Trip to Mafadi

Six of us went for a hike to Mafadi via Leslie's Pass, from 18-24 August 2012.

It was my son’s (17) first trip ever. The first night we slept in the Marble baths Cave.

The next morning we start ascending Leslies Pass at 10h00 and finished at 21h00 on top.

We set camp at the stream and had a nice rest. The next morning we went to Mafadi and arrived at 12h00.
The next day we went down Leslies Pass again and overnight at the Marble Baths.
We enjoyed the patches of snow along the way.

The last day we hiked back to Injisuthi Camp for the last night.
It was a very enjoyable trip, sometimes hard but with rewards.


Injisuthi Camp














On Mafadi Summit

Me and my son on Mafadi.

Basutho with his herd of sheep.





Marble Bath cave at night.

Comment deleted.

(OK, so I've edited this 4 times now not to sound like a prickly pear).

Nice trip, glad you enjoyed it.

But.....


I'm gonna break my standard rule on forums not to stir or engage in arguments.

But seriously, a big thumbs down on the nameplate. Imagine everyone starting to do that. Ezemvelo, MCSA and everyone else who cares about conservation specifically says: "Leave only your footprints"

????

Hi Leon

While it may seem cool to record your achievement by fixing a plate with your names on it, imagine as HF has said if everyone who tops out Mafadi did the same. The place would be littered with name plates. The summit will seem like a recycling plant putting a dampener on many others summit experience.
Your summit experience should be a personal one, not a broadcast to the World. Take only memories and photos.
So maybe some considered mountain ethics may be more appropriate as those who love mountains would like to preserve them for generations to come to enjoy as pristine as it currently is, if not better.
I will be at Mafadi later this year and will remove your name plate, if someone else hasn’t done so before then.

I apologise if I sounded confrontational but Im afraid some things need to be said.

Magan

As Magan and Highlands have already covered this well, I don't think more needs to be said on that.

The norm for leaving your mark when you climb a peak is to take a rock from nearby and put it on the summit cairn, this also applies to cairns on top of passes. The nice thing about this approach is that you can see how many people have climbed the peak, and a big pile of rocks in the middle of a mountain range is not exactly unnatural looking. If you climb a peak that has no cairn, you even get to build a cairn yourself - the one on top of Tseketseke peak was built by me Just don't build a cairn on a peak that already has one, otherwise we get a situation like Mafadi and Thabana Ntlenyana with 20 cairns on top

Examples of what I mean about common hikes:


Litseketseke Spur - 3268m at Lotheni, basically no one climbs it, and you could miss the cairn in the photo if you wanted to


By contrast, apparently everybody climbs Thaba Ngwangwe - 3064 at Bushman's Nek

Sorry but I have to say a big thumbs down from me too with regard to leaving a nameplate on Mafadi.
Isn't it rewarding enough to have the photographs and wonderful memories instead?

Hi Leon

I am afraid that you might receive some tongue lashing from this forum over the plaque, although I wont do that here. I am somewhat impressed by your self-effacing and quite genuine "We fixed it with Pratley Quick set, hopefully it will last for a few years" account, with pictures. My question is more about why you feel that is fine and where this comes from if you dont mind, not from a confrontational viewpoint but more from a learning perspective? Obviously there are persons who dont feel good about it and I can also ask them where that mindset comes from? One might have several examples in mind, such as famous peaks around the world where flags, sponsors, names and junk is left strewn all over the mountain including the summit since the modern climbing age (the age of junk). I am really very curious and would offer it as an opportunity on this website to delve in on the topic of our environmental “footprints” in the Drakensberg, knowing that as Western lifestyle human beings, we have wreaked enormous havoc on the planet looooong before ever reaching the mountains to leave behind innocuous nameplates.

There is a jar in that cairne with a little note book and pen in it if you want to record your achievement and makes for interesting reading.