LOST in FALSE PASS (Between Xeni and Cockade)

A group of 4 of us went on a 2 night hike - Up from Cathedral Peak Hotel to base of Cathedral Peak for the night.

Day 2 - Bell Traverse (amazing) to Twins Cave and up to the escapement. Across to where we thought the top of Cockade Pass was.

Side note - the Slingsby maps are fairly inaccurate on the Bell Traverse to Twins (noted by our group and 2 other met one the trail doing the reverse)

Day 3 - Down Cockade back to the Hotel.

Reality - we should have taken a GPS and should have followed the Cairns.

Story - Day 1 and 2 were incredible, with amazing views and sitings of Buck, various snakes, daisies, LARGE troops of baboons and tons of bearded vultures.
Day 3 was supposed to be the usually fly down the pass to the hotel. We took what we thought was Cockade based on a rock that resembled the Elephant. It wasn't. We trudged down sections that were never meant to be taken, without climbing equipment. We managed with serious bracing and good rope. Once at the bottom where we thought we would connect to the main river, we came across 100m drop water fall. Enter come serious clouds and howling wind, the tensity stepped up. ONly way out was UP and out. With almost food we put our heads down and went up. Half way up is a little rise that shows clearly Cockade. We had taken a False pass. not fun. Much learnt. The plans was set and time markers set to make it home before sundown. UP and across to Mlambonja and down to the hotel. We pushed and made it by 7pm. Good going but serious humbling by the mountain. Next trip, will we be taking our GPS.
Lesson learnt - don't take any pass from the TOP moving DOWN with NO cairns at the top.
Would we do it again - in a heart beat.

From the location described it seems like you did the Xeni Pass alternative gully, although your picture of the steep gully with hikers on the grass slope to the left doesn't look right. The alternative gully is also quite close to Xeni Pass, so would be difficult to mistake for Cockade Pass.

This is the location viewed from down the Xeni River near Cockade campsite.



The other possibility is that you got into one of the side gullys around the Elephant Gully.

That's a more likely possibility.

Smurfatefrog wrote:

When I set out to do Cockade Pass the first time, from a distance I thought this was Cockade Pass. It does look rather convincing.

Memories of leading Smurf and co up a series of false summits for Elephant

Making mistakes is the best way of learning, so as long as you don't get injured and don't get put off the mountains, no weekend on a mountain is ever a waste.

Ps. thanks for sharing. We can all learn from the mistakes of others. I have wondered if that gully is passable, but now I know the answer and probably won't try to find a way up that gully.

Please share more photos of it if you have any.

Hey Beard,

We passed you guys on the Bell Traverse! Sounds like you had quite an epic day 3, glad you made it down ok.
Hard to believe, but you guys are a couple of pixels on the slopes of Outer Horn in THIS pic. I've got another zoomed in pic showing you guys traversing just below the cliff line and it really emphasizes the magnitude of the berg. It's on my home PC, I'll post it this evening if I get a chance.

Can anyone see Beard and his mates?

Is this the SA guy and Danish guy and his GF?