Organ Pipes Pass- Mlambonja Pass Loop Trip Report

diverian wrote: 120 hikers WOW that's a little over the KZN Wildlife reccomended max group size of 12 for minimal environmental impact! Did you find out where they actually went ?

Night 1 they spent at the top of Mike's Pass, they told Clara it took them 4.5 hours to get there.
The next day they had split into groups of 10 and said they were heading to the Tseke valley, I thought of Intrepid's peace being disturbed... but all we saw them do was climb a random hill just north of Thuthumi ridge. We next saw them returning on Sunday from the waterfalls route.
No idea where they would've found space for 120 to camp!

Nice route. I recently did Thuthumi Ridge again, it impresses me every time. I consider it to be one of the most scenic routes in the Berg.

Smurfatefrog wrote:

diverian wrote: 120 hikers WOW that's a little over the KZN Wildlife reccomended max group size of 12 for minimal environmental impact! Did you find out where they actually went ?

Night 1 they spent at the top of Mike's Pass, they told Clara it took them 4.5 hours to get there.
The next day they had split into groups of 10 and said they were heading to the Tseke valley, I thought of Intrepid's peace being disturbed... but all we saw them do was climb a random hill just south of Thuthumi ridge. We next saw them returning on Sunday from the waterfalls route.
No idea where they would've found space for 120 to camp!

I wonder if all of that was arranged with KZN Wildlife, thats a seriously crazy group size. Luckily we took a day of rest at the Mnweni Centre before starting at Didima. We bivvied 2 nights high up in the Tseke Valley on "the big flat rock at the final water" which is sometimes used as a Column assault base. We saw nobody except a group of four descending the pass behind us on Sunday.

Thanks Andrew, you are spot on!

Found their FB page with some pics from the weekend: www.facebook.com/pages/4th-Musketeer-South-Africa/370687879775432?fref=photo

Clara has travelled to many mountain ranges around the world and yet she was absolutely blown away by the rugged beauty of the Berg. She says she has never seen mountains as unique as the Drakensberg and that they were "absolutely wicked!"

JonWells wrote: Clara has travelled to many mountain ranges around the world and yet she was absolutely blown away by the rugged beauty of the Berg. She says she has never seen mountains as unique as the Drakensberg and that they were "absolutely wicked!"

She definitely had the best first view ever of the Drakensberg! Drive up in the dark, hike 7km in the dark then with her first view being sunrise surrounding by Cleft, Column, Pyramid, Cathedral range etc

Louis, if I remember you did the Chain Ladders?

Navigation on Organ Pipes is not difficult, read Tony Marshall's write up though.
Escarpment navigation can always be tricky if you don't know the area, do you have a GPS?
If not then I would recommended maybe coming down via the Camel route (it shares the last 100m with the standard Organ Pipes pass)

Getting to the top on day 1 is certainly possible but just remember you'll be gaining about 1500m of altitude, make sure you have a backup plan should you not make it all the way up. Possibly Thuthumi Hut although water is a problem there