Cathedral Peak - Injisuthi link-up via escarpment

Hi Arnie. I recently did a hike in the area you're considering. We took our time and had an amazing time. With a lighter pack you could do this hike in 3 days if you wanted to, but what's the rush? I hate rushing. I hike fast training, but when I'm there I want to absorb. Anyway we're all different

adriantregoning.wordpress.com/2016/06/01/7-day-central-drakensberg-traverse-2016/

BigArnie wrote: I've been lurking on this great forum for a long time but this is my first post here.

That's creepy - just kidding glad you are enjoying the site

BigArnie wrote: Day 1: Organ Pipes pass.
Day 2: Hike to Champagne Castle.Grays pass
Day 3: Sleep at top of Leslies pass. Injasuthi cave might be to far .
Day 4:Down Leslies to Marble Baths.
Day 5.Short hike to Injasuthi camp and pick up.

I wouldn't camp at the top of Organ Pipes Pass, but Upper Ndumeni Cave or Rolands Cave should be fine. The other days seem fine.

BigArnie wrote: We're planning this for early August so I'm particularly interested in knowing what water availability will be like and if the above could be done in 6 days or what would be realistic. The basic idea here is to complete the grand traverse in sections so having done the northern traverse, this trip should cover the second stretch.

Water seems to be holding well, but August is usually one of the drier month. Ask that question again closer to the time.

As far as the staggered traverse goes, it is a good idea, but you are skipping a gem of a section (Elephant/Cockade/Cleft region). Organ Pipes Pass is a great pass, though.

Awesome replies, guys. Please allow me to process your info. I might have to ask more questions afterwards if you don't mind. Thanks again.

Gentlemen, thanks again for the extremely informative feedback. I have taken everything to heart and have since put together a route on Garmin BaseCamp.

Firstly, we've decided to hike from north to south and not the other way round. As such we'll be starting at Cathedral Peak Hotel and ending at Ijnisuthi - more or less the same route followed by AdrianT on his blog. Doing it this way means that this trip will basically be a continuation of the Northern Traverse that we did in April, extending the trek along the route of the Grand Traverse. We intend to do another follow up trip in December in order to complete the entire Traverse in three stages.

So I've put together a GPS route using various tracks found on the download section of this great site. I took the section of the Northern Traverse (Mike Atkinson's) that covers Cathedral Hotel to the top of Mlabonja at Twins Cave and linked that to the Grand Traverse track where it intersects on top of the escarpment and then finally linked this to the Leslie's Pass and Marble Baths tracks back to Injisuthi.

How does that look? Where would one sleep if you allow 6 nights out, starting on the 3rd of August at Cathedral? I doubt that we'll make it to Twins Cave in one day, unless we start really early so it probably means that it'll take two days to reach the escarpment.

Thanks again for the invaluable resource that is Vertical Endeavour.

BigArnie wrote: As such we'll be starting at Cathedral Peak Hotel and ending at Ijnisuthi - more or less the same route followed by AdrianT on his blog.

Very lekker. If you want my exact GPS tracksI'll gladly send them to you as I tracked the entire trip with a Suunto. But that takes all the fun away... However, if you have serious mist it could help. Message me if you want.

I'm jealous, I won't lie

Hey Adrian, that would be great. I'll send you a message. Much appreciated.

Okay, so plans have had to change due to circumstances. My hiking partner got bogged down at work and I didn't feel that doing this on my own would be prudent, especially for this time of year. It's very disappointing but unfortunately it is what it is...

So as a consolation prize we've decided to do a quick 2 day hike this coming weekend. The plan is to try and get away from Pretoria at around 1pm on Friday, drive to Injisuthi and camp there Friday night. On Saturday we want to get going as early as possible - if at all possible before 5am and then head towards Marble Baths. The idea is basically to reach Marble Baths early morning and then see if we could shoot for the escarpment via Leslies Pass by Saturday night. Sunday will be a reverse of Saturday.

Would the above be too ambitious an undertaking for 2 days of hiking? I've done a lot of reading on this forum but I cannot decide if it's doable or not given that we are no Ryno Griesels. If we don't make it we can always camp at the campsite a number of kays upstream from Marble Baths. But it would be nice to summit, wouldn't it?

Also, would Leslie's be the easiest and most logical way of reaching the escarpment from Marble Baths or is there a better way? There are a number of other passes in the general vicinity.

As before, thank you kindly for your excellent advice.

Okay so what does one do when you get into Leslie gully and you realise that there's more ice underfoot than rock? Do you press ahead or turn around before it gets ugly? We don't have stuff like crampons and suchlike.