe Pass". But there is one pass I have absolutely no info on - Redi Pass.

The map shows a trail going up it, and classifies it as a rock pass. Does anyone have any other info about this pass, photos looking up or down it from when you walked past it, anything? Any info would be great

Redi Pass is straight forward except for a rock band that one must climb up...a little tricky in places and a good grip is necessary plus a slight head for heights!

How high is the rock band?

Hi Ghaz. We did it in January and it was a bit wet and slippery and in winter could be icy...so one must be careful! it could be 15 to 20m high as you see in the attached photos. We did it with day packs so maybe a loaded pack pack might make it more difficult especially in the one tight climb. Thanks Elinda for the photos

Thanks Richard and Elinda

Looks like the moves are quite easy, easier than Corner Pass anyway. Doesn't look very high in the photos, I guess you can't see the entire band though. I like the day-pack idea for this pass.

In my opinion as having done both Corner and Redi, the 2 difficult sections in Corner were slightly more difficult than Redi but with less height involved. The climb at Redi is higher so if you fell you could injure yourself badly!! At the end of the day its your own personal experience. We look forward to your report back.

Sounds quite epic! I will probably take a shot at a few other Lotheni Passes first, but definitely want to do this one as well.

Last weekend (29-30 August 2015), our group ascended Redi Pass and camped near the top of Buttress Pass, which we descended the following day after a quick trot up Redi Peak. We didn't find any path to speak of the whole way up, I've submitted our route to the downloads section. Despite not having a path, I found this to be a pretty easy route to the summit and it probably deserves a bit more attention. The Pass gains around 650m in just under 2.5km from the contour path and tops out closer to 3000m rather than 2900m as the map suggests. We took around 6.5hours from the KZN Wildlife office at Lotheni to our campsite at the top of Buttress Pass, with just over 2 hours spent on the Pass itself. As per most "rock" passes, things could get rather dangerous in wet or icy conditions.



Looking up at Redi Pass from the contour path on our way back after descending Buttress Pass. The route we took the previous day followed the right hand ridge until we reached the first cliff line and then traversed into the gully.



We found a small drip in the gully. Not much water anywhere else along the way. I imagine it would be much better in summer.









Sequence of my mate, Agustin, ascending the only significant rock scramble. As per previous posts in this thread, I found this to be higher (riskier), yet technically easier than the Corner Pass scramble. In wet or icy conditions it could be rather dangerous.



Looking back down Redi Pass from near the summit.



The view looking NE from near the top of Redi Pass, towards Giant's Castle in the distance, with The Hawk and The Tent clearly visible.



Our campsite near the top of Buttress Pass.

Cool video by Agustin, of our last trip up Redi and down Buttress passes:

If all pans out, we plan a 3/4 night hike in the Loteni area- over the upcoming long weekend- if you take leave Thursday and Friday.. 28/29 th April... The plan so far is to ascend eescarpment via Redi Pass... previous treads have mention of it. It all seems ok... the rock scramble hopefully not too bad... We did Butress and Hlatimbe a while back and want to do something different. Any recent info or pics on the ascent via this route... Thanks!